Case XLIX: Release from a Vow

A woman takes a vow to enter some religious order, but after her admission to a convent her health breaks down, whilst she is a novice, and she is sent away. Is she now free from the obligation of her vow?

Hitherto the answer given by casuists to this question was in the negative (cf. E. Müller, Theologia moralis, Ed. 9, II. p. 192, casus 1; Göpfert, Moraltheologie, Ed. 6, 1, p. 479, etc.; Lehmkuhl, Theologia mor., Ed. 11, 1, p. 333; Noldin, de praeceptis Dei et ecclesiae, Ed. 8, p. 239), but it has recently been reversed by a decree of the Congregation de Religiosis dated September 7, 1909, affecting all religious orders of men (Acta Apost. Sedis, 1909, no. 17, p. 700, etc.), and extended to orders of women on Jan. 4, 1910 (Acta Apost. Sedis, 1910, no. 2, p. 63, etc.).

The Congregation decided as follows: " No one who has been dismissed from a religious community for any reason whatever can be admitted to the novitiate or to profession, under penalty of invalidating the latter... Novices and religious cannot in future be admitted to the same order or congregation or province." No one can be required to ask a dispensation from what would be a special favor to the applicant and a violation of the law. Therefore the vow is no longer binding, for it cannot be kept without having recourse to extraordinary means, which cannot be obligatory. (The case would be different if a pledge to have recourse to such extraordinary means had been expressly included in the vow.) This conclusion would hold good whether the person who took the vow had intentionally or unintentionally brought about her dismissal.— Dr. Karl Fruhstorfer.