Vatican II decree opened 'vivacious season,' struggle for religious

Published: 2005-09-28

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Second Vatican Council's decree on consecrated life "opened a new, creative, vivacious season" for men and women religious, but also a season of struggle, pain and fear, a Vatican official said. Archbishop Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, opened a Sept. 26-27 conference at the Vatican marking the 40th anniversary of the council's document, "Perfectae Caritatis." The document, he said, was "the mature fruit of a slow and gradual renewal" already under way among religious orders. More than any other segment of the Catholic population, he and other speakers said, men and women in religious orders experienced great changes because of the Second Vatican Council. With the sometimes precipitous decline in the number of religious order priests, brothers and sisters, Archbishop Rode said, "some have asked if (the council) brought the wind of a storm or the wind of Pentecost, a time of grace or of disgrace."

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