What is a "Secular Institute"?

by Fr. Mark Steffl, STL, JCL

In the Code of Canon Law that governs the Universal Church, there are 20 different canons that define and regulate secular institutes.

In the Church, there are different forms of “consecrated life” by which members of different communities (referred to as “Institutes” in Church legal terms) bind themselves to the Church and their superiors in fulfilling different parts of the Church’s mission. Some of these institutes are more numerous or better known than others depending on where the institute’s members are located and when it was founded or established in Church law. Institutes vary as well regarding what type of vows or promises that members make in being integrated into the institute.

As a form of consecrated life in the Church, secular institutes are a more recent development, coming into being in the Church in the early to mid-Twentieth Century (which, in the Church that measures time in centuries, means “new”).

These two canons from the Code of Canon Law illustrate the Church’s definition of secular institutes, specifically what makes them “secular” in nature compared to other forms of consecrated life.

Canon 710 A secular institute is an institute of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful, living in the world, strive for the perfection of charity and seek to contribute to the sanctification of the world, especially from within.

Canon 713 §1. Members of these institutes express and exercise their own consecration in apostolic activity, and like leaven they strive to imbue all things with the spirit of the gospel for the strengthening and growth of the Body of Christ.

§2. In the world and from the world, lay members participate in the evangelizing function of the Church whether through the witness of a Christian life and of fidelity toward their own consecration, or through the assistance they offer to order temporal things according to God and to inform the world by the power of the gospel. They also cooperate in the service of the ecclesial community according to their own secular way of life.

§3. Through the witness of consecrated life especially in the presbyterium, clerical members help their brothers by a particular apostolic charity, and by their sacred ministry among the people of God they bring about the sanctification of the world.

In canon 710, a member of a secular institute is described as a person who consecrates his/her life, which means making public promises or vows relating to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience as they apply to that specific “charism” or character of the particular secular institute, but in a way that “contributes to the “sanctification of the world, especially from within.” This “sanctification from within” is in contrast to other forms of consecrated life that involve, in a certain sense, leaving the “world” such as living in a monastic enclosure.

In canon 713 §1, a secular institute exercises “apostolic activity” meaning that its members have an apostolate that is exercised in the midst of the secular world, and not separate from it.

In canon 713 §2, “members participate in the evangelizing function of the Church whether through the witness of a Christian life and of fidelity toward their own consecration” meaning that whatever apostolate or work that a member of a secular institute does, that member brings or adds to it the particular witness of a Christian disciple and member of the Church.

And finally, in canon 713 §3, there is an allowance that “secular priests” (i.e., diocesan priests who are not members of a religious institute) can also be members of a secular institute.

Since secular institutes are rather new in the history of the Church, they are not very widely known or great in number. We do have an example right here in the Diocese of New Ulm in the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary. This secular institute has a house in Sleepy Eye, where they have a retreat house and do apostolic work; at times in their history they have also had or continue to have members who teach, work as nurses, and do other work in the diocese.

What does it mean to be a registered member of a parish, especially in regard to funerals?

Please explain what it means to be a registered member of a parish and that people can request a Funeral Mass in a church where they might not be “officially registered.”

by Fr. Mark Steffl, STL, JCL

Can. 515 §1 A parish is a certain community of the Christian faithful stably constituted in a particular church, whose pastoral care is entrusted to a pastor as its proper pastor under the authority of the diocesan bishop.

Can. 518 As a general rule a parish is to be territorial, that is, one which includes all the Christian faithful of a certain territory. When it is expedient, however, personal parishes are to be established determined by reason of the rite, language, or nationality of the Christian faithful of some territory, or even for some other reason.

Can. 519 The pastor is the proper pastor of the parish entrusted to him, exercising the pastoral care of the community committed to him under the authority of the diocesan bishop in whose ministry of Christ he has been called to share, so that for that same community he carries out the functions of teaching, sanctifying, and governing, also with the cooperation of other presbyters or deacons and with the assistance of lay members of the Christian faithful, according to the norm of law.

To answer this question, it is first important to look at the law of the Church that defines what a parish is and how an individual is a member of a parish, as well as the responsibilities that are given to the pastor of a parish.

The first section of canon 515 establishes that a “particular church” (which here is a synonym for “diocese”) is to be divided up into parts which are called parishes. Each of those parishes is to have a priest who is appointed to provide pastoral care for the members of that parish both in the name of, and under the authority of, the diocesan bishop.

Next, canon 518 directs that normally a parish is to have a defined geographical territory with boundaries to it, and that all members of the Church who live within those boundaries are understood to be members of that parish, whether they are officially registered or not, and that there is a priest that has the responsibility to provide spiritual care for those who live within that territory.

The second part of canon 518 provides for the possibility of “personal parishes” that do not have a defined territory, but are erected by a diocesan bishop for a specific group of the Christian faithful who meet some defined criteria. Examples of such parishes might be a specific linguistic need for immigrants from a certain country or region, or some other need such as a particular parish on the campus of a large university. As a point of interest, the Diocese of New Ulm only has “territorial parishes.”

In canon 519, the Church directs specifically that the pastor of a parish is responsible for all the pastoral care of those who have been entrusted to him, and that he is responsible to the diocesan bishop in the exercise of that pastoral care.

This canon also establishes a broader right on the part of the Christian Faithful, no matter where they might happen to live, to know they have a pastor who is responsible for their spiritual needs. It also provides for that pastor to have assistants: priests that are assigned to assist him in his responsibilities outlined by Church law.

The system of “registering” with a parish in an official way is something that developed organically over time, and in different ways in different parts of the world. In the United States, it has provided a way of being able to know how to contact parishioners, for example, through mailings and to encourage stewardship and involvement on the part of the parish and to add to the personal identity of the members as to what it means to be a member of that particular parish.

In past decades, it was much more commonly understood that a member of the Christian Faithful should only go to the parish in which he/she geographically lived—and in the past, there were pastors who enforced this more rigorously (and this exists to a greater extent yet in some places in the United States).

But today, with easily-available transportation and demographic changes, it is more common for people to go to Mass – or even send their children to a parish school – that might be outside of the parish within which they geographically live, especially in areas of larger population that might have several parishes available in close proximity. This makes the idea of “registering” in a parish more practical, and can even assist a pastor to know and communicate with his parishioners.

In light of all this, the question that was proposed by a priest for the topic of this article is important, because there are many reasons today why someone might ask to have a funeral Mass in a parish where they are not formally registered. Today, it is common for people to move away for medical needs or other care that they might require elsewhere. So in the case of a funeral, the parish where a person was present or staying at the end of their life can provide for a funeral, even for an individual who is not a “registered member” there. The Church is always mindful of the corporal work of mercy of “burying the dead.”

Can a couple get married in the Catholic Church if they don't want to have children?

by Fr. Mark Steffl, STL, JCL

The Code of Canon Law, canon 1055 gives a theological and legal definition of Marriage that the Catholic Church makes its own:

Can. 1055 §1. The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.

This canon is substantially a quote from a Second Vatican Council document, Gaudium et spes (GS), which describes how marriage is “ordered by its nature” to two specific purposes: 1.) “The good of spouses” and 2.) “The procreation and education of offspring.”

With the phrase “ordered by its nature,” the Church is acknowledging what is called “Natural Law” – the way that the Lord created human beings and the way that nature is “ordered” to work in the “plan” of God’s creation that we can discern through reason.

The first purpose of the “good of spouses” is described more fully in GS 49: to live a life that “embraces the good of the entire person and is therefore capable of endowing human expressions with a particular dignity and of ennobling them as special features and manifestations of married friendship.” In simpler words, it is about the spouses promising to care for and love each other, providing for the needs of the other in a committed and exclusive way, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, morally, socially, physically, in all things relating to the life that they share in common, made as a firm commitment and not just about “making each other happy” as contemporary society tends to view marriage today.

The second purpose – the “procreation and education of offspring” – is an openness to children that naturally comes from the relationship of love that a husband and wife share with each other. This openness means that a couple would not actively exclude the possibility of conceiving a child but also includes not only an openness to children but a willingness to commit to educating those children that are a result of that marriage, a responsibility that goes beyond basic education to also include a spiritual education of raising those children in the faith, seeing that they receive catechesis, learn how to pray and receive the sacraments at the appropriate times.

This “openness” to children, of course, does not mean that every married couple can conceive a child. There can be medical reasons which preclude the conception of a child on the part of one or the other of the spouses. Couples, especially those who marry later in life, might, for biological reasons, not be able to have children, and it is important to say that although a couple may not have children, that does not make their union any less a marriage.

The topic of “openness to children” is brought up multiple times for discussion with couples preparing for marriage so that they understand what they are declaring on their wedding day before the exchange of their vows when they are each asked the question in the marriage liturgy: Are you prepared to accept children lovingly from God and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?

The bridegroom and bride each say: “I am.”

On a pastoral note, in my experience as a priest, the more significant challenge than openness to children is the many times that I have met with married couples who are very burdened by the grief that they have not been able to conceive a child.

Sometimes, there are biological reasons that can be remedied by finding the right physician who is an expert in the area of fertility. Unfortunately, many in the medical field will immediately jump to recommending in vitro fertilization (IVF) when it might be something that can be identified and remedied to allow for a married couple to naturally conceive a child.