Suchergebnisse

La tesi tratta delle forme della generalizzazione normativa ed è suddivisa in tre capitoli. La prima questione che si è affrontata riguarda il rapporto tra norma e valore. Nell'ottica prescelta – quella neoistituzionalista – il sistema-diritto appare come un insieme unitario di scopi, privo di quel relativismo assiologico che caratterizza la prospettiva contrattualista, alcuni dei quali – quelli fondamentali per la civile convivenza – preselezionati dal legislatore e resi evidenti nella Carta costituzionale, altri ancora – quelli strumentali alla cooperazione interindividuale – declinati all'interno di norme gerarchicamente inferiori. Gli scopi del diritto, però, non sono finiti e non si identificano, pertanto, in quelli incorporati nelle disposizioni normative. Poste le premesse fondamentali, l'ordinamento predispone, infatti, una serie di meccanismi per mantenersi "cognitivamente aperto" rispetto alle esigenze della collettività i cui bisogni è chiamato a soddisfare. In quanto risultanti di un processo di oggettivizzazione e astrazione storica degli interessi individuali, i valori o scopi del diritto non seguono la logica escludente tipica degli insiemi conchiusi. La rispondenza o meno di determinate condotte ad un valore ben può mutare (come normalmente muta) al mutare del tempo in cui il giudizio di verosimiglianza viene svolto. Tale la ragione per cui la positività della norma non è un attributo originario della stessa ma le si accosta nel momento in cui la norma passa dalla dimensione statica e astratta di ius positum a quella dinamica e vivente del decisum. La positività del diritto, in altri termini, non nasce con il perfezionarsi dell'iter legislativo formalmente necessario ai fini della sua validità ma deriva dall'operazione ermeneutica, intesa come atto finale di creazione della norma demandato (ab origine ed in ogni caso) ad un soggetto giuridicamente educato ma appartenente alla stessa dimensione storica e concreta in cui il decisum è destinato ad incardinarsi. Tant'è che, quando interprete non è il giudice ma il consociato e non si verifica un conflitto circa il modo di intendere il modello di condotta preferito dall'ordinamento la norma è comunque positiva. In questo caso, infatti, non vi è la necessità di ricorrere alla tutela giurisdizionale dei diritti poiché vi è consenso tra le parti interessate e la norma è per ciò solo positiva ossia di fatto vigente. Si tratta, però, di una positività precaria perché affidata al mero consenso attuale sul modo di intendere il comando legislativo e sempre esposta alla eventuale decisione contraria dell'organo istituzionalmente preposto ad accertarla in modo definitivo, almeno fintanto che non subentrino meccanismi automatici di stabilizzazione di quello che chiameremo "decisum diretto", primi tra tutti la prescrizione e la decadenza. Questa dinamica conferma ulteriormente la nozione in questa tesi sposata circa il fondamento volontario del diritto (svincolato, cioè, dal principio dei rapporti di forza che rappresentano, al più, una contingenza negativa) che è corollario dell'ulteriore nozione di diritto come scienza pratica e, infine, dell'idea della protezione come "minimo assiologico giuridico". La fisiologia osmotica tra diritto e realtà si ricava intendendo i valori in senso oggettivo e sostanziale ossia come idealità che, acquistando senso solo se calate nella dimensione storica e concreta degli atti (come componenti dei fatti), necessariamente corrispondono a interessi epurati del corredo fattuale e selezionati (ex ante o ex post) come giuridicamente rilevanti. Per onestà intellettuale, è opportuno precisare che tale nozione di valore, coincidente con lo standard mengoniano, è però mediata dal riconoscimento di un dualismo dei valori al pari di quanto può dirsi, in generale, per il fenomeno giuridico, la cui natura è statica e quindi ideale nel suo essere jus positum e dinamica e quindi concreta nel suo traslare a directum. Si è ritenuto, così, di poter individuare quale tratto fondamentale del rapporto tra norma e valore la dialetticità che identifica anche il senso del sistema giuridico riguardato in un'ottica non già sostanziale ma funzionale, come congegno di riduzione della complessità secondo la logica dell'utile o dannoso. La seconda questione che si è tentato di sviscerare è se, poste queste premesse iniziali, sia possibile distinguere le generalizzazioni normative non solo (o non tanto) a seconda del loro modo di incidere sulla realtà ma anche (e soprattutto) sul tipo di procedimento cognitivo che le stesse impongono all'interprete per dotare lo ius positum della dovuta positività. Una prima distinzione si è operata con riferimento alle regole e ai principi da un punto di vista strutturale, secondo la nota distinzione forte – che non lega cioè la differenziazione tra le une e gli altri al maggiore o minore grado di vaghezza concettuale-descrittiva della norma ma riconosce (con varie soluzioni) differenze sostanziali. L'idea proposta è quella di una generalizzazione puramente assiologica nel caso dei principi e di una generalizzazione (immediatamente) descrittiva e (mediatamente o implicitamente) assiologica nel caso delle regole, le quali poi, sotto il primo profilo (concettualedescrittivo) possono essere più o meno vaghe con ciò non richiedendo un'operazione diversa all'interprete ma solo un maggiore o minore sforzo ricognitivo in punto di fatto. Una seconda distinzione si è tentata, dal punto di vista funzionale, riconoscendo quali destinatari primari dei principi il legislatore e l'interprete e quali destinatari primari delle regole i consociati. Tale circostanza si è desunta dalla diversità di struttura: i principi, in quanto norme incondizionate, identificano gli scopi del diritto e indicano a livello astratto e oggettivo le condotte (da selezionare come) preferibili al fine di darvi attuazione ma, in quanto norme non precettive, dispiegano i loro effetti solo all'interno del sistema-diritto essendo destinate ad orientare la condotta dei soggetti istituzionalmente qualificati ad edificarlo e manutenerlo. Il giudizio di verosimiglianza sulla preferibilità o meno della condotta posta in essere in forza dei principi generali riguarda, pertanto, principalmente la condotta del legislatore (in quanto primo interprete) e del giudice (in quanto ermeneuta), investendo eventualmente solo la condotta interpretativa del consociato in relazione ad una regola capace di dispiegare i suoi effetti direttamente nei confronti dello stesso. Le regole, in quanto norme condizionate e immediatamente precettive, sono destinate a regolare le umane vicende e si orientano naturalmente in senso estroflesso verso i consociati. Esse non indicano, se non a livello implicito, lo scopo perseguito dall'ordinamento (in ragione del quale sono state emanate e continuano a ricevere attuazione) ma solo la condotta attesa dal consociato e gli effetti che si ricollegano alla sua violazione. Questa distinzione funzionale fondata sulla diversità di struttura autorizza una partizione ulteriore tra principi, regole e clausole generali. Queste ultime, infatti, sono forme della generalizzazione puramente assiologiche, come i principi, ma essendo normalmente incardinate all'interno di una fattispecie completa della descrizione del fatto e corredata dall'effetto condividono la destinazione d'uso delle regole. L'avverbio normalmente è d'obbligo perché esula da questa normalità la clausola generale per eccellenza ossia la buona fede che merita, pertanto, una classificazione a sé e su cui si tornerà parlando del terzo capitolo. La natura ibrida delle clausole generali, quindi, pur implicando una certa elasticità assiologica, è mitigata dall'essere le stesse clausole dotate dell'effetto tipico della norma, quello performativo-semplice ossia teso a performare le condotte dei consociati. Diversamente, i principi esplicano i loro effetti solo all'interno delle dinamiche ordinamentali e sono, pertanto, norme di tipo performativo-costitutivo, laddove, però, la performance è attesa non tanto da parte dei consociati ma dello stesso ordinamento giuridico. Da questa stessa destinazione (unitamente alla priorità della componente assiologica del diritto su cui oltre) possiamo ricavare il criterio ermeneutico primario – sia per ragioni temporali che per ordine di importanza – della unità o coerenza assiologica del diritto che fa il paio al principio di uguaglianza sostanziale tale per cui l'introduzione all'interno dell'ordinamento giuridico di valori contrastanti con quelli già incorporati nell'architettura assiologica dello stesso è consentita solo quando vi siano contingenze tali da giustificare l'adozione di un sistema di governo delle stesse secondo rationes diverse da quelle già in uso. A titolo esemplificativo si riporta la vicenda dell'anatocismo bancario e la sua ultima fortunata svolta (con l'introduzione del divieto di cui all'art. 1283 c.c. anche nel nuovo art. 120 Tub) che ha messo bene in luce come il legislatore abbia per molto tempo violato il criterio di unità o coerenza assiologica senza poter invocare la necessità di trattare in modo diverso i diversi, poiché niente giustificava il maggior favore dimostrato fino a ieri alle banche e agli intermediari finanziari rispetto al creditore pecuniario comune. Sotto l'ulteriore profilo dell'attività richiesta all'interprete al fine di dare applicazione alle forme della generalizzazione così individuate, la differenza è notevole. Mentre, infatti, le regole richiedono di norma una mera operazione sussuntiva – di riconduzione del fatto alla fattispecie sotto il profilo fattualedescrittivo – le clausole generali e i principi implicano un attività diversa e più complessa, dovendo in primo luogo l'interprete riempire di senso il valore dalle stesse incorporato per poi procedere ad una verifica di compatibilità tra il fatto com'è e il fatto come doveva essere. Questa operazione si sostanzia: 1) nella comprensione dello scopo perseguito dal soggetto con la condotta posta in essere; 2) in una presa di coscienza della propria idea del valore (ossia di quei comportamenti verosimilmente rispondenti alla finalità incarnata dal valore); 3) in una verifica preventiva circa la conformità della propria idea a l'idea oggettiva di quel valore; 4) ad un giudizio di preferibilità o meno della condotta posta in essere dal consociato rispetto al valore sulla base di un criterio di verosimiglianza; 5) ad una verifica di condivisibilità degli effetti che discendono dall'applicazione della norma così ricostruita. I passaggi 1), 2) e 3) sono (o dovrebbero essere) normalmente assorbiti dalla previa educazione della precomprensione dell'interprete; il passaggio 4) quando il giudice interpreta una regola è caratterizzato non dalla logica della preferibilità ma da quella della doverosità risultandone di molto diminuito il margine di verosimiglianza della qualificazione giuridica del fatto e, di conseguenza, il lasso di controvertibilità della decisione; il passaggio 5) nelle regole non è quasi mai necessario ferma restando la possibilità che un fatto astrattamente riconducibile a diverse fattispecie venga inquadrato all'interno di quella produttiva degli effetti maggiormente condivisibili. Questa ricostruzione aiuta a mettere in luce come componente minima essenziale del diritto sia non la componente descrittiva propria delle regole e neppure quella performativa-semplice associata alle stesse ma la componente assiologica. Come a dire che l'ordinamento ben potrebbe reggersi solo su indicazioni di massima, orizzonti di scopo, ma non potrebbe definirsi tale senza di essi. E, poiché il valore risiede nel fatto (o, meglio, in quella sua componente caratterizzata dalla volizione umana ossia l'atto), quest'opera di riconduzione ad unità del Sein e del Sollen dal punto di vista finalistico non può che partire dal fatto per estrapolarne la componente valoriale (o, meglio, la "natura") e verificarne la rispondenza rispetto all'architettura assiologica dell'ordinamento sulla base del logos. Da ciò l'idea del diritto come scienza analogica che opera, cioè, attraverso (ana) il linguaggio (logos). Questa caratterizzazione essenziale del modo d'essere del diritto non va intesa nel modo attualmente in voga presso i linguisti – fin troppo inclini al nichilismo e alla mortificazione del dover essere, ridotto a mero argomento – ma è utile a risolvere alcune tematiche di rilevanza pratica come, esemplarmente, la questione della dicotomia tra regole di validità e regole di responsabilità in uno con la riconducibilità alla violazione della buona fede di rimedi invalidatori. Perché alla buona fede non sono associabili effetti invalidanti? Non per ragioni formalistiche ma perché gli stessi effetti – che fanno sparire ciò che fino ad un attimo prima c'era – sono il frutto del "linguaggio della magia" cioè di quel linguaggio che realizza sia l'intrinseco che l'estrinseco del detto nell'atto del dire. Il linguaggio della magia è tipico dei soli performativi-costitutivi, di quelle norme, cioè, che sono destinate a produrre effetti nel solo sistema a cui appartengono, come i principi generali, le norme abrogatrici, quelle relative all'iter legislativo, le norme attributive della personalità giuridica, etc. Questi i confini dell'ambito di operatività delle varie forme della generalizzazione che è indispensabile rispettare ai fini della sopravvivenza del sistema perché la praticità, che pure è attributo fondamentale del diritto, non può tradursi in fenomeni autodistruttivi della sua architettura. La buona fede, dunque, al pari delle altre clausole generali è destinata a mantenere l'apertura cognitiva del sistema giuridico dal punto di vista valoriale, introitando bisogni che, pur non riconcettualizzati dal legislatore, presentano nel sistema di appartenenza "naturale" (morale, mercantile, religioso, etc.) quel grado di oggettivizzazione ed astrazione che deriva loro dalla larga condivisione del giudizio di preferibilità delle condotte che li concretizzano e che ne integrano il senso. Così, potremmo dire, l'intercomunicazione tra sistemi avviene sempre su di un piano che lungi dal soffrire l'incertezza dell'arbitrio garantisce una coerenza di massima tra le scienze umane organizzate a sistema nei limiti di interferenza reciproca. Ciò che non significa che per il tramite delle clausole si introitano nel diritto elementi che questo a inteso escludere, al contrario: quando si ha a che fare con queste forme della generalizzazione la giuridica rilevanza di valori extrasistemici è in re ipsa poiché le clausole (al pari dei principi) svolgono originariamente proprio questa funzione (essendo però destinate – al contrario dei principi – ad orientare in prima battuta le condotte dei consociati). Chiaro è che quest'opera di ricezione giuridica è possibile nei limiti in cui la stessa non si traduca in una negazione di valori già inglobati nel sistema-diritto poiché, diversamente ragionando, si finirebbe per legittimare un'opera di decostruzione ex post (cioè ad opera del giudice chiamato a concretizzare le clausole stesse) del complessivo impianto assiologico o finalistico del sistema in violazione del criterio primario di unità o coerenza assiologica, che legittima questa operazione solo al ricorrere di esigenze di uguaglianza sostanziale. Il contenuto minimo inderogabile delle clausole generali è, pertanto, un contenuto riflesso rispetto alla carica valoriale dei principi che, secondo le circostanze del caso, ben può esaurirsi (ma non necessariamente si esaurisce) in una "mera" ripetizione dell'uno o dell'altro secondo il meccanismo proprio della c.d. indirekte Drittwirkung. La particolarità della buona fede risiede nell'essere la stessa priva del corredo performativo che, abbiamo detto, essere caratteristica finalistica essenziale del diritto. Ciò che comunque non vale ad escluderne l'immediata precettività. In altri termini: stando al dettato positivo i consociati sanno che devono comportarsi secondo buona fede ma non sanno né cosa ciò esattamente significhi né cosa la violazione dell'obbligo comporti. Dottrina e giurisprudenza hanno elaborato delle funzioni tipiche della buona fede, sussumibili in tre macrocategorie: integrativa, valutativa e interpretativa, affrontate nel terzo capitolo. La prima è destinata ora a indirizzare la poiesi del debitore verso la permanenza della possibilità della prestazione ora a forgiare il rapporto obbligatorio secondo un modello minimo inderogabile dello stesso che è essenzialmente votato alla protezione. La seconda è finalizzata ora ad evitare condotte opportunistiche (abuso del diritto) ora a sospendere l'efficacia coercitiva dell'obbligo dinnanzi a preminenti esigenze della persona debitrice (inesigibilità). La terza è, infine, deputata ora ad orientare in senso antiformalista la condotta dell'interprete di quel sotto-sistema normativo (o a normazione derivata) che è il contratto, coerentemente con l'impianto assiologico derivato dello stesso, ora a risolvere in via principale ed immediata il problema delle sopravvenienze. Queste le funzioni a cui si associano altrettanti rimedi, tutti operanti direttamente sul rapporto obbligatorio: ampliamento dell'area della coercibilità, paralisi del diritto, illegittimità della condotta, etc. Ciò che non significa che la buona fede non rilevi anche in punto di fattispecie ma, per far ciò, la stessa deve coincidere con l'uno o con l'altro elemento della stessa. Abbiamo visto più sopra il rapporto tra neoformalismo e buona fede e la possibilità di una coincidenza di soluzioni tra i giudizi di valore operati per il tramite dell'elemento causale e quello operati per il tramite della buona fede. Senz'altro tra regole di fattispecie e regole di responsabilità rimane ferma la distinzione finalistica primaria tale per cui le prime sono funzionali all'edificazione del regolamento contrattuale (performativi-costitutivi) e le seconde sono dirette ad orientare le condotte dei privati in un'ottica di tipo programmatico (performativi semplici). Tuttavia, tale distinzione né vale ad escludere che il valore evocato dalla causa (come scopo del contratto) e quello evocato dalla buona fede coincidano; né, quando si tratti di obbligazione senza prestazione, appare così marcata, posto che in tale contesto la buona fede dismette la sua veste di performativo semplice per assumere le sembianze di un performativo-costitutivo. Al fine di una esatta comprensione del fenomeno, la prima domanda a cui è necessario rispondere è perché sussiste quest'obbligo di comportarsi secondo buona fede ossia qual è il bisogno cui la buona fede è destinata a dare risposta. Al contrario delle altre clausole generali, che identificano con sufficiente chiarezza il sistema all'interno del quale nasce il bisogno rilevante anche per il sistema-diritto (ad es. il buon costume che individua il sistema-costume al fine di ricavare il criterio di preferibilità) la buona fede è più sfuggente inducendo a ritenere che il sistema di riferimento possa essere ora l'uno ora l'altro a seconda del contesto in cui si colloca il rapporto obbligatorio. Tratto essenziale della buona fede è, quindi, la sua pertinenza all'obbligazione il cui substrato materiale è indice rivelatore del luogo in cui attingere il valore ossia l'astrazione oggettivizzata di quelle condizioni positive d'esistenza che sono gli interessi individuali, selezionati come utili o dannosi sulla base di un criterio di preferibilità delle condotte rispetto al buon esito del rapporto obbligatorio cui inerisce espresso dalla più parte degli individui operanti nel sistema di riferimento. Dal punto di vista funzionale, l'istituto "buona fede" fondante l'obbligazione senza prestazione è, quindi, deputato a proteggere le persone coinvolte in una relazione (stabile e orientata ad uno scopo) essendo la protezione stessa il minimo finalistico del diritto; dal punto di vista assiologico, il valore "buona fede" atto ad indicare il criterio di preferibilità ben può variare a seconda del contesto fattuale in cui matura la relazione, ferma restando la pertinenza della buona fede al rapporto obbligatorio e, dunque, la sua natura di "programma di scopo". Quando la buona fede opera in senso costitutivo la sua differenza rispetto alla causa sfuma nel senso che l'istituto "buona fede" sta all'obbligazione senza prestazione come l'istituto "causa" sta al contratto. Resta fermo, però, il rapporto di reciproca esclusione tra l'una e l'altra (poiché dove c'è contratto non c'è obbligazione senza prestazione) e la duplice natura della buona fede che, anche quando costituisce, rimane pur sempre (anche) norma programmatica. Infatti, se l'analogia regge con riferimento alla funzione dell'istituto giuridico non vi sono margini di sorta per appiattire la buona fede sulla causa (o viceversa) posto che l'una è naturalmente proiettata verso il futuro e vive esclusivamente in una dimensione dinamica, sia quando si fa portatrice di valori incarnati dai principi giuridici (anch'essi ontologicamente dinamici) sia quando recepisce valori extra-giuridici; l'altra (la causa) è funzionale a fotografare una data situazione indicando una volta e per sempre lo scopo cui condotte predeterminabili a priori devono orientarsi. Per quanto attiene allo scopo incarnato nella buona fede, la questione è diversa. Non c'è un tempo o una situazione di fatto che la buona fede cristallizza una volta e per sempre indicando le condotte "dovute" e quelle escluse dall'alea di coercibilità. La buona fede opera a ridosso del bisogno nel momento in cui lo stesso bisogno emerge e, in quanto tale, è norma autenticamente rimediale. Essa buona fede – tramite costitutivo di quel minimo giuridico rappresentato dall'obbligazione in funzione protettiva "pura", senza il corredo della prestazione – veste di dignità giuridica quei valori che, in quanto tali, pur non ancora giuridicizzati hanno già subito una oggettivizzazione secondo le logiche del sistema cui naturalmente appartengono. Questa traslazione della "tensione verso un fine" dalla sua forma soggettiva e concreta di interesse a quella oggettiva e ideale di valore ne garantisce l'epurazione perché è sintomatica di condivisione sociale (che a sua volta esclude l'arbitrio) condizione primaria di esistenza della normatività. Quanto detto induce una ulteriore considerazione per quanto attiene alla diversa problematica del bilanciamento. Ci si chiede, cioè, se il bilanciamento possa riguardare i valori o se sia un fenomeno relativo ai soli interessi: nell'un caso, infatti, la nozione di valore come entità oggettiva non vale ad escludere l'arbitrio del giudice, chiamato a "bilanciare" e quindi, in buona sostanza, a "creare" il criterio discriminante tra condotte utili o dannose; nell'altro caso, viceversa, l'arbitrio riguarderebbe i soli giudizi in cui vengono in rilievo gli interessi nella loro soggettività ossia quelli equitativi. Senz'altro gli interessi subiscono un'opera di bilanciamento che, ricorrendo le stesse condizioni di fatto, permette di distinguere tra interessi condivisi, tramutabili in valori, e interessi particolari, destinati a rimanere tali perché incapaci di superare il vaglio della condivisione. Tale discernimento, però, lo si è detto più volte, non compete direttamente all'interprete ma è in re ipsa posto che i valori partecipano della natura oggettiva propria di ogni forma di decisione collettiva. Gli interessi possono essere bilanciati dall'interprete solo quando è chiamato a decidere secondo equità, compiendo in prima persona l'opera di selezione che normalmente compete alla "più parte" degli individui appartenenti ad un sistema. I valori possono anch'essi essere bilanciati solo quando si tratti di interpretare secondo i principi generali dell'ordinamento poiché, in questo caso, la giuridicità dei valori incorporati nella forma della generalizzazione in parola non consente di discriminare tra l'uno e l'altro principio. Quando, invece, l'opera ermeneutica si compie per il tramite di una clausola generale il bilanciamento non entra in gioco poiché l'assenza di veste giuridica rispetto al valore extra-sistemico impone al giudice di compiere una scelta tra l'uno e l'altro fine in base alla maggiore o minore condivisione dello stesso da parte dei consociati ossia in forza della maggiore o minore capacità inclusiva dei valori rispetto agli interessi individuali in gioco. Così, l'interazione sistemica può avvenire senza il rischio di arbitri e soggettivismi garantendo al sistema-diritto una costante tensione evolutiva assieme ad un'apertura cognitiva estesa tanto ai fatti (apertura cognitivo-descrittiva) quanto ai valori portati dagli atti (apertura cognitivo-assiologica). Ciò che non implica un abbandono a qualsivoglia pretesa dirigista: il diritto, sia chiaro, in una certa misura dirige poiché altrimenti (verrebbe da dire) sarebbe privo di "personalità". La personalità, le idee del diritto sono i suoi valori, espressi nei principi generali, che non sono confinati in una forma della generalizzazione posta in posizione apicale solo per essere privata di ogni effetto performativo in una sorta di maestosa solitudine. I principi generali, pur non immediatamente precettivi nei confronti dei consociati, manifestano tutta la loro forza performativa nei confronti del diritto stesso e di chi è chiamato ad operarvi. Legislatore e giudice, primo e secondo interprete, sono entrambi chiamati a darvi attuazione, l'uno ponendo il jus in conformità agli scopi delineati dai principi (potendo discostarsi da essi o introdurne di nuovi solo in presenza di ragioni di uguaglianza sostanziale, in virtù del canone ermeneutico primario dell'unità o coerenza assiologica); l'altro creando il directum attingendo al substrato assiologico complessivo del sistema giuridico (ossia interpretando la norma in conformità al valore portato da essa riguardato in un'ottica sistematica). Ciò è tanto più vero proprio quando l'interprete è chiamato a maneggiare forme della generalizzazione puramente assiologiche immediatamente precettive: in questo caso, infatti, i principi si frappongono all'opera di giuridicizzazione ex post del valore tutte le volte in cui questo stesso valore si traduca in una finalità contrastante con quelle espresse dai principi. Il diritto, cioè, per il tramite di quella che abbiamo chiamato indirekte Drittwirkung opera in autotutela negando l'ingresso a valori che frustrerebbero quelli già incorporati nel sistema. Ma vi è un'altra applicazione della indirekte Drittwirkung che è resa particolarmente evidente proprio dalla buona fede: ossia la sua capacità di dotare la relazione nata da un affidamento qualificato della struttura dell'obbligo in funzione protettiva della persona. Il riferimento è, ovviamente, alla categoria della obbligazione senza prestazione in cui la stabile relazionalità tra individui, caratterizzata dalla comunanza dello scopo, ingloba le ragioni della persona all'interno delle dinamiche dell'obbligazione riconoscendogli giuridica rilevanza. In questo caso: i) in origine vi è una relazione; ii) la quale relazione assurge a stabile relazionalità quando vi è una comune tensione verso un fine; iii) dalla stabile relazionalità deriva un legittimo reciproco affidamento; iv) il quale legittimo affidamento solletica la buona fede; v) una volta attiva, la buona fede giuridicizza gli interessi delle parti in gioco a patto che questi siano compatibili con il complessivo impianto assiologico giuridico; vi) la lesione degli interessi così giuridicizzati genera responsabilità. Il rapporto obbligatorio così nato è privo del corredo della prestazione e non segue, perciò, le logiche incrementative che gli sono proprie. Tale è la ragione per cui l'obbligazione senza prestazione svolge una funzionalità meramente protettiva degli interessi in gioco, in linea con lo scopo minimo del diritto che è quello di "proteggere" individui interagenti. Quindi, se l'obbligazione è priva della prestazione la buona fede la caratterizza assiologicamente in senso conservativo; se invece l'obbligazione è complessa ed arricchita della prestazione, la dimensione assiologica della buona fede identifica come preferibili le condotte finalizzate non solo alla protezione del valore riferibile alla stessa ma anche al suo accrescimento. Il che ci suggerisce di ritenere che, in effetti, la logica protettiva della buona fede fondate l'obbligazione senza prestazione risieda nell'art. 1175 c.c. e che tale obbligazione si distingua da quella complessa rispetto alla quale l'integrazione ex fide bona, seguendo le logiche incrementative del contratto, ben può spingersi oltre alla mera protezione includendo nel parteur degli obblighi a carico delle parti anche condotte preferibili non nell'ottica precauzionale (rispetto al potenziale danno) propria dell'art. 1175 c.c. ma nell'ottica incrementativa ricavabile dalla prestazione, ferma restando la regola di verosimiglianza comune tanto all'obbligazione senza prestazione quanto agli obblighi accessori alla prestazione. In questo senso, quindi, l'integrazione del contratto passa attraverso il criterio selettivo naturale della causa dello stesso in quanto identificativa del valore perseguito dalle parti inquadrato, però, in una logica di accrescimento delle sfere individuali e non di mero mantenimento delle stesse, come accade invece nell'obbligazione senza (ossia a prescindere dalla) prestazione. Se poi vi debba essere una necessaria coincidenza tra il minimo costitutivo dell'obbligo di protezione ed il minimo performativo del risarcimento (per danni) è un'altra storia. L'assenza di una esplicita previsione positiva in tal senso in uno con le caratteristiche già viste della buona fede induce a ritenere che la stessa sia qualificabile come una forma della generalizzazione ad attitudine rimediale e che, quindi, individuato il valore di riferimento lo stesso possa essere coperto da ogni tutela normalmente posta a corredo dell'obbligo. Perché altrimenti sforzarsi tanto di sottrarre alle logiche aquiliane ambiti che tradizionalmente gli sarebbero propri? L'inversione dell'onere probatorio è poca cosa, specie se si considera che la stessa inversione si verifica anche in materia extracontrattuale in tutte quelle ipotesi, tutt'altro che residuali, di c.d. responsabilità oggettiva. Vero è che il giudizio di verosimiglianza, per sua stessa natura, presuppone la presenza di più alternative tra le condotte preferibili (in quanto non dannose) e, quindi, la coercibilità delle stesse non può assurgere ad attributo astratto e generale dell'obbligazione senza prestazione ma dipende dalla incontrovertibilità del giudizio di verosimiglianza che è, però, un ossimoro poiché la verosimiglianza incontrovertibile è certezza. Potremmo quindi azzardare la seguente conclusione: l'obbligazione senza protezione che si fonda sulla buona fede in funzione protettiva si presume assoggettata alle regole di verosimiglianza e non è, perciò, coercibile; questa presunzione può però essere superata in base ad un giudizio in concreto che, in relazione a tutte le circostanze specifiche del caso, accerti come preferibile un'unica condotta che diventa, perciò, coercibile. Certo è che questa soluzione è praticabile solo a patto di ritenere la "pretesa" attributo non della prestazione ma dell'obbligo, con le inevitabili ricadute sociali in termini restrittivi delle liberta individuali che questo slittamento comporta e sul presupposto che criterio distintivo tra l'una (prestazione) e l'altro (nella sua forma autonoma di obbligazione senza prestazione) sia non tanto la maggiore o minore "debolezza" in termini rimediali ma la sola funzionalità, rispettivamente incrementativa o conservativa della sfera personale dei soggetti agenti. L'etimo in questo caso ci offre indicazioni contrastanti, posto che prae (avanti) tendere (tendere) da un lato richiama quella tensione verso uno scopo che è la caratterizzazione propria dell'affidamento "fecondo" ossia capace di generare l'obbligazione senza prestazione; dall'altro lato identifica proprio quell'aspirazione all'avere che discende dall'essere, la cosa desiderata, oggetto di una forma della generalizzazione strutturata secondo il tipo "diritto soggettivo". D'altronde, abbiamo visto come la buona fede in funzione valutativa sia capace di paralizzare temporaneamente la pretesa o di contenerne la tensione finalistica ma non di farla venire meno. Una volta costituita, pertanto, la pretesa prevale rispetto alla tensione performativa della buona fede, salvo adeguamenti sincronici tra forma e sostanza; di conseguenza, in assenza della stessa pretesa, ritenere che la buona fede costituisca ciò che altrove non è capace di destituire sconta una certa dose di contraddizione ed è, quindi, più saggio mantenere una corrispondenza tra l'essenzialità costitutiva del diritto – che si manifesta per il tramite della buona fede come fonte dell'obbligazione senza prestazione – e l'essenzialità performativa dello stesso – garantita dalla tutela risarcitoria.

Editorial Aniversario y balance Por una renovación de la agenda historiográfica de las izquierdas Colectivo Editor Se han cumplido veinte años ya de aquel viernes 3 de abril de 1998 en que el CeDInCI abriera por primera vez sus puertas en el barrio porteño de Almagro. Poco antes de la universalización del correo electrónico, y a través del antiguo sistema de invitación por tarjeta de cartón, del rumor boca a boca y el llamado telefónico, más de doscientos asistentes desbordaron la vieja casa de la calle Sarmiento cuando todavía olía a pintura fresca. Más de la mitad de los concurrentes debió esperar en la calle a que salieran los primeros para poder ingresar. ¿Qué fue lo que convocó en aquellos años de reflujo de las izquierdas y de apogeo del menemismo a las más diversas figuras de la cultura argentina, desde David Viñas a Juan José Sebreli, desde Emilio J. Corbière a Mary Feijóo, desde José Sazbón a Abel Alexis Lattendorf? Sin lugar a dudas, la expectativa de que, finalmente, un centro de documentación concebido a la manera de las modernas instituciones europeas pudiera recoger en un espacio único y plural el patrimonio documental de los movimientos sociales y las izquierdas que hasta entonces se dispersaba, y a menudo se perdía. Sin embargo, esa fundación no vino, como suele decirse, a "llenar un vacío". Fue necesario librar a lo largo de los años una verdadera batalla cultural para introducir en la agenda pública y en la agenda social el concepto de patrimonio documental. Para entonces, cuando el primero de estos términos era apenas un sinónimo de patrimonio arquitectónico, el legado documental era una noción carente de sentido. En lo que a la cultura de izquierdas respecta, los fondos personales de militantes, dirigentes, sindicalistas, escritores y editores, o los acervos de pequeñas organizaciones políticas y sociales se volatilizaban; y con ellos, la posibilidad de escribir la historia de las izquierdas, de los movimientos sociales, de las clases subalternas. La fundación del CeDInCI conjuró para siempre aquel desdén, aquel olvido. Desde ese abril de 1998 su acervo creció exponencialmente. Veinte años después, se contabilizan con nombre y apellido casi dos mil donantes. A pesar de su fragilidad institucional —apenas una asociación civil sin fines de lucro, gestionado por un equipo de una decena de profesionales—, el CeDInCI apareció a lo largo de estos años como un espacio que ofrece a los donantes garantías de transparencia, estabilidad y pluralidad. La modernización que propuso el CeDInCI en el terreno bibliotecológico, hemerográfico y archivístico vino estrechamente ligada a una propuesta de renovación historiográfica. Poner a disposición de los investigadores un acervo documental cuantioso, rico y diverso era condición necesaria pero no suficiente para una actualización de los estudios sobre las izquierdas. Recordemos brevemente aquel contexto. Para fines del siglo XX el estudio de las izquierdas estaba fuera de la agenda historiográfica. La historia obrera, una de las ramas que se había desprendido de la historia social a mediados del siglo XX, había quedado reducida a un rol residual, apenas cultivada por un porfiado puñado de historiadores, entre los que sobresalía la figura tutelar de Alberto Pla, fallecido en 2008. El cierre del CICSO (un centro de investigación fundado en 1966 que había producido una obra colectiva de referencia a comienzos de la década de 1970),[1] la dispersión de sus investigadores más reconocidos y la donación de su archivo a una institución tan poco previsible como la SADE (Sociedad Argentina de Escritores) constituían un síntoma elocuente de aquel fin de ciclo. Algunos de los historiadores obreros más jóvenes apelaban por entonces a la renovación que había conocido la historiografía inglesa desde la década de 1960, pero a menudo sus referencias a las obras de un E. P. Thompson fueron, antes que un índice de lecturas fructíferas o una puesta en acto de sus aportes teórico-conceptuales, verdaderos modelos de citas de autoridad.[2] Mientras estos historiadores obreros resistían desde un paradigma historiográfico francamente conservador (una teoría de la clases sociales y de su conciencia de corte leninista, una reificación del conflicto social y una metodología positivista de recolección "objetiva" de "datos"), la historiografía conocía una renovación vertiginosa a escala global, que socavaba incluso muchos de sus supuestos epistemológicos. Desde el impacto del "giro lingüístico" hasta al correspondiente al "giro material" (por no hablar del más reciente "giro reflexivo"), tanto la microhistoria, la historia de las mujeres, la historia de lo cotidiano, la historia de la sexualidad, la historia social de la cultura como la nueva historia política conmovían los cimientos de la profesión, despertaban la vocación de los nuevos historiadores y reorientaban incluso los intereses muchos investigadores formados. De modo que para fines de la década de 1990 la mayor parte de los miembros del PEHESA,[3] un centro fundado en 1977 a comienzos de la última dictadura militar y que había venido a modernizar los estudios de historia social, habían abandonado la historia obrera stricto sensu. Si bien durante algunos años prosiguieron los trabajos de Silvia Badoza sobre la Sociedad Tipográfica Bonaerense, los de Mirta Lobato sobre las obreras de los frigoríficos de Berisso, los de Juan Suriano sobre el anarquismo argentino o los de Ricardo Falcón sobre la formación de la clase obrera en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, buena parte de los investigadores fueron atraídos enseguida por otras demandas historiográficas. Suriano fue desplazando sus intereses desde el movimiento obrero anarquista hacia la cultura libertaria.[4] Leandro Gutiérrez —el principal inspirador de la historia y la cultura obrera, y su último cultor a tiempo completo, fallecido en 1992—, había iniciado junto a Luis Alberto Romero un desplazamiento de su objeto hacia los que entonces se designaban como "sectores populares".[5] Significativamente, la obra que reunía gran parte de los trabajos maduros de historia social y obrera de esa generación —nos referimos a Jeremy Adelman (ed.), Essays in Argentine Labour History 1870-1930— no encontró un editor en la Argentina.[6] Si la historia de la clase obrera se veía progresivamente desplazada de la renovada agenda historiográfica de fin de siglo, la historia de las corrientes de izquierda que no se encuadraba en lo que entonces llamábamos "historias oficiales", seguía siendo cultivada casi exclusivamente por el periodismo de investigación. La popularidad que gozaron en los años '80 y '90 las contribuciones sobre anarquismo, socialismo, comunismo y nueva izquierda de figuras como Osvaldo Bayer, Emilio J. Corbière, Isidoro Gilbert y María Seoane contrastaban con la reticencia de la historiografía académica frente a estos objetos. Sólo unas pocas obras clave nacidas entre esas dos décadas vinieron a dar una nota discordante en ese clima académico: nos referimos a Una modernidad periférica: Buenos Aires 1920 y 1930 (1988) de Beatriz Sarlo, Nuestros años sesentas. La formación de la nueva izquierda intelectual en la Argentina (1956-1966) (1991) de Oscar Terán, e Intelectuales y poder en Argentina en la década del sesenta (1991) de Silvia Sigal. Aunque respondían más a ejercicios de balance histórico por parte de intelectuales formados en las décadas pasadas que a la agenda académica de esos años, estas obras iban a abrir una brecha en la renovación historiográfica nacida con el nuevo siglo. Fue en ese contexto de innovación al mismo tiempo que de profesionalización de la historiografía argentina, que el CeDInCI postulaba en torno a 1998, además de la necesidad de un acervo documental, una agenda historiográfica para el estudio de las izquierdas y de las clases subalternas. Por supuesto, ya la propia organización de un centro que reuniera en forma integral y al mismo tiempo diferenciada áreas de biblioteca, hemeroteca y archivo, hablaba de una renovación respecto de las antiguas bibliotecas donde estas áreas solían estar confundidas. La hemeroteca adquiría en este proyecto un lugar central, poniendo a disposición de los investigadores un universo revisteril mucho más denso, diverso y proteico que el de las pocas revistas canónicas que había consagrado la historia literaria en el siglo XX. El archivo, centrado en los fondos de militantes, escritores y editores, venía a ofrecer un corpus hasta entonces apenas transitado por la historiografía. La novedad no estaba tanto en la diversidad de los soportes ofrecidos, como en el orden con que fueron organizados y presentados. La organización y la catalogación misma de los libros, los folletos, los afiches, los periódicos, las revistas, las cartas privadas, fueron concebidas desde un inicio para propiciar una historia renovada y multidimensional de las izquierdas. Borges decía que el orden de una biblioteca era un modo silencioso de ejercer la crítica. Para nosotros, el catálogo excedía su dimensión técnica, el orden de las piezas respondía a una perspectiva de la historia, el tesauro a un universo conceptual, la descripción se comprometía con la investigación. También el propio nombre de la institución, con su referencia expresa no a "la izquierda" lisa y llana, sino a una "cultura de izquierdas", sugería además de la pluralidad todo un abanico de dimensiones materiales, simbólicas e imaginarias de social y de lo político que connotaba el término cultura, excediendo con creces la clásica historia institucional centrada en pasar revista de los congresos, analizar la corrección de los discursos de los dirigentes y en contabilizar la cantidad de obreros que el partido controlaba entre los marítimos o los ferroviarios. El lanzamiento del CeDInCI fue acompañado de una serie de libros y de artículos de carácter programático elaborados por algunos de sus fundadores que en poco tiempo era asumida y enriquecida por una nueva camada de historiadores.[7] A contrapelo de un clima historiográfico en el que Marx y el marxismo eran sacrificados en el altar del "fin de las ideologías", esos textos, al mismo tiempo que celebraban la profunda renovación historiográfica en curso, se esforzaban en mostrar el estímulo intelectual y el provecho historiográfico que ofrecían ciertas figuras y conceptos forjados por el marxismo crítico de un Gramsci o un Benjamin, así como por historiadores marxistas extraacadémicos olvidados como Issac Deutscher, Arthur Rosenberg o Fernando Claudín. Pugnaban, asimismo, por mostrar los signos de renovación de la historia social británica a los que la academia argentina comenzaba a darle la espalda —desde los estudios clásicos de Eric Hobsbawm, E.P. Thompson y Raymond Williams hasta los de Raphael Samuel, Perry Anderson y Gareth Stedman Jones—, la innovación historiográfica que había representado en las décadas de 1970 y 1980 la obra de figuras como Robert Paris, Georges Haupt y Franco Andreucci para la historia del marxismo y las internacionales obreras, así como los aportes contemporáneos de la sociología de la cultura (Pierre Bourdieu y su escuela) y la sociología de los intelectuales revolucionarios (Michael Löwy). La nueva historia de las izquierdas y de las clases subalternas incluía y al mismo tiempo excedía la historia partidaria, la historia obrera o la historia del mundo del trabajo. Proponía, por ejemplo, otras claves para repensar la dimensión institucional (desde el socioanálisis de René Lourau y Georges Lapassade hasta la teoría foucaultiana de los micropoderes, pasando por la dimensión imaginaria teorizada por Cornelius Castoriadis),[8] incorporaba la perspectiva de género y el concepto de vida cotidiana para repensar las subjetividades militantes, dialogaba con los aportes conceptuales y metodológicos de la sociología cultural, de la historia intelectual y la historia del libro y la edición para reconsiderar dimensiones claves de la cultura de izquierdas, hasta entonces apenas exploradas en nuestro país por unos pocos estudios pioneros, como los de Dora Barrancos. El CeDInCI promovió un diálogo productivo de la historia de las izquierdas con la nueva historia intelectual, menos atento a ciertas prescripciones de la Escuela de Cambridge de Skinner y Pocock —sobre todo las que parecen "querer apresar las ideas de una época en sus marcos lingüísticos"[9] — que a las vertientes que ponen en el centro los soportes materiales de los procesos históricos de la cultura, aquellos que se resisten a ser simplemente reducidos a texto. Comprometida en un proyecto de historización radical de las ideas, Políticas de la Memoria promovió estudios y debates sobre la problemática de la recepción y la circulación internacional de ideas y saberes, poniendo sobre todo de relieve los problemas de "traductibilidad", los "desvíos" y "malentendidos" propios de las "ideas fuera de lugar". Dentro de la renovación que conoce la historia de los intelectuales, nuestra revista atendió antes que nada a la dimensión relacional de la historia social de la cultura, prestando especial atención a las redes intelectuales, las redes editoriales y las redes revisteriles. Siguiendo estas líneas, fue plataforma de difusión de diversos referentes de esa renovación historiográfica como Enzo Traverso, Bruno Groppo, Perry Anderson, Christophe Prochasson, Daniel James, Judith Revel, Roberto Schwarz, Ricardo Melgar, Claudio Batalha, Ricardo Piglia, Giselle Sapiro, Jean-Yves Mollier, Vivek Chibber, Philippe Artières y Dominique Kalifa, entre muchos otros. Una política de edición que anticipó y complementó una revista hermana del CeDInCI como El Rodaballo, menos acotada al campo historiográfico y más abierta a los debates intelectuales, que dio a conocer entre 1994 y 2006 textos inéditos en español de Toni Negri, Michael Hardt, Perry Anderson, Robin Blackburn, Michael Löwy, Boris Kagarlitsky, Nancy Fraser, Judith Butler, André Gorz, John Holloway, Frédrik Jameson, Robert Castel, Daniel Bensaïd, Richard Greeman, Terry Eagleton, Etienne Balibar, Régis Debray y René Lourau, entre muchos otros. Con el apoyo de estas renovadas lecturas, Políticas de la Memoria garantizaba la puesta en circulación de un amplio espectro de problemas referidos al mundo de la cultura de izquierdas en Argentina, Latinoamérica y Europa; participando, de este modo, de diferentes y entrecruzadas agendas historiográficas, debates político-académicos y temas de marcada recurrencia entre historiadores y cientistas sociales. A partir de la publicación de artículos, dossiers e intervenciones se abordaron cuestiones como la recepción argentina de Marx y la configuración de una cultura marxista en nuestro país, la formación y las derivas del socialismo argentino, las vicisitudes del anarquismo en América Latina, la historia intelectual del comunismo latinoamericano, el sindicalismo y sus diversas corrientes ideológicas, el antiimperialismo en los albores del siglo XX, el indigenismo y los latinoamericanismos, los intelectuales y su relación con la política revolucionaria, los avatares del trotskismo en la Argentina, del peronismo de izquierda, de las "nuevas izquierdas" y de los grupos armados a nivel continental. Asimismo, Políticas de la Memoria dio lugar a debates recientes sobre la historia europea contemporánea (guerras mundiales, revolución rusa, totalitarismos, guerra fría), ofreciendo estudios referidos al desarrollo de los partidos socialistas y comunistas a nivel mundial y a la historia de las Internacionales Obreras. La historia del marxismo europeo y latinoamericano ocupó en sus páginas un lugar sostenido, lejos tanto del desdén de la historia académica como de los abordajes trillados de los órganos semipartidarios. La serie sobre las sucesivas "crisis del marxismo", aún en curso de publicación, ofreció textos hasta entonces inéditos en español de Masaryk, Sorel, Croce, Gentile y Mondolfo, así como los sustantivos estudios introductorios de Daniel Sazbón, Miguel Candioti y Horacio Tarcus. Finalmente, debemos destacar al anuario como uno de los pioneros en la difusión de estudios y debates sobre los movimientos feministas y sobre la cuestión sexo-genérica en la cultura de izquierdas. En la construcción sostenida de esta singular agenda de temas y de problemas, no fue menor la exhumación de documentos inéditos (piénsese en la correspondencia cruzada entre Ingenieros, Darío y Lugones, en las cartas de Simón Radowitzky a Salvadora Medina Onrubia, en la correspondencia de Mario R. Santucho con Carlos Astrada, en la de José Aricó con Héctor P. Agosti, o en las Actas del Comité Obrero de 1890) así como la incorporación de trabajos que reconstruyen la trayectoria biográfica, política e intelectual de figuras clave en la historia de las izquierdas, como Germán Avé-Lallemant, Virginia Bolten o Ernesto Laclau. Por su parte, la publicación de reseñas críticas, fichas de libros y de revistas que ofrece cada año Políticas de la Memoria —secciones que fueron engrosándose hasta formar parte constitutiva del anuario—, constituyen un insumo fundamental de actualización bibliográfica para cualquier interesado en el mundo de las izquierdas. Pero el aporte de Políticas de la Memoria a los estudios sobre la cultura de izquierdas no es simplemente temático. Su contribución tampoco se resume en la incorporación y en la difusión de autores y de obras de reconocimiento internacional. El anuario interviene en el debate de ideas y se interesa por diferentes perspectivas historiográficas: a su modo, ha formado parte del cultivado campo de la historia intelectual argentina y latinoamericana, ha mostrado un interés sostenido pero también crítico por los modos en que a menudo se cultiva la historia reciente, dando lugar a debates sobre la relación entre historia y memoria, y señalando las potencialidades y los límites de la historia oral. Políticas de la Memoria ha sido pionera en difundir nuevas corrientes de investigación dedicadas a la historia del libro y la edición, a las políticas de archivo y a la relación entre historia cultural y nueva historia política. El mero enunciado de los ejes temáticos con que fueron convocadas las sucesivas Jornadas de Historia de las Izquierdas del CeDInCI a lo largo de los últimos 20 años ofrece un índice ilustrativo de su programa historiográfico, tal y como se fue desplegando a lo largo del tiempo: "Exilios políticos latinoamericanos y argentinos" (2005); "Prensa política, revistas culturales y emprendimientos editoriales de las izquierdas latinoamericanas" (2007); "¿Las 'ideas fuera de lugar'? El problema de la recepción y la circulación de ideas en América Latina" (2009); "José Ingenieros y sus mundos" (2011); "La correspondencia en la historia política e intelectual latinoamericana" (2013); "Marxismos latinoamericanos. Tradiciones, debates y nuevas perspectivas desde la Historia cultural e intelectual" (2015); "100 años de Octubre de 1917: Peripecias latinoamericanas de un acontecimiento global" (2017). El estudio de Juan Maiguashca incluido recientemente en Marxist historiographies. A global perspective tomaba justamente a las Jornadas del CeDInCI como un índice de la renovación historiográfica latinoamericana de izquierdas posterior a los años de la "crisis del marxismo".[10] El historiador ecuatoriano, actualmente profesor de la Universidad de York, Canadá, ofrecía un cotejo entre los que identificaba como los dos polos paradigmáticos de la renovación del marxismo historiográfico de inicios de siglo: la revista mexicana Contrahistorias. La otra mirada de Clío, que fundó en 2003 Carlos Antonio Aguirre Rojas, y las jornadas bianuales del CeDInCI. Maiguashca reconocía como notas distintivas del caso argentino la creciente voluntad de exceder los límites de la historia nacional para abrazar un horizonte latinoamericano; la consolidación de un espacio de diálogo que vino a reemplazar "las actitudes solipsistas de antaño"; el rigor en el tratamiento y el citado de las fuentes; la apertura hacia los diversos marxismos y más allá de los marxismos; y la ampliación del universo de la cultura de izquierdas hacia problemáticas antes negadas o desconocidas como el feminismo, los movimientos sociales o la memoria histórica. "La preocupación obsesiva con las clases se ha ido y los participantes están comenzando a explorar con una mente abierta las importaciones analíticas de otras variables: etnia, género, territorio, entre otros".[11] Además de sus jornadas bianuales, el CeDInCI organizó o promovió la coorganización de encuentros académicos sobre campos de estudio más amplios, como los Coloquios Argentinos de estudios sobre el libro y la edición (2012, 2016 y 2018), los Encuentros de Investigadore/as del Anarquismo (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013 y 2015), el Primer Congreso de Investigadorxs sobre Anarquismo (2016), o las Jornadas de Archivo (2015 y 2017) así como el Encuentro nacional de Teoría Crítica José Sazbón (Rosario, 2010), las Jornadas Internacionales José María Aricó (Córdoba, 2011) y las Jornadas A 100 años de la Reforma Universitaria. Historia, Política, Cultura (Rosario, 2018). Además, en los últimos años, se han creado en el marco del CeDInCI dos nuevos espacios específicos que han mancomunado archivo e investigación. Primero, el Programa de Investigación del Anarquismo que animó, junto a otros colegas, un proceso de intercambio que culminó con la organización del Congreso de 2016 cuya continuidad, en un Segundo Congreso Internacional de Investigadorxs del Anarquismo, se celebrará en Montevideo en 2019. A su vez, en el año 2017 se creó el Programa de memorias políticas feministas y sexogenéricas que, con una notable Colectiva asesora, lleva adelante un intenso trabajo de recuperación, preservación y disposición a la consulta pública de un invaluable material que se encontraba en riesgo de pérdida, disperso o inaccesible. Finalmente, el CeDInCI fue parte activa de las sucesivas Jornadas de Trabajo sobre Historia Reciente, librando batallas, desde sus primeras manifestaciones en el año 2003 y hasta el presente, a favor de esa historia crítica que se resiste a ser avasallada por la memoria; el CeDInCI protagonizó asimismo las primeras manifestaciones pluralistas de los Congresos de Historia Intelectual Latinoamericana (CHIAL) realizados en Medellín (2012) y Buenos Aires (2014), tomando luego prudente distancia de un espacio que fue adquiriendo en México (2016) y más gravemente en Santiago de Chile (2018) contornos elitistas y conservadores. * * * A lo largo de estos 20 años, la producción historiográfica sobre las izquierdas conoció una expansión inédita, no sólo en nuestro país sino en toda América Latina. En los textos programáticos de la década de 1990 que anunciaban el nacimiento del CeDInCI, la bibliografía argentina sobre las izquierdas apenas superaba una carilla. Hoy contamos con una masa de estudios sobre el anarquismo, el socialismo, el reformismo universitario, el comunismo, el antifascismo, el trotskismo, el peronismo revolucionario y las diversas expresiones de la nueva izquierda que se ha tornado prácticamente inabarcable. El espectro tradicional de las izquierdas se fue complejizando con la indagación focalizada en ciertos cruces, préstamos e hibridaciones poco antes impensados, como los "anarcobolcheviques" o los "comunistas liberales". A su vez, estas corrientes son atravesadas diagonalmente por estudios innovadores sobre los intelectuales revolucionarios, las políticas editoriales, la prensa y las revistas, el papel de las juventudes, el rol de las mujeres militantes, las micropolíticas, las prácticas sexuales y las biopolíticas de las organizaciones de izquierda. El CeDInCI acompañó y contribuyó a modelar este vasto proceso de producción con su acervo siempre enriquecido, con sus jornadas y sus seminarios de posgrado, con su revista Políticas de la Memoria, con sus ediciones de fuentes y sus diccionarios biográficos. Basta repasar los centenares de agradecimientos que muchos investigadores estampan en las primeras páginas de sus tesis o de sus libros para reconocer al menos el umbral más básico de esta deuda. Además, las obras que fueron elaborando los propios hacedores del CeDInCI se han ido instalando como referencias en el campo de estudios sobre las izquierdas en Argentina y América Latina. Ahora bien, el CeDInCI ha sido apenas un propiciador de este campo. El notable dinamismo desplegado en la Argentina de los últimos veinte años ha respondido a demandas múltiples y diversas. Una de las mayores fue la que podríamos llamar la "demanda de verdad" respecto de la militancia revolucionaria de los años '60 y '70 así como de las condiciones de su represión y su derrota. Poco antes, la "demanda de justicia" propia del movimiento de derechos humanos tendía a poner a los sujetos de la política en el lugar de víctimas de la represión. En un segundo momento, el periodismo de investigación y la historiografía académica después, vinieron a reponer a esos sujetos en su condición de militantes. El auge de estudios sobre la militancia de las dos décadas de gran movilización social y radicalidad política (1955-1976) tuvo un efecto dinamizador sobre otras experiencias y otras figuras militantes de pasados algo más remotos. Esta demanda social de "verdad" fue inicialmente satisfecha por un periodismo de investigación abiertamente tensado por sus posicionamientos políticos, desde las contribuciones de Isidoro Gilbert y María Seoane hasta las de Ceferino Reato y Tata Yofre. En el campo específicamente historiográfico, algunas de las primeras respuestas surgieron de una cierta perspectiva académico-militante, de espíritu defensivo y reivindicativo, cuyo afán por exhumar documentos o recabar testimonios que probaran las correctas posiciones de las izquierdas en el pasado, o bien su profunda implantación social e incluso la aprobación social de sus acciones militares, los empujaba de modo concomitante a invisibilizar sus límites, a desproblematizar sus dilemas y a sublimar sus fracasos. En buena parte de esta literatura, la perspectiva historiográfica quedaba, así, capturada por el sistema de creencias de los propios actores que estudiaba. Estas formas de teleología obrera y de sobrepolitización de la historia apenas si se vieron neutralizadas por las exigencias de profesionalización propias de fines del siglo XX. Ciertamente, el ciclo de estudios sobre las izquierdas coincidió con un profundo proceso de profesionalización de las ciencias sociales y las humanidades que tuvo lugar a lo largo de estos veinte años: esto es, la significativa ampliación de cupos de ingreso a carrera de investigador de CONICET; la gran expansión de becas de especialización e investigación en universidades y diversas entidades científicas y académicas; y la proliferación de espacios de formación, producción y circulación de saberes disciplinares. Este proceso significó, sin duda, una necesaria y justa democratización del universo académico, fundamentalmente en lo relativo al establecimiento de condiciones materiales para la producción intelectual. Sin embargo, la normativización y objetivación —la más de las veces cuantitativa— de los criterios de acreditación, evaluación y legitimación del quehacer intelectual implicaron en contrapartida una penalización a la historiografía más elaborada, crítica y original. La producción en serie de papers y artículos en los que prima la descripción —a veces minuciosa o erudita, otras no tanto— por sobre la interrogación y la construcción de objetos-problema; las escrituras que en su afán de productividad han abandonado todo debate, toda pretensión teórica o cuanto menos reflexiva, es la que predomina hoy en nuestros campos disciplinares. La cuestión excede con creces, por supuesto, a la historiografía de izquierdas, pero es ésta la que nos interesa aquí. Este sistema cuantitativo de evaluación y legitimación ha sido incluso perfectamente funcional para el crecimiento de esas versiones de la historia obrera tradicional o de la historia partidaria, permitiéndoles acomodarse perfectamente a unas reglas que exigen alta productividad antes que problematización de los objetos y avances reales en la construcción social del conocimiento histórico. El balance de conjunto de la producción de estos últimos veinte años sobre las izquierdas aún está por hacerse. Aquí sólo quisimos avanzar en algunos señalamientos que hacen al específico posicionamiento del CeDInCI, entre los riesgos de partidización de la historia reciente, por un lado, y ciertas derivas elitistas y despolitizadoras de la nueva historia intelectual, por otro. Nos propusimos incitar a un debate colectivo que sirva como balance de lo producido y como actualización de una agenda historiográfica para el estudio de las izquierdas, que tal como había sido formulada veinte años atrás, ya ha quedado en cierto modo realizada, y por lo tanto anticuada. El aniversario, además de la congratulación, puede ser una excelente oportunidad para barajar y dar de nuevo, para debatir colectivamente cuál es hoy el mapa de la historiografía de izquierdas; cuáles sus dispositivos teórico-metodológicos y sus redes conceptuales más destacadas; cuáles sus imbricaciones y apuestas político-intelectuales; cuáles son sus tensiones; qué tradiciones político-ideológicas se perpetúan en las escrituras actuales; cuáles han sido desechadas, cuáles olvidadas, cuáles actualizadas; cuáles son sus puentes, cuáles sus distancias con el espacio más general de la memoria. Incluso cabe preguntarse: ¿Puede hablarse de un campo de estudio de las izquierdas?, o incluso: ¿qué sería hoy una historiografía de izquierdas? Para ello, invitamos a colegas y amigos a participar de las próximas Xas Jornadas de Historia de las Izquierdas Dos décadas de historia de las izquierdas latinoamericanas. Aniversario y balance, los días 20, 21 y 22 de noviembre de 2019. Beba Balvé, Miguel Murmis, Juan Carlos Marín, Lidia Aufgang, Tomás J. Bar y Roberto Jacoby, Lucha de calles, lucha de clases. Elementos para su análisis (Córdoba, 1961-1969), Buenos Aires, La Rosa Blindada, 1973. ↑ Tan sólo a modo de ejemplo: en sentido opuesto a la expresa declaración de su autor, el enfoque de Oposición obrera a la dictadura (Buenos Aires, Contrapunto, 1988) de Pablo Pozzi era escasamente thompsoniano. Lejos de tomar la dimensión de la experiencia como constitutiva de la clase obrera, no hacía más que evaluar las prácticas de resistencia obrera construidas empíricamente con el rasero de una conciencia de clase previamente establecida (en un sentido, justamente, pre-thompsoniano). ↑ Programa de Estudios de Historia Económica y Social Americana. ↑ Juan Suriano, Trabajadores, anarquismo y Estado represor : De la Ley de Residencia a la Ley de Defensa Social (1902-1910), Buenos Aires, CEAL, 1988; y Anarquistas. Cultura y política libertaria en Buenos Aires. 1890-1910, Buenos Aires, Manantial, 2001. ↑ Leandro Gutiérrez, Luis Alberto Romero, "Los sectores populares y el movimiento obrero: un balance historiográfico", en Sectores populares. Cultura y política, Buenos Aires, Sudamericana, 1995. ↑ Jeremy Adelman (ed.), Essays in Argentine Labour History 1870-1930, Londres, Macmillan Press, 1992, incluyó estudios de Juan Suriano, Hilda Sábato, Silvia Badoza, Mirta Lobato, Ofelia Pianetto, Ruth Thompson, Colin M. Lewis, Eduardo A. Zimmermann, Leandro H. Gutiérrez, Luis Alberto Romero y el propio Jeremy Adelman. ↑ Horacio Tarcus, El marxismo olvidado en la Argentina: Silvio Frondizi y Milcíades Peña, Buenos Aires, El Cielo por Asalto, 1996; Horacio Tarcus, Mariátegui en la Argentina, o las políticas culturales de Samuel Glusberg, Buenos Aires, El Cielo por Asalto, 2001; H. Tarcus, J. Cernadas y R. Pittaluga, "Para una historia de la izquierda en la Argentina. Reflexiones preliminares", en El Rodaballo nº 6/7, Buenos Aires, otoño/invierno 1997, pp. 28-38; Íbid., "La historiografía sobre el Partido Comunista de la Argentina: un estado de la cuestión", en El Rodaballo. Revista de política y cultura nº 8, Buenos Aires, otoño/invierno 1998, pp. 31-40. ↑ Horacio Tarcus, "La secta política. Ensayo acerca de la pervivencia de lo sagrado en la modernidad", en El Rodaballo. Revista de política y cultura, nº 9, Buenos Aires, verano 1998/99, pp. 13-33. ↑ Enzo Traverso, La historia como campo de batalla, Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2012, pp. 22; véase una crítica semejante en el estudio de Michael Heinrich que ofrecemos en este mismo número. ↑ Q. Edward Wang and Georg G. Iggers (eds.), Marxist historiographies. A global perspective, New York, Routledge, 2016. El estudio de Juan Maiguashca apareció inicialmente como "Latin American Marxist History: Rise, fall and resurrection", en Storia della Storiografia nº 62, Pisa, 2012, pp. 105-120. Hay una versión española de Isabel Mena: "Historia marxista latinoamericana: nacimiento, caída y resurrección", en Procesos. Revista ecuatoriana de historia nº 62, Quito, segundo semestre 2013, disponible en: http://revistaprocesos.ec/ojs/index.php/ojs/article/view/6/24 ↑ Juan Maiguashca , "Historia marxista latinoamericana: nacimiento, caída y resurrección", op. cit., p. 106. ↑

Issue 23.3 of the Review for Religious, 1964. ; PAHL VI On Seminaries APOSTOLIC .EPISTLE To THE PATRIARCHS, PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS, AND BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD ON THE FOUR HUNDREDTH ANNIVERS~,RY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SEMINARIES BY THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL OF TRENT. Venerable brothers, greetings and Our apostolic blessing. The Word of the sovereign God,* who is "the true light that enlightens every man coming into this world,".1 decided to put on human nature for the sake of our eternal salvation and to spend a lifetime among us to show us "the kind of glory that belongs to the only begotten Son Of the Father, full of grace and truth.''~ In the same way He did not con-sider it unimportant to remain hidden for almost thirty years in a simple little dwelling of Nazareth in order that by His prayers to God and by His labor He might fittingly prepare for His apostolic work and give an example of all the virtues. Under 'the loving gaze of Joseph, His putative father, and that of His holy Mother Mary, the boy Jesus "grew in wisdom and age and grace before God and man.''8 Now if all the followers of Christ are obliged to imitate the Word become man, then surely a greater obligation to do so rests on those who someday will. "represent to men the person of Christ Himself both through their manifest per-sonal holiness and through their preaching of the law of the Gospel and their dispensation of the sacraments. The Church is aware that it is the duty of the ministers of Christ Jesus to show themselves as teachers of virtue first of all by their own public example and then by their spoken word; it is in this way that they truly become the salt of the earth and the light of the world.4 Accordingly, from the earliest centuries of her existence, she has taken special pain.s * The official Latin text, entitled Surami Dei V~rburn, is to be found in Acta Apostolirae Sedis, v. 55 (1963), pp. 979-95. IJn 1:9. ~ Ibid., 1:14. ~ Lk 3:52. 4 Mt 5:13-4. VOLUME 23, 1964 257 ÷ ÷ ÷ Paul VI REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 258 to see that the young men preparing for the priesthood should be well trained and educated. An important witness to this fact is to be found in the person Of St. Leo the Great, among whose writings is found the following remark: "When the directives of the blessed fathers treated of the choice of priests, they rightly asserted that only those were fit for the sacred ministry who over a long period of time had advanced through each grade of [sacred] duties and who had thereby proved themselves in an acceptable manner; in this way each man's conduct was a testimonial to his life.''~ Afterwards both ecumenical and regional councils gave a certain stability to the ancient customs in the matter; gradually they passed laws and established practices which afterwards the entire Church acknowledged as sacred pre-scriptions. In this connection it is sufficient to recall the sharply delineated decrees of the Third and the Fourth Lateran Councils.6 Unfortunately, however, the evil of worldliness made a continual and deep penetration even into ecclesiastical circles; and the spirit of paganism seemed to revive to a cer-tain extent in the academic world in which the young were educated. For these reasons, the norms previously.laid down by the Church for the training of candidates for the priest-hood were thought to be no longer adequate for the situa-tion. Accordingly, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many thought it absolutely necessary that there should be a reform of morals in the entire Church of Christ and that at one and the same time the candidates for orders should be protected from the dangers threatening them. and that their personalities should be correctly shaped by the efforts of judicious educators and teachers in places adapted to this purpose. At Kome in the fifteenth century Cardinals Domenico Capranica and Stefano Nardini made wholehearted efforts to meet this urgent and pressing need by founding the colleges named after them. In the. sixteenth century St. Ignatius Loyola established in Rome the Roman and Ger-man Colleges, the former for the training of teachers, the other for that of students for the priesthood. At the same time Cardinai Reginald Pole, archbishop of Canterbury, urged the bishops of Cambrai and Tournai to follow the example of ,St. Ignatius; and he himself prepared for Eng-land a decree on seminaries which was confirmed in 1556 by the synod of London and which was published on February 10 of the same year. A few years later, a law composed on the model of this decree was enacted for the whole Church by the Council of Trent. This law was contained in Chapter 18 of the reform decree approved on July 15, 1563.7 ~ Epistola 12, Patrologia latina, v. 54, col. 650-1. ~ Mansi, Amplissima Conciliorum collectio, v. 22, pp. 227, 999, 1013. ~ See G. Rocaberti, Bibliotheca maxima pontificia, v. 18, p. 362; and L. yon Pastor, Storia dei Papi (Rome: 1944), v. 6, p. 569; v. 7, p. 329. Since this year is the four hundredth anniversary of that important decree, the memoryof the event should be all the more carefully brought to mind given ~he fact that the an-niversary year coincides with the holding of Vatican COuncil II. For by convening t~he Council, the Church is primarily concerned with"b~tte~ihg the live~ 0f-the Christian faithful by the enactment of suitable directives; accordingly she will. not neglect to give special attention to that area which is of the greatest importance in the life of the entire Mystical Body" of Christ--the area concerned with the for-mation of those who are preparing themselves for the priest-hood in seminaries. We do not intend to describe here.the procegdings that took place before the confirmation of the decree on the establishment of seminaries, nor do We intend to delay on a Consideration of the. individual prescriptions of the decree. Rather, We are of the opinion that the commemoration of the decree will produce greater good if We emphasize the benefits" that have accrued from it for the Catholic Church and for human society and if We briefly recall to memory some of the principal points which concern the spiritual, intellectual, and apostolic formation of candidates for the priesthood and which, today as never before, require a diligent consideration. That seminaries would be of the greatest benefit to the individual dioceses of the Church was clearly foreseen by the members of the Council of Trent since in their thirteenth session they gave a unanimous vote to the document dealing with them. On this matter Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino wrote the following: "The chief matter approved was the establishment of seminaries. Many did not hesitate to assert that even if no other benefit resulted from the Council this alone would adequately repay all their painstaking labor. For this was considered the most effective means available for restoring lost discipline since it is a rule that the members of any society will bethe type they are brought up to be." 8 The extent of the confidence Which the leaders of the Church had in seminaries as a means to prepare for the renewal of the Church and for the increased holiness of priests can be seen from the fact that soon after the.Council strenuous efforts were made to carry out the prescriptions of the decree in spite of difficulties of every kind. Our prede-cessor of happy memory, Plus IV, gave a foremost example of this when on February 1, 1665, he established a seminary for his diocese of Rome; and in this he had been preceded by St. Charles Borromeo who established a seminary in Milan in the year 1664 and, on a more modest scale, by the bishops ofRieti, Larino, Camerino, and Montepulciano. Afterwards, other bishops, zealous for the renewal of their dioceses See P. Sforza Pallavicino, lstoria del Con~ilio di Trento, A. M. Zaecaria, ed. (Rome: 1833), v. 4, p. 344. + + + Seminaries VOLUME 23, 1964 259 ÷ ÷ ÷ Paul VI REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 260 established seminaries, being aided in this by many out-standing persons who were deeply concerned for the welfare of the Church. Among these were to be found in France Cardinal Pierre de B~rulle, Adrien Bourdoise, St. Vincent de Paul with the priests of his Congregation of the Missions, St. John Eudes, and Jean-Jacques Olier with his Society of Priestsof St. Sulpice. In Italy particular praise must be given to St. Gregory Barbarigo who worked untiringly and cease-lessly at the end of the seventeenth century to reorganize the seminaries of Bergamo and Padua; in doing this, he not only took into account the norms laid down by the Council of Trent as well as the example of St. Charles Borromeo, but he also took into consideration the pastoral and cultural needs of the time. The example given by this tireless pastor. to the other bishops of Italy is still vibrantly alive even in our own day, forhe had the ability to combine fidelity to tradi-tional norms with the introduction of innovations. An example of this was his insistence on the study of Eastern languages, since he felt that this contributed greatly to the better knowledge of the Eastern fathers and ecclesiastical writers and thereby to the eventual reconciliation with the Catholic Church of the separated Eastern communities. It was such achievements of the great bishop of Padua that John XXIII, Our predecessor of happy memory, recalled in his homily given on the day Gregory Barbarigo was sol-emnly inscribed in the lists ot the saints. 9 A person has every right to think that from the seed sown in the fertile field of the Church by the decree of the Council of Trent there also flowered forth those seminaries and colleges that exist for special purposes. Such are the College of Propaganda Fide in Rome and the Seminary for Foreign Missions at Paris; such also are ~he various national colleges in Rome, Spain, and Belgium. Accordingly, all the places which, like so many cenacles, exist today in the entire Church for the formation of candidates for the priesthood can be compared with the tree in the Gospel parable which, though originating from a tiny seed, nevertheless grew and increased in size. to such an extent that it could give shelter in its branches to innumerable birds of the air.x° Unceasing thanks, therefore, should be given to God that the following centuries, during which in many countries there were ideologies and practices opposed to the doctrine and to the ~aving ministry of the Church, did not see a cessa-tion in the establishment of seminaries but rather a wider and a larger growth of them. This was true not .only in Europe but also in both the Americas; it was also true in mission countries still to be enlightened by the light of the Gospel: as soon as the Catholic faith struck root~ seminaries were likewise founded. Moreover, the Apostolic See has See Acta Apostolica¢ Sedis, v. 52 (1960), pp. 458-9. x°See Mt 13:31-2. always multiplied its efforts to give to seminaries directives needed to fit in with the pastoral and cultural requirements of different times and places. This area, .which requires great discretion, is onewhich the Holy Spirit, the heavenly source of all the beneficial decrees of the councils, has especially entrusted to th~ suCre/he pastor 6f ~the ;Church.n Hence, while we are treating of this matter, We cannot forget to praise the distinguished work done by Our prede-cessors; among whom the following are pre-eminent: Gregory XIII, Sixtus V,. Clement VIII, Urban VIII, ¯ Innocent XI, Innocent XIII, Benedict XIII, Benedict XIV, Clement XIII, Plus VI, Gregory XV!, Plus IX, Leo XIII, St. Plus X, Benedict XV, pius XI, Pius XII, and John XXIII. Since seminaries have been the object of such great con-cern on the part of the Apostolic See and of zealous bishops throughout the world, it is not surprising that they have greatl~ prospefed, ~hereby effecting the greatest benefits for the Church and for the civil community. It was this matter of the great and outstanding advantages produced by seminaries in the course of time that Our predecessor of happy memory, Plus IX, wished to recall on June 28, 1853, in his apostolic letter Cura Romani Pontifices by which he established the Pio Seminary. In this letter he pointed out to rulers of states as well as to everyone inte(ested in the public welfare that "the correct and careful training of the clergy is greatly conduc!ve to the preservation and pros-perity of religion and of human society and to the defense of truly sound doctrine.''12 This same dose and beneficial link between the religious, moral, and cultural progress of peoples and the existence of a sufficient number of sacred ministers conspicuous for holiness. and learning was reiterated by Pius XI in this important statement: "The matter is the kind of thing that is closely connected with the Church's dignity and effectiveness and even with her very life. It is a matter of the greatest impor-tance for the salvation of the human race since the immense benefits which have been won by Christ our Redeemer are not communicated to men except by the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God.''~3 Hence We gladly follow the example 0f Our predecessor Pius XII in making use of the apt remark uttered by Leo XIII of im-mortal memory on the subject of seminaries: "The welfare of the Church is intimately linked with their condition.''14 Hence it is that We ask all Our venerable brothers in the u See Acts 15:28. ~ See Pii IX Pontifids Maximi acta, v. 1 (1846-1854), p. 473. ~a The apostolic epistle Off~iorum omnium, Acta Apostolica¢ &dis, v. 14 (1922), p. 4-49. t~The epistle Paternae providaeque, Acta Leonis XIII, 1899, p. 194; and see Plus XII's Per hos postremos annos, an epistle to the bishops of Poland, Acta Apostolicat Sedis, v. 37 (1945), p. 207. Seminaries VOLUME 23, 1964 261 Paul REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 262 episcopate, all priests, and all the faithful to express their gratitude to almighty God, the giver of all good things, for the great benefits which have come to the Church from the providential establishment of seminaries. At the same time, We gladly take the occasion of this anniversary to give to all a fatherly exhortation. We wish to remind all the members of. the Catholic Church to be aware of the common obliga-tion they have tobe zealous in giving to seminaries whatever assistance is needed by them. Undoubtedly, the bishops of dioceses, the rectors and spiritual directors of seminaries, and the teachers of the various subjects have the greatest obligation to be concerned for the Complex work of support-ing, forming, protecting, and educating candidates for the priesthood. Nevertheless, their work would be nullified or at least would be mo~e difficult and less effective if it were notpreceded and accompanied by a ready and continual cooperation on the part of pastors and their assistants, of religious and lay persons charged with the education of the young, and especially of Christian parents. In all seriousness, how is it possible to observe the priestly vocation from its first beginnings to its full maturity and not see that, although it is principally a gift of God, it still re-quires the generous cooperation of many persons, clerical and lay alike? Since today's civilization has greatly increased among Christians the esteem and desire for the good things of this world, there has arisen in the hearts of many a less-ened esteem for the things which will not perish and which pertain to the realm of the supernatural. Since this is the case, how will it ever happen that many young men will make a rightly motivated decision for the priesthood if in the homes and the schools where they. grow up they hear the praises only of the greatness and the achievements of worldly pursuits? Few, unfortunately, are the Christians who reflect earnestly on the warning of our Savior: "What profit does a man make if he gains the entire world while losing his soul?''1~ In the midst of the delights and the attractions of this world, it is undoubtedly difficult to apply to one's own way of living the words otthe Apostle: "We do not fix our gaze on the things that are seen but on those which are not seen; for the things that are seen last but for a time while those which are not seen are eternal,''16 Moreover, when the Lord Christ summoned His poor fishermen of Galilee, did He not raise their minds to the contemplation and desire of heavenly rewards? When He saw the two brothers Simon and Andrew busy at their fishing, he said to them: "Come after me and I shall make you fishers .of men.''~v Furthermore, when Peter, acting in the name of the rest of the apostles, asked Him what reward Mk 8:36. See 2 Cor 4:18. xTSee Mt 4:19. they would receive for having left all things for His sake, Christ gave them a definite promise: "I assure you that in the new generation when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his majesty you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones to judge the t~4elve ti-ibes of Israel.''~s Accordingly, if boys.and youfig men are to gain and keep an adequate esteem of the priestly life and if their hearts are to have an ardent desire to follow that way of life, it is necessary that an atmosphere conducive to this be created both in the home and in the school. Although only a few of the faithful are called by God to the priesthood ~r to reli-gious life, still all are bound to a life of convinced commit-ment that closely corr.esporids to the norms of supernatural faith,x9 They must, therefore, show the greatest honor and respect for .those who devote their entire lives to their own~ sanctification, the spiritual good of the human race, and the increase of God's glory. It is only m th~s way that the mind of Christ2° will eventually come to permeate the! Christian people and that the number of candidates for the priesthood will have a favorable growth. It is true that the first duty of the faithful withI regard to the increase of the number of priests is prayer to G~d accord-mg to the command of Christ: ~ The harvest xs plentiful, but the workers are few; pray, therefore, to the Lo.rd of the harvest that he send workers into his harvest.''2x F~rom these Words of our divine Redeemer, it is clearly to be Seen that the merciful and sovereignly free will of God is ~o be con-sidered as the primary source from which flows t~e inclina-tion of soul to undertake the sacred ministries. ,It was for this reason that Christ gave the following warn!ng to His apostles: "You have not chosen me but I have chosen you and have appointed yqu to go out and bring f~rth much fruit, and your fruit will endure.''~2 So also St. Piaul, while insisting that the priesthood of Jesus Christ was [greater in dignity than the priesthood of the Old Testament, never-theless taught that every genuine priest depends principally on the divine will, since a priest is constituted by[his nature mediator between God and men: "Every hig~ priest is chosen from among men and represents men in the things which pertain to God . No one takes this honor on him-self but only the one who hke Aaron ~s called ~y lGOd. Much more excellent and much more freely best.owed must we consider the divine vocation to share in the priesthood of Christ, for the same Apostle says: "So also Christ did not raise himself to the dignity of the priesthood., having x8 Mt 19:28. a9 See Heb 10:38. 80 See 1 Cor 2:16. 2x Mt 9:37-8. ~Jn 15:16. 29 Heb 5:1-4. + ÷ + VOLUME 23, 1964 ' Paul REVIEW' FOR RELIGIOUS been perfected, he became the cause of eternal salvation for all those who obey him, having been called by God to be a high priest acco(ding to the order of Melchizedek.''~4 It is with good reason, then, that St. John Chrysostom, when writing of the priesthood, says: "The priesthood is exercised on earth but it rightly belongs to the realm Of heavenly things. For this office was created neither by man nor by angel nor by archangel nor by any created power, but by the Paraclete Himself. He it also is who is the cause why those who are still in the flesh aspire to the ministry of angels."~ It is important, however, to observe that the divine voca-tion to undertake the work of a priest is concerned not only with the candidates' spiritual faculties of intellect and will but also with their sense faculties and with their bodies. This is so in order that the entire person should be fitted for the unde.rtaking of the arduous duties of the sacred ministry. These duties are often joined to hardship; and at times, after the example of Christ the Good Shepherd, they require the laying down of one's life. Boys and youths, therefore, are never to be considered as called by God to the priesthood if, because of insufficient gifts of mind and will or because of innate psychological weakness or bodily defect, they are judged not to be fitted to 9arry out worthily the many duties of that function and to bear up under the burdens of ecclesiastical life. On the contrary, there is a consoling doc-trine in the Angelic Doctor who maintains that what the Apostle said of the first preachers of the Gospel is applicable to every priest. The words of St. Thomas are: "When God chooses persons for some task, He prepares and disposes them in such a way that they are found fitted for that which they are called to do; this is in accord with the statement of 2 Corinthians 3:6: 'He .made us fit ministers of the New Testament.' It is for this reason that parents~ pastors, and all those in-volved in the duty of educating boys and youths must not only create conditions favorable to those who are called to the priesthood and beseech God for the heavenly graces that will increase the number of such; they must also earnestly do what they can to see to it that youths enter a seminary or a religious institute as soon as they clearly manifest and show their real desire to be a priest and their capability for it. Only when this happens will the youths be preserved more securely from worldly attractions and be able to cultivate the seed of their divine vocation in a suitable surrounding. It is then that superiors, spiritual fathers, and teachers--each in his Own way--will begin their work. First of all, they will make a more careful exami- Ibid., 5:5-9. On the Priesthood, bk. 3, n. 4, Patrologiagraeca, v. 48, col. 642. Summa theologiae, 3, q.27, a.4, c. nation of the signs by which it is made apparent that Christ has really chosen these youths as His ministers; secondly, they will help the candidates to the priesthood to make themselves worthy of their lofty task. The educational task to be done in the seminary, directed as it is to the bodily, spiritual, moral, and intellectua~ training of tl~ ~ndidates, is a lofty and a difficult one which is splendidly expressed by the decree of the Council of Trent in these word~: "Nurture them, educate them religiously, and instruct them in ecclesiastical studies.''27 But here there arises a matter of the greatest importance: By what special and indispensable sign is a divine vocation to be recognized? What sign is the principal criterion to be followed in the seminary by those, especially the spiritual director, in charge of educating and training the candidates? Without a doubt this sign is to be found in the candidates' right intention; that is, in the manifest and firm decision by which one earnestly desires to give himself entirely to the divine service. This sign is derived from the prescription of the Council of Trent which decrees that only those youths should be received into a seminary "whose character and will power give hope that they will always be devoted to ecclesiastical service."2s It was for this reason that Our predecessor of happy memory, Pius XI, when he treated of the matter of this right intention in his encyclical Ad catholici sacerdotii, did not hesitate to state: "One who strives for the sacred priesthood for the one noble reason of devoting himself to the divine service and to the salvation of souls and who at the same time has achieved or is in process of achieving a solid spirituality, a tested chastity, and sufficient knowledge---such a one, as is clear, is truly called by God to the priestly ministry.''29 For receiving youths into the seminary, it is sufficient that they show at least the first beginnings of a right intention and of the character required for the priestly role and its duties. But in order that seminarians be rightly promoted to sacred orders and especially to the priesthood, they must give evidence to the bishop or to the religious superior of such maturity in their holy purposes that the latter can come to a certain judgment that before them are persons whom God has chosen.3° From this it follows that an awesome and serious responsi-bility and decision rests on ordinaries since it is their duty to make the final judgment on the indications of divine choice IT Mansi, Amplissiraa Conciliorum collectio, v. 23, p. 147. ~s Conciliorum oecumeni~orum decreta, issued by the Centro di Docu-mentazione, Istituto per le Scienze Religiose (Rome: Herder, 1962), p. 726, 11. 38-9. ~ The encyclical Ad catholici sacerdotii, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, v. 28 (1936), p. 40. 8o See I Sam 16:6. ÷ Semirmries ~OLUME 23, 1964 + ÷ ÷ Paul Vl .REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 266 in the candidates for holy orders and since it is their right to call them to the priesthood and thereby ratify before the Church and bring to an effective termination the divine vocation to the priesthood which had gradually come to full growth in the youthful candidates. This power is indi-cated by the following words of the Catechism of the Council of Trent: "Those are said to be called by God who are called by the legitimate ministers of the Church.''31 In our own time it has been a cause of sorrow to Us that some ministers of the Church have defected from their state; this is a calamity that a stricter carefulness in choosing and training candidates for the priesthood might perhaps have avoided. Hence it is that bishops of dioceses should take this oppor-tunity to weigh in their minds the words of warning directed by St. Paul to Timothy: "Do not hastily impose your hands on anyone and do not be a partner in the sins of others.''32 In the preceding we have briefly recalled what is required in those who are called by divine impulse to the priesthood. This is a clear, ready, and stable decision to take up the sacred ministry based especially on the desire to increase the glory of God and to seek the salvation of one's self, of one's brethren, and of all who have been redeemed by the pre-cious Blood of our Savior. It will not be out of place if We now briefly treat of the things which are useful for a perfect and complete training of candidates for the priesthood. Since these matters are of the utmost importance in the life of the Church, they have been frequently considered by Our predecessors. Itwill be worthwhile here to list their more recent writings even though they are known to all: Plus XI's encyclical Ad catholid sacerdotii;83 Plus XII's apostolic exhor-tation' Menti Nostrae;~4 and John XXIII's encyclical Sacer-dotii Nostrl primordia.~ Moreover, there has been submitted to the Second Vatican Council a constitution entitled The Formation of Seminarians. When this is approved, it will com-plete the berieficial decrees of the Council of Trent and the later prescriptions of the Apostolic See. Beyond any doubt it will give a notable impetus to the work of recruiting candi-dates for the priesthood; but more importantly it will con-tribute to the formation of those candidates by the love and exercise of priestly virtue, by the study of the sacred cere-monies, by intellectual development, and by pastoral train-ing. While the norms on seminaries to be issued by the Council are awaited, We think it a duty of Our supreme office to exhort all those engaged in the training of seminar-ians to give keen consideration to the dangers which can Catechism of the Council o.[ Trent, pt. 3, De Ordine, 3. 1 Tim 5:22. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, v. 28 (1936), pp. 5-53. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, v. 42 (1950), pp. 657-702. Acta A#ostolicae Sedito v. 51 (1959), pp. 545-79. diminish the efficacy of the system of training now used in seminaries; they should likewise consider what matters in the training of seminarians should be given greater care. Just as weeds creep into a field that is exposed to every kind of seed, sb there is a danger which seems to threaten the minds of youth more than formerly; this danger is the desire to censure everyone and to criticize everything. What is even more deplorable is the fact that even the youngest are unwilling to bear any restraint whether from natural law or from civil and ecclesiastical authorities; they accordingly strive for unlimited freedom of action. It is not suprising, then, that since the forces of their character are weakened and their aspirations for the true and the g~od are stifled, their sense faculties, both external and internal, reject the needed control of right reason and good will; for they have cut themselves off from the constant and efficacious power of grace and supernatural virtue. From this it naturally follows that young people frequently permit themselves a way of talking.and acting which is inconsistent With those norms of humility, obedience, modesty, and chastity which befit the dignity of a reasonable creature and aboqe all of a Christian person whose very body has become b~ the aid of heavenly grace a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. From these indications of youthful superficiality and lack of self-control, who is not able to foresee that in the future these same young people will demand many rights but accept few obligations? Who does not fear that because of these reasons there will be a decrease in the number.of young men who .knowingly and generously desire the priest-hood? Consequently, everything must be combated which is in opposition to a healthy education of youth especially of those who are called by Christ to continue His work of redemption. But what are the means of achieving this? The principal one is that parents and teachers must strive that their sons and pupils, especially those of the more docile and generous nature that is fitted for the priesthood, should be imbued with humility, obedience, and the desire for prayer and sacrifice. Moreover, it is the duty of seminary superiors and teachers not only to protect and increase in their youthful subjects the virtues that have just been mentioned; they must also take care that as the seminarians progress in age there should appear the other qualities of character that are absolutely necessary for a solid and complete moral forma-tion. Among these qualities the principal ones are the inclina-tion to reflection, right motivation in action, the power to make a free and personal choice of the good and even o.f the better, and personal control of one's will and one's body. This serf-control will enable a person to conquer the ira-÷ ÷ ÷ Seminaries VOLUME 23, 1964 267 ÷ ÷ ÷ Paul VI REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS moderation of self-love, to resist the evil example of others, ~nd to win out over the inclination to evil which arises from human nature with its heritage of original sin or from con-tact with evil human beings or from that malicious and lost spirit who in our times seems to be increasing the fury of his attacks to conquer, if possible, those whom God loves in a special way. With regard to their dealings with their fellow man, those who--with Christ and for Christ--desire to be witnesses before men of the truth of the Gospel which sets men free and saves them,86 should be trained to the desire for truth in word and action; hence they must be trained to the sincerity, honesty, constancy, and loyalty to which St. Paul exhorted his beloved Timothy: "Do not engage in wordy arguments; they achieve nothing except to upset those who are listening. Let your first care be to make yourself acceptable to God as a laborer not ashamed of his work but rightly handling the word of truth.''a~ In order that the personalities of the young be effectively (grrected, that the evil seed of faults and vices be kept out of ~hem, and that the good seed sown in them may grow into health3/trees, it is necessary that due attention be given to. the good qualities which are found in the nature of man so that the work of priestly perfection may rest on the foun-dation of natural virtue. In this donnection the wise words of the Angelic Doctor seem to be especially appropriate: "Since grace does not destroy nature but perfects it, it is necessary that the natural inclination of the intellect should be subject to faith just as the natural inclination of the will is guided by charity.''~8 Still, the good qualities and natural virtues of man are not to be extolled beyond measure as though the true and lasting fruits of apostolic generosity are to be chiefly attrib-uted to human effort. It is also necessary to note that if use is made only of the principles of right reason and of the norms of human knowledge such as those of experimental psy-chology and educational theory, then it will be impossible to educate and form the personalities of youth to the natural virtues of prudence, justice, courage, temperance, modesty, meekness, and the other related virtues. For we are taught by Catholic doctrine that without the healing grace of our Savior no one can keep all the precepts of the natural law and hence cannot attain the possession of perfect and solid virtues.39 From this undeniable principle it follows that in the con-duct of ecclesiastical life it is highly important that human education progress step by step with the education which ~6Jn 18:37; 8132. 2 Tim 2:14-5. Summa theologiae, 1, q. I, a.8, c. s~Summa theologiae, 1-2, q.109, a.4, c. befits the Christian man and the priest in order that the powers of human nature may be enhanced and strengthened by prayer, by the supernatural grace given in the sacraments of penance and of the Eucharist, and by the influence of the supernatural virtues for the.exercise of which the natural virtues serve as a protection and a help. But even this is not enough. As the Apostle warns us, it is also necessary that man's power of intellect and will be subject to the norms of faith and the impulse of charity so that our actions, being performed out of love for our Lord Jesus Christ, may deserve to merit an everlasting reward.4° It is clear that what We have said must be carefully con-sidered by those who are called to be victims of love and obedience with our divine Redeemer for the salvation of mankind and to lead a life of virginal chastity and of external and internal detachment from the passing good~ of this world.In this way their sacred ministry will gain in worth and will become more fruitful. For this reason it will some-day be demanded of them not only to place all their best abilities at the service of their sacred ministry but also to forego even legitimate needs of nature and to endure hard-ship and persecution in order to be faithful and generous in carrying out their share in the role of the Good Shepherd. For it is only right that what St. Paul said of himself should also be said of every faithful minister of Christ: "'To the weak I became weak in order to win the weak; I have be-come ev.erything in turn to men of every kind so that I might save them all. All of this I do for the sake of the gospel that I might bear my share in proclaiming it."4~ This was the way of acting which was observed by the many bishops and priests whom the Church by her canoni-zation of them proposes as examples to all clerics. These, then, are the chief and principal points of training and of ~he spiritual life which outline the important educa-tional work which is entrusted to the superior and the spiritual director of seminaries under the ultimate guidance of the bishop. But added to this must be the conscientious cooperation of the teachers of the various courses who should seek the full development and perfecting of the intellectual powers of the seminarians. From such a cooperative and harmonious endeavor intel-ligently carried out by the superiors and the teachers of a seminary, there will follow the great benefit of a complete education for the seminarians. In this way seminarians will achieve a level of attainment that will not only develop them as human beings and as Christians but specifically as priests who must be completely imbued with the light of revelation, 40See Col 3:17; 1 Cor 13:1-3. 41 1 Cor 9:22-3. ÷ ÷ ÷ VOLUME 23, 1964 ,?.69 Paul VI REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS the special work of which is to see to it that the priest "is a perfect, man of God ready for every good work.''e It is good here to recall the statement of St. John Ghrysostom: "It is necessary that the character of a priest be like the light that brightens the entire world.''~8 With regard to the intellectual attainments of the clergy, there must be had a competent knowledge of languages, especially of Latin particularly in the case of those who be-long to the Latin rite. History, the physical sciences, mathe-matics, gedgraphy, and the arts should be known by clerics to the same extent as they are known by educated persons of the nation in which they live. But the greatest intellectual riches of the priest are to be found in the human and Christian wisdom that results from a solid and clear training in philosophy and theology according to the spirit, doctrine, and principles of St. Thomas and in a careful and complete. accord with divinely revealed truth and the directives of the Church's teaching. Such a training is given or comple-mented by the following subjects: scriptural exegesis accord-ing to the methods and norms of Catholic interpretation, the sacred liturgy, sacred music, canon law, Church history, archaeology, patrology, the history of dogma, ascetical and mystical theology, hagiography, sacred eloquence, the fine arts, and so forth. As the seminarian comes closer to major orders and in the first years after his ordination to the priesthood, emphasis should be placed on that part of theology which is called pastoral. Every care should be taken that he have an ever more active part in the life of his diocese including divine worship, catechetical teaching, and the stimulation and con-tinuance of apostolic work. In this way the future pastor of souls will gradually come to an early knowledge of his role and duties and will be able to equip himself for it in an adequate and fitting way. And in this matter it will be a great advantage to him to. have a knowledge and training in Gregoiian chant and in sacred polyphony. Then he will be able to give all his studies a single purpose and to direct. all his activity to the salvation of souls in the conviction that all his effort Should aim at .the coming of the kingdom of Christ and of God according to the advice of St. Paul: "All things are yours, you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.''~4 The more that the men of today seem to forget that all things belong to God, so much the more must the priest shine forth in the world as "another Christ"and as "a man of God.''~5 Holiness, then, and knowledge must be the marks of the one who is called by God to be the preacher and the minister of the Word of God, the Redeemer of all men. This holiness, Tim 3:17. On the Priesthood, bk. 6, n. 4, Patrologia graeca, v. 48, col. 681. Cot 3:22-3. Tim 6:11. We insist, must be outstanding, excelling that of the laity and of non-clerical religious; for the Angelic Doctor tells us: "If a religious is without orders," then it is clear that the pre-eminence of orders excels, in point of digni~y, because by holy orders a person is deputed for th~ highest service in which Christ Himself is served in the sacrament of the altar.''46 Accordingly, the life of a seminarian must be distinguished by a fervent devotion to the Holy Eucharist since he hopes one day to be the consecrator and the dis-penser of this sacrament. To this devotion to the Body and Blood of Christ it is proper to add the other forms of devo-tion that are especially consonant with it; namely, devotion to the Holy Name of Christ and to His Sacred Heart. As We come to the end of Our exhortation, We wish in a spirit of fatherly charity to extend Our congratulations to all of both clergies whowork zealously and generously for the recruitment and training of candidates for the priesthood. Our special praise goes out to those who perform these duties in regions where there is a serious lack of priests and where those who prepare candidates for the priesthood must undergo great difficulties and frequently expose themselves to danger. We also wish to congratulate those who, following the exhortations and directives of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries, strive through writing and through meetings to bring the training of seminarians into closer accord with the needs of various times and places and with the progress that has been made in the field of education, while always respecting the purpose and nature of the sacred priesthood. This way of acting is a significant contribution to the welfare and honor of the Church. At last, beloved sons, We come to you who are living in seminaries under the motherly eyes of the Queen of the Apostles as the Apostles themselves once were in the Cenacle. You are diligently preparing yourselves for the reception of a power that exceeds all human measure~the power to consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ and the power to forgive sins. You are likewise preparing yourselves for the Holy Spirit's abundant outpouring of grace which will make you more ready for a worthy performance of "the ministry of reconciliation.''47 To you We repeat the words of the Apostle: "Let each one persevere in the vocation to which he has been called.''4s Those who wish to work for the salvation of men. in closest union with Christ and who wish to win for themselves a shining crown of eternal glory must respond to the divine call with the fullest docility and the most constant Obedience. Have a heartfelt esteem for the marvelous gift of God to 46 Summa theologiae,'2-2, q.184, a.8, c. 472 Cor. 5:18. ~8 1 Cor 7:20. ÷ ÷ ÷ Seminaries VOLUME 23, 1964 you, and from the days of your youth "serve in joy and exultation.''49 Finally, venerable brethren, We exhort you and express to you Our earnest wish that the suggestions We have set down here out of love of the Church be carried out as far as possible by you in your dioceses, in the flocks entrusted to you, and especially among your seminarians. The witness to Our wish will be Our apostolic blessing which We give in a fatherly spirit to each one of you. Given at Rome at St. Peter's on the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, November 4, 1963, the first year of Our pontifi-cate. PAUL VI See Ps 99 "~. ÷ ÷ ÷ Paul Vl REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS V. WALGRAVE, O.P. The Contemplative Vocation of Active Monastic Orders Introduction The* following considerations had their origin not only in a personal facing of the problem but also in numerous conversations with members of other orders. The author has had the opportunity to ascertain that the problem of the so-called "mixed life" is being raised everywhere and in almost identical terms,r Religious everywhere are looking for * This is a translation of a revision of the article, "L'avenir des ordres actifs A base monastique par rapport A leur vocation contempla-tive," which appeared in Supplement de la vie spirituelle, n. 65, May, 1963, pp. 206-33. It" is translated by Cronan Regan, C.P., lector of dogmatic theology, Saint Ann's Monastery; 1239 Saint Ann Street; Scranton, Pennsylvania 18504. 1Throughout this article the reader will meet the expression, "mixed life," in a sense that is not quite universally accepted. Among orders of the modern type, by the term "mixed life" is meant the state of all those who lead an intense life of prayer and meditation which overflows into an apostolic life strictly ~.o-called (that is, the ministry of the word, administration of the sacraments, and so forth), with no concern for the kind of means used to preserve or express the life of prayer. By this notion they intend to align them-selves with St. Thomas. However, the latter does not use the term "mixed life." He even refuses (and in this he differs from the more recent conception) to consider as a third kind of "life" the combination of the contemplative life and the active life. Among the apostolic orders which have a monastic foundation, almost all born during the Middle Ages, the use of the term, which they actually borrow from the school of Suarez, is ordinarily limited to the kind of life proper to them: an apostolic life emanating from a contemplative life which is organized after the fashion of strictly contemplative orders. And, ordinarily, they do not speak of a third life but only of a combination of two lives, contemplative and active, the former being the foundation and principle of the whole. In practice, the expression "mixed life" has fallen into disuse. If we now avail ourselves of this situation to use the term in our own way, and especially in its second meaning, it is only because ofa terminologi- Father V, Wal-grave, O.P., is prior of the Dominican Community at Ter-urenlaan 221; Brus-sels 15, Belgium. VOLUME 23, 1964 273 a clarification of the principles and a sharper understanding of the specific difficulties caused by the changes which the sudden evolution of our divilization has brought about. We should not be surprised that the crisis of growth presently running through the life of the Church is also affecting the old religious orders. In these orders too we witness a groping like that of an army which has' lost its way, which gradually finds itself placed in an entirely strange climate, having to live on a newnourishment, forced to face practical problems heretofore unknown. Thus, the religious orders, and in particular those whose religious life is con-ceived as basically monastic, feel that they are coming to grips with a mentality which, at first sight, appears in-compatible with their way of life. They have experienced the infiltration of ideas conceived in a perspective which is foreign to their traditional thought. They find themselves confronting problems which were undreamed of in their founders' day. History shows us that, in its first phase, the spontaneous reaction to such a sudden transition always has a somewhat incoherent character. Very quickly, under the pressure of the general unrest which flows from it, there comes to the fore a liberty of thought and expression which is often disconcerting but which nevertheless seems indispensable in order to clarify the situation and find once again unity of direction. These few pages claim to be no more than a modest contribution to the common effort of seeking light. Certainly the theme is a delicate one, and normally we would hesitate to treat it in public. But this problem is like many others that concern the intimate life of the Church : in the atmosphere of the Council it has been carried to the forum of the Christian conscience, becoming the object of public debate. At this moment in history, we can no longer permit ourselves the luxury of a discreet treatment of long duration. We have to face it in all liberty and frankness. And our conviction that the orders in question, have an irreplaceable role in the life of the Church compels us to meet this challenge squarely. L We Must Choose ÷ ÷ V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 274 It is undeniable that in spite of the strong tradition which has always animated them, most of the old orders practicing the life which we call mixed at present lack confidence in the contemplative aspect of their vocation. Often the con-cM poverty. As a matter of fact, in spite of its insufficiency, we cannot find a better term to designate this very precise reality: the combina-tion of an apostle's life with a monastic type of life. Let us add that we are abstracting, and we do so designedly, from any discussion of the distinction or the relative dignity of the "states of life" which could influence the use of this expression. Hence, we use the term in a strictly pragmatic way. templative practice is so inferior to the formula which the proposed life promises that the need for honesty and authen-ticity, so pressing in our day, demands that we abandon this fundamental inconsistency as soon as possible. These are our. only choices: either return to an apostolic life t~ruly based on a real contemplative life; or renounce, purely and simply, the pretense of leading a mixed life. This latter action implies the abolition of monastic observance. General Conditions Jor Revival If we really choose an integral return to the mixed life, we must first of all, in view .of the present crisis, clarify the situation in the light of the original end of the order as well as in that of the fundamental ideas of the present evolution of civilization. Thus we will be able to cethink and, if neces-sary, to revise the choice of means. The return to the primi-tive ideal aims, first of all, at the major components of the mixed life and the ideal proper to the individual order; only after that, and in a conditional manner, at the particular details and observances. AdaptatiOn to modern conditions has no value in itself. Its influence will be salutary only in so far as it facilitates a return to the authentic ideal of the order and effectiveness in the accomplishment of its specific mission. All this effort of revival will bear fruit only if it is inspired by a lived experience ~f the mixed life end if it is guided by a concern for keeping an effective apostolate united to a contemplative attitude which is more than just theoretical.2 A Specific Vocation One of the reasons why our contemporaries rarely get deeply involved in the mixed life is that they are too little conscious of the important role that the contemplati+e apostle fills in the total picture of the care of souls. This is why the revitalization of this life must be made on the general level of the Church, particularly by revealing it as one of the very first needs of the Christian community. Whereas the members of active orders often carry on their apostolic activity in the concrete context of secular life, prepared to perform within it their important and very specialized tasks, the religious who live the mixed life (while they too are in direct contact with the world about them) have, before all else, the task of drawing the faithful to a 2 By "contemplative attitude" we mean that psychological attitude of complete receptivity to the word of God which the contemplative life (the organization of a well determined life which finds a communal expression in contemplative orders) seeks to guarantee and whose purpose is to open the soul to the graces of prayer. Among these graces we single out contemplation strictly so-called: that prayerful and simplified gaze which rests in the loving contemplation of God through His mysteries and in His works. ÷ ÷ ÷ Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 23, 1964 275 spiritual recollection in the world of faith. By their study, by their apostolate, they are to strive, above all else, to safeguard the gospe! inspiration of the Christian life in all its intensity. By their contemplative spirit they are to radiate in the world an atmosphere ~f spiritual, peace Which allows a man to disengage himself from his extreme activism and the "cult of efficiency" which so often affects religion. Based on a Paradox The mixed life is founded on a paradox. As St. Thomas shows in his Treatise on the States of L~e, it is precisely because of a concern for the apostolic end that one takes care of the contemplative life above all. This means that the community life itself must be conceived of in such a way that the apostle, coming home from a very intense ministry, will return each time into an atmosphefe which easily leads him to dwell in mind and heart in the realities of faith. In addition to the vows of religion, this atmosphere results especially from the following elements: the symbolic and rhythmic expression Of communal prayer, a style of life motivated by the desire of living consciously in the presence of God (that is, religious customs, architecture and decor, ~lothing, and so forth), a horarium dominated by this same concern, continual silence and the practice of private prayer which is not prescribed, exterior and interior distance (relative, it is true) from what is current and passing, a certain austerity of life which tends to free the soul for divine things. In brief, this mixed life involves a measure of monastic life.3 A person can hardly maintain this mixed life and its monastic elements for very long nor live it in a fruitful manner unless he really believes that this formula of life has an immediate practical value. At present it is precisely this belief that is missing. We find a magnificent theory (conteraplari et contemplata aliis tradere), but too often the practice is sterile and without conviction. V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Ambivalence of the Monastic Element Like the vows of religion and the forms of austerity, the different elements of the monastic life reveal an important ambivalence. Choral prayer, strict silence, a symbolic style of expression, and so on contribute to the flowering of the Christian life and the apostolate only to the degree that they 3 The expression "monastic life" is taken here in the broad sense. That is to say, it does not refer exclusively to monks strictly so-called but to all religious who have in common with them their traditional forms of life, such as we have just enumerated. In this sense one can say that the canons regular and the members of the so-called mendicant orders lead a monastic life, though simplified. However, apart from the Carmelites and in some degree the Hermits of St. Augustine also, none of these orders is really born from monasticism. have been assimilated in a spirit of humble love, completely free from any naturalistic compromise. If observed only in their externals and without a respectful submission, they will hinder spiritual development. On the other hand, a fidelity that is egocentric and perfectionist will seriously threaten the authenticity of this spiritual development and, at the same time, the psychic balance of the person. In each of these cases, the practice of the mixed life will be really disadvantageous to the apostolate: it will limit its quantity without increasing its value. Consequently, we should not be surprised if, in our day, we often find that the renunciation of the effective practice of the mixed life and of the practices of austerity which it implies renders the spiritual life more vibrant and the apostolate more fruitful. But the cause of the spiritual slackening which was experienced earlier is to be found not in the monastic life as such but in the way in which it was undertaken, in the lack of receptivity and of humble respect for those things that are ritual or for observance. Ambivalence of the Apostolic Element A similar ambivalence affects the apostolate with regard to its bearing on the contemplative life, If the apostolate of a religious is animated primarily by his need for activity and personal fulfillment .or if it is dictated almost wholly by a secular messianism (whether or not associated with Christian dogma), it will inevitably end by making his return to the monastic atmosphere unbearable. On the contrary, any apostolate worthy of the name will ultimately lead the soul of the apostle into intimacy with God. His return to the monastery will be experienced as a return into a world conformed to his proper state of soul, and hence as a refreshment. It is understandable that at the same time as the mixed orders are searching for a new equilibrium within a civiliza-tion which has profoundly changed, the superiors are particularly concerned with safeguarding the atmosphere of the monastery and the recollection of the religious from an unbridled activism. But the fear of a committed and intense apostolate indicates just as basic a misunde~:standing of the mixed life. For it is an oversimplification to consider that those religious who very rarely leave the confines of their cloister are better religious. If the religious return spiritually weakened by their contact with the world, it means that their formation in the life of prayer and monastic practice was miscarried. This unfortunate development explains a good number of conflicts which find the superior, who is concerned with guaranteeing the authenticity of the conventual life, in opposition to religious who are animated with a sincere apostolic zeal. 4- 4- 4- Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 23, 1964 ÷ ÷ V. Walgrove, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 278 The Monastic Renaissance osf the Nineteenth Century We cannot understand the roots, of the present crisis unless we consider the renaissance of monastic life in the last centm'y. Indeed, it is in studying the nineteenth centu.ry that one finds that the causes we have just enumerated are already at work. An egocentric and subjective sensibility inherited from the. proud humanism of the l~enaissance continued to determine the cultural climate of this century. Even the monks, in spite of ~he thoroughly dogmatic em-phasis which characterizes their liturgical piety, in .spite of their expressed desire to deliver themse!ves unreservedly to the influences of grace, were not able sufficiently to avoid being contaminated by this tendency toward serf-fulfill-ment-- ordinarily, of course, under the form of a religious perfectionism. Now, an egocentricity of self-fulfillment easily leads to a fundamental cleavage in the way we experience reality: on the one hand there is an exclusively rational and artificial taking over of elements that can hardly succeed in giving flesh to the original vital movement; and on the other hand there is a pampered sentimentalism (?eligious romanti-cism!) which keeps affectivity and feeling from really becoming interior and personal. It follows from all this. that the religious orientation' was able only feebly to express itself in the symbolic language of the monastic structure, Also, the combination of a cult of the medieval past with the perfectionism already mentioned led the restoration to embrace the conventual observances of the preceding periods in a manner that was too rigid. Hence, despite the Christian grandeur of the renewal of the old orders, despite the holiness and magnanimity of the restorers, the latter were not able to prevent the slide towards a practice of monastic prescriptions that was too little authentic, and hence formalistic. One became very "observant," but rarely contemplative. Distance from the world brought with it an apostolic absence from the world. And, .alongside a way of life that was obviously severe there was often pro-vision for a number of bourgeois satisfactions. In these conditions, it is understandable that sometimes fidelity to the constitutions had already been very hesitant and defective.This would be the case especially in the outlying provinces or among peoples whose thinking lends itself less readily to formalism or to an ideal tinged with romanticism and conceived apart from real needs. This artificiality will have as its consequence that at a given moment many elements of monastic life, and even the very ideal of it, will be experienced as alien elements, as con-tinually burdensome. A crisis manifests itself, one that brings the very existence of the order itseff into question. The Contemporary Reaction The reaction against the exaggerations and illusions of this preceding period, has led us. to an ambiguous position, one from which we must ha~en to free ourselves. The resolute character of this 'reaction is explained by the fact that it is the fruit of a real life experience. This is the case not only among the young who, because of the coinci-deiace of several factors, have never had the opportunity of identifying themselves very deeply with the traditional observances but also among a number of older men who are still conscious of that period when traditions were. never questioned in a critical manner. Indeed, among the spokes-men for the "modernizing" trend we find some religious who were first generously engaged in the way of the "strict .observance." But, not having been able to escape from the influence of a climate of observance which is perfectionist and consequently formalistic, they have experienced in themselves all the narrow-mindedness and all the danger of lack of balance that this sort of thing can bring with it. In the end, it is the desire for a truer Christianity and a freer apostolic spirit which leads them to reject expressly several elements which .are indispensable to a contemplative way of life. But, what is more important, this same trend has plainly been influenced by deviations characteristic of our age: whereas formerly the temper of the age affected religious life only in an unconscious or unacknowledged way, the contemporary generation tends consciously to identify itself with modern aspirations, espousing them even in those things which are incompatible and unassimilable from the religious point of view. Thus, in appealing to the essential (the end), to the functional (the means), and to the authentic (the intention), it turns back on the recent past as ,bearing in itself the proof of the ineffectiveness, religious or apostolic, of much of the traditional "media" of the mixed life, How-ever, this generation does not note that the partial failure of the restoration is bound up with the precise fact that there was too much of a concession to the unrecognized influence of those same too-human evaluations which, in our day, are drivingus to eliminate essential elements of the mixed life. (It is true that since then important changes have been produced in western humanism: thus communal anthropocentrism has replaced individualistic anthro-pocentrism.) The conditioning of a person by the temper of his age leads to another regrettable consequence: that is, an inability to be mov(d by strictly ~eligious values and to be resonant to their proper modes of expression. This phenomenon springs in part from a too earthbound humanism, with which so many persons who desire to belong to God are ÷ ÷ ÷ Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 23, 1964 279 imbued--at least on the level of their automatic and un-controlled keactions. On the level of affectivity, these persons are in a "closed" situation which, in great part, paralyzes in advance every self-offering movement towards the trans-cendent world of the divine and, by the same token, all commitment. A Contemplative Renewal? For some time now a general trend in favor of the con-templative spirit and life has manifested itself almost all over the world. Not on!y do the multiplication of contempla-tive monasteries (especially in countries which are better off materially) or the monastic revival which is springing up in every diverse Protestant milieu bear witness to this, but also the ever increasing number of studies on the subject :. biblical, historical, and theological studies which treat especially the .essence of the religious life, the original con-ception of monastic life, and its function in the ChmZch. + 4- 4- V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 280 After the Wave of "Liberation" It is true that up to now a general movement of liberation and of return to authenticity dominates the forward moving wing of the Church to the practical exclusion of every other consideration. It is true that this same movement very much holds the attention of the old orders, which are also preoc-cupied with freeing themselves from all formalism and with not living shut up within themselves. But, once this move-ment has achieved a certain level of maturity, the contem-plative or mixed life will very quickly appear to the Christian elite as an ecclesial task of the.highest importance, In fact, when one stops to consider the very secular perspective in which a number of Christians grasp the great ideas of our epoch (such as: authenticity of life, the reasser-tion of effective values, the communal ideal, "cosmic prog-ress"), we must indeed conclude that rarely before in history has it been so necessary to reaffirm the transcendence of the divine and the folly of the cross. Indeed, it is only in the light of these fundamental truths that we can integrate those modern values with the work of redemption. That is to say that at the very center of Christianity we must encounter men who are manifestly living in the grip of God's reality-- contemplatives. II. Primordial Condition: Grasp the Ideal Later on we will treat some of the methods of self-ap-praisal that have become indispensable for a proper func-tioning of the mixed life. But these subjective means have value only to the extent that they can assure a free flowing of the mystical springs of the religious life, that they can help us realize the primordial condition: a firm grasp of the ideal. What good is it to free the gaze of the heart if it lack a world vision, a great cause capable of raising us beyond our limitations? Indeed, such a vision must become, so to speak, a part of one's psychological structure in such a way that it shapes and gives direction to all of a person's spon-taneous reactions. We are thus led to present two theses: 1. The regenerative role of theology. This global vision which absorbs our attention ever more and more will direct our gaze first of all to the reality of God our Creator and Savior. That is to say, the religious will be penetrated by a theologi-cal total view of the meaning and structure of the Christian life. In it will be integrated the results of the biblical, his-torical, and speculative researches that recent generations have produced. We are convinced, furthermore, that this consciousness of the worth and requirements of the mixed life will emerge only in the framework of a renewed theologi-cal perspective. Hence, a theological emphasis must be present in our religious formation and in our religious consciousness. This dimension must be given in a way adapted to the subject from the very beginning of religious life. 2. Continuity with thefou~nder. The particular order to which a person belongs must be understood in this same global perspective. In spite of its obsession with progress and its constant preoccupation with the future, our own age loves to search history. In view of this, the young ought to be presented with the origins of their order, with the master ideas which, from the beginning, have established its voca-tion in the Church and which are expressed in a certain number of its traditional elements. Thanks to this confronta-tion with living history, the master ideas will come through in their vision of the future as a truly contemporary call. Revision of Observances: Return to the Sources or Adaptation? The return to the sources of the mixed life implies a reflection on the profound meaning of usages and customs, of different forms of traditional expression. An eventual reworking will be constructive only if the following conditions are observed : a) One must know how to distinguish judiciously between the difficulty of application stemming from the fact that a prescription takes its obvious meaning from circumstances that are strictly historical and that no longer obtain, and the difficulty which originates either in the passing insuffi-ciencies of modern man himself or in the present make-up of the order, province, or abbey. In this last case, the question to be asked is not, "How can we modify this prescription? What is there which the present group is right now capable of assimilating?" It is rather, "How can we get candidates better adapted; how can we form the members of the order 4- 4- OArcdti~veers Monastic VOLUME 2~, 1964 28! V. Walg~ave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 282 to understand customs of this nature and to have the spir-itual attitude which corresponds to them?" b) The second condition is that the judgment must pro-ceed not only from an historical or psychological knowledge of the factors in question but also from a lived experience of the mixed life that is penetrated with a concern to safe-guard it. This experience can be incomplete on the active side as well as on the contemplative side. In fact, the judg-ment on an aspect of the mixed life can be just as much falsified by an exclusive preference for the elements of the monastic life as by a one-sided orientation towards activity. Once these principles are applied, however numerous the modifications proposed, even if they eliminate some usage dear to traditionalist sentiment, they will not cause any injury to the order as such. Rather, the result will be just the opposite since these changes will be inspired by a sense of the specific purpose of the order and a concern for apos-tolic or monastic effectiveness. As long as these two conditions are not met with, one will argue off the point and will judge to be outmoded or ineffective that which really corresponds with an eternal need of the contemplative soul. This mistake at present threatens in a most serious way the right evolution of several orders with a monastic foundation. Biblical Existence and Monastic Life Among the elements of spirituality which attract the attention of modern man in a special way, corresponding as it does to his own temperament, there is none able to exercise as favorable an influence on the contemplative. renewal as the tendency towards an "existential" attitude conceived within the biblical perspective. Understood in a superficial way, this attitude could easily lead to a militant anti-formalism or to an opposition to every kind of norm or usage imposed in common. Taken in its real meaning (that is, conceiving the order of nature as well as that of revelation as an historic action of the living God who calls me to respond), the biblical attitude of dialogud favors the total absorption of the soul by a personal God, by the living Christ. This personalization of attention and intention signifies at the same time the personalization of the monastic life, of recollection, and of asceticism, constituting by that very fact the best remedy against the subjectivism of every kind which has brought so much harm to the spiritual development of religious milieux. Liturgical Requirements The second element of modern spirituality which brings the contemplative attitude closer to us is the liturgical renewal. The "existential" encounter with the redeeming God is achieved in the liturgy. Now, the contemplative community presents itself as a liturgical community par excellence. The monastic life asks to be nothing else but a continuation of the liturgical action which embraces the whole of life, just as the conventual day should live by the ideas and sentiments brought to it by the Divine Office. It follows that the liturgical~ renewal presently taking place will be decisive in great part for the monastic renewal which is manifesting itself in the old orders. It is, then, of the utmost importance that the liturgy be able to present itself to the religious in a form apt to be lived by them in a personal way. To attain this end it is necessary: (a) that the work of accommodating ceremonial on certain points continue judiciously; (b) that the Breviary be thoroughly revised with an eye to increasing the directly religious value of the texts (that is, Lessons, choice of Psalms and Canticles) ; (c) that, with regard to the Psalms to be recited, we come up with, finally and' in spite of everything, a version that is at once faithful and drawn up in a simple and rhythmic Latin, the Latin of the fathers. Finally, we think it is probable that in order to assure the pastoral efficacy of the choral Office (in mixed orders) it will be necessary one day to adapt part of the Office so as to permit the faithful to participate in it in a direct manner. The "Conventual Brotherhood" As a third element of the contemporary renewal whose conscious engrafting will be of decisive import for the future of that religious life which has a monastic foundation we propose the reinvigoration of the dimension of community. The monastery constitutes par excellence a "brother-hood" united by the bond of charity. The sense of "brother-hood" is the more necessary according as the life of the members is lived in greater silence and solitude. It is a fact that the subjectivism of times past has led us to an individu-alism in thought and feeling so as greatly to diminish aware-ness of the normal connotation of this brotherhood. Also, a stern perfectionism often favored an affective harshness which stripped the common life of its note of spontaneity and cheerfulness. The present reaction against this climate of spiritual individualism is animated, no doubt, by a need for affective liberation. But it borrows its significance above all from the profound need of "socialization" that marks modern man. He wants to live his vocation and fulfill his primary tasks with his brethren beside him in a communion that is really experienced. Of course there are risks. A superficial conception can lead to an absolute "horizontalism," to the detriment of every purely religious value lived prior to the encounter with one's neighbor: a life of adoration and sacrifice lived in silence and solitude. At the same time it can endanger the ÷ ÷ ÷ Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 23, 1964 283 4. ÷ 4. V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 284 original meaning of the vows of religion, especially that of obedience. But, understood as it ought to be, this re,empha-sis of fraternal charity w!ll provide a guarantee of authen-ticity for our personal relations with God. Besides, it will favor a conception of the vows that is more complete, more in conformity with the full intention of the counsels of Christ as we find them in the Gospel. The re-enrichment of the vows of religion with a communitarian dimension is an urgent matter. Authority and the Attitude oAr Dialogue Among the direct consequences of accenting the social dimension, a more communitarian exercise of authority should especially be mentioned. This exercise will be based on an attitude of dialogue, a prolongation of that attitude adopted toward God. The conventual "brotherhood" constitutes at the same time a community of endeavor, united especially in a com-mon prayer and work. The superior is above all the repre-sentative of the common ideal of service of God, as the members have freely chosen it and to which they have bound themselves unconditionally. If the religious has bound himself by his profession to a total obedience to the "orders of his superior, this in no wise diminishes the supe-rior's duty of safeguarding and promoting the communal character of the religious undertaking. Thanks to the social orientation of our age, it has become possible to improve yet more the communal dimension of the regime of obedience. This improvement implies, first of all, a more personalized acceptance of the subject just as he is, in a spirit of under-standing and respect, allowing him to express his point of view frankly. This acceptance will correspond moreover to the present tendency of the young to show their superiors a greater openness of soul and a more filial confidence. Secondly, the evolution we have noted will require opportunities for an exchange of ideas on the level of the group as such in preparation for the making of decisions. Whereas up to now authority has ordinarily confined itself to imposing or determining a multitude of individual tasks as though from the outside, it now tends more and more to become the directing principle of a common task, supported by a common thought and activity. The sense of initiative is seeking to find its place in the life of the group as such. This new orientation is fitted to purify the exercise of authority from every egocentric identification of the person of the superior with his power--though it be often uncon-scious. In consequence it will make obedience easier and more authentic, immunizing it from the spirit of servility or shabby calculation. The unavoidable transition in which we are engaged will be favorable to religious renewal only in so far as the superiors do not give in to the current of a false democrati-zation or of a leveling of the transcendent character of authority and its appropriate expressions. The just mean is the more difficult to find as the problem is rather new. There is the risk of improvising, of going beyond that which is compatible with the rule of religious 01~'edidnce: "as a democratic equality in accordance with which a subject would discuss a matter with his superior until they arrive at a solution pleasing to.them both.''4 But, besides that, an even more fundamental condition is only rarely fulfilled. Dialogue within the framework of religious obedience pre-supposes as a common basis for exchanges of opinion a com-mon conception of the ideal and of its elementary require-ments. Now it must be admitted that in active orders that have a monastic foundation this unity of conception is lacking2 The superior who is desirous of preserving essential traditions in the face of changes that are imposed and enters onto the path of dialogue quickly finds himself confronted with an impossible task: he must raise the discussion of a number of delicate questions concerning the religious life which are, .for the most part, based upon a lack of under-standing of the contemplative element and its monastic expressions. Since these problems are very complicated and since there is generally a lack of a clear and firm interven-tion on the part of the legislator and the major superiors, l~e quickly finds himself compelled to be content with a more traditional exercise of power, thus increasing the unrest of his subordinates. From all this, two points clearly emerge: (I) in general, the coincidence of the crisis of the mixed life with the break-through of the spirit of dialogue has much to do with the precipitancy with which the dismantling of the contempla-tive and monastic regimes is being accomplished in the orders in question; (2) the reassuring or reform of this regime must begin with a renewed insight into the very idea of the mixed life and a renewed recognition of the internal coher-ence of its essential elements. In Quest of Evangelical Poverty The renewal of the mixed life is inconceivable without a rediscovery of poverty. This is the case primarily because the contemplative attitude is essentially oblative, and thus it is in contradiction to our possessive instincts. The purifica-tion of these instincts presupposes a detachment which is not simply one in principIe but one that is sensibly felt. The problem becomes especially disturbing when we view it from the ecclesial angle. Our witness to God's tran-scendence loses a great deal of its force as long as we do not 4 Plus XII, Altocution to 30th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, September 10, 1957, The Pope Speaks, v. 4 (1957-1958), p. 449. ÷ ÷ ÷ Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 2~, 1964 285 ÷ ÷ ÷ V. Walgrave, o.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 286 clearly appear freed from the tyranny of material wants and the cult of security which characterizes our age. Our better Christians sense this connection vividly, If they suffer from their submersion in material needs, it is often because they recognize therein a lack of faith in God and in the message of Christ. And it is in vain that they seek in us, through our effective detachment, an indisputable expres-sion of this faith. The question is urgent: how can we conceive for religious life an expression of evangelical poverty that is appropriate for our age? How can a real sense of Christian risk be joined with the functional realism we must have? This inquiry, and it is becoming more and more lively, will not cease until the adequate answer has been fofind. Finally, we cannot close our eyes to the destructive misery of the underdeveloped world which is aggravated in propor-tion to the development of our wealth. In our era, when man's awareness has acquired a "planetary" dimension, the desire to live in conformity with the poor and suffering Christ--an essential trait of religious life--seeks inevitably to incarnate itself in a style of life which, by solidarity with His disinherited brethren, leaves flatly behind the arrogant abundance which surrounds us on all sides. Remoteness from the World Among the modern currents Which have a rather negative signification for the mixed life, special mention should be given to the tendency to exteriorization and immersion in contemporary affairs. Now, ih an apostolic community with a contemplative foundation, one must always maintain, in spite of the lively attention he gives to the evolution of this world, a relative, but quite apparent, distance .from things of present interest. This distance finds expression in the cloister, a material and spiritual partition which moderates com-munication with the world outside. For the moment, the preoccupation with an apostolate adapted to the style and rhythm of our civilization tends to neutralize completely this function of the cloister. The principal objection to the traditional viewpoint is that the modern apostle must keep up with the political, social, and cultural events of the day, just as his hearers do, by the many means of communication: radio, television, films, magazines, and so on. Such a conclusion is precipitate and rests upon a funda-mental confusion. The unlimited multiplication of contacts with present-day happenings is not the means that will bring us an understanding of modern man. By modelling our life on that of a Christian in the world, by introducing the mass media of communication indiscriminately as habitual elements in our life, we destroy that very perspec-tive which is so important for judging the true direction of current events. Moreover, we make too difficult the attitude of recollection and searching for God; and this is the very raison d'etre of the whole monastic apparatus. Nor should one imagine that intensive contact with the world will favor the efficacy of. our specific, mission. For the word which takes its il~sp~ration from this'contact only rarely communicates the Gospel message to the deepest aspirations of the modern soul. The resulting presentation may indeed be more "striking," but it will always be too facile as well. The primary conditions for a true understanding of and fruitful approach to modern society are of quite a different nature. What we must have are, first of all, a knowledge of human nature, just that, acquired through a humble self-knowledge as well a~ by other means; an authentic esteem for earthly values which will permit us to be in empathy (free from all religious smugness) with the man of-today as he is; and an extensive understanding bf the formation of contemporary civilization and its in.n.er logic. However, along with all this it would be highly desirable not only to initiate the young religious methodically into the world that the communications media evoke but also-- parallel to what will be said on the matter of formation for the mixed life--to arrange intensive contacts with certain representative milieux of present-day society. Thus, the approach to the modern world will be prepared not by a process of lowering the plane of conventual life to the level of the world but by a better general formation and a conscious and well-guided initiation. Reinvigoration of Monastic Initiation If the mixed life is to be more than a formula and if the contemplative element is to maintain its elementary solidity at the heart of the .apostolic life, a solid initiation to the monastic manner of living has to be provided. Among other things, such an initiation will demand: a) That young religious be taught to avoid all confusion between end and means, between .the essential and the accidental. Let us add that the "functional" or practical mentality, which is characteristic of the new generation, will for its part be able to exert a tonic influence on the spirit which animates observance and worship, b) That the young also be taught to respect the necessity of using means as well as their proper finality and to be attentive to details. This attitude presupposes, first of all, an understanding of different observances and forms of expression; more than ever before it must be shown (in a solid and carefully studied way) how these different practices correspond on the one hand to what is eternal in the needs of man and on the other to what is of positive value in modern aspirations. Further-more, it presupposes an awareness that the assimilation of ÷ ÷ ÷ Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 23, 1964 + ÷ V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 988 rites and observances, of chant and psaimody demand-_ - precise knowledge of various details and an unreserve~l commitment to their practice just as mastering a modern technique does;in fact, in both cases it is "virtuosity" which will permit a person to handle the "technical" means in a way so fluent that his mind, freed by this from all serf-conscious hesitation, will easily be able to turn toward the essential (in the case that concerns us: to aim at spiritual realities through the external "media," to integrate these "media" ever more and more into the spiritual movement of the soul towards God). This line of thinking leads us to formulate two theses in a more explicit manner, which once admitted will profoundly modify the pedagogical perspec-tive of the old orders. Integration of Personal Self-Awareness Very often the old orders consider it an element of their ascetical excellence that,, simply by the fact of their com-munal liturgical and monastic framework, they lead their members to an attitude of religious "objectivity," permitting them to go beyond a subjectivist self-awareness. It would be enough to hand oneself over unreservedly to this framework. This optimistic point of view seems to us completely outmoded in view of the psychological evolution that .is presently at work in mankind. With Rfgamey we posit the thesis that, for the self-aware type of person which modern man often is, a return to a "naive" attitude before the invitation of the transcendent is no longer possible. It is hardly a matter of adopting an attitude of pure objectivity and simply leaving the subjective aside. Many times one can conquer subjectivism only by going to the end of the road of self-awareness. III. Psychological Methods It follows that the renewal of the contemplative and mixed life---forms of life which, more than any other, require an objective attitude of soul--will be greatly assisted by in-troducing modern psychological methods in the formation and direction of the individual as well as in group work both within and outside the monastery.5 It is a question here of methods, basically very simple and human, which are more and more leaving their mark on the dynamic structure of the new society: methods of adapting to the social milieu and the mechanical aspects of our civili-zation, methods of individual and public relations, and so on, The younger generation accepts this very readily, moved as it is by that realism which accepts the complexity of 5 To avoid any confusion, let us say in advance that by the term "psychological method" and others like it we never envision psycho-analysis, which will always be a matter for specialists and which should be used with the greatest prudence. psychological facts, even blazing a trail through this como plexity to a new kind of simplicity, a simplicity that is arrived at by conscious, technical analysis. When secular businesses and organizations are profiting extensively and in a very concrete way from these multiple insights into the nature of maii~ it is unthinkable that we who are engaged in an enterprise much more important should neglect appealing to these same means--and that sometimes for lack of simplicity. For a Better Self-Knowledge As a first result of adopting modern psychological meth-ods, we would mention a Serf-knowledge that is more pro-found and better assimilated. In fact, contemporary psy-chology offers us an analgsi~s of the very depths bf the soul, that is to say, of those unconscious or barely conscious motivations which determine the. worth of a subject's involvement in an ideal. It makes us see the different types or psychological structures which can result from these motivations, the direction that the person's evolution receives from them, and the symptoms whose recognition will permit us to adjust these structures. The initiation into this "motivational" knowledge of oneself presupposes the' elaboration, based on what is called depth psychology, first, of a typology of the motiva-tion which dominates the commitment in question (here, in religious life), and secondly, of a method of individual formation with a view to acquiring a like serf-knowledge. This kind of self-knowledge will make it possible for the reflexive man to rediscover the attitude of spirit, feeling, and body that is called "objective." This attitude will mean for him a psychological facility in leaving the self behind and so arriving at a truly contemplative orientation. Psychosomatic Problems and the Contemplative Attitude Modern psychology has also served to draw our attention to the meaning of a certain number of psychosomatic phenomena.We have not hitherto taken sufficiently into account the fact that they are the symptoms of a psychic (if not moral) selfishness and that they also constitute a serious obstacle to the normal development of the contem-plative attitude and, consequently, of the apostolate it ought to inspire. Of these we may mention: general unrest of mind and body, an always hasty manner of acting, a yen for activity and change, impatience, certain forms of ennui-- understanding each of these traits as a permanent disposition which clearly dominates the psychological make-up of the subject. Indeed, the psychosomatic disturbances in question will often be largely the effect of contamination by the modern ÷ ÷ ÷ Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 23~ 1964 289 ÷ ÷ V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 290 environment. But the mentality and patterns thus trans-mitted grat't themselves very naturally onto the seN-centered elements we always have within us. It is from these thht they receive their stability, while keeping their own form of expression. Hence, to avoid these disturbances or to prevent their growth, we must, before all else, call upon this self-knowl-edge which we have just sketched. The lived discovery of their ~elf-centered roots and the humble acknowledgment of the voluntary element which can be mixed in there will be decisive in the transformation of the personality in depth. In the second place (and only in the second place), there is the question of influencing the psychosomatic dynamism by methods which approach it directly on its own ground. The modern world, suffering so much from nervous over-stimulation, appears to be turning more and more toward a number of related techniques (Zen Buddhism, Yoga, etc.), seeking there, in an atmosphere of quasi-religion and mysticism, for definitive deliverance from its anguish. Everywhere one comes across religious who are seeking in some of these means a tonic for personal dynamism. It remains to be seen how far these techniques will be useful in the spiritual ascent of the Christian--the authentic fruit of grace. Classic Laws o3r Spiritual Evolution The renewal of methods of formation and direction should be accompanied by a restoration of the classic doctrine of the fundamental laws that govern the evolution of the interior life. At present, this doctrine is neglected almost everywhere or-is even unknown. The teachings of a Saint Thomas Aquinas or a Saint John of the Cross on this subject would seem to most people to be of little more than theoretical interest, treating of things which undoubtedly happen somewhere in the Church but which it would be dangerous to try to situate in our everyday lives. Now, it is necessary to bring clearly to. the fore the truth 'that the laws in question' truly dominate the evolution, the success or failure, of life in religion. Monastic life is only a .particular area of application of this same process of as-similation. This means that, just as it is true of the life of prayer in general, so also the regimen of monastic observ-ances and the following of the evangelical counsels can obtain value as an authentically religious expression only through a period of aridity and trial during which a humble perseverance assures us of the purification of our profound automatic responses and desires. Without passing that way, one cannot judge the Christian value of the elements which make up this life. Where, for example~and it is so often the case~monastic prescriptions are assumed only as a social arrangement that is the obiect of a critical regard or a playful benevolence, then they will become in fact, and very quickly; a useless piece of baggage. "Inevitable Crises Sincere personal ihvolvement' in the religiogs life and its process of evolution will inevitably lead a person through one or several cri~es of alienation and interior solitude. In fact, life in a re.ligious house, above all where that life is fundamentally monastic,'makes us enter upon a Christian perspective that is very clear, even radical. Everything there expresses the Christian'.s conversion to God. Intimate identification.with its specific forms of expression obliges us to a theocentric rearrangement of our spontaneous judg-ments, to a conscious revision of our earthly and culpable self-centeredness, a real "metanoia" of soul. This transition involves a man in a kind of migration. For, while advancing into this new country, we are leaving to that extent an old land so close to our heart. The feelings of strangeness and loneliness are only the expression on a psychological level of this spiritual exodus of the soul. "The resoluteness and perseverance with which we go through these often difficult periods express in a normal way the Christian commitment which inspires our presence in the religious house. Thus it is evident that these difficult passages are of extreme importance. Often, unfortunately, spiritual di-rectors seek only to "cover up" these crises, preoccupied as they are with avoiding all discouragement or nervous tension. Now, it is only by penetrating and making one's own the inner meaning of this situation while carrying on a dialogue of love with God that one will come to the point of a definitive entry onto the path of religious or monastic life. Only in this way can the nearness of God and the symbolic world of the religious house (above all, if it be basically contemplative) become for this person a place where he is truly at home. This means that the spiritual attitudes which correspond connaturally to this milieu have drawn to themselves and thoroughly assimilated the pro-fotind forces of our spontaneity. Formation to the Mixed Life It is characteristic of the mixed life, as we have said, that the apostolate, the end of the order, is intimately bound up with the contemplative form of life. Evidently, the harmoni-zation of these two attitudes, contemplative and active, is not easy for anyone. From the viewpoint of formation, it requires not only a preparation for a contemplative attitude (all the more explicit as it will have to be able to witl~stand the skirmishes and shocks of an intense activity) but also a formation to the mixed life as such. This seems to us to imply that the young religious be given + + + Active Monastic VOLUME 23, 1964 291 V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS brief and well-defined apostolic tasks even .before the end of ¯ their theoretical education. This formation should be completed later, during the first period of the apostolate, by a kind of guidance not unlike the "supervision" used in the formation of social workers. It will be aimed not only at the strictly technical aspects of the apostolate and its religious efficacy in souls but also fat the personal problems posed by the attempt to reconcile action with the requirements of the contemplative life. The method of "supervision" is basically simple and .natural, but it requires a technical preparation. Its practice takes much time, requires great effort and a perfectly com-mitted interest on the part of the '~supervisor," Let us repeat here that the functional simplicity which it supposes cor-responds perfectly to the spiritual .orientation of the new generation. Taking into account the daring nature of the enterprise, one might finally ask if the formation to the mixed life, in order to be sufficiently efficacious, ought not to be completed near the end of the first active period (33-35 years of age?) by a return of several months duration to a way of life more " clearly contemplative. This period of "retreat" would per-mit a reappraisal in depth of the genekal direction that one has taken in his life as well as of the various notions that have been the basis of his spontaneous action. In this way could be prevented certain fixations in the realm of our judgments and inner attitudes which often seriously hinder the progress of the soul as well as the fruitfulness of the apostolate. Besides, this period.would make available the time necessary to fill up those gaps in one's knowledge (Sacred Scripture, dogma, or moral) theology which he has felt to exist during the course of his ministry. In general, when in the milieu of the ancient orders such an idea is easily rejected, this is not because (as is usually pretended) a return to an intensified recollection would be something superfluous for us who lead a partly contempla-tive life. On the contrary, if the very idea of such a return is enough to cause an unpleasant chili (another novitiate D, it is because we have never deeply assimilated the con-templative part of our life. Another indication of this situation can be seen in the many mitigations made for some time now in the arrange-ment of the annual retreat. It is true that these mitigations often increase the spiritual yield of the retreat. But this comes simply from the fact that the subject himself has become incapable of giving himself profoundly to a.re°re exacting regimen. Such a program represents an ideal from which he feels too far removed and in which he hardly believes any more. His need for authenticity impels him to reject it. IV. True Religious Houses If an order of mixed life is to be able to live up to its vocation, it is necessary that the majority of its members really participate in this type of life by residing in a "nor-mal" religious house; that.is to say one in which,the monastic prescriptions of the particular order are honored. In many countries the number of these houses is limited to the houses 'of formation. This amounts to saying that in practic~e the "mixed life" is conceived of in two successive stages: a contemplative regime, preparing for a life that is merely active. Even more complicated is the question of determining how large a house should be in Order that'it can provide the minimum requisite for monastic life and atmosphere while at the same time giving its members the freedom necessary for an active ministry. This will depend very much on the general conception of the particular order: 1. In an order whose tradition has always placed the accent upon a retired life in a strongly contemplative environment and that has conformed its methods of aposto-late to that, the number could be smaller than in another which conceives of its apostolate as a vanguard dialogue with the world on the mov, e. 2. In a mixed order where the contemplative life is founded moreover on the communal framework of choral office and monastic observances (such are the orders that are heirs of the canons), it would be very difficult to preserve its proper life without a system of large religious houses (about twenty persons in the Case of a very active order). The Choice o j: Tasks For the mixed life to be the rule rather than the exception, it will be necessary clearly to distinguish between the tasks that are reconcilable with this life and those which are not, whether by their nature or in the conditions of their exercise. In general, the acceptable tasks will be ones that have a directly religious meaning and that can be arranged in such a way as tb permit those engaged in them enough time for periodic and sufficiently prolonged stays within the religious house. From this it follows that the taking on of parish work ought to be exceptional. The repeated appeals on the part of certain dioceses or centers of pastoral studies to enlist the mixed orders into the pafochial framework imply a mis-understanding of the nature of their vocation. In the long run, the Christian life of a particular region, will not be enriched by taking religious away from a form of life that has an authentically contemplative orientation. Entirely other is the question of knowing whether the ÷ ÷ Active Monastic Orders VOLUME 2,~1 1964 293 rather large number of pi'iests living in the religious houses of these orders really means a sterile hoarding of elements that would be very useful f~r the apostolate~if, in fact, their monastic activity constitutes a waste of precious capital. Indeed, even if there is question of fervent priests, the result of their affiliation to a religious house will be rather negative if, psychologically speaking, they have not really entered into this monastic framework, making their own its proper orientation. If this is the case, would it not have been pref-erable forthem to have entered a diocese or a congregation with purely active g~als? This being the situation, if one wants to make it evolve in a direction more 'invglved in pasto(al work, he runs the risk of eventually compromising the future of a form of religious life that is extiemely impor-tant for the Church. Finally, we call attention to the fact that it is easier than it used to be for a mixed order to limit itseff to its specific vocation. The existence of.a number of "active" orders and congregations frees us from having to handle, many apostolic functions for which, in the past, we were the only ones available. A More Specialized Recruiting A profound unawareness concerning 'the ultimate objec-tive and the requirements of the mixed life reigns almost everywhere in the orders in question. As an inevitable consequence, a great number of people have beenallowed to. enter who are incapable of living the life in its specific sense or who are little inclined to do so. The presence 0f.these members is undoubtedly one of the greatest obstacles to the restoration of a mixed life worthy of the name. A more realistic and stricter recruiting of candidates is necessary. It is not enough that the candidates be truly interested in the specifically aPOstolic end and works of the order. Too often the monastic element and the contemplative orienta-tion are seen as secondary to the apostolic element and accepted only as something "thrown in for good measure." Enr611ment under this condition is devoid of meaning. In view of the present need for authenticity, the presence of a number of subjects so disposed must lead to an ever more radical dismantling of the monastic character of these orders. V. Walgrave, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 29,1 The Drive to Power and Fidelity to Vocation A group's attachment to its own influence in the Church is bne of the most frequent causes of an order's estrangement from its primitive vocation. Social psychology has convincingly shown how the drive to power can unconsciously inspire even altruistic and well-intentioned plans. It is this same process which is more or less at work in every society, not excluding the most sacred, and it constitutes that "too human" aspect of it which we must understand but never approve. Orders of-mixed life are especially, vulnerable to this tendency because they have to .defend their clearly contem-plative attitude against the pressure of an apostolic posture which is very conspicuous in the Church. The presence.of this danger is seen in the following practices: taking on tasks that are too numerous or unsuitable to the specific vocation; a view of the apostolate that is spontaneously in a spirit of competition; multiplication of small houses; lack of discretion in admitting 9andidates for the sake of numeri-cal success; a distorted presentation ofthe order's ideals, and so forth. The Christian world is less and less inclined tO accept in the Church and in the religious orders this com-promise between moral authority and the drive--whether conscious or unconscious !o domination. Consequently, the orders will see themselves obliged to conceive of their corporate orientation in a more spiritualized, more evangeli-cal manner so that the sense of their size and concern for their influence will no longer exert such pressure on fidelity to their ideal. The future of the mixed life can only gain from this. Are the Mixed Orders Too Numerous? Once we admit the ideal and logic of the mixed life in all their intransigence, we can no longer keep from asking whether the number of these orders is not too great to allow each to respond fully to its vocation. For the person who attaches more importance to spiritual fecundity than to the natural tendency to survival, the question is only too serious. Let us add two points which throw light on the import Of the problem. On the one hand there is the already wide-spread difficulty the contemplative life experiences in supporting itself in the midst of the contemporary world. On the other, it must be remembered that almost all the great orders of the Middle Ages have taken new life while a considerable number of new congregations have arisen by their side, each of them seeking to attract the necessary candidates. ÷ ÷ ÷ Acti~ Monasti~ Orders VOLUME 23s 1964 THOMAS DHBAY, S.M. Updating Puzzlements Thoma~ Duba]~, S~M., is spiritual dr-rector at Notre Dame Seminary; 2901 South Carroll-ton Avenue; New Orleans 18, Louisi-ana. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Anyone even mildly acquaintedwith the thinking of our American sisters in these mid-sixties is aware that there is.a steadily increasing and animated discussion among them dealing with projected apostolic changes in the life of religious women. And as his acquaintance is deepened, he becomes aware that the sisters'-reaction spectrum to the current theory and practice of apostolic adaptation ranges all the way from an eager, impatient enthusiasm through a wait and see interest to a fearful apprehension that the new is going to swamp the old. In our view the overall situation is healthy and the discus-sion beneficial; but, as is commonly the case, not everything that fs being said is of equal value. Some of it is occasioning pet~plexity--and, in a few instances, we think anxiety not too strong a word--among a significant number of our sisters. Even though disturbance is not absent among older religious, we are particularly concerned with the yotinger. Despite their great good will and partially because of it, these latter are especially susceptible to harm resulting from uncertainties in their formation and clashing theories in their reading. Our purpose here is threefold. We wish first of all to suggest two or three formulations of the updating adaptation problem, not merely in. general but as it affects the typical individual religious. Then we propose to set down as .we understand them the causes of the impatience of one group of sisters and the reasons for the fears of a second group. Finally we shall trace out the general lines of procedure which Sacred Scripture and the magisterium of the Church present as guides to religious communities in their actual efforts at aggiornamento. Formulations of the Problem In its popular form our puzzlement may be said to con-sist in conflict between the new and the old in contemporary religious life. Constitutions are currently being modified by general chapters. Some religious feel that the changes are not drastic enough; others are persuaded that they are too drastic. Some have no set opinion but simply wonder what is essential and what is not. This popular perplexity is sharpened by newly appearing books and articles and addresses that recommend apostolic practices at variance with traditional approaches. Many sisters could hardly be more wholehearted in their agreement with the recommen-dations, while others wonder whether they will work with women. The tension is heightened when in a given congrega-tion the difference in apostolic viewpoint (or 15erhaps it is occasionally more a difference in judgments of feasibility) takes the shape of superiors on one side and subjects on the other. A more basic formulation of our problem is rooted in two distinct scriptural streams of spirituality which for our purposes we may style individualistic-contemplative and social-active. The first current lays great stress on the soul's inner life with God, solitary, sheltered, intense, delightful. There are many more instances of this thought pattern :in the Old Testament than we may easily instance here. "One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of .the Lord . Of you my heart speaks. [The new Latin for verse 8 is clearer than the English: "Tibi loquitur cot meum."] . How precious is your k.indness, O God ] The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They have their fill 6f the prime gifts of your house. ¯. Only in God be at rest, my soul. When I am with you, the earth delights me not . For indeed, they who withdraw from you perish .But for me, to be near God is my good; to make the Lord God my refuge.''1 This hid-denness- individualist current is, if anything, even more pronounced in the New Testament. The thirty-year example of the eternal Word is vastly impressive, to say nothing of His forty-day retreat and His habit of spending whole nights on the mountain during His public apostolate. What He did in His life He taught in His words, for He judged Mary who merely sat and drank of His wisdom better off than the busy Martha. And St. John tells us, "Do not love the world, or the things that are in theworld" (1 Jn 2:15), while St. Paul admonishes us not to have a taste for this world but rather to seek what is above and thus be hidden with Christ in God." "Therefore, if you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3:1-3). The second stream of scriptural spirituality is found especially in the New Testament and its emphasis is on the kerygmatic proclamation of the word to the whole of man- ~ Ps 26:4,8; 35:8-9; 61:6; 72:25,27-8. ÷ ÷ ÷ U~dating Pu=lements VOLUME 2~, 1964 297 ÷ ÷ ÷ Thomas Dubay, S.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS kind. The precept was given by the eternal Word Himself: "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mk 16:15). Its seriousness was more than once underlined by Paul in his words as well as in his life. "How then are they to call upon him in whom they have not believed? But how are they to believe him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear, if no one preaches?" (Rom 10:14). "For woe to me if I do not preach the gospel !" (1 Cor 9:16). "I charge thee, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead b~i his coming and by his kingdom, preach the word, be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke with all patience and teaching" (2 Tim 4:1-2). Brought up to date, this formulation of our sisters' apos-tolic puzzlement bears on the relative positions of prayer and work in the contemporary setting. And the pat answer, "a due time for both," does not answer all the sub-questions : Do religious women spend too much time in mental prayer? Is there such a thing as "apostolic mental prayer"? Should active communities still say the Office in choir? If so, how much of it? If not, what shall supply for the nourishment the Office formerly gave their souls? The third formulation of our perplexity centers on the actual mission state of the world today. In this shape the problem may be presented as a comparison between a single verse of Scripture and a few hard facts of twentieth century reality. The scriptural aspect of this formulation is the unvarnished divine precept that the glad tidings be preached to every creature: "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature," The hard facts which, seen under the light of this verse, should cause a keen discomfort are, first of all, that two thousand years later less than twenty percent of the world has so far accepted the full message. And secondly, the non-Catholic world, we are told, is in-creasing more rapidly than the Catholic. Still more, we have nowhere in sight a number of religious and priestly vocations. sufficient to cope either with 500 million faithful or the over two billion still outside the Mystical Body. To compound a nightmarish situation is the fourth fact of an appalling apathy on the part of the .majority of our Catholic laymen and laywomen. Now the comparison between the divine precept and the human facts sets in bold relief the final formulation of our puzzlement: Given the staggering situation of our missionary condition, how can we rightly continue to emphasize the cozy, contemplative, self-contained elements in the religious life? Should not the sister's dominating passion be the proclamation of the word? Does not aggiornamento demand that religious face the contemporary scene as it exists? Causes of Impatience We can perhaps trace out the reasons for a certam unrest among many religious women according to th~ three ways we have formulated the problem. It seems t~ us that a noteworthy number of sisters are dissatisfied ~ith some of the prescriptions of their ~onstitutions and Customs. Some feel that their religio~s habit is archaic and th.at even as it has been modified it remains an impediment to attaining an easy rapport with modern men and women, especially non-Catholic men and women. To many sisters the rule that they go out only two by two is consonant neither with the much freer status of contemporary woman nor with the actual .needs of the apostolate. The many permissions re-quired in convent life seem to be out of harmony both with the greater independence of women in our day and with like situations among religious men. These causes ofim-patience and others like them are sharpened when the sister subject not only sees no adequate adaptation in her com-munity but no great inclination in the administratiOn to initiate steps to attain it. Tl~e second type of reason for disquiet is a discontent with the present allocations to prayer and work in active congre-gations. We do not mean that religious are uninterested in prayer; but we do mean that some of them feel that the amount of time to be given to prayer, and especially vocal prayer, needs to be cut down. Many would like to pare down community vocal prayers, and some would extend the paring process also to the DiVine Office and even perhaps to mental prayer. The final reasons for impatience cluster about the manner in which religious women are as a matter of fact carrying out the gospel command to preach the word to every crea-ture, including the billions of souls still outside the Mystical Body. While we are confident that many sisters decidedly desire to work with children and would feel both uncomfort-able and inept with adults, there are others who prefer to work with mature people and thus get to "every creature" more directly. We think, too, that a large number of reli-gious are unsatisfied with the indirect apostolate of teaching English and arithmetic, of keeping hospital records and supervising nurses, and rather wish to spend themselves in an immediate apostolate of supernatural contact with souls. These sisters feel that they and their companions could be used more effectively by leaving the indirect apostolate to laywomen and rather engaging themselves in reaching directly the vast populations of adult women still little touched by the Church. The impatience here is rooted in what appears to be an obsolete and ineffective use of the apostolic resources of our consecrated women. ÷ ÷ ÷ Updating Pu~lements VOLUME 23~ 1964 299 ÷ Thomas Duba~, S.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Causes of Fear At the opposite end of what we have called the reaction spectrum to apostolic aggiornamento lie varying degrees of fear regarding adaptations that have already occurred or, perhaps more frequently, regarding others that are merely being proposed and discussed. We may note in passing that sisters who entertain these fears are by no means unsym-pathetic as a group either to the theory or the fact of adapta-tion. They see the likely good but are also concerned about the likely harm. What are these fears? We would distinguish three main bases for apprehension concerning current developments in updating approaches to the apostolate of religious women. The first of these bases is the simple fact that many sisters are not capable either natively or by training background to work effectively with adult women. The apprehension arises from the suspicion that religious now working fruitfully with children would perhaps be transferred to occupations for which they are prepared neither by disposition nor by education. The second cause of updating anxiety centers on the alleged inability of women to live holy religious lives without the safeguards with which their, rules have traditionally surrounded them. Without taking a position regarding this fear, we can say at least this much that not all sisters are convinced of the advisability of rule modifications which open the way to considerably more and longer contacts with the world. One might object that even sisters have to take risks, but this would be met with the rejoinder, "Yes, but how many? When do we reach the point where contacts in the world will do more harm than good to religious and their work?" At least some sisters see a problem here. Perhaps the most frequently occurring and the deepest reason for disquiet lies in the area of mental prayer and the need for solitude. Despite verbal assurances to the contrary, both formation and inservice policy recommendations by the mounting attention they give to a tension and time packed apostolate seem to these religious to be making slow inroads on a calm prayer life with the indwelling Trinity. There seems to be a clash between new apostolic emphases and the age-old Catholic insistence just recently reiterated that the first duty for a religious, even for a religious belonging to an Institute of active life or of mixed life is then to give himself to God in contemplation and out of love for him. Service of the neighbor" comes second only, in so far as he needs it and as the re-ligious is in fact entrusted with it by his Superiors? 2 Archbishop Paul Philippe, The Ends of the Religious Life according to Saint Thomas Aquinas (Athens: Fraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1962), p. 72. Archbishop Philippe is secretary of the Sacred Congrega-tion of Religions. Some of our ~isters are wondering why, if contemplative love is primary in the religious state, the contemporary trend is toward reducing rather than increasing the time available for its peaceful practice. Or to ask an allied question, if as Plus XI declared, a hidden life of prayer, love, and suffering is a more fruitful apostolate for souls than active works are, why are we meeting our apostolic challenges with a greater emphasis on action than on contemplation? Such, then, are the causes of impatience on the one hand and fear on the other that we have found among American sisters. We propose now to suggest some general norms of procedure which according to Sacred Scripture and the teaching Church are sound guides for resolving in broad outline some of the questions we have raised. Guides for Apostolic Updating First principle: the Trinity is the source oaf apostolate. The re-ligious who steps into a classroom or a hospital ward does not enter her working domain as a private person, as. the former Mary Jones or even as the present Sister Mary Teresa. She enters as a member of a supernatural team, a religious community on which the Church has bestowed a mandate. She is a sent person, a commissioned person. Im-mediately she is sent by her major superior, intermediately by the Roman Pontiff and the local ordinary, ultimately by God Himself. Her religious superiors have the. authority to mission her because they have received a share in the pope's universal jurisdiction, and th~ pope has his authority from Christ Himself, and Christ has it from the Father. "As the Father has sent me, I also send you" ~Jn 20:21). The sister; therefore, engages in her apostolate as one sent by the very Trinity abiding in her heart through supernatural knowl-edge and love. It is highly fitting, then, that she live in close union with the abiding fountain of all apostolic fecundity. Our first principle for solving our apostolic problems is, consequently, that the indwelling Trinity is the starting point of external works. Second pdndple: the sisters' apostolic methods must meet con-temporary needs as they actually are. It is axiomatic in scholastic philosophy that whatever is received is received after the matter of the receiver. A man who tries to cut a sheet of steel as though he were dealing with paper is going to have his problems. A religious community which operates in the mid-twentieth century as though it were working in the mid-nineteenth is going to run into some dead-end streets. The Gospels themselves were written differently according to the manner of the receivers. Matthew wrote in one fashion for his fellow countrymen in Palestine, Mark and Luke tailored their approaches to Gentile converts, while John proposed to write a theologically orientated account against the Docetists and styled his Gospel accordingly. Religious ÷ ÷ ÷ opaating Puzzleracnts VOLUME 23, 1964 301 + ÷ ÷ Thomas Dubay, S.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ~0~ communities surely cannot afford to do less in meeting contemporary needs in a contemporary manner. The Holy See itself has said so much in the last two decades about the need for adaptation in the religious life that for us to say more would be to labor the point. Hence, our second prin-ciple is patent: however we are to meet updating tensions, our solutions will have to face and answer real problems as they now exist. Thirdprinciple." prayer, love, and suffering are the most Jruitful apostolate. This third guide to unraveling unrest and ap-prehension in adapting to modern needs is taken bodily from the teaching of Pope Pius XI. Speaking on the occasion of the canonization of a religious whose community neither teaches nor nurses, the Discaleed Carmelite nuns, tl-ie Holy Father remarked: "These are the most pure an~l the most lofty souls in the Church, who by suffering, loving and praying in a hidden apostolate hold the first place in bene-fiting all men.''3 Approving the Carthusian statutes a decade earlier in 1924, the same pontiffhad said perhaps even more strikingly that it is "easy to understand how they who assiduously fulfil the duty of prayer and penance contribute much more to the increase of the Church and the welfare of mankind than those who labor in tilling the .Master's field.''4 Several centuries earlier St. John of the Cross had taught the same truth in his own limpid manner: "A very little of this pure love is more precious in the eyes of God and the soul, and of greater profit to the Church, even though the soul appear to be doing nothing, than are all. these works t0gether,''~ Now if we pay this teaching more than lip service, we must in the actual ordering of the contemplative and work-ing aspects of active religious congregations recognize the primacy of the former not only in the sanctification of the individual religious but even in the sanctification ~ the souls . committed to her care. We have got to work, to be sure, and work hard. Woe to us if we do not preach the Gospel. But all the same, if praying, loving, and suffering are the most fruitful apostolate in the Church, we religious have got to be before all else contemplative sufferers or suffering con-templatives. Hence, to aim at updating constitutions, rules, and horaria on any other basis is simply to miss the point. If getting our religious women to mix more with the world is going to damage their love and prayer, the mixing must yield, not the love and prayer. If newly undertaken activi-ties are going to so wear a sister out t