Chapter VI. Vow of Obedience

MEN of the world find it difficult to understand how one man can surrender his liberty and bind himself by vow to obey another. And yet this counsel of perfection, too, is contained in the life and teaching of the divine Founder of the Church. He did not intend that all the members of his Church should be equal; he placed some in authority over the others, and he gave them power to teach, instruct, correct, and guide those who were subject to them. He therefore laid a duty of obedience to spiritual rulers on all the faithful. Those who were content to observe the Commandments were bound only to obey such positive precepts as the rulers of the Church judged it expedient to impose on all Christians; but those who aimed at perfection became as a consequence subject to the teaching and authoritative guidance of their rulers in matters which pertain to perfection as well. Those who were content with observing the Commandments reserved some liberty for themselves; those who aimed at Christian perfection gave themselves wholly to obedience after the example of him who was obedient even unto death. The prelates of the Church are therefore the superiors of religious men and women, and even if some are exempt in some matters from the jurisdiction of the ordinaries, all are subject to the Pope, not only as the Supreme Head of the Church on earth, but as their highest religious superior.¹ In approving of a religious order or congregation the Pope and the bishops delegate the necessary authority to the lawful superiors of the order, and give them power to command their subjects in all that pertains to the observance of the rule.

A religious, therefore, who takes a vow of obedience binds himself thereby to obey all the precepts which his superiors lay upon him according to the rule of the order.

In order, then, that the obligation of the vow may become operative, a precept must be given by the superior, And here we must distinguish between the vow and the virtue of obedience. The virtue of obedience inclines to the most perfect conformity of will and judgement of the subject with the will and judgement of the superior. A subject who has the virtue of obedience will strive to execute the known will of his superior without waiting for a strict command. The obligation of the vow is not so extensive as the virtue of obedience. The vow will be saved if precepts are externally executed, for, according to the more common opinion, the vow of obedience does not extend to merely internal acts.

The superior’s authority is limited and defined by the rule, and so the subject is only bound to obey such commands of the superior as are sanctioned by the rule directly or indirectly. It is not, however, necessary that the precept should be expressly sanctioned by the rule in order to enable a superior to impose it with authority: it is sufficient if it be implicitly and indirectly sanctioned, as it will be if its imposition conduces to the better and more perfect observance of the rule.

¹ St Thomas, 2-2, q. 186, a. 5; can. 499, sec. 1.

Violations of the vow of obedience are grave sins of themselves. However, in practice, sins of religious against obedience are seldom mortal, for want of sufficiently grave matter, or because the superior does not intend to impose a grave precept. Such sins will be mortal when in grave matter the superior commands anything to be done in virtue of obedience, or when serious harm follows from disobedience, or when a subject refuses to obey from formal contempt of authority, wishing to exercise and display his independence.

When the vow of obedience is violated, there is a double malice in the sin. Such a violation is a sin against the vow, and thus it is a sacrilege; and it is also a sin against the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue, which prescribes obedience to be rendered to all lawful superiors. Such lawful superiors are armed with spiritual jurisdiction delegated to them by ecclesiastical authority, or at least they have the natural authority which belongs to all rulers of a community, great or small. Superioresses of nuns have this natural authority, and so they can impose even grave precepts of obedience on their subjects, although as women they cannot have ecclesiastical jurisdiction.