Title I: On the Religious State

— "The religious state is a stable manner of living in common, by which the faithful, besides the common precepts, also undertake evangelical counsels to be observed through vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty" (c. 487).

State, in this place, is understood as a stable condition of a Christian person in the Church. In order for a condition of this kind to be had, those things must be procured which are required both by the nature of the matter and by the positive will of the legislator. From the very definition of the Code it is clear that today, for the essence of the religious state, three vows are necessary, which the Code numbers with the order of excellence preserved, that is, obedience, chastity, and poverty; and besides, life in common. The condition of vows is demanded almost from the nature of the matter; life in common, from present ecclesiastical discipline. Life in common is chiefly constituted by subjection to the same rule or form of living and to the same Superiors. The community of roof and table itself varies, for various professions, within certain limits defined by Constitutions and also by common law. For today, with the cause of studies excepted, a stay outside the cloister beyond six months is withdrawn from the judgment of Superiors and requires permission of the Holy See (c. 606, §2). Yet if there is question of a religion of diocesan law, the Ordinary of the place seems able to permit this, since from c. 638 he has power for conceding an indult of exclaustration. Complete stability is contained of itself only in perpetual vows. Yet the Code did not demand perpetuity in the definition of the religious state, because temporary vows also of themselves are emitted with the intention of perseverance even unto death. Besides the three substantial vows, others are joined with religious profession in many Institutes: such as the vow of stability, of mission, of teaching children, of serving the sick, of redeeming captives, of observing strict abstinence. Through the substantial vows religious profess that observance of the evangelical counsels which is required of them. For these counsels are directed to all the faithful in some measure; they are part of the Christian way of conceiving and conducting life.

In order that some state distinguish the faithful, it must be recognized by public authority. By today's law, positive and formal approval is necessary for every religious institute, since from c. 492, §1, the bishop cannot even permit any one to be founded without the Holy See having been consulted. Therefore ecclesiastical approval is today to be placed among the conditions of the religious state.

— The author of the religious state, according to those things which its nature requires, is Christ the Lord. For He gave the counsels which from Him are called evangelical; He, by the words and figures which He used, indicated that firmness which is obtained by vows. Think, for example, of the likeness of the castrated, in Matt. 19, 12: "There are eunuchs... who have castrated themselves for the kingdom of heaven." He conferred power and office upon the Church for ordering the religious state. He, by example and words, exhorted men to follow more perfect things. Therefore that the religious state is of divine law, not commanding but counseling, "this is," says Suarez, De relig., tr. 9, l. 3, c. 2, n. 3, "the opinion of all Catholics rightly thinking."

— A work of counsel is strictly an action considered not so much as good and meritorious in itself, but as useful unto an end; more broadly it signifies a good work, not commanded, better than its opposite or than its non-evil negation. Cf. I, n. 232.

Moreover the evangelical counsel of poverty was expressly given by the Lord to the young man who had questioned Him concerning perfection: "If thou wilt be perfect, sell what thou hast and give to the poor" (St. Matt. 19, 21). The counsel of perfect continence is easily drawn from the place alleged above concerning eunuchs, to which the Lord subjoined these things: "He who can take, let him take"; and we have St. Paul as the genuine interpreter of the mind of the Lord, 1 Cor. 7. Finally, the counsel of obedience is contained virtually in those pursuits of humility and abnegation which are commended in the Gospel: for religious obedience is the most fitting means for following these things; but more formally it is given by the very example of perfect obedience by which Christ perpetually denied His human will in order that He might embrace the divine, "made," according to the words of the Apostle, "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2, 8). The same Apostle again, having interpreted the mind of the Lord, exhorts us thus: "For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Now religious seek this by their own proper obedience, that even in particular matters, concerning which there is no precept or clear indication, by following the will of a Superior they may more certainly adhere to the divine will. For by his office and by the power which proximately or remotely proceeds authoritatively from Christ sending the apostles, the legitimate Superior makes the things which he commands, if before they were indifferent, the only good things and therefore things willed by God; the things which he desires to be done are rightly presumed to be desired in the name of God. And by perpetual accommodation to the will of the Superior, the religious observes an order of life which, approved by the Church, is shown to be acceptable to God.

— I. "The religious state is a stable manner of living in common, by which the faithful, besides the common precepts, also undertake evangelical counsels to be observed through vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty" (c. 487).

As state, it says a stable and approved condition in the Church. It is stable through vows at least temporary, with the intention of further perseverance. Life in common is had chiefly through subjection to the same Superiors, according to the same rule, and through some community of roof and table. Through the three vows which are called substantial, and to which others not rarely accede, religious profess the observance of the evangelical counsels required of them.

II. The author of the religious state is Christ, through the counsels, through exhortation to perfection, through the power given to the Church, so that the religious state must be said to be of divine law, not commanding but counseling.

III. A work of counsel is strictly an action useful unto an end; more broadly, a good work not commanded, better than its opposite or its non-evil negation. The three are proved to be evangelical counsels.