§ 1. Obligation of Pursuing Perfection

— He who must profess a state must at the same time profess the things which the truth of the state requires. But by his profession the religious is obliged to his state, which is one of pursuing perfection.

Therefore by an obligation formally distinct from the vows, the religious must tend toward the perfection of Christian charity.

But materially, positively, it is enough that the professed pursue perfection through the vows which are joined to profession and through toleration of the governance of his Institute.

Negatively, however, from this the religious is prohibited under grave sin: a. positively to contemn or cast away perfection; b. frequently to break vows or other grave precepts, for this is repugnant to a habitual effort toward charity; c. by contempt of the rule or of the power of the Superior, or by a manner of acting by which grave danger of expulsion is induced, virtually to cast away the yoke of religion or the state.