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Issue 25.5 of the Review for Religious, 1966. ; Mal~ Religious in Past and Present by Maurice A. ROche, C.M. 749 Updating the Cloister by Sister Teresa Margaret, O.C:D. 770 ' Directed vs. Preached.Retreats by Ladislas M. Ors,2, S.J. 781 The Religious Teacher by Sister M. Fredericus, O.P. 797 The Woman Religious and Leadership by William J. Kelly, S.J. 814 Retreat: Dialogue or Silence? by Ambrose de Groot, O.F.M.Cap. 828 A Pastoral Theology Program by Gerald G. Daily, S.J. 836 The Eucharist as Symbolic Reality by J. P. de Jong 853 Retreat or Community Experience by George A. Aschenbrenner, S.J. 860 The Problem of Vitality by John Carmody, S.J. 867 D, irection and the Spiritual Exercises by Daniel J. Shine, S.J. 888 Poems 897 Survey of Roman Documents 899 Views, News, Previews 906 Questions and Answers 909 Book Reviews 925 VOLUM~ 25 NUMBER 5 September 1966 Notice to Subscribers Because of constantly increasing costs, REVIEW FOR RELK;IOUS finds it necessary to increase the cost of its individual issues as well as of its sub-scriptions. The new rates, effective in 1967, will be the following: (l) Individual issues of the REVIEW will cost one dollar; this price will apply not only to all issues beginning with 1967 but also to all previously published issues. (2) Subscriptions in the United. States, Canada, and Mexico will cost $5.00 per year; $9.00 for two years. (3) Subscriptions to other countries will cost ~;5.50 per year; ~;10.00 for two years. (4) All the above prices are in terms of U.S.A. dollars; accordingly all payments must be made in U.S.A. funds. These prices will affect all individual issues sold on or after January 1, 1967. The new subscription prices will be applicable to all subscriptions-- new and renewed---beginning with the January, 1967, issue of the REVIEW. MAURICE A. ROCHE; C.M. The Male Religious in Past and Present What is the perfect Christian life? Can it be lived? If so, how? Does it entail the transformation of all human society? Can in-dividuals be immersed in a prevailingly or partially un-Christian society without compromising their principles and be fully Christian? To be fully Christian, is it necessary to withdraw from society? If so, must one live alone, or must those intent on the complete Christian life seek it in.community with othersP These and similar questions have been asked by zeal-ous Christians and by the Church herself since the time of Christ. According to the circumstances of time and place, the answer of the Church has varied. This article will treat in summary form the major manifestations of the "perfect life" as .they have appeared in the Western part of the Catholic Church during the past nineteen hundred years. As with most 'institutions in the Church, both the idea and practice of: the religious life developed rather slowly. Some of the elements of the religious life, for example, common purse, existed among the disciples even during the lifetime of Christ.2 Shortly after Pentecost at least some of the disciples gave all their possessions to the p0or.s In the First Epistle to the Corinthians (written about the year 57), St. Paul talks about the concern of a Christian father for his virgin daughter;4 presumably the motive for her virginity was a religious one. ÷ During ,the first two centuries, the life of perfection was lived within the family circle; domestic asceticism + was the rule. Given the small number of Christians in a pagan society, no othel- solution seemed feasible. Such persdns engaged in ordinary employments; each local church usuall~ had a number of these "continentes" ; ampton, 1 Kenneth S. Latourette, .4 History ol Christianity (New York: vania 18967. H~rper ~nd Row, 1953), p. 221. =Jn 13529. VOLUME 25, 1966 ' 1 Cor 7:36-8. 749 Father Maurice A. Roche, C.M., is a faculty member of Mary Immaculate Seminary; North- Pennsyl- + ÷ ÷ M. A. Roche, .M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 750 and "virgines." They formed a sort of spiritual aristoc-racy and occupied special places in the church. These primitive ascetics differed in many respects from the later religious: no special ceremony marked their entrance into the ascetical life; they wore no distinctive clothing; they did not live in community (though they might fre-quently assemble for mutual encouragement); they did not abstain from ordinary employment; they did not devote themselves as a matter of course or in .any special way to the corporal works of mercy. This mode of striv-ing for perfection has never died out in the Church; every parish still has its group of unmarried women who work for a living and are exceptional for their piety. About the middle of the third century there arose in Egypt the institution of monasticism. Authors have ad-vanced various reasons to explain its development in this place at this time. (a) Pagan Egypt had a strain of .mysticism in it. (It was in Alexandria that Ammonius Saccas [d. 245] had founded Neoplatonism.) Thus the Egyptian people were not entirely unprelSared for this mode of life which purported to lead to mystical union with God. (b) The desert wastes of Egypt made it easy to find solitude. Food and water were a constant problem of course, but the hot dry climate simplified the matter of clothing, shelter; and so forth. (c) The Decian persecution (249-251) was particularly thorough in Egypt and the desert offered a safe refuge. Some, driven out of the cities by the persecutors, sought refuge in the wilderness, liked the solitude, and remained there. Each of the above statements is true, and probably each contributed in some way to the growth of monasti-cism. They seem, however, to be occasions rather than causes. The basic cause for going to and remaining in the desert was the desire to live completely for God, a desire that was difficult of fulfillment in the still pagan atmosphere of the cities. Some ascetics had previously attempted to live in seclusion on the outskirts of the in-habited areas; this halfway measure proved in the main unworkable, and so the more zealous among them aban-doned the dwelling of men completely. Traditionally, the first hermit was St. Paul of Thebes (228-340) who fled to a remote mountain during the Decian persecution. St. Antony (250-356) was for a time a solitary hermit, but eventually a group of disciples gathered about him. Basically, these men were still her-mits, each living in his own ceil, giving hihaself to pri-vate prayer, reading, and manual work. Occasional dis-courses by St. Antony (and perhaps Mass) were the only occasions on which silence was broken. St. Antony was at heart a hermit, yet the needs of the Church twice called him to the active life. In 311 he left his retreat in order to encourage the victims of the persecution of Maximin, and about 338 he quitted his solitude in order to confer with St. Athanasius on means to defeat the Arian heresy. Between these two dates the desert had flowered: in the ),ear 325 the Nitrian Desert alone counted some five thousand men dedicated to God. Five years before this, another manifestation of the perfect life had appeared in Egypt: cenobitism, of which St. Pachomius (d. 348) is considered the initiator. His followers were not solitary hermits, nor were they inde-pendent hermits joined together by an accident of loca-tion; rather, they lived in common in subjection to ~he rule of the superior or abbot. Unlike some solitaries who neglected the sacraments, the Pachomian monks took part in Mass twice weekly, at one of which celebrations they communicated. The Pachomian rule tended to moderate some of the corporal austerities of the hermits, but it was withal quite severe. St. Pachomius was, it seems, the first to draw up a rule for monks. The great codifier of Eastern monasticism was not 'he, however, but St. Basil the Great (329-379). To his personal sanctity and firsthand experience with the dangers and advantages of monasticism, he added familiarity with the~ problems of rule, the grace of the episcopal office, a good education, and a keen intellect. His rule became the norm for Eastern monasticism, and in its broad lines at least is still followed today. More to our purpose, however, St. Basil's rule had an effect on the rule drawn up by St. Benedict in the sixth century. Before leaving the East completely, reference should be made at least in passing to the pillar saints, of whom the most famous was St. Simeon Stylites (d. 459). This singular expression of the perfect life had a brilliant but short-lived existence. Up until this time, monasticism had not developed much in the West. For the most part an importation from the East, it was, like much Eastern food, too highly seasoned for. the Western man: it did not suit Western climate, Western mentality, or Western man. Mention Should be made, however, of those who were more or less successful in forming monasteries after the Eastern fash-ion: Saints Hilary (315-367), Martin (c. 315-c. 399), Am-brose (339-397), Jerome (c. 347-419 or 420), Honoratus (c~ 350-430); and John Cassian (c. 360-c. 430).5 St. Augus-tine of ~Hippo (354-430) lived a common life with his clergy, but these were (to use a later terminology) can-ons regular rather than monks. ,~ Cassian is not usually recognized as a saint; this is probably a re-sult of his views in what has come to be known as the semi-Pelagian controversy. ÷ ÷ ÷ The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 1966 ÷ ÷ ÷ M~ A. Roche,~ C.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 752 By the end of the fifth century, monasticism, already firmly established in the East, had begun to sink roots in the West, although its exact form had not yet been definitively established. Over the years monasticism would undergo many changes in the West; "but in its various ramifications it was to be the main channel through which new bursts of life were to find expression in the various churches which conserved' the traditions of the Catholic Church of the Roman Empire," ~ The institution had already been in existence over two hun-dred years by the time St. Benedict of Nursia (480-550) was born; the number of monasteries varied greatly from place to place at this date in the Ctiristian West, but the institution as such had gained ac.ceptance in the minds of men. The work of St. Benedict was not pre-cisely to introduce a completely new organism into the Western Church; it was more to reform and adapt an existing institution so that it might be viable and useful in his time and place. In drawing up his rule, St. Bene-dict apparently took the rule of St. Basil as a model, though he did not imitate it slavishly; rather, he modi-fied it in order to suit the needs of himself and of his followers. The judgment of Latourette on St. Benedict's rule is worth noting: ~ The rule of Benedict became standard in the West, probably because of i~s intrinsic worth. Pope Gregory the Great did much to give it popularity. It was taken to Britain by missionaries sent by Gregory from: Rome . In the seventh century it began to gain in Gaul. Charlemagne admired it and furthered its adop-tion. By the latter part,of the eighth century it was generally ac, cepted. No central organization existed for its enforcement and to bring uniformity. Each monastery was independent of ~very other." Modifications might and often were made in the rule by individual houses. Yet it became the model from which many other rules stemmed. In an age of disorder the Benedictine monasteries were centres of quiet and orderly livfng, communities where prayer, work, and study were the custom, and that in a society where prayer was ignored or was regarded as magic to be practised for selfish ends, where work was despised as servile, where even princes were .illiterate, where war was chronic. ,.Like other monastic establishments, Benedictine foun~lations tended' to decline from the high ideals setby the rule. Many were heavily endowed and in numbers of them life became easy and at times sCa'ndalous. When awakenings occurred, they often took the form of a re-turn to the rule or its modification in t.he direction of greater austerity. Even when the rule was strictly observed, the mon-astertes were self-centered and were not concerned with the sal-vation of the so~:iety about them, except to draw individuals from it into their fellowship.' Hdwever., the missionaries of the e Latourette, History o[ Christianity, p. 233. ' As it stands, this sentence is far too sweeping. The monks at this time (outside of mission lands) did not engage in parochial wo~'k; but the monastic priests did not refuse their ministration to those lay Western Church were predominantly monks. It was chiefly through them, although often at the initiative and under the protection of lay princes, that the faith was carried beyond its existing frontiers. Later, moreover, monks of the Benedictine rule became prominent in the general life of the Church and of the community as a whole,s The life [in the monastery] was orderly but was not unduly severe and was probably more comfortable than was that of the great masses of the population. Clothing and meals were simple but adequate, and special provision was made for the ill, the aged, the very young, and those doing heavy manual labour. There was to be fasting at regular times, but this was not the kind practised by the extreme ascetics . Much weight was given to humility. Provision was made for various degrees of discipline, from private admonition to physical punishment, ex-communication, and as a final resort, expulsion. The entire round of twenty-four hours was provided for, with eight services, one every three hours, and with .periods for sleep, including a rest early in the afternoon, for eating, and for labour . Silence was encouraged and was the rule at meals and after compline. . Stress was placed on worship b.y the entire community and directions were given for the services. There was a place for priests, for they were needed to say mass, but they were to obey the rule as fully as the lay monks. The rule was wisely designed for a group of men of various ages living together in worship and in work for the cultivation of the full Christian life as it was con-ceived by the monk? The spirit of the rule is perhaps best summed up by its author in the prologue when he wrote: Therefore we must establish a school of the Lord's service, in founding which we hope to ordain nothing that is harsh or burdensome?° Dorn David Knowles writes: ¯. if the Rule holds within it so much of th~ wisdom and ex-perience of the past, its anticipation of the needs of the future is even more striking. The ancient world, with its city life, its great seats of culture, its graded society and its wide and rapid means of communication, was rapidly disappearing. In the new world that was coming into being, the estate, the village, the district were the units; Europe, from being a single complex organism was becoming an aggregate of cells, bound to one an-other by the loosest of ties. St. Benedict lived in a society where the scope and opportunities of education, secular and theologi-cal, were yearly narrowing, and in which the numbers of the people who sought it. The monks also wrote works for the edification of the faithful and furthered the development of theology¯ Moreover, their example of selfless devotion to God had a salutary impact even on those who did not become monks themselves¯ Finally, an important part of the religious life was prayer for the benefactors, for the local clergy, for the civil government, for the conversion of pagans, and so forth. Even the most cloistered monk was solicitous for the salvation of the society about him. s Latourette, History o] Christianity, pp. 335-6. 9 Ibid¯, pp. 33,1-5. l° Justin McCann, "The Rule of St. Benedict," cited in Colman Barry, Readings in Church History, v. 1 (~Vestminster: Newman, 1960), p. 168. 4- 4- 4- The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 1966 4" M, ,4. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS educated were yearly lessening; a socie(y in.which the family, the farm;the estate was strong--a society continually threatened with extinction., by invasion, or (with) chaos, and which therefore needed above all some clear, simple, basic principles to which it might hold and rally . This suitability to the needs of the time was met at every level of life, by the monastery of the Kule . Only in the early centuries or backward countries of medieval times could such a community continue to be a norm, and it did not, in fact, long endure in its original com-prehensiveness . A full acknowledgment of the unique ex-cellence of the Ruie does not imply that it had no limitations. Such are inevitable in every code that bears the stamp of time and place . ~ Benedictinism was not without rivals in the West. There were the Eastern-type monasteries founded before the time of St. Benedict, most if not all of which were within the then existing boundaries of the Roman Em-pire. 12 Of more importance and more influence were the Celtic monasteries initiated both before and after the lifetime of the saint of Nursia. For the most part these monasteries were located in regions that had never been or were not at the time of foundation within the. con-fines of the Empire. This Celtic monasticism was il-lumined by a galaxy of brilliant saints like Columkil (521-597) and Columban (540-615), the latter of whom composed the rule that bears his name. Much shorter than the Benedictine rule, the Columban rule Was Orien-tal in spirit. (This is not so strange as it may at first appear: St. Patrick had been formed to the religious life in the Eastern-type Abbey of Lerins founded by St. Honoratus about 400 A.D. and the influence of, the East had remained strong among the Celtic Christians.) The Celtic rule was very severe: hours of prayer and of work were multiplied; discipline was strict, with corporal pun-ishment meted out even for slight faults,' Columban monks went to England and to the continent in great numbers and started monasteries--such as Ltixeuil, Bob-bio, and Saint Ga!l--which were of great importance in the Middle Ages. The C61umban rule produced spiritual giants; but conversely, it was made only for spiritual giants, not for ordinary men. By what seems to us a strange quirk, this very strict rule allowed great freedom ~Dom David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (2nd ed~; Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1963), pp. 9-11. = No one rule predominated here. Rufinus had translated and abridged the rule of St. Basil; St. Jerome had put the rule of St. Pachomius 'into Latin. Some in the West drew up new rtiles: St. Honoratus of Lerins gave out certain constitutions which are no longer extant; we do, however, possess the Regula ad monachos and the Regula ad virgines of St. Caesarius of Aries (469-542) and also rules by Aurelianus, bishop of Aries from 546 to 551. See P. de Labriolle et al., "De la mort de Th~odose h l'fiiection de Gr~goire le Grand," v. 4 of Histoire de l'Eglise, ed. by Fliche and Martin (Paris: Bloud and Gay, 1948), p. 592. of travel, and this sometimes led to disorder. For a while both the Benedictine and Columban rules existed over large portions of Western Europe; but eventually the Celtic Rule was forced to yield: in England at the Synod of Whitby in 664, in the Frankish Empire at the Synod of Autun in 670. Only in Ireland.did the Celtic Rule manage to endure. Even there it was eventually replaced, though by the stricter Cistercian Rule rather than by the Benedictine Rule strictly so-called. Even in defeat the austere:Irish monks won half a victory. , The character of Western monasticism, influenced.to some degree by St. Columban, was affected even more by the saint'g Italian contemporary, Pope St. Gregory I (540-604). About the year 575, he converted his parental home on the Caelian Hill into a monastery (St. An-drew, s), and there lived as a simple monk until chosen abbot in 585. The, regime at St. Andrew's was Benedic-tine in spirit; perhaps it even followed the Rule of St. Benedict explicitly. At any rate, St. Gregory was himself formed according to the Benedictine ideal. Chosen as bishop of Rome in 590, six or seven years later he sent St. Augustine and other monks from St. Andrew's to evangelize" the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in present-day England. His use of monks as missionaries undoubtedly effected a notable change in the Character of Western monasticism. Up until his time, Benedictinism had been basically a lay movement. In the mission lands, clergy were needed; and so most of the missionary monks re-ceived ordination. By the end of the Carolingian era, the great majority of monks were priests. Besides con-tributing to the clericalization of the monasteries, the missionary movement also fostered an activist strain in Western monasticism. From time to time this tendency would become prominent in the West; it is the more noticeable because such external work is much less en-couraged in Eastern monasticism. As the number of clerical monks increased, manual labor was relegated to servants, and the liturgy was lengthened. In 817 St. Benedict of Aniane attempted a monastic confederation, but feudal disorders hindered his work. The last half of the ninth and the first half of the tenth centuries were periods of great disorder in the civil and religious fields. Civil wars; invasions by Northmen, Muslim, Magyars; lay patronage; and so forth contributed to the breakdown of civil government, to the physical destruction of numerous monasteries, and to the relaxing of morals, both within and without the monasteries. In the second half of the tenth century, a great re-awakening occurred in the Western Church. Of major importance was the reform of Cluny, initiated by. its ÷ ÷ ÷ The Mal.e,~Re.ligious VOLUME 25~ 1966 M. A. Roche, C.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS first abbot, St. Berno (850-927) in 910 and continued for some two and one half centuries by a series of outstand-ing and long-lived successors. An important innovation in the Cluniac reform was its centralizing tendency. Dur-ing the years after 910, many monasteries placed them-selves under the aegis of Cluny. The Cluniac regulations as eventually in force under St. Odilo (abbot from 994 to 1049) suppressed the title of abbot for heads of sub-ordinate houses; in charge of these lesser foundations were priors, subjected to the sole rule of the abbot of Cluny. By the beginning of the twelfth century, the num-ber of subordinate houses had risen to three hundred, the number of monks to ten thousand. Next to Rome, Cluny was regarded as the ecclesiastical center of Europe. Equally important to the monastic renewal was a movement, largely successful, to free the monasteries from the control of local lay lords and diocesan bishops. This question of exemption is a very involved affair, but it seems good to present a summary of the chief develop-ments in order that we may view with objectivity the events of the tenth and later centuries.13 The early monks, usually far removed from the cities (and from the bishops resident there), tended to develop independently of the hierarchy. The cenobitic life, more-over, demands a certain independence for the superior, or else he is superior in name only and powerless to lead his monks. Hence a certain tension developed between the legitimate abbatial desire for independence, and the likewise legitimate episcopal concern lest diocesan dis-cipline be subverted. The oldest extant conciliar legislation regarding monks and domestic ascetics goes back to the fourth century. The Council of Gangra in Paphlagonia (c. 340- 350) issued a series of anathemas against false ascetics; a council at Saragossa (380) speaks of the cleric who be-came a monk out of a spirit of pride and makes provi-sion for religious profession and veiling of virgins.14 Im-portant here is the fourth canon of the Council of Chalcedon (451): Those who lead a true and sincere monastic life ought to en-joy due honor. Since, however, there are some who, using the monastic state as a pretext, disturb the churches and the affairs of state, roam about aimlessly in the cities, and even undertake to establish monasteries for themselves, it is decided that no one shall build or found a monastery or a house of prayer without the consent of the bishop of the city. It is de.cided furthermore that all monks in every city and country place shall be subject to 13 The following remarks on exemption are taken for the most part from E. Fogliasso, "Exemption des religieux," Dictionnaire de droit canonique, v. 5, col. 646-51. 1, Hefele-Leclercq, Histoire des Conciles, v. 1.2 (Paris: 1907), pp. 1029-45; 986-7. the bishop, that they love silence and attend only to fasting and prayer, remaining in the places in which they renounced the world; that they shall not leave their monasteries and burden themselves either with ecclesiastical or worldly affairs or take part in them unless they are commissioned to do so for some necessary purpose by the bishop of the city; that no slave shall be received into the monasteries and become a monk without the consent of his master. Whosoever transgresses this decision of ours shall be excommunicated . ~ Though the text seems to subject the monks without any restriction to the local bishop, E. Fogliasso comes to a different conclusion. In his opinion, the council merely stated the general principle that monks are sub-ject to the bishop but did nothing to revoke the various customs which in practice limited episcopal control, The council did not annul the authority of abbots, nor did it reserve to the bishop the choice of the abbot, nor did it regulate the administrative relations between monastery and diocese; all of these continued in the same way as beforehand. In short, .relations between bishop and monks were not yet precisely regulated. The Council of Chalcedon had dealt chiefly with problems of the East rather than of the West, and there were comparatively few Western bishops in attendance. Hence the canons did not impress the Western bishops with their urgency; just four years after Chalcedon a council was held in Aries which, among other concerns, regulated the relations of bishop and monks. Without saying so in so many words, the council in effect held that the bishop was to regulate the external activities of the monks, while the monks were independent of the bishop in their internal affairs. This division of control (which later became normative in the West) was not ac-cepted everywhere immediately. Some particular coun-cils, especially the African, gave to the monks a very great liberty; other councils subjected the monks more strictly to the bishop. With St.: Gregory I, the concept of the regimen inter-num became more precise. St. Gregory desired that the internal independence of the monasteries be preserved, particularly in the choice of the abbot and in temporal administration. A short time later, in 628 to be exact, Pope Honorius I (625-638) went much further: he re-moved the monastery of Bobbio (founded near Milan in 613 by the wandering Celt St. Columban) completely from the jurisdiction of the local ordinary. Monasteries in Benevento (714 and 741) and Fulda (751) were granted exemptio.n by the Apostolic See in the next century. About this time, another current of events was leading a~ H. H. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees o] the General Councils (St. Louis: Herder, 1937), p. 92. -I. ÷ ÷ The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 1966 757 ÷ + + to or at least facilitating exemption from the bishop: the so-called "gift to St. Peter." 16 Pious laics would found a monastery and then give it to St. Peter, repre~ sented by his vicar in Rome. The prestige of the Apostle and of his vicar were so great, it was hoped, that no king, bishop, or lesser person would dare seize the foundation for his own ends. A few examples of this occur in Italy in the eighth century; in the ninth cen-tury, the custom crossed over the Alps.17 In this period, too, certain lay persons were persuaded to abandon the dominium that they had acquired over religious houses. In virtue of this and in virtue of the above mentioned donation to St. Peter, many monasteries succeeded in avoiding or in freeing themselves from lay control. This independence from local lay control must have also en-couraged the monks to seek exemption from the reli-gious control of the local ordinary. After this long digression to obtain the background, we return to Cluny; at its foundation in 910 it was do-nated to St. Peter; a few years later (912) it was given exemption from episcopal authority by Pope Anastasius III. This exemption it communicated to all the monas-teries subject to it, in virtue of a special papal concession given in order that the reform work of Cluny might be furthered. Toward the end of the tenth century, the question of exemption became more difficult. Many monks felt that the local bishop was not respecting their rights: he would demand the fulfillment of unjust and unreason-able conditions before he would perform the services for which only he had the power and jurisdiction. The bishops on the other hand claimed that the monks were exceeding their rights and privileges: disparaging the prelates, absolving from censures when they had no au-thority to do so, and so forth. In the pontificate of Pope Gregory V (996-999), exemptions multiplied both in number and in extension. Cluny was the beneficiary of further privileges: no one, not even the local ordinary, could enter the monastery to ordain without the permis-sion of the abbot, and the abbot could invite any bishop to ordain his men without even consulting the ordinary of the place. As a result of these and similar privileges, the great abbeys succeeded from the beginning of the eleventh century in freeing themselves completely from the authority of the diocesan bishop. This exemption soon characterized all the monastic orders. ¯ M. A. Roche~ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 10 Emile Amann, "L'Eglise au pouvoir des laics," in v. 7 of Fliche- Martin's Histoire de l'Eglise (Paris: Bloud and Gay, 1948), pp. 343-64. 1~ It should be noted that this donation referred to the temporalities of the abbey; it had nothing to do with withdrawing the monastery from the spiritual jurisdiction of the local ordinary. Other centrally organized Benedictine groups came into existence after Cluny: the Camaldolese founded about 1015 by St. Romuald (950-1027); the Vallombro-sians begun about 1038 by St. John Gualbert (958- 1073). Distinct from these were the more eremitical Carthusians initiated about 1084 by St. Bruno (1030- 1101); to them Innocent XI in 1688 gave the supreme compliment: "Cartusa nnmqnam reformata, quia num-quam deformata." In the twelfth century, the leadership in vigorous, creative monastic life passed from Cluny to Citeaux, established in 1098 by St. Robert (1029-1111). The dis-tinctive features of this new Benedictine movement in-cluded: (a) white rather than black habits; (b) a strong insistence on the observance of poverty; (c) the establishment of monasteries far from the haunts of men; (d) a lessening of liturgical prayer and an increase of private prayer; and (e) a provision for uniting all the houses together into an integrated order, the first of its kind and precur-sor of many others. The houses of the older Cluniac reform were theo-retically under the control of the motherhouse, but they soon became too numerous for one abbot to rule. In the Cistercian system each monastery retained a large degree of autonomy, but there were also certain unify-ing factors. Identical service books were provided for all houses; each abbey was visited annually by the abbot of Citeaux or by the abbot of one of the four other oldest foundations (La Ferte, Pontigny, Clairvaux,18 Mori-mond); every year all the abbots assembled at Citeaux in a general chapter in order to maintain unity and mu-tual charity and to take such legislative and disciplinary actions as might be necessary. The Cistercians are usu-ally credited with the introduction (or better, reintro-duction) of laymen into the monastery. In Cluny and its dependent houses, all monks were clerics and took part in choir; manual labor was done by serfs. The Cister-cians admitted to tI~e habit such as were nnwilling or unable to become choir monks. These non-choral reli-gious were called "conversi" or lay brothers; they did the manual work of the monastery and were complete though subordinate members of the monastic family. Though Citeaux at first refused exemption from episcopal authority, it later accepted that privilege. As with Cluny, the primitive fervor of the Cistercians is Clairvaux was made famous by its abbot St. Bernard (1090-1153), the most influential ecclesiastic of his time. The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 1966 759 4. 4. 4. M. ~. Roche, .M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS '760 gradually waned. The downfall of the order has been attributed to internal disorder around the beginning (1378) of the Great,Western .Schism; self-willed abbots abused local autonomy, capitulated to national differ-ences, and allowed frequent exceptions to the rule. Learning came into prominence, flesh meat was allowed, wealth .and pomp entered in. Efforts to restore pristine observance broke dowm with the cessation of general chapters in 1411 during the Great Western Schism. The order later split into congregations more or less dis-tinct. ; Thus far this article has limited itself to the monastic life. It should be noted that the influence of the monastic life upon the non-religious clergy has been profound. It is perhaps not too much to say that clerical celibacy be-came morally necessary in the West in order to main-tain the prestige of the parochial clergy against odious comparison with monks. The more zealous ~ among the non-monastic clergy have always been eager to borrow such elements of religious observance as would be com-patible with their duties. It may be that the direct in-fluence of the Cluniac reform upon the secular clergy has been exaggerated; but undoubtedly the spiritual success, of Cluny suggested the advantage of cooperative effort in promoting one's individual holiness and~ in furthering reform on a broader scale. Up until the time of Gregory the Great, it will be recalled, monasticism was chiefly ~a lay movement; few clerics were involved. The only place in which there was a number of clerics was in the city, for only the city needed the services of more than a few ministers. Those clerics who lived together in a city under a rule (usually with their bishop at the head) were' not known as monks; later they would be known as canons regular. The credit for organizing the first body of ministers in the common life is usually given to St. Eu~ebius of Vercelli (d. c. 370), though the influence of St. Augustine (354- 430) in this field was much more profound. At the time of the barbarian invasions, the canonical life as well as many other Christian practices suffered greatly; in fact the next great man whose name is strongly associated with the canonical life is St. Chrodegang of Metz (700- 786), who is considered the proximate founder of the canonical life in the Teutonic West.19 His ideal was to lOThe canons were distinguished from the monks by their es-sentially pastoral orientation, The canon was basically a member of the pastoral clergy who followed a rule and lived in common with others of like mind in order to sanctify himself and to make.his work mo~e effective. The monk, on the other hand, became a monk not in order to minister but in order to seek God; if he later became a priest and did work among the people, this was not an essential part of his vocation as a monk. combine the apostolate to the laity with the practice of monastic asceticism; he therefore adapted the rule of St. Benedict to the life of the parochial clergy, prescrib-ing a common dwelling, common table, and common dormitory. Chanting of the Divine Office was to take place at fixed hours. It is uncertain why these men were called "canons." Perhaps it was because their names were inscribed on a "canon", that is, on a list; or maybe because they re-citedthe horae canonicae; maybe because they lived ac-cording to a canon or rule. Their institute was especially (and perhaps uniquely) suited to churches where many priests were attached. Though the institution of canons did considerable good for'a while, it had within itself a cancer which would destroy it: the absence of a rule of poverty. Archbishop Gunther of Cologne about the middle of the ninth century authorized his canons to use and administer the ecclesiastical revenues at will, and very soon the common life ended for those canons. Other groups of canons followed the example of Co-logne, and by the end of the ninth century there were few canons still living the common life. Those canons who lived in private dwellings but still were attached to the cathedral or collegiate churches came to be known as secular canons (which is almost a contradiction in terms); those canons who continued to live the common life were known as regular canons (which is almost redundant). In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there occurred a great revival among the canons, as elsewhere in the Church; in many secu-larized cathedral and collegiate chapters, canonici saecu-lares began to live the common life again and thus be-came canonici regulares2°. The best known group of canons regular are the Premonstratensians~ founded about 1120 by St. Norbert (1080-1134). They remained subject to the local bishop, rejecting all exemption un-til the fifteenth century. A second group is the Canons Regular of St. Victor, formed in 1108 by William of Champeaux (1071-1121). There were in addition many loosely knit bodies of Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, usually of diocesan proportions; they numbered some four hundred housesby the sixteenth century.21 The age of the Crusades produced the next species of religious observance: the military orders, which com-bined practices of the monastic life (including the three vows) with the chivalry of knighthood. The government ~o Karl Bihhneyer, Church History, trans. Victor E. Mills, v. 2 (Westminster: Newman, 1963), p. 222. ~The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are to be distinguished from the Hermits of St. Augustine later fused by papal authority into the Augustinian Friars. 4. 4. 4- The Male Religious VOLUME 25, ~966 761 ÷ ÷ ÷ M. A. Roche, C.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 762 of these military orders was,, as may be expected, strongly centralized; only the general chapter could limit the power.0f the grand master. The Knights of St. John or Hospitalers were organized around a hospital in Jeru-salem by a knight named Gerard (d. c. 1120). Succes-sively removed to Rhodes and Malta, they still survive. The Knights Templar were formed at Jerusalem in II19 ,by Hugh of Payens and seven other French knights. Like the Knights of St. John, they defended the Holy Land with courage; they were, however, sup-pressed by Pope Clement V in 1312. The Knights of St. Mary were instituted at Acre around 1198; eventually they became preponderantly German (whence the name Teutonic Knights), and moved their field of operations to the Baltic. In 1525 the grand master Albert of Brandenburg secularized the order's holdings, erected them into the hereditary Duchy of Prussia, and. became a Lutheran. Even though a Protestant as well as a Catho-lic branch of the order survived, for all practical pur-poses the order was dead. Other knightly orders existed ~n the Iberian peninsula. These military orders had a relatively brief existence; of far greater importance to the history of the Church are the mendicant orders which next appeared: The emergence of the me0dicant orders was associated with the growth of cities in Western Europe. By the thirteenth cen-tury, that part of the world was beginning to move out of the almost exclusively agricultural economy which had followed the decline of the Roman Empire and the disappearance of the urban civilization that had characterized that realm. Cities were once more appearing. It was to deepening the religious life of the populace of the cities and towns that the friars devoted much of their energy. Most of the monasteries had chosen solitude and centers remote from the contaminfiting influences of the world. In contrast, the mendicant orders sought the places where men congregated and endeavoured to bring the Gospel to them there. The older monasteries were associated with a prevailing rural and feudal ,milieu. The mendicant orders flourished in the rapidly growing urban populations,m The mendicants are usually listed as four: the Car-melites whose foundations were laid in 1156; the Franciscans begun by St. Francis of Assisi (1181 or 1182- 1226) and given tentative approval in 1210; the Order of Preachers instituted by St. Dominic (I170-1221) and approved in 1216; the Augustinians, amalgamated and formed as an order only in 1256.28 Sometimes the list of mendicants is expanded in order to include the Ser-vites: established in 1223 by seven youths from aristo-cratic Florentine families, the group was constituted an = Latourette, History of Christianity, p. 428. = The order formed in 1256 was composed of preexisting congre-gations, one of which had been founded by St. William about 1156. order in 1240, although final approval did not come un-til 1304. The largest of the mendicant groups owes its origin to St. Francis of Assisi. He wrote a rule for his followers in 1221, and a second one in 1223. After his death, the friars (First Order) split, chiefly on the question of pov-erty, into the Observants and Conventuals. The Second Order developed from the little group of women headed by St. Clare. The Third Order, established in.1221 under the name of the Brothers and Sitters of Penance, de-veloped into the Third Order Secular '(persons living in the world), the Third Order Regular, and numerous other tertiary organizations basing themselves on the Franciscan rule. The friars of the various orders quickly spread and rapidly attracted large numbers of members. Perhaps this Was due to the fact that they combined in an obvi-ous way the love of God (as' did the monks) with service to others. This growth b~ought the mendicants into re-peated conflicts with the secular ~lergy. The friars were by the nature of their institute destined to go°and to minister to the people everywhere. To do this, they needed exemption from the diocesan bishops, exemp-tion that was not local (as in a monastery), but personal. This exemption the popes gladly gave, for they saw 'in the friars a most powerful aid in the work of reform. During the fourteenth century, the Brothers of the Common Life, a congregation of laymen without vows under the leadership of Gerard de Groote (1340-1384) did much to revitalize education. They attempted to combine a thorough Catholic training with the new classical curriculum. Despite their work and despite the presence of some religious saints, the fourteenth~ century was in general one of decline among monks, canons, and mendicants. In the years around 1350, the Black Death took a heavy toll among the more zealous; While in some lands religious life recovered, in many places the de-terioration in discipline and morals seems to have been especially marked in the latter part of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth centuries. Besides the Brothers of the Common Life, only a few small religious groups were founded. There were nevertheless some attempts at re-form among the Franciscan groups and among the Dominicans. The Augustinian friars experienced a re-form in certain countries; it was to an Observant friary that Martin Luther would apply. The Carmelites un-derwent a reform movement in Italy about 1413, but this gradually spent itself. In general, these pre-Triden-tine reforms lacked thoroughness and permanency. At the time of the Reformation, consequently, many religious houses were in a low spiritual state and their ÷ ÷ The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 196~ 763 + + + M. A. Roche, C.M. REWEW FOR .~ELm~OUS 764 members were unprepared to meet the attractions of Protestantism. The list of those who embraced the new religion included many priests and nuns. Reform came, though somewhat late, to the older or-ders. The Dominicans, less in need of moral than in-tellectual renewal, were given impetus in the latter field by Cardinal Cajetan (1469-1534). The Franciscans were again reorganized (in 1517) into Conventuals and Ob-servants; a later offshoot of the latter group is the Capuchins. The Augustinians were reformed by their general, Giles of Viterbo (d. 1532). The work of renewal undertaken on behalf of the Carmelites by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) and St. Teresa (1515-1582) re-sulted in the separation of the new Discalced Carmelites from what came to be called the Calced Carmelites. Re-form was also undertaken with more or less success by the Benedictines,~4 Camaldolese,~5 Ciste~'cians,2~ Canons P,.egular,"-'7 and other groups. Before the opening of the Council of Trent (1545- 1563), the reform movement in the Church had pro-duced a number of new institutes. Prominent among these are the clerks regularY8 Included in this group are the Theatines founded in 1516 by St. Cajetan of Thiene (1480-1547); the Barnabites initiated in 1532 by St. An-thony Zaccaria (1502-1539); and the Somaschi begun in 1532 by St. Jerome Aemilian (1481-1537). The most important of these pre-Tridentine founda-tions was the Society of Jesus begun in 1540 by St. Ig-natius of Loyola (1496-1556). The Society had many unique qualities, so that some feel that it should be classified not as an order of clerks regular but in a sepa-rate classification.-~9 Among the distinctive features of the Jesuits were: (a) a two-year novitiate; (b) the deferral of profession for ten, fifteen, or more years after the novitiate; .-4 A reformed cmlgregation of Benedictines that received papal ap-proval in 1604; an offshoot of this reform is the later Congregation of St. Maur. = Paolo Giustiniani (1475-1528) worked to restore the primitive spirit of the Camaldolese. -~ A reformed group of Cistercians (the Feuillants) arose in France under the leadership of Jean de la Barri~re (1544-1600). In 1662 Ar-mand de Ranc~ (d. 1700) initiated the reform of La Trappe. -~ Peter Fourier (1565-1640) worked to renew the canons regular in Lo~:raine. ~ The clerks regular are distinguished from (a) canons regular, in that the clerks do not have Office in choir in order to have more time for the ministry; (b) monks, in that they are pastorally oriented; (c) mendicants, in that they do not subsist from alms and do not recite the choral Office; and (d) secular priests, in that that they live a com-mon life with vows. -~ Ricardo Garcia Villoslada, Historia de la lglesia Cat61ica, v. 3 (Madrid: 1960), p. 827. (c) the division into the professed of the four vows (a minority who take solemn vows); and the ordinary members, coadjutors spiritual (priests) and coadjutors temporal (lay brothers); (d) the great power of the superior general; (e) a fourth vow of obedience to the Roman Pontiff; and (f) the elimination of the choral Office. The members of the Company wore no garb other than the ordinary dress of secular clerics; made much of study; and engaged in works of education, mission; and controversy. They were ch.iefly responsible for halting the further spread of the Reformation; indeed, they often succeeded in winning back regions that had fallen to Protestantism. Especially noteworthy .were their works in the foreign missions. After much delay, the Council of Trent finally opened in 1545. Besides the many other pressing problems, the Council fathers interested themselves also in the ques-tion of religious orders. By this time exemption had grown so universal that it created administrative chaos in the Church. The council decided what the local or-dinary could do in regard to regulars jure ordinario, jure delegato and utroque simul jure. Thus, for exam-pie, a bishop was empowered to punish regulars for crimes committed outside the house, if his superiors failed to act, and so forth, In general, Trent preserved the internal autonomy of religious, but subjected them to the authority of the local ordinary in all ministry to the bishop's people and in all things looking to the common good of the Church. After the Council of Trent, a new type of clerical life became exceedingly popular: that of secular priests liv-ing in common but not bound by vows.s° One of the earliest of these groups was the Oratory founded in 1564 by St. Philip Neri (1515-1595). The members of the ora-tory lived together without vows, retained their own property, and provided for their own needs except for lodging. The superior was more a chairman than a ruler, since no public act could be decided without the approbation of a majority of the members. Each house was independent, although the personal influence of St. Philip was very great. In France, Pierre Cardinal de B~rulle (1575-1629) organized a French oratory on the principles of St. Philip, though the independence of each house was re- ~o These priests resemble the canons of the time of St. Chrodegang in that they are priests living in common without vows. The canons of St. Chrodegang were almost all in the parochial ministry; the newer groups, on the other hand, engage in a great variety of works: parishes, schools, seminaries, domestic missions, foreign missions, and so forth. + + + The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 1966 765 ÷ ÷ ÷ M. A. Roche, .M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 766 placed by a type of federation. Similar groups were the Oblates of St. Ambrose initiated in 1578 in Milan by St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584); the Doctrinaires begun in 1592 by Caesar de Bus (1544-1607); the Lazarists or Vincentians" founded in 1625 by St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660); the Sulpicians begun in 1642 by Jean- Jacques Olier (1608-1657); the Eudists formed in 1643 by St. Jean Eudes (1601-1680); the Paris Foreign Mis-sion Society organized in 1660 at Paris by Pope Alex-ander VII (1599-1667). After the Council of Trent there also arose new com-munities of religious who differed from the newer com-munities of secular priests in that they took the usual three vows of religion, and from the older orders in that these vows were not solemn but simple.The great ma-jority of post-Tridentine religious groups are of this type. Among them are the Camillans organized in 1584 by St. Camilhls de Lellis (1550-1614); the Passionists begun in 1737 by St. Paul of the Cross (1694--1775); the Redemptorists started by St. Alphonsus Ligouri (1696- 1787); the Company of Mary initiated by St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716). The above congregations were composed chietly of priests; St. John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719) organized abont the year 1684 a congrega-tion of non-clerics, the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Despite these new foundations and despite the re-newal of the older orders, the religious life began to decay ;~gain during the second half of the eighteenth cen-tury. Gallicanism, Josephism, Jansenism, and subservi-ence to the king seriously weakened Catholic life in gen-eral and reached even into religion. The suppression of the .Jesuits by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 temporarily removed the Society from the scene; the French Revolu-tion and the Napoleonic era dealt harshly with com-munity life in what remained of Catholic Europe. The one other area of ltourishing religious observance, Span-ish America, lost most of its monasteries and convents during the wars for independence and the subsequent years of turmoil. In 1815, then, the religious life among clerics had to ;i large degree disappeared; but the nineteenth century witnessed an extraordinary revival. The Society of Jesus (granted some sort of recognition in 1801) was restored to the whole world in 1814. The Benedictines--their houses reduced to about thirty--took on new life. Not the least of their contributions was the impetus given to liturgical study and liturgical worship by Dora Gu~r-anger. The Cistercians reopened many old monasteries and made new foundations. The Dominicans acquired fresh vigor--the name of Lacordaire. is important here-- and qnickly accepted the invitation of Leo XIII to re- vive the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Fran-ciscans were again reorganized in 1897. Numerous new institutes of clerics arose, almost all (if not all) congregations with simple vows. St. ,John Bosco (1815-1888) begafi the Salesians; Blessed Peter Julian Eyniard (1811-1868) started the Priests of the Blessed Sacrament. The Congregation of the Immacu-late Heart of Mary (1841) of Venerable Frances Lieber-mann merged with the Fathers of the Holy Ghost in 1848; William Chaminade initiated the Marianists around 1815 or 1816; in 1816 Eugene de Mazenod founded the Oblates of Mary Immaculate; in the same year Jean Claude Marie Colin (1790-1875) began the Marists. Blessed Vincent Palotti (1798-1850) about 1835 formed the Pious Society of the Missions, soon called after him the Pallotine Fathers; two existing groups united in France in 1842 to form the Congregation of Holy Cross. In 1898 the Anglican Father Paul Francis established the Society of the Atonement; in 1908 he and most of his followers were received into the Church. Several new congregations of religious clerics with simple vows were initiated solely or primarily for work on the foreign missions. Among these are the Congrega-tion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary begun in 1863 by Theophile Verbiest in Belgium; the Society of the Di-vine Word inaugurated in 1875 by Arnold Janssen; the Mill Hill Fathers, started in England in 1866 by Her-bert Cardinal Vaughan. In addition to the above religious congregations, sev-eral societies were formed for priests living in commu-nity without vows: the Precious Blood Fathers started in 1815 by Gaspar del Bufalo; the Paulists formed by Isaac Hecker (1819-1888); the Maryknoll Fathers established in 1911 by James Walsh and Thomas Price; the Joseph-ite Fathers inaugurated in 1893; the White Fathers be-gun by Charles Cardinal Lavigerie in Algiers in 1868. As this paper draws to a close, perhaps it will be help-ful to give a panoramic view of the religious life as we have it today in the western Church. The modern canoni-cal organization of the religious life is divided into the orders (in which solemn vows are pronounced) and con-gregations (in which simple vows are taken). Included among the orders (in their order of precedence) are: (a) canons regular, for example, the Canons Regular of St. Augustine at St. Maurice, Switzerland; (b) monks, such as Benedictines, Cistercians, and so forth; and (c) other regulars, such as mendicants (Franciscans, Dominicans, and so forth) and clerks regular (Barnabites, Jesuits, and so forth). ÷ ÷ ÷ The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 1966 767 + + M. A. Roche, C.M. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 768 Among the congregations aye the Passionists, Redemp-torists, Salesians, and most of the newer groups. Somewhat like the congregations are the societies of secular priests living in common without vows: Sulpi-cians, Vincentians, Maryknoll, Paulists, and so forth. It seems fitting here to add a word about secular in-stitutes. They are societies, whether clerical or lay, whose members profess the evangelical counsels in the world in order to attain Christian perfection and to ex-ercise a full apostolate. Though these institutes are still in the embryonic stage, they show much promise [or the future. A treatment of these, is beyond the scope of this article, but it is interesting to note that they are somewhat akin to (though better organized than) the groups of domestic ascetics of the first century. The wheel has returned to its starting place. At the end of this article, it seems appropriate to list some conclusions that may be drawn from a study of the historical aspect of religious life.al (1) The practice of the evangelical counsels with or without vows has always been esteemed in the Church; moreover, it has a necessary.role to play. (2) As a general rule, religious orders increase in power between general councils as a result of papal grant. During general councils, religious usually lose power as a result of episcopal action. (3) A good criterion for the vitality of the Church in any period or in any area is the vitality of the religious (and especially of the monastic) observance. (4) Every approved form of religious life gives wit-ness to a special attribu'te of God or to a special truth that needs emphasis. The monk, for example, witnesses to the absolute primacy of the supernatural; the Domini-can to the wisdom of God; the Franciscan to the neces-sity of detachment and to the joy of the Christian life; the Mayknoller to God's universal salvific will, and so forth. In addition to this basic emphasis, most religious engage in work for the people. At times it may seem that a par-ticular form of religious life is today not the most efficient type for external work; perhaps, for example, the choral Office or prescribed manual labor or the vow of poverty may hinder to some degree the work of the ministry. This does not mean, however, that a seemingly less efficient group should be allowed to die; nor that it ought to change its nature radically. Every religious group still serves a most useful purpose in the Church by witnessing to its basic orientations. In the case o[ those who vow = Some of these points were made by Pope Paul VI in his allocu-tion, Magno gaudio, of May 23, 1964, treating of the religious life; an English translation of the allocution can be found in REVIEW FOR RELIC~OUS, V. 23 (1964), pp. 698-704. poverty, for example, their profession of detachment is of great value to the Church and ought not to be aban-doned lightly. (5) As a corollary to the foregoing, it can be said that religious orders and congregations ought to adhere as closely as possible to the spirit given them by their founders, for only then can they give the witness for which they were created. A further corollary is that there is need for a periodic examination of conscience by every order and congregation to see whether it has really kept its original orientation. (6) The history of religious life is not necessarily an e~colution from a less perfect to a more perfect form. A particular form appears because changed conditions have called for a new mode of religious observance. Thus the monastery (and it alone) was ideal in the agrarian society of the early Middle Ages; there was in fact little call for wandering friars. The reurbanization of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries did not necessitate the abandonment of monasticism; but it did call for another expression of the religious life, and the friars appeared. (7) As a corollary of this, it is quite possible that mod-ern times demand new types of religious life, types which up till now have not been tried. It is also quite possible that these new forms will have a difficult birth, that some attempts will be premature and abortive. Only time will tell. In the past, certain representatives of es-tablished forms of the religious life have with the best of intentions attempted to thwart men seeking to estab-lish newer forms of religious observance. It would be a tragedy if today we repeat these errors of the past. It would be far better if the established orders, congrega- ¯ tions, and societies would assist these new attempts with their counsel, encouragement, and prayer. Love of one's own institute ought not to blind a man to the fact that there are other ways of serving God. We know that God is wonderful in His saints; He is also wonderful in the variety and holiness of religious life. The Male Religious VOLUME 25, 1966 769 SISTER TERESA MARGARET, O.C.D. Updating the Cloister ÷ ÷ ÷ Sister Teresa Margaret, O.C~D,, writes from the Carmelite Mona-stery; Bridell, (~ar-digan; Wales. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS We have reached a turning point in history, it would seem, when the world is taking a new path and when, in the words of the late Cardinal Suhard, "the greatest mis-take the Christians of the twentieth century could make would be to let the world develop and unify itself with-out them." In saying this, the cardinal was urging the Church to emerge from her closed circle and become immersed in the activity of the world. But his words apply no less to the necessity of the religious "emergence" by shedding the inhibitions and barnacles of centuries. Adaptation and Renewal. Cardinal Suenens and other notable writers on the subject of religious reform have confined their suggestions and criticisms, to the active apostolate, specifically excluding the enclosed orders of ~women from their remarks. This has been interpreted in many cloisters as indicating that in our case no updat-ing was necessary, either because our customs and the externals of our life were "changeless" (which, in effect, merely means that they have not changed since the sixteenth century), or because they are so perfect in themselves that they stand in no need of renewal-- which sounds like the stock formulation of Pharisa-ism. Glosses traditionally applied to the monastic life as an anticipation of heaven or a continuation of the Gospels should be taken for what they are--metaphors --and not lead cloistered religious to believe that they form a privileged elite of humanity, a class of Christian different from and superior to all others. Everything human changes with time except human nature itself; and in a world subject to continuous alteration; it would indeed be a rare individual or community that stood in no need of renovation. Any lingering doubts on this score should be dispelled by the Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of the Religious Life promulgated by Paul VI on October 28, 1965: The adaptation and renewal of the religious life includes both the constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time. [but] even the best adjust-ments made in accordance with the needs of our age will be in-effectual unless they are animated by a renewal of spirit . Therefore let constitutions, directories, customs books, books of prayer and ceremonies and such like be suitably re-edited and, obsolete laws being suppressed, be adapted to the decrees of this sacred synod . Papal cloister should be maintained in the case of nuns engaged exclusively in the contemplative life. However, it must be adjusted to conditions of time and place and obsolete wactices suppressed? External Reforms 1. Enclosure. A recently published symposium entitled Religious Orders in the Modern World2 contains as the last and longest contribution a survey of practical aspects of renewal made by the Bishop of Arras, Mgr. Gerard Huyghe, a couple of years ago. Bishop Huyghe does not limit himself to criticisms of outmoded customs, and dress that hamper the exercise of the active apostolate but turns his searchlight also upon the cloister. Present forms of enclosure, he rightly says, are a legacy from' the Middle Ages, grilles, curtains, and turns being, "doubtless a survival from the long period of Moslem domination over the Iberian peninsula," a weight of custom that is purposeless and ridiculous in this age. Certainly it is advisable for [cloistered] nuns to live entirely apart from the world--partly for protection against the noise of the world, and as a defense against the temptation to go out too much; but mainly as an unequivocal sign that they have chosen to offer their services gratuitously to praise God in the Church's name. But all external signs of such enclosure should be ruth-lessly eliminated, and the law on enclosure for nuns should be brought into harmony with the law on monks' enclosure, which is much more humane and has more respect for the dignity of the person . Canonical penalties like excommunication should be abolished, because they are a threat to none but the scrup-ulous; 8 I would like to make it clear at the outset that in relegating grilles and prison bars to the category of "obsolete practices" which the decree recommends should be "suppressed," I am in no way championing claustral emancipation in the sense of more contact with the secular world, or any mitigation of the monastic need for withdrawal and rules of silence and solitude. But it is a poor form o~ "aloneness with God" that can be enforced only under lock and key. If one has not already erected a cloister of the heart, no multiplying of bolts and veils will provide the necessary withdrawal, which is something essentially interior. No, my reasons ~ Decree on Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life, nos. 2, 3, 16. -" Geoffrey Chapman (ed.), Religious Orders in the Modern World (London: 1965). ~ Ibid., p. 156. Updating the Cloister VOLUME 25, 1966 771 + Sister Teresa Margaret REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS for assuming the grille to be obsolete are all strictly utilitarian. It hinders vocations, creating antagonism and an entirely false and unhealthy conception of the con-templative life in the modern generation; it causes un-told and unnecessary suffering for parents; and it serves no useful purpose. If I wanted to get out of this cloister tomorrow, I could achieve it with the greatest of ease and without any need to make a dramatic nocturnal escape over the wall. It is anti-feminist discrimination that presumes no woman may be trusted except under lock and key and constant supervision, else why are regulations for enclosed men so different? It is shocking that in this day and age some monasteries of women actu-ally continue the most reprehensible practice of sending "companions" to the parlor so that a sister may not speak to a friend or relative except in the presence of a monitor. If she cannot be trusted in the parlor, then by all means keep her out of it; but do not send her with a hidden vigilante. Again, why may a nun not embrace her mother, or sit with her in the parlor in the normal way, as any monk does when his parents visit him? Why may a monk offer Mass in the public sanctuary of an enclosed convent while the nuns must "participate" from the other side of a grille? These are all matters of discrimination and serve no usefizl or sensible purpose except that since time imme-morial women and children were expected to show so little discretion that they must be confined to the nursery under the watchfi~l eye of a governess. Bishop Huyghe says: A final reason for abolishing some of the externals of the nuns' enclosure is connected with the present needs of the Christian people in liturgical matters. As a nun says: "Priests and sacred ministers are allowed to enter the enclosure to bury the dead (Inter coetera, n. 27). Why should they not also do so for the processions on the Rogation Days and Palm Sunday? It becomes increasingly difficult for us to see why the priest should be left 'marking time' on one side of the grille, while the nuns go off to perform their own little ceremony on the other. Why should a function like the Easter Vigil be cut in two by a grille? Moreover, I do not see why there should be a grille separating the nuns from the altar. Would it not be more reason-able if the priest came in to say Mass and went out as soon as the sacrifice was over?" ' We have been told by the highest authority that cl6istered nuns are not to remain aloof from litur-gical participation by silence, darkened choirs, or veiled faces, but to join in with celebrant and congre-gation in dialogue Masses, hymns, Benediction, Bible vigils, and such services. But present claustral regulations do not facilitate participation, tending to isolate the nuns' choir from the action in the sanctuary and chapel beyond the grille, both physically and psychologically. Ibid., p. 156-7. 2.Habits. Any suggestion to modify nuns' habits meets ~with varying reactions; and, in fact, little practical lead has been given in the matter, although in recent years there has been considerable reduction of the bulk, both in material and unnecessary layers of garment. But the habits still look voluminous, unhygienic, and incon-venient. And they are. Nowadays few would agree that this is an acceptable or reasonable form of penance, for wearing heavy clothes fatigues one unnecessarily and reduces efficiency and working capacity. Is there any reason why habits should not be shorter and lighter so that wasted energy could be redirected into more pro-ductive activities than mere physical exhaustion? Nor can I see much force in the argument that, were habits not at least ankle-length, Poor Clares and Discalced Carmelites who do not wear shoes, would look most inelegant. Granted they would. But why not adopt normal twentieth century footgear as the more sensible alternative? The Council fathers in their decree stress that the religious habit is an outward mark of con-secration to God and therefore "should be simple and modest, poor and at the same time.becoming. In addition it must meet the requirements of health and be suited to circumstances of time and place., the habits of both men and women ~religious which do not conform to these norms must be changed," ~ and that, one imagines, would include the habits of most enclosed orders, male and female, Can one think of anything less practicable than the white habits of Cistercians, Carthusians, and Dominicans? And' th~ fact that brown or black merely do not show th~ dirt is 'little recommendation'. In the interest of simplicity, I fail to see why we can-not have a common habit for all religious. For the various, congregations, teachers, nurses, catechists, social workers, could not each group, rather than each congre-gation, wear a common "religious" dress for inside their convents/and another suitable costume (with, perhaps, a distinguishing badge) for external work? And could' not all cloistered nuns and monks have a common habit, combining the best and most servicei~ble features of all? The cloistered religious could retain veil and scapular (in a modified form), which would clearly differentiate them from their apostolic sisters. Thus a nun would be easily identified on sight without this perennial hunt for a different style to mark off the var-ious orders which has led to such exaggerated headgear in the recent past, when latecomers in the field found that all moderate, styles for coifs had already been snapped up. The badge of the order or congregation would distinguish one's identity and form of work. ~ Decree on Adal~tation and Renewal oI Religious Life, n. 17. + + ÷ Updating the Cloister VOLUME 25, 1966 773 ÷ 4. ÷ Sister Teresa Margaret REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 3. Legislation. Another point that needs urgent re-vision is the framing of our laws, which is at present done exclusively by men who, however learned and holy, simply do not understand women's domestic prob-lems. Thus, no sooner are new regulations issued than it is necessary to apply for dispensations and indults be-cause of local conditions; and it seems an anomalous rule that can be maintained only by constant dispensations. Why [asks Mgr. Huyghe] should [women] not be allowed to share in the work of reformation themselves, as they are the principal persons to be affected by it? It is not fitting that the rules for contemplative houses of women should be made ex-clusively by men, even if these men belong to the same Order as the nuns? Principles of Renewal The above matters are all more or less self-evident, but merely "keeping abreast of the times" or "adapting ourselves to the modern world" is not enough. However, the impressive bulk of bibliography about religious life, theory and practice, theology and pastoral application, does not on the whole contain a great deal of fun-damental thinking or real help. No order or congre-gation can effectively undertake reform or renewal with-out a very clear grasp of the principles that are its underpinning. Too often the accidental has been allowed to shift to main focus so that the means take precedence over the end, customs which have no longer any relevance become canonized and then fossilized until some religious seem to fear that their removal will topple the whole structure of religious life. But surely it is built on a sounder foundation than that. Nor will renewal be effected by adding new gimmicks; merely because they are modern, brightly packaged and labor-saving, they are no more going to effect the necessary aggiornamento of themselves, than those sixteenth century ones they are replacing. There is no such thing as push button renewal. In his speech to the Council fathers proclaiming a jubilee to mark the close of Vatican II, Pope Paul said: We ought not to pay attention to these reforms, however necessary they are, at the expense of those moral and spiritual reforms which can make us more like our Divine Master and better equipped for the duties of our vocation. To this we should attend principally: to our effective sanctification and to realizing our capacities for spreading the Gospel message among the men of our time7 Superiority-complex. Caste spirit is strong in human Chapman, Religious Orders, p. 162. Quoted in the Tablet, Nov. 27, 1965. nature, and religious are human beings. Of course, the religious is not .seeking personal aggrandizement; but she knows that the order she has entered is undoubtedly the most perfect form Of life in the Church. Cardinal Costantini wrote: Take religious individually and you will find them of the highest calibre: broadminded, genuinely devout and often excellent theologians. As individuals they are faithful to the vows., humble.Yet taken together, in the Congregation, the sun1 of these virtues undergoes a change. The members' natural instincts for glory, power and wealth are transferred to the Congregation. The members themselves are humble; but no one must touch d~eir Congregation, its honor or its prestige. The members are poor individually, but do not ask that their Congregation should be poor . s Obvious examples of this have been the blatant an-nexation of saints to which many orders have no legitimate claim and even the fabrication of "saints" who have never existed; the astounding .n~ture of some supposed "relics" that have been exposed and venerated m Europe and the Middle East; and in our own day, the fervor with which, in the face of liturgical renewal, so many orders cling to their own rites and liturgies. Any reform immediately meets with requests from some reli-gious congregation for a dispensation, since a "venerable tradition" in their institute has always celebrated such-and- such a feast as a double of the first class or with a privileged octave, and despite the fact that the Sacred Congregation has issued a uniform ruling for the universal Church, their first instinct is to preserve intact their own beloved rubric. Can religious wonder if at times the laity regard them as being outside the main stream of °the Church's life when they deliberately seek special donditions for no really good reason (except hidebound custom), thus putting themselves into a special category? Religious life is a special consecration to God indeed; but it is a sharing of the life of the Church. Wholehearted participation in that life is essential for any really effective renewal in religious life. To seek anything else wot~Id be no less unfruitful than cutting ourselves off from the sacraments, as death-dealin~ as .closing off a main artery. Reform Is Not Revolt. There are many cloistered nuns who harbor an unexpressed fear that to plunge into the main stream would be synonymous with a loss of monastic 'status, the first step on the downgrade to secularism. Take away the grilles, open the cloister win-dows, let in some fresh air, and who knows what kind of virus and restlessness will find its way in with it. Could this be the thin end of the wedge that will eventually send s Chaptnan, Religious Orders, p. 142. 4- Updating the Cloister VOLUME 25, 1966 775 + ÷ ÷ Sister Teresa Margaret REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS us out into the world to assist in the active, apostolate~ The fathers of the Council have no such scruples: Communities which are entirely dedicated to contemplation, so that their members in solitude and silence,, with constant prayer and penance willingly undertaken, occupy themselves with God alone, retain at all times, no matter how pressing the needs of'the active apostolate may be, an honorabl~ place in the Mystical Body of Christ, whose "members do not all have the same function" (Rom 12:4) . Nevertheless their manner of living should be revised according to the principles and cri-teria of adaptation and renewal mentioned above. However their withdrawal from the world and the exercises proper to the contemplative life should be preserved with the utmost care. [Italics mine]? Nor can adaptation to the twentieth century be interpreted merely as a movement "back to the founders," if by that we mean a literal interpretation of what was laid down and practiced by our founders in the sixteenth, twelfth, or sixth centuries. Yet one hears astounding reports of communities where oil lamps, are still used and bathing is prohibited because the founder had specific remarks to make on such matters. Even more absurd are the accounts of importation, at exorbitant costs, of a particular type of pottery which the founder legislated for refectory use and which can now only be obtained at great expense abroad, handmade and fired, in the precise shade and shape used by the first monastery of the order. Common sense and genuine poverty.demand that we use wl~at is the cheapest and commonest' ware today, as such pottery (now a luxury ware, the art dealer's province) was in the time of the founder. Archaeologism is one of the pitfalls that beset any movement back to the past. Return to Sources. How, then, should we implement the "constant return to the sources of all Christian life and the original spirit of our institutes,'~' as the decree puts it? We cannot return to the conditions, social~ cultural economic, and religious, that prevailed then and which shaped the founders' minds and spirituality, dictating the norms of their institutes. Religious orders no less than civilizations and nations are living entities, subject to growth, change, evolution; and in all live organisms change is an indispensable condition. Only a mummified body does not alter, for even a corpse decays. The original institute cannot be regarded as a finished work, coming down from heaven like the New Je.rusalem, perfect in every detail, which subsequent generations ne~ed only maintain in that condition, occasionally scraping off time's corrosion to restore it to its :pristine glory. Rather it is the mustard seed which grows into a Decree on Adaptation and Renewal o[ Religious LiIe, n. 7. plant, then a huge tree in which the birds of the air shel-ter. The holy rule leaves its mark on all.the members of the order, but no less do they leave their mark on the holy rule, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. I fancy that St. Teresa of Avila would make one of her characteristic "God preserve me from." exclamations were she to find her daughters today clinging like limpets to some outmoded custom that was a normal social acceptance four centuries ago. St. Teresa herself was as strong a champion of flexibility as St. Ignatius was of mobility; and neither of them would have wished their sons and daughters to imprison themselves in the narrow groove of formalism which precludes either. As a concrete example: St. Teresa swept away much of the protocol both of speech and elaborate ceremony surrounding social life in her day, which was meticu-lously observed in religious houses, her attempt being to "return to sources," that is, of the gospel. The result was that her ceremonial and customs book were extremely simple for the times; and if today some of the prescribed c.urtsies, inclinations, and forms of address seem to us excessive that is only because such tokens of personal reverence to teachers and parents have entirely disap-peared from the modern scene. To drop them betokens no disrespect; they are simply archaic. Again, St. Teresa ruthlessly swept away the elaborate clothing, the yards of material, trains, rings, pectoral crosses, croziers, and all the episcopal insignia that abbesses had gradually acquired through the Middle Ages. She laid down unequivocally that habits and cloaks and all garments were to be as spare as decency allowed, so that only the minimum of material and work might be expended on clothing. In St. Teresa's day the Carmelite habit as she reconstituted it was simple to the point of skimpiness. It is not today, but that is because a yard of material now suffices to clothe our modern contemporaries. Even St. Teresa would not wish her daughters to get about in a cotton shift; but in a period when it is ho longer considered immodest for girls to go bareheaded, stockingless, and with bare arms, she might not consider that the Carmelite habit was any longer "as spare as possible." Another interpretation of "returning to the founders" has been that superiors should translate the founder's intentions and principles into present day norms and conditions, bringing the institute into line with them by striving to do what the founder would do here and now in this situation, did she live today instead of in a previous age. But this is not really possible, unless the superior is to become herself a founder or at least a reformer. The superior today has inherited not only the time-honored ÷ ÷ ÷ Updating ,the Cloister VOLUME 25, 1966 + + + Sister Teresa Margare¢ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS traditions, but a way of life that has been approved by the Church for centuries. What she must do is take the situa-tion ~as it exists and work on and with that, for in the first clause of the above quotation, the conciliar decree provides th~ solution to this question: ". constant re-turn to the sources of all Christian life." No founder, however holy, however inspired, is the source of all Christian life. Christ alone is that, and the return to the sources envisaged by the decree can mean only one thing: renewal in the spirit of the gospel according to the par-ticular forms of life framed by the founder for this insti-tute and sanctioned by the Church. When on a Sunday afternoon I look out of my window ~nd see a row of schoolgirls pass, dressed all in black, wearing ridicu-lous berets and led by a sour-faced nun, also in black, I cannot help wondering. Is that really what the Church should look like, what Christianity should look like? Is that the only ex-ample we can give the faithful and the rest of the world? Is that negative attitude 'to the simplest and most elementary values of life the necessary premise of a life consecrated to God? ~o Starting Point: The End. The end of thereligious life is no different from that of ever~ Christian life: the attainment of perfect charity towards God and men. All Christians are called to perfection, to love God and their neighbor with their whole heart an'd mind and strength; and this is exactly what perfection means, this is the essential end Of the Christian life, whether one is a religious or not. The perfect love of God" and men to which each is called in a particular state of life and consonant with his own gifts and graces, is an obligation laid on all: "Ydu therefore .are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48). But the talents we have received differ; and "the administrator must be content with his administration, the teacher with his work of teaching, the preacher with his preaching. Each must perform his own task well; giving alms with generosity, exercising authority with anx-ious care, or doing works of mercy smilingly" (Rom 12:7-8). There are in the Church orders whose purpose is to promote the prayer life of their members, as there are congregations constituted for the performance of char-itable and apostolic works. Each and every form of life and work of mercy, spiritual, corporal or material, contributes to the building up of the Church. "The eye cannot say to the hand, I do not need~thy help; nor again 10 Bernard Besret, S.O.Cist., in Chapman,.Religious Orders, p. 121. The questions of the ends of religious life and return to Gospel sources for principles of renewal are discussed at length in two outstanding egsays by Fr~ Besret in this book. They should be read by all religious interested ih these matters. the head to the feet, I have no need of you" (1 Cor 12:21). The hand, however efficient, is simply incapable of performing the fnnction of the eye, or vice versa, so it is futile to argue whether cloistered nuns should go out and work in soup kitchens or nursing sisters incarcerate themselves in monasteries. But it is well not to lose sight of the fact that the classifications of ',active" and "con-templative" lives are a comparatively modern inno-vation. In the monastic tradition and the writing of the fathers, the terms "active" and "contemplative" do not represent two separate and mutually exclusive states' of life deriving their distinctive character from the work engaged in; they were rather two stages of the same spiritual growth: asceticism or the practice of the virtues (active life); and union with God, knowledge and ex-perience of His love (contemplative life) was the goal. for which the active asdeticism was but a preparation and training. This remains substantially true today. There is no teacher, preacher, missionary, or nurse who is so committed to non-stop activity as to have no time f6r prayer; any more than there is any such creature as a "pure contemplative" so emancipated from the mate-rial needs of this life and the demands of charity as never to engage in some form or degree of activity. I doubt whether any modern exegete would try to defend the overworked interpretation of Luke 10:38-42 as a contrast made by Christ between the apostolate (Martha) and the life of prayer (Mary), let alone that He preferred the second. In fact, many i'ecent works of exegesis have demonstrated clearly that he was in no way pointing to different canonical forms of religious life as we know them, but which were neither born nor thought of during His lifetime. Every active missionary since St. Paul understands the need of a vital life of prayer if his apostolate is to succeed; and it is only in this sense that the Church stresses the value of the contemplative life, for unless they called down "an abundant rain of divine graces to make this harvest fertile, the workers ~f the Gospel would reap less fruit." 11 The Church, in proclaiming St. Teresa of Lisieux co-patroness of the missions with St. Francis Xavier, has underlined the mutual assistance of the interior life and apostolate for souls, not only in the missions but in every sphere of activity. St. Teresa and St. Francis Xavier are eminent representatives of the Gospel commandment of love, which is twofold: God and our neighbor. Not that one does the work and the other the praying; such an apportionment is never possible. St. Francis Xavier would not have been the perfect, or even a good, mission-n Pius XI, Umbratilem. + + updating the Cloister VOLUME 25, 1966 779 ary without a deep interior life; nor would St. Teresa have perfectly fulfilled her contemplative vocation unless her love and zeal for souls was overflowing the narrow horizons of her own cloister and embracing the whole world, preparing the ground for future evangelization. But it was fitting that two outstanding patrons should jointly watch over both parts of the commandment. Practical forms of renewal are urgent and necessary; but it must never be forgotten that the principle "First things first" applies here as elsewhere. Unless "they are animated by a renewal of spirit" says the decree, "even the best adjustments made in accordance with the needs of our age will be ineffectual . This must take precedence over even the active ministry." 1.o To attempt anything else is not repairing the foundations; it is merely plastering over cracks. Decree on Adaotation and Renewal of Religious Life, n. 2. 4. 4. Sister Teresa Margaret REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 78O LADISLAS M. ~SRSY, S.J. Directed Re reats vs. Preached Retreats With the expansion and renewal of the retreat move-merit there is an increasing interest in the so called di-rected retreats as distinct from the tradkionally well known preached retreats. Priests who give retreats re-ceive inquiries frequently from persons and communities about the desirability or feasibility of a directed re-treat. The inquiries are in many cases followed by invi-tations to help make one. Moreover, there are retreat masters who insist that all retreats should conform to this apparently new pattern that consists more in direc-tion given personally to each of the retreatants than in talks or conferences given to a community. This movement of directed retreats has existed long enough and made enough progress to permit the assess-ing of its value and its suitability for the needs of vari-ous persons and communities. In this article my intention is precisely to attempt this evaluation; and I shall do it through three steps. First, I shall try to present the method of directed retreats; then I shall recall briefly the way in which preached retreats are given; an.d fi-nally I shall attempt to draw up a balance of advantages and disadvantages that may flow from the application of the two different methods. Directed Retreats A retreat is usually called a directed one when the emphasis is not put on talks and conferences given to a community but on personal prayer under the guidance of the retreat master. Talks to the community are not fully excluded, but they are reduced to a minimum: one or two rather short conferences a day. Even these few conferences would be marked by a certain simplicity and clarity so that the minds of the retreatants might not be overcrowded with ideas, or their nerves over-whelmed with holy but unruly emotions. It would be ÷ ÷ Ladislas M. Orsy, s.J., is professor of canon law at the Catholic Univer-sity; Washington, D.C. 2O017. VOLUME 25, 1966 expected that each one of the persons in retreat will be in close contact with the director and will keep him in-formed about his progress in prayer, about the inner world of his conscience where the grace of God meets his human nature. The retreat master in his turn would help him to discern the inspirations of the Holy Spirit from other movements in his soul and to obey the will of God thus manifested. One can see that the emphasis is on personal activity. Or, more correctly, on a right type of passivity which is the fertile soil for activity. This passivity makes a person able to receive the grace of God, to become aware of the life of God in himself.1 It has a hidden dynamism and very soon it blossoms out into personal activity. One is reminded of the evangelical parable: when the good seed takes root in receptive soil it will finally grow into a large tree. If this is the essence of a directed retreat, the inade-quacy of the term directed comes to the fore. There is really no question of a continuous direction. The retreat master's office is to convey some basic elements of the gospel to the retreatant, letting him penetrate its depth with the light of grace and reason. The work of the director consists more in reviewing and somewhat con-trolling the internal life of his disciple, more in watching over his progress than in giving him direction in the ordinary full sense of the term. The example of John the Baptist is a good illustration of the office of the director: he pointed out the Messiah to the disciples, sent them to Christ, and then withdrew since his mis-sion was accomplished. The retreat master presents the image of Christ to the person under his care, sends him to Christ, then leaves him alone with the Redeemer. It is this meeting that brings into motion the whole internal world of the retreatant. He will experience the attraction of grace that calls him to follow Christ. He + + + L. M. Orsy, S.]. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 782 a The genuine Ignatian method of prayer is really a incthod to build up a disposition in the mind and the heart of the retreatant to receive the grace of simple prayer. The Saint never intended to impose a rigid logical pattern on those who are seeking the grace of God, but he tried to help them to detach themselves from the visible world in order to enter into God's invisible mystery. All the preludes and points in a meditation serve to tune up, to warm up the person to the communications or consolations of the Holy Spirit. Once God's grace is somehow experienced, the method has fulfilled its purpose and the person in prayer should enjoy the freedom of the children of God. No formal meditation in the world could give him so much as the Holy Spirit working in him. Paradoxically, the purpose of the Ig-natian meditation is to help a person to abandon meditation and to take up a simpler form of prayer. St. Ignatius does not seem to think that this development should take a long time. He certainly assumes that some transformation will take place in a well

Issue 12.6 of the Review for Religious, 1953. ; A. M. D. G. Review for Religious NOVEMBER 15, 1953 Pracfice Of ÷he H01y See, I I . Joseph F. Gallen Psychological Testing . William C. Bier The Eucharistic Fast . : . Hi~ary'R. Wer~s MOfU Proprio Jubilee . c.J. McNaspy Communications Questions and Answers News a'nd Views Book Reviews Index for 1953. VOLUME XII NUMBER 6 RI::VII::W FOR Ri::LIGIOUS VOLUME XII NOVEMBER, 1953 NUMBER CONTENTS NEWS AND VIEWS . 281 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE, II--Joseph F. ~Gallen, S.'J .2.8.5 BOOK NOTICES . 290, 316, 329 LETTER ON OBEDIENCI~ . . . 290 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING OF CANDIDATES AND THE THE-OLOGY OF VOCATION---Willlam C. Bier, S.J2.91 OUR CONTRIBUTORS . 304 THE EUCHARISTIC FAST---Hilary R, Werts, S.J . 305 MOTU PROPRIO JUBILEE--C. d. McNaspy, S.J . 317 COMMUNICATIONS . 321 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS-- 29. Correction of Subject by Immediate or Mediate Superior 322 30. Guidance of Subjects by Superiors . 322 31. Local Superior at Council Meeting . 323 32. Local Superior at General Chapter . 324 33. General Council and Suggestions to General Chapter . 324 34. Postulancy and Readmission . ." . 325 BOOK REVIEWS-- Religious Men and Women in the Code; Fundamental Psychiatry; Most Reverend Anthony 'j. Schuler, S.J., D.D.; I Want to See God 326 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS . 330 INDEX FOR VOLUME XII, 1953", . 333 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, November, 1953. Vol. XlI, No. 6. Published bi-monthly: January, March, May,,July, September, and November at the College Press, 606 Harrison Street, Topeka, Kansas,, by St. Mary's College, St. Marys, Kansas, with ecclesiastical approbation. Entered as second class matter 3anuary 15, 1942 at the Post Oflke, Topeka, Kansas, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editorial Board: Jerome Breunig, S.J., Augustine G. Ellard, S.J. Adam C. Ellis, S.J., Gerald Kelly, S.J., Francis N. Korth, S.J. Copyright, 1953, by Adam C. Ellis, S.J. Permission is hereby granted for quota-tions of reasonable length, provided due credit be given this review and the author. Subscription price: 3 dollars a year; 50 cents a copy. Printed in U. S. A. Before wrlfing to us, please consult notice on Inside back cover. News and Views Psychological Testing When we last published an article on the psychological testing of candidates, a religious superior wrote an indignant letter cancelling his subscription and asserting that such testing interferes with the work of the Holy Ghost. Thatthis is a misconception should be evi-dent to all who read Father Bier's article in the present number and a s~cond article to be phblished in January. Whatever may be said 'for or against the value of psychological tests--and we do not claim to have all the answers--it seems clear enough that their use is no more an attempt to "naturMize" religious vocation than is the use of previous medical examinations. Educating Sisters We have just received a very yaluable brochure entitled Directorg of Catholic Women's Colleges with Facilities for the Education oF Sisters. This brochure gives tabulated i'nformation on colleges and motherhouses accredited to offer degree programs, detailing the par-ticular courses provided, the number of Sisters who could be cared for, and the conditions, financial and otherwise, under which they would be received. The information was gathered by the Commit-tee on the Survey Section on Teacher Education of the N.C.E.A. The reason for gathering the information was the fact that many of the smaller religious congregations of women do not have facilities for educating their own members and find the standard costs of "sending Sisters away" prohibitive. These congregations can obtain help from the larger congregations; and this Directorg will show at a glance where and how the help can be obtained. For further information, or for copies of the Directo~g, piease address: Sister Mary Gerard, O.S.F., Chairman, Directory Project, Alverno College, 3401 South 39th Street, Milwaukee 15, Wisconsin. Poor Clares The Poor Clares of New Orleans have prepared a file of at least one hundred 2-inch slides in .black 'and white for use in a still pro-jector. The photos were taken within the cloister, and every" part of the monastery is included. Also prepared is a brief description of every picture. The nuns will send'this file to any desiring to show 281 NEWS AND VIEWS Reoiew for Religious the slides tO interested groups, particularly, young ladies among whom there might be the possibility of a contemplative vocation. They will also send ~lratis literature for distribution, a set of seven large posters, and 6-inch dolls'd~es~ed as" Poor Clar~s. The remailing of, the small slide file is the only expense they would expect the user to assume. Those interested in this vocational project shQ~Id write to: Monastery of Saint Clare, 720 Henry Clay Avenue, N~w Orleans 18, Louisiana. New Indulgence For the purpose of 'increasing devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary ever more and more, Ou~ Holy Father, Pope Plus XII, in. an audience given to the Cardinal Major Penitentiary on March 30, 1953, granted in perpetuum an indulgence of fifty days, to be gained once a day, to those who, keeping on their person a duly blessed rosary of Our Lady, have kissed it devoutly.and at the same time have recited with a pious mind the words of the Angelic Salutation: "H~iil Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, arid blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." (Acta Apostolicae. Sedis, XXXXV [ 19 5 3 ], 31 1.) , Valuable Booklets The Grail Press, St. Meinrad, Indiana, has sent us two booklets of immense value for clerics. Both of them are re-editions. One is Rome and the Study of Scri_pture, which contains a collection of papal enactments on the study of Holy Scripture, together with deci-sions of the Biblica.1 Commission. The price is one dollar. The other booklet is The Popes and the Priesthood, which contains English translations of importgnt statements of the Holy See on the.priest-hoo. d. The price of this booklet is only fifty cents. Rural Parish I, Vorke;'s In our last number (see. p. 242) we promised a more complete account of the Rural Parish Workers of Christ the King. This apostolate was begun by Miss Alice Widmer, a graduate of.Webster College, Webster Groves, Missouri, and Miss LaDonna I-fermann, a graduate of Maryville College of the Sacred Heart, St. Louis. In the summer of 1941 they decided to devote ~heir lives to lay action for the salvation of souls and the extension of Christ's Kingdom by the igractice bf the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. That fall they heard Monsignor (later Bishop) Leo J. Steck speak of the'lick 282 Not~ember, 1953 NEWS AND VIEWS. of priests'in rural.areas, and th'ey: asked him whether they might help in one of these areas. With his assis'tance and that of Father William d. Pe~.old, they began work in the latter's parish of Cottleville, St. Charles Count'/, Mi'ssouri. During that same summer they learned to use the short breviary. The remainder of their story i~ told by tlSemselveL as follows: "Activities ir~ St. Ct~arles County, where we lived in two twelve: by-twelve-foot rooms in a portable schoolbuilding on thechurch grounds, included home visiting, care of the sick, helping the poor, Vacation schools, Sianday school for non-Catholic and pre-s~hool .Catholic children, craft classes for,, dhildren and adults, discussion Clubs in' the homes, w~rk with teen-agers, in'structions of converts'. distribution of Catholic literature and sacramentals, religious and social Welfare work. "Originally we had no thought of a continuing organizatio.n. As'we saw the needs and what could be done we went to see Car-dinal John d. Glennon of beloved memory', who had been a benefac-tor from the first. He encouraged us in our plans to £tevelop a per-manent organization and gave permission to solicit funds for~ p, er-manent home not to be located on parish grounds. Shortly there-after he died. "Sev, enteen months, later we discussed our future with Arch-bishop. Joseph E. Ritter. Three months afterwards he asked us;.to work'among.the miners and farmers of the tiff.aiea in Wash, ington County, the mbst e~ploited region in the St. Louis archdiocese. Through ,his generous assistance and that of Auxiliary Bishop: Charles tt.'Helmsing and Rev. Edward A. Bruemmer of Old Mines, we moved in September, 1949, to Fertile iri the Old Mines parish,of St. Joachim. We entered into parish, activity by beginning the in-struction of ninety-one public-school children and visitation in their homes and began extensive remodeling of an old brick residence eight miles from church. "The Rural Parish Worker program is adjusted to the,.needs of the area and is always pointed to the development of Christian homes and the strength.ening of parish life. In Washington County the following activities take precedence: ~eligiotis and social welfare work: distribution of food and ,clothing; transportation, to church, h.ospitals,_a.nd clinics; Sunday instruction classes; preparation of con-verts: home visiting, and instruction; interpretation of rights and 283. NEWS AND VIEWS duties as citizens; assistance in obtaining State and Federal benefits, doctors' care, hospitalization. "Some assistance is given to a few in adjoining parishes. HOw-ever, since.our home parish of St. ,loachim is one hundred and fifty square miles in size with poor and sometimes no roads,, it occupies most of our time. Attendance at civic meetings and participation in civic affairs are also on the agenda, as are outside works, such as land-scaping, building of small buildings, care of goats, and gardening when we can get to it. "Yearly summer sessions ~nd a year-of-service program are offered to young women thinking of the lay apostolate as a way of life or who wish to give at least part of their lives in. concentrated work for the restoration of Christ in society. "Last fall Rev. Bede Scholz, O.S.B., of Plus X Monastery in Labadie, Mo., was appointed by the Most Rev. Archbishop as our spiritual director. Father Bede, then at Conception Abbey, Concep-tion, Mo., had helped form us in the early days. (We would go for a week of spiritual refreshment to Conception.) Father Bede, Rt. Rev. Monsignor Martin B. Hellriegel, and Rev. Charles P. Schmitt were our spiritual advisers for several years when we lived in St. Charles County. "At the beginning we had literally nothing except a few dollars we had saved when working, a typewriter, phonograph and records ¯ bought for the work, our clothes and personal little belongings. Yet we have neve'r been in want and God has sent everything as it was needed for our neighbors and for us. Today many are assisting by prayer, donations of money and materials. The bills are always with us but we know that Almighty God is also, and we have no fears for the future. We know He will do with us as He wishes and that is all we want. It is with humble hearts that we look back over twelve years of labor in His vineyard and it is with confidence that we invite others--young women from all over the United States--to come to Fertile, to the Center of the Rural Parish Workers of Christ the King, and lend their talents and their labors in this rural aposto-late of service based on the spiritual arid corporal works of mercy for the glory of God and the development of Christian homes; to come to Fertile and help in the world-wide work "of the Church today-- the restoration of Christ to society." The address of the Rural Parish 'Workers of Christ the King is: Route 1, Box 194, Cadet, Missouri. 284 ¯ Pract:iceot: :he l-loly See, II Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. [The first part of this article was published in the September REVIEW, pp. 252- 72.] XII INDULTS OF SECULARIZATION New practice of the Holy See. Secularizati-on is the voluntary de-parture from religion, authorized by an indult of competent ecclesi-astical authority, in virtue of which the subject is separated com-pletely and perpetually from membership in the institute and is freed absolute.ly from all obligations contracted by. religious profession. Since secularization dispenses from all religious vows, even if solemn, it is co~nmonly also called a dispensation from the vows of religion. The Holy See alone may grant secularization in pontifical institutes; in diocesan congregations the Ordinary of the place where the, reli-gious is staying is also competent.34 .Indults of secularization granted by the Holy. See for those who are not priests now contain the following sentence: "This decree ceases to have any validity if not accepted by the petitioner within ten days after being informed of the executorial decree.'qs" It has long been a clea~ principle of canon law .that an indult of seculariza-tion, even ~hou.gh freely petitioned,, may be refused and has no effect until accepted by the religious in question,z6 If within the ten days: (a) the indult is expressly accepted, it becomes effective immediately;37 (b) the induli is neither accepted nor refused, it ceases to have any validity at the end of this period; (~') the indult is definitively refused, all validity of the indult cer-tainly ceases at the end of ten days and. at least more probably immediately upon the definitive refusal.3s In practice a new indult is to be petitioned if the religious repents of his refusal and wishes again 34Can. 638; Bouscaren. II, 173. 3s"Post decem dies a recepta comrnunicatione Decreti exsecutorialis, ex porte Oratoris (ricis), prasens Decretum, si non fuerit acceptatum, nullii~s roboris esto.'" Cf. Gu-ti& rez, CpR, XXIV (1953), 186-197. 36Bouscaren, I; 326. 37Cf. Creusen. ft. 332: Jombart, RCR, II (1926), 151; Piontek, 262 ft.: Ver-meersch, Periodica, XI (1923), 151. a8Cf. Guti~rrez. CpR, XXIV (1953),194-195: Goyeneche, CpR, XVIII (1937). 239-240:.Muzzarelli, p. 172; and Jombart, RCR, II 1926), 150-151, who ap-pears to hold the contrary. 285 ¯ JOSEPH 1:::. GALLEN for Religious to leave during the ten-davy period. ," The practice of the Holy See is not to grant the indult directly to the religious but to give to an intermediary person, for example, the local Ordinary, the f~iculty of granting the indult of secularization to the religious. The actual granting of the indult by this intermedia'ry person is called the executorial decree. The ten days begin to run -from the time the religious is officially notified of the granting of this executorial decree, not from the date of notification of the deciee of the Holy See. The day of notification is not computed. If the no-tification is given on August 1, the ten days expire at midnight of August 1 1-12. This time does not run for any period in which the religious was ignorant of or unable to exercise his right of acceptance and refusal. XII. GENERAL CHAPTER 1. Constitutions rec.ently appro~)ed by the Holy See. One congrega-tion of sisters had difficulty in persuading the S. C. of Religious to approve in a general revision of its constitutions the designation of the Secretary and Bursar General by appointment rather than by election. Appointment was approved about the same time in another general revision without any difficulty and had been permitted in some constitutions approved by the Holy See in the past. The num-ber in the grouping of the smaller houses for the election of delegates. is now rather constantly stated to be at least twelve and not more than twenty-three professed. The S. C. of Religious is consistently including in constitutions an article stating that the duties of the pre-siding local Ordinary or his delegate terminate at the proclamation of the election of the mother general.39 Some recent constitutions con-tain the prescription of the Normae of 1901: "If the Ordinary. is ac-companied by one or more priests, these may in no way take part in the election.''40 The present practice of the Holy See permits not only the secretary general but also the bursar general to be elected a general councillor but neither may be elected as the first councillor. The same practice now rather consistently gives the general chapter the right of declaring matters to be of greater importance and subject to the deliberative vote of the general council. Some recent constitu-tions. also give to the general chapter and council the'right to deter- 39Cf. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, XI (1952), 16-18. 4ONormae of 1901, n. 224. Cf. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, ibid., 17-18. 286 Nooember, 1953 PRACTICE OF THE HOLY SEE. min~ matters as subject to the deliberative vote of-the local council. The S. Congregation corrected one set of constitutions to read~ " . . .the newly elected M6.thfir General shall appoint one or seoeral. committees.to examine and arrange the'proposals to the Gerieral Cfiapter and to furnish a report concerning them." Even if not so' stated in the constitutions, several committees may be appointed be~ cause of the amount of work or for greater efficiency and lack of time, since several committees are not forbidden by the constitutions. 2. Indult's. One congregation of si'sters secured an indult from the Holy Se~ permitting th~ anticipation of its next general chapter by' six months. The principal reason given in the petition was the ex-~ p~nse and extensive travel that would be required foi the' capitulars' to return to the motherhouse two months after all had been present there for the annual retreat. ~ Another congregation of sisters requested a change, in its constitu- ' tions by which the novice mistress would be a member of thegeneral chapter in virtue of her offce. The S. C. of Religious replied: "It is not expedient.'" Canonical authors had stated that such a provision was not in accord with the practice of the S. Congregation,4x but a.~ similar article had been approved in a very small number of constitu-. tions in the past. A congregation of sisters was to hold in the United States an ex-traordinary general chapter,, which the delegates of the provinces be-yond the "iron curtain" would not be able to attend. The S. C. of Religious gave to a local Ordinary the faculty of permitting their votes to be sent by letter or for these provinces to choose delegates here who would cast their votes. 3. Roman meeting. The subjects touched upon at this meeting of superioresses general appear to have been the following: (a) The Holy See is opposed to the immediate re-election, or rather postula-tion., of a mother general beyond the limits prescribed in the consti-tutions. Similarly the Holy See only for serious reasons grants a dispensation permitting a local superior to be given a third successive three-year term in the same house. (b) Two excesses are verified in ~lections, an indifference that results in ignorance of the eligible and' suitable and electibneering. (c) Young religious should not be ex-. cluded from higher offices' if they have the necessary natural and spit-. itual qualifications. ., 41Basticn, n. 246, 2; Battandier, n. 352. 287. JOSEPH F. GALLEN Review/:or Religious These subjects present nothing new,4z but the. light thrown on the abuse of electioneering is very Opportune. Electioneering is the deliberate seeking of votes, directly or indirectly, to elect a particular person, or one person rather than another, or to exclude anyone from being elected. The simple seeking of information concerning the abilities or defects of those eligible and the communication of such information to. others, without any attempt at persjaasion, is not for-bidden, and is very frequently necessary and laudable. It is.:remarkable.how often the matter of elections can blind the moral sense of even very good religious. This reason alone has per-suaded the present writer to hold rigidly to the conviction, that in any general revision of the constitutions elections should, be restricted to those absolutely necessary. Only the offices of the superior gen-eral and of his or her councillors demand election. Every religious should have the permanent resolution of nevei uttering a word about future elections in his institute until after he has meditated daily for at least a week on the will of God. XIII. MONASTERIES OF NUNS I. Federations and Con/¥derations. The only federation or con-fdderation affecting American monasteries of nuns that has been made public is that of the Visitandines. The pohtifical constitution Spon~a Christi and the accompanying Instruction should be carefully studied by all nuns. Unwise and exaggerated changes are to be avoided in any state of life, "but no religious institute can reasonably exclude progress and prudent adaptation to .the times; Federations and con-federations are highly recommended by Plus XII in Sponsa, Christi. 2. Restoration o[ solemn ~ows. In 195 1-52 eighteen monasteries of nuns-in the United States secured permission from the Holy See for the taking of solemn vows.43 The restoration of solemn vows is at least strongly urged on all monasteries of nuns in Sponsa Christi. If serious reasons exist against this restoration in any monastery, such reasons are to be submitted to the S. C. of Religi6us for examina-tion. 44. The form of the decree granting solemn vows is uniform. The provisions are: (a) Papal cloister must be observed as' described in 42Cf. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, X (1951), 187-200. 43Guti~rrez. CpR, XXXIV (1953), 102-115. Cf. the list of monasteries of solemn vows in the United States, as of January, 1950. in REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, IX (19~50), 58, note 2. 44Larraona, quoted by Guti~rrez, ibid., 1"07. " '288 November, 1953 PRACTICE O~: THE HOLY SEE canon law, Sponsa Christi and the accompanying Instruction (Inter praeclara), and also the Instruction of the S. C. of Religious of Feb-ruary 6, 1924.4s (b) Nuns at present in simple perpe.tual vows and thbse who have compieted the prescribed time of temporary vows make solemn profession. The local Ordinary or his delegate receives the profession of the superioress, who then receives all the other pro-fessions. (c) Any nun in simp!e perpetual vows who does not wish to make the solemn profession may remain in simple vows but she is obliged by all the prescriptions of papal cloister.46 (d) Future per-petual professions Will be solemn except, of course, those of the ex-tern sisters, who may be admitted only to simple perpetual profession at the expiration of the prescribed peridd of temporary vows. 3. Dowr~ . Modifications in the general constitutions were granted to several monasteries of one order of nuns in the United Sta~es by the S. C. of Religious in 1950. A canonically interesting article of these modifications is: "No dowry is required for the admission of postulants." 4. Induhs concerning papa! clbister. A monastery of nuns in. the United States obtained the follov~ing permissions from the S. C. of Religious: (a) for five years--to admit into the enclosure at the funerals of nuns the clergy, acolytes, and pall bearers required to carry the body to the crypt; (b) fbr three years--to allow those taking out naturalization papers to go out to government offices as often as necessary; (c) for three years--t6 allow a nun to leave the enclosure as companion for a nun obliged to go out for bospltal treatment. Iri the case of another monastery, the local Ordinary whs given the faculty for twenty cases of permitting a nun to leave the enclosure with a companion for the reason of ill health. The rescript contained the clause, that any unbecoming circumstance was to b~ avoided. 5. Concession of Masses. A proper ordo or calendar, and thus dis-tinct from the diocesan ordo, is had by all orders of regulars, and this is to be observed also by the nuns and sisters of these orders. A proper ordo is also had in.religious congregations and societies living in common without public vows, whether of men or women, that have been approved by the Holy See,.[re constituted under one gen-eral superior, and are obliged to the divine office, even if only by 45Bouscaren, I, 314-320; .46Escudero, CpR, XXXIII (1952), 35, nota 39. 289 JOSEPH F. GALLEN reason of major orders.47 Nuns that constitute a second order, such as the Carmelites, will follow the proper ordo of the first order of men. Obviously, there-fore, they may not celebrate in the divine office and Mass feasts granted to dioceses or t6 other institutes. For this reason at least one monastery of nuns in the United States secured from the Holy See an indult permitting the celebration of the feasts of the North American Martyrs on September 26 and that of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini on December 22.48 47,SCR, 4312, ad'l-2; 4403, ad 1. 48The autlqors, documents, and abbreviations not clear from their mere citation are." Acta Apostolicae Sedis (AAS) ; Bastien, Directoire Canonique; Battandier, Guide Canonique; Bouscaren, Canon Law Digest; Cervia, De ProFessione Religiosa; Com-mentarium Pro Rell.qiosis (CpR) ; Creusen, Religious Men and Women in the Code; Decreta Authentica Congregationis Sacrorum Rituum (SCR) ; Muzzarelli, De Con-gregationibus luris Diocesani; Piontek, De Indulto Exclaustrationis necnon Saecular-izationis; Revue des Communautis Religieuses (RCR) ; Schaefer, De Religiosis. BOOK NOTICE AUX SOURCES DE LA TRADITION DU CARMEL, by Jean le Soli-taire, is a work that will be of special.interest and value, not only to Carmelites, but also to all who are concerned with understanding well the essentials and the accidentals of the contemplative life and~ with the problem of adapting it fittingly to the changes that mark modern culture and the present situation of the Church. The book is not primarily historical; rather it is conceived from the ,spiritual point of view, and would like to contribute to the best possible re-vitalization and perfection of the contemplative life in the concrete existe.ntial conditions of today and tomorrow." (Paris: Beauchesne et ses Fils, 1953. Pp. 274.) LETTER ON OBEDIENCE Father William J. Young. S.J., has made a new and very readable translation of St. Ignatius' Letter on Obedience. This translation is published in pamphlet form by the America Press. Single copies are twenty cents; special discounts are allowed on quantity orders. Write to: The America Press, 70 East 45th St., New York 17, N.Y. 290 Psychological Test:ing ot: Candida!:es and t:he Theology oF Vocal:ion William C. Bier, S.,I. [EDITORS' NOTE: This article is an adaptation of 'a paper presented at the Fordham "Institute on Religious and Sacerdotal Vocations, July, 1953. Father Bier's interest in the use of psychological tests as helps in evaluating the suitability of candidates for the priesthood and religious life goes back to graduate work in psychology at The Catholic University under Father Thomas Verner Moore, who encouraged him to plan a doctoral research on some.preliminary phases of this problem. After the completion of his doctoral work in 1948 Father Bier went to Fordham and has been teaching in the psychology department of the graduate school since that time. He developed a program of psychological tests for candidates in the New York Province of the Society of 3esus, which has been in operation for five years. This work is now spreading to other Provinces of the Society and to other religious groups. He thinks that the greatest need at the present time is the development of specific, norms on these tests, not only for religious as distinct from lay persons, but probably also for different religious groups. The development of such norms is of necessity a cooperative undertaking, and Father Bier has been serving as a clearing house for gathering the needed information from the various groups working in conjunction with him. At the present time this work is still in its initial stages, and it will have to be in operation some time longer before publishable results are ¯ available, ] THE present article is the first in a series of two dealing with the use of psychological tests in the selection of candidates for the priesthood and for the religious life. This matter receives clari-fication bydistinguishing and giving separate treatment to the two questions involved. The first concerns the role of psychological tests in the selection of candidates and raises the question of the relation-shiio between testing of this kind and the theology- of vocation. It is evident that this first question is largely theoretical, but testing must first be justified on these grounds before it is feasible to discuss the second question, namely, the practical requirements of such a testing program. The current article, therefore, will consider the theoretical basis for the psychological testing of candidates, and a second article will take up the problems involved in the development of such a pro-gram in practice. Religious Vocation Although in full accord, on theological and psychological grounds, with the modern tendency to extend the term vocation to embrace all states of Christian life, the current consideration is never-theless restricted to vocations to the religious life.and to the priest- 291 WILLIAM C. BIER Reoiew for Religi'ous hood. More specifically still, the explicit treatment is confined mostly to the religious life, leaving the priesthood as matter for reasonably evident inference. A vocation, as the nominal definition of the wor~l implies, ex-presses the action of summoning someone to move toward a definite goal; in a word, it is a call. ~n the case of a divine vocation, it is God who calls the person, and in the matte~ of religious vocation, it is a call to the voluntary practice of the evangelical counsels in an institute.approved by the Church. The question that arises in the case of every vocation is: how can we know in a given case that'God calls? How can it be determined that the vocation is real and not illusory, genuine and not deceptive? This is the question ~vhich must be answered by the candidate himself, by his director, and by the superior who accepts him. In his recent book, The Theolog~I of Religious Vocation, Father Edward Farrell, O.P.,1 indicates that St. Thomas Aquinas distin-guished between internal vocation, or desire on the part of the candi-date for the religious life, and external vocation, or acceptance by a legitimate superior. It will be helpful for our present purpose to consider vocation under both of these aspects, and in so doing we shall 9ttempt to place the psychological testing of candidates in its proper perspective and to indicate what is its legitimate function with respect to the discernment of vocation. Internal Vocation By internal vocation St. Thomas means the intention on the part of the candidate to embrace the religious life. This intention is formed by. a man under the influence of the Holy Spirit. -Such an intention is the result of grace, or rather a series of grace~ consisting of interior'andexterior helps, in virtue of which the individual is led to take the resolution to enter.religious.life. This resolution to enter religion may result from an extraordinary illumination of the mind and incitement of the will toward the reli-gious state. Some of the saints have been favored with such an un-mistakable divine call, but Pope Plus X in his decision on the book of Canon Lahitton on Sacerdotal Vocation made it clear that no such special attraction is necessary for a priestly or religious vocation. Gen-erally, the intention to enter religion is formed under the influence of what theologians would refer to as ordinary grace, i.e., a grace which " 1St. Louis: Herder, 1951. 292 o November, 1953 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING works through the reasoning processes. Theologians generally would take this to mean that the decision is the result of deliberation where-by the individual perceives, in the light of the Gospel ~ind from other considerations that, everything being taken into account, the way of the counsels is preferable for him. Consequently be experiences a corresponding rational inclination of the will toward such a life. It is Worth n'oting, however, that the proposal to enter r.eligion must be sufficiently firm considering the difficulties involved in this state of life. It is only a firm resolution which, in the opinion of theologians, is the subjective manifestation of vocation. On philo-sophical grounds it may be shown that a state of mind can be logically firm only when reasonable doubt is.excluded. We may .say, therefore, that what God's grace does in the case of vocation is to make it possible for the individual to see with a clarity which ex-cludes the reasonable fear of error that the way of ~he counsels is the preferable way of life for him. It would seem, therefore, that the applicant, whose state of mind prior to entrance is uncertain, who is not ~ure whether he has a vocation or not, but who applies "in order to give the life a try," does not hav~ a vocation, since he lacks this firm proposal which is the subjective sign of vocation. It is possible that such an applicant would become certain bf his vocation during postulancy or noviceship, but it seems more prudent, when such a doubt is known, .to postpone his acceptance until it is solved, and meantime to encour.age him to'pray and consider the matter more maturely. It is evident that such a firm decision to enter the religious state is the result of grace. "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you" (Jo. 15:16). This is the essence of religious vocation, and it is clearly its supernatural aspect. Directly, therefore, psychology, which can touch only the natural, has nothing to do with this aspect. of vocation. Yet,. indirectly, even here, it may have something to contribute. Canon 538 indicates that the candidate for the religious life must be inspired by a "right intention." This requirement expresses in another way what has already been discussed. If the intention to enter religion has been formed under th~ influence of grace, it will be a right intention. Therefore, no purely natural motive will suffice, such.as disappointment or disillusionment with the world, or per-sonal happiness, or security; or the desire to escape an unhappy home situation. On the other hand, theologians allow that ar~y super- 293 WILLIAM C. BIER Ret~iew for Religious natural motive will suffice, for instance, the desire, to save one's soul, or to work for the salvation of others, or to serve God more per-fectly, or to render salvation more secure. It is at thi~ point, it would seem, that psychology can enter to make a contribution. Human motivasion, we know now, is a much more complex affair than was previously suspected. Our motives are seldom simple, and seldom single. Conscious motives can sometimes serve as a cloak for hidden and undetected tendencies. In the case of the motives inducing a person to apply for admission to the religious life, it will seldom happen that they are pur~ly supernatural. Natural motives invariably enter as well. What seems to be important, how-ever, is that the dominant motives should be supernatural. Granted that in the.concrete the total motive force will bepartly natural and partly supernatural, the more dominant the role of supernatural motives, the more assurance there would be that the call was truly from God. Let us illustrate the point mad~ here by an example. " Suppose a spiritual director, on inquiring why a girl wants to consecrate her virginity to God, were to discover that it is because she finds things of the flesh repugnant. Marriage would be abhorrent to her, and if ¯ the attraction to the religious lifewere in fact nomore than an adjust-ment to such a psychic inhibition, it would scarcely be genuine. Prob-ably, such a girl would have combined this fundamental motive force with some supernatural intention, but the question is how dominant, and hence how genuine, would a supernatural motive be in such a case? Would it be any more'than a case of self-deception? I can conceive of a director telling sucha young girl to thank God that she feels that way, because she is thus freed from many temptations against chastity. Yet such advice, I think, would be highly questionable. It is true, of course, that such a person would have little or no difficulty with the material observance of chastity, but absence of sin or conflict.is not a proof of virtue. In such a case the brake applied to prevent sin is not the regulating influence of rea-son, which would be the basis for virtue, but is an inhibition of the psychic order. It is God's plan that sex should be attractive, not repugnant, and it is clear from the words of Christ (Math. 19:12) and of St. Paul (I Cor. 7:6-9) that the invitation to the counsels implies.a sacrifice. The girl who finds sex repugnant has no sacrifice to make in dedicating her virginity to God. The suitable candidate for the religious life is not one who is incapable of marriage, but one 294 November, 1953 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING who freely surrenders this good for a greater. There is a further consideration in a case of this kind which should not be overlooked. The repugnance felt toward sex expression is, as we have presented it, a psychicinhibition. It is due to some psycho-logical twist or other. Suppose, "perhaps after some years of religious life, that this twist is suddenly straightened out--a not inconceivable happening. Once the psychological brake is removed, the person may, for w.ant of virtue, be defenseless against a passion whose existence she never suspected. Could it not be that something similar to this is the explanation of some of those particularl~- puzzling defections after years in religion? The masters of the spiritual life have always recognized the pos-sibility of self-deception in the service of God, and modern psychol-ogy tends to re-enforce their warnings by supplying instances of the subtle ways in which uncon'scious and undetected influences may in-sinuate themselves into human motivation. When such happens in the case of vocation, the good will of the applicant is not in ques-tion, but the genuineness of his vocation.is. He is, in this supposi-tion, deceived himself, and be may quite easily deceive others. The manifestation of virtue is sometimes ambiguous, and what externally passes for virtue may actually be no more than a cover-up for a psychological problem. Natural submissiveness and deep-seated inferiority can ~asily pass for humility, overly-conscientious strivihgs for perfection can, as a matter of fact, be no more than psy-chological defenses against fear of criticism and inability to tolerate failure, while genuine apostolic zeal is not always ea~sy to distinguish from a paranoid discontent. The discernment of spirits is sometimes difficult, and we have the scriptural warning: "Dearly beloved, be-lieve not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God" (I John 4:1). This admonition seems to be particularly pertinent in the matter of the discernment of vocation and especially with respect to. the motives prompting the applicant to apply for admission to reli-gion. It would surely be excessive always to question o~ur conscious motives and to see in them nothing but disguises for hidden tenden-cies, but it must be acknowledged that conscious motives are some-times deceptive, and that the dominant motives for our actions are not always the ones which consciously move us. Unconscious fear of contact with the world, for example, may be concealed by perfectly orthodox motives such as contempt for the world and desire of per-fection. For a long time the individual's actions may seem to be in- 295 WILLIAM C, BIER for Refigious spired by these traditional motives, but it may eventually appear that ~hey were in fact but the effects of neurotic tendencies. Where uhcon-scious factors are at work common sense is hardly sufficient for the discernment of vocation, and the eye of the expert, is needed to detect a latent neurosis artfully Concealed behind normal behavior. External Vocation ~ ~ Let us pass now from internal vocation where psychology has but a limit.ed and indirect contribution to make, to external vocation where its contribution is more direct and more extensive. By external ¯ vocation, as previously mentioned, St. Thomas meant the acceptance of ,'i candidate by a legitimate superior. Thus external vocation com-pletes and perfects the internal call essentially determining it to this particular institute. It is evident that before an applicant can be accepted a judgement must be made on his suitabil!ty for the religious life. Some one must 'pass on such firness, and ultimately this decision is the responsibility of the religious superior. The internal call is always subject to the possibility of self-deception, and finds a certain confirmation, there-fore, in the judgement of suitability passed by a competent superior. The junction of the two gives vocation to the religious life in the concrete. Suitability for the religious life might be treated from various-points of vie~v, but for the purposes of the present discussion it will be considered under qualities of body and mind, which in the words of Canon 538 render the individual "fit to bear the burdens of the religious state." A certain level of physical well'being is required for the exercise of religious life, and it is co~nmon practice, to require of applicafits a doctor's certificate of good health. Pertinent to the present discussion, however, is the fact that mental health is no less necessary for religious life. The idea of "mens sana in corpore san&' (a sound mind in a sound body)' seems to be a p~oper estimate of fitness f?r life in religion. The Contribution of Psychological Tests There would be no real disagreement, I think, on the fact that certain psychological qualities are required in a candidate for the reli-gious life. What these qualities are might be diff,erently expre.ssed as maturity, balance, stability, control, adjustment, but there is at least agreement that some over-all psychological integrity is needed. It might even be clearer and there would, perhaps, be even greater agree- 296 Nouernber, 1953 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING ment if the propositi6n were put negatively: certain psychologic.al conditions render an applicant unsuitable for the religious life. Con- .sequently no .superior can accept a candidate for religion without making some judgement of psychological fitness. The trouble is that such a judgement, necessary as it is, is frequently superficial and hap-hazard, because the basis for a more adequate judgement is not avail-able. Here the psychological examination of candidates can enter to make its contribution. Such an examination can offer a more ade-quate foundation for the estimate of psychological suitability which must be made. It may be valuable to point out thus early in the pre~ent discussion that the psychological testing of candidates is new only in its methods; not in its p.urpose. Its function is traditional and inescapable: namely, ~a judgement on the psychological fitness of the applicant. The psychological' examination has a function to perfwor~mth " " respect to all candidates. With the greater n~amber of them its func-tion will be negative hnd w. ill consist simply in affirming the fact that th'ey are psychologically suitable, i.e., that no psychological fac-tors are in evidence which would antecedently make it impossible for them to bear the burden of religious life. Even though the contribu' tion here is negative, it is not to be despised for it is precisely what is needed, namely, a clean bill of mental health. It should be noted that such immunity at the time of application is no necessary guar-antee that psychological difficulty ~might not subsequently ,,develop, any more than the assurance of physical health at the time of entrance is a gua.rantee against subsequent ill health, bht at the time it repre-sents what is needed and is sufficient. With ~espect to the remaining candidates the psychological exam-ination, we assume, will show positive results. Sometimes these re-sults will be extreme, for serious mental disorder cannot be a priori excluded in candidates for the religious life. .In this connection, the work of Father Thomas Verner .Moore on the. rate of insanity in priests and religious2 is pertinent. This ~tudy appeared in The Ec-clesiastical Review for 1936, and still remains the only published work on th,e subject. In connection with the investigation, Father Moore contacted all the Catholic and non-Catholic state and .private sanatoria and asyla for the insane in. the United States. On a basis '-'Thomas Verner Moore. "Insanity in Priests and Religious. Part I[ The Rate of Insanity in Priests and Religioi~s." The Ecclesia t;'ca! Reoic~', 95 (1936). 485- 498. : 297 WILLIAM C. BIER Review for Religious of his returns, Father Moo~e reports the following figures for the year 1935. The ratio per 100,000 population was as follows: for priests 446; for sisters 485; for brothers 418: for the ge,neral popu7 lation 595. He found a notable difference between active sisters with a ratio of 428 and cloistered sisters with a ratio of 1034. On a basis of these findings, therefore, the rate of insanity among priests and religious is less than it is among the general population, but the rate for cloistered sisters is more than twice what it is among the popula-tion at large. One additional point is worth noting. Although it is true that the rate of insanity among priests and religious is less than for the general population, this result is due to the fact that syphilitic types of insanity are almost completely absent among priests and re-ligious. If the latter were eliminated from the figures for the general population, the rate of insanity for priests and religious xvould rise above that for the population at large. One might be tempted at first sight to interpret these figures as meaning that religious life makes reore demands on psychological stability than life in the world, with psychological breakdown conse-quently more frequent. Although there is truth in this interpreta-tion, Father Moore is of the opinion that a more important factor in producing these results is the attraction exerted by the religious life upon certain pre'-psychotic personalities. Schizophrenia, for example, is by far the most frequent psychiatric disorder among institutional-ized priests and religious; and there can be no doubt that a consider-able number of pre-schizophrenic personalities are attracted by the retirement and seclusion of religious life, and of the contemplative life more than the active. Their schizophrenic tendencies blossom out into a full psychosis in religion, but they would undoubtedly have done so just as xvell had these persons remained in the world. Outright psychosis among applicants for the religious life is hardly to be expected, but pre-psychosis and incipient psychosis is ~ problem, as Father Moore's findings and fundamental interpretation indicate. Now, the essential point in term} of the present discussion is that pre-psychosis is not likely to be discovered in an applicant for the religious life, apart from some special testing procedur~ designed to reveal it. Sufficient proof of this statement is found in the number of such persons who secure admission to religious life. As indicated above, cases of severe mental disorder among appli-ca, nts for the religious life are relatively rare, nor do they offer too great a difficulty in evaluation. In such cases the picture is unequivo- 298 Not~erober, 1953 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING 6al, and upon examination the applicant is found to exhibit such a wealth of psychopathology as to be clearly unsuitable. There is, however, a larger number of cases in which the degree of psychologi-cal difficulty is considerably less. The evaluation of such cases is more difficult for two fundamental reasons: (1) because the degree of disorder being less it is more difficult to detect; and (2) because it is more difficult to predict the extent to which the disorder is likely to render the applicant incapable bf bearing the burdens of the religious life. It is evident that the reference here is to neurosis in 'general and to the milder forms of mental difficulty which wduld not even qualify as neurosis. Neurosis, referring in general to the non-psychotic forms of mental difficulty, is a broad term, and I am inclined to think that most responsible and informed persons would be reluctant to say that the presence of neurosis, ipso Facto, would render an applicant un-suitable for the religious life. The presence of neurosis would un-questionably create a presumption of unsuitability, but the latter might yield to the contrary fact in a given case. What then is to be taken as the norm? I would, suggest that we might distinguish 'on the basis of the kind of neurosis. It is beyond question that there are certain types of neurotic difficulty which would almost surely be accentuated by the demands of religious life, and it would be my suggestion that the presence of a neurosis of this type would render the applicant unsuitable. At the present time I would prefer to leave open the question as to whether there actually are any neuroses of the second type, i.e., which would not be aggravated by the requirements of life in religion. As an example of a neurosis the presence of which would likely preclude acceptance into' religion, I would mention hypochondriasis, an abnormal pre-occupation with bodily health. This tendency, as is well known, can grow into an exclusive pre-occupation leaving the individual with little thought or energy for religious observance. In its milder forms it s.imply interferes with ~ommunity life and regular. observance; in more advanced stages, it renders the individual com-pletely incapable of foIlowing religious routine. Experience quite well attests that the introspection of the religious life develops a cer-tain number of hypochondriacs as it is, so that the expectation seems justified that this life would aggravate such tendencies if they were already present at the time of admission. An even clearer example, to my mind, of the kind of neurosis the presence of which would 299 WILLIAM C. BIEP~ Re'view [or Religious render an indi~cidual unsuitable 'for the religious life, would be an obsessive-compulsive neur6sis, which manifests itself .in the moral sphere as scrupulosity. I have referenc~ not to an isolated instance of scrupulosity in the life of an applicant, but to scrupulosity of suffi-cient duration to have become habitual. Such a state is aggravated 'by the additional duties of religious life, by the continual self-exam-ination which is an iodispensable condition for progress t~ward reli-gious perfection, andparticularly by the obligation of the vows. In its milder forms, scrupulosity impairs efficiency, in prayer no less than in apostolic work. In its severer manifestations, it makes prayer and religious observance a torture, and any substantial measure of pro-ductive work an impossibility. Attitude to be Assumed in Doubtful Cases In connection with the matter just .discussed, a question arises which must be faced directly, and it is this: do we not go too far in excluding applicants with neurotic tendencies? Would it not be more in accord with the spirit of Christ. and the Church to accept them and to leave something to the healing effect of God's grace? In answer to this sort of a question, I would like first of all to. point out that psychological testing is finished, its work complete; its contribution made, when it has ascertained the facts, in as far as it is possible to ascertain them in the case of the applicant, and has put these at the disposal of the superior. It then becomes the superior's responsibility to act upon the facts as seems best, and, in view of them and all other available sources of information, to accept or to reject the candidate. A prudent superior will not come to a decision', of course, without taking the matter to prayer. Indeed everyone con-nected with the discernment of a vocation must pray; the applicant himself must pray, his director must pray, and the superior who acts on his application must pray. The Gospels tell us that Our Lord spent the .night in prayer before choosing the Apostles. The example. of saints teaches us that we should pray in such an important deci-sion, but also work. It was it. Ignatius' advice, for instance., that we should .work as if the entire l)utcome depended on us, buy pray as though the entire outcome depended on prayer alone. Such advice seems particularly apposite in the selection of candidates. In this case, the importance of the matter requires that the most adequate possible investigation be made, but ultimately such s~lection depends upon a judgement of the superior. This judgement should be founded in fact--as far as it is humanly possib, le to discover the truth--and 300 Noaeraber, 1953 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING should be illumined b'y grace, in as far as it is possible to invoke the divine assist~ince through prayer. Even when we have proceeded in: the manner indicated abo,~e,.the decision still remains difficult, for we are attempting in such cases just ¯ about the most difficult task in the .world, namely, to predict the interplay of divin'e grace and human freedom. "If the human mind,'r says a distinguished French contemporary, "cannot probe this mys-terious interplay +yen after the event (for when someone leaves a re-ligious institute it is often impossible to tell.whether it was through infidelity to a. real vocation or simply due to the late discovery that there was no vocation at all) still less can it see it~beforehand.'''~ We are compelled .humbly to admit that there are and will continue to be a certain number of cases which cannot be avoided, but there are others which, with a gr.eater expenditure of human effort and l~ru-dence, could be avoided. Such" is our task. When there, is, doubt about the psychological s~itability of can-didates for the religiou~ life, I would offer it as a general principle that we should be severe rather than lenient in admitting. My fun-damental reason for this recommendation is that the religious life demands more than ordinary psychological stability for. its practice. In the vows, which constitute the essence of religious life, man makes of himself a holocaust to God. owe speak also of the martyrdom of the vows. It is true that "holocaust" and "martyrdom" are meta-phorical expressions in this context, but they serve to emphasize the demands made of human nature in the practice of the religious life, " demands which are to a considerable extent psychological. Certainly the number of psychological satisfactions available to religious are considerably reduced over those possible to people in the world, while the occasion~ for frustration are greater, due to the surrender of deep human wants through the vows of religion, and by reason of the demands of day-by-day community lif~. Hence there is required more than the usual amount of psychological stability and maturity in a religious, and it would seem, therefore, to be imprudent to accet3t in religion applicants with distinctly less than the normal amount of psychological integrity. A further point seems worth) of note in this connection. The attitude is sometimes assumed that doubtful candidates should be ac-cepted in religion because religious life wotild benefit them more than 8A. Pit, O.P., "Unconscious Attraction to the Religious Life." Religious Life: H Vocation. Westminster, Maryland, Newman, 1952, p. 110. 301 WILLIAM (~. BIER Reoiew fo'r Religious it would some better individuals who are less in need of helps reli-gion would prgvide. A ~lightly different way of putting this same objection would be to say that if there is a doubt, we should give the ,applicant the benefit of the doubt. We assume that the doubt is a positive one, i.e., one in which there are positive .reasons for ques-tioning the suitability of the candidate. ¯ In such cases, I do not think that the general principle that the applicant should be given the bene-fit of the doubt is the correct one. It must not be forgotten that the religiouscommunity has rights as well, and it .seems a more funda-mental principle that the good of the community should prevail over the good of an individual, particularly when the latter is not yet a member of the community, as would be the case of an applicant. The doubtfully suitable applicant--if indeed the doubt is well founded--is likely to prove to be a problem from the very day of his arrival in the novitiate. If such is the case, he will require a dispro-portionately large amount of the novice master's time, to the detri-ment of the other novices who would profit more from his counsel and direction. Furthermore, psychologically unstable and neurotic individuals are difficult to live with, and it seems really inequitable that such persons should be permitted to enter and to. disrupt the peace and harmony of community life. One such person can be a thorn in the side of an entire community,, as experience very well at-tests. In God's Providence we shall always have enough 'difficult members of the community to make religious~life a source of virtue and sanctification, but it seems quite another thing knowingly to ¯ contribute to the difficulties of religious life by admitting psycho-logically unsuitable persons. Finally, there is always the distinct possibility, if not probability, that the defiaands of religious life will increase the difficulties of psychologically unstable persons to the point where they will ultimately be compelled to leave religion (and the institute may consider itself fortunate if the p}oblm can be solved in this way), or else they will have to be removed from the commun-ity and institutionalized. The latter can be.a tremendous financia'l burden to a c~mmunity, an, d it would seem an unjust one when the likelihood of such an eventuality could have been foreseen at the time of admission. It might be felt by" some that when there is doubt about the psy-chological suitability of a candidate, he should be admitted with the expectation that his inability to adjust to religious life would soon become evident to him through the actual attempt in a way which he 302 Noaernber, 1953 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING would never have been able to accept beforehand, and that he xvill in consequence voluntarily leave. The expectation of k, oluntary with-drawal in a case of this kited is not well founded. Even for the psy-chologically well-integrated and mature personality, readjustment to life in the world is difficult and the courage required to face the un-asked questions of family and friends is considerable. Ability to measure up to such demands is not realistically to be expected of one whose difficulty is weakness precisely in this area. Furthermore, it is assumed that the individual is suffering from personality or emo-tional disorders, and one of the main characteristics of such difficulties is a lack of insight on the part of the individual into his condition.' Hence, if the disorder" increases to a point where the individual should leave, insight is likely to decline as well, so that it is not to be ex-pected that the individual will leave voluntarily. I return, therefore, to my earlier proposition that it is a mistaken charity to accept doubt2 fully mature and questionably stable individuals into religion. In concluding the'present article I should like to refer to two quotations which seem to me to re-enforce the viewpoint presented. The first arises out of*the symposium on religious vocation held in France during the summer of 1949, and consists of the following expression of experience on the part of a religious superior: "Experi-ence has taught us one thing, and that is that when there is a doubt about any.one in the novitiate it is n~arly always confirmed later: the situation does not improve. There may be exceptions but they are few and far between.TM I would simply suggest that, under adequate investigation, we can move the process back one step further, and speak about the doubtful applicant, but that the principle remains the same. The second quotation is from our late Holy Father, Pope Pius XI, xvho expressed himself on the severity to be exercised in admitting candidates to the religious life. The occasion was an audience granted to the Capuchin general chapter after the election of Very Reverend Donatus de Welle as Minister General in June I938, at which time the Pope spoke in part as follows: "This recommendation, for which we take full responsibility, ought to be regarded as a father's instruction to his children, based simply on a desire foi the well being of all religious families. And the instruction is this: Be severe. These may be hard words but they~ 4"An Enquiry about Vocation" in Religious Life: II Vocation, Westminster]Mary-land, Newman, 1952, p. 83. 303 WILLIAM C. BIER are p~ompte~t by love, for true love, love worthy of our L.o~d's' friends, can be satisfied with nothing short of the truth . We are not alluding merely to severity of discipline, in general, but first and foremost to the seyerity v,;hich ought to be shown in accepting postu-lants. If ariyone tells you that there is too much sev.erity even now, we authorize you to reply that the Pope wants it to be that .way, be-cause he clearly sees the, need of it, in virtue of his position and.re-sponsibilities, the more so as Providence has granted him a pontifi-cate of some length and thus allowed him to acquire wide .experience in this field. Indeed, if the religious life is to be kept in all its splen-dour there must be severity, particularly with regard, to vocations, because although divine grace helps nature it does not destroy iF; the necessity fordoing battle remains, and in the religious life the stakes. are higher . "It is no exaggeration to say that whenever people unite to form a group, even in small numbers, deterioration occurs. We learn.this from experience. This does not mean that a religious family ought therefore to reduce the number of its members; quite the contrary-- the tendency should always be to increase. But it should see that its members are carefully chosen, like picked soldiers. This is a difficult task, but essential.~ When a number of men join together in some enterprise, their good qualities, and particularly the highest ones, do not become common property; each man keeps his own. Their weak-ness and. bad qualities,I on the other hand, add up and merge to-gether . " These words, coming from so high an authority, speak for them-selves. The purpose of the present article has been to demonstrate the ~)roposition that psycl~ological testing has a function to perform in theselection of candidates for the religious life, and that such,a pro- . gram is in keeping with the spirit of religious vocation as understood in the Church. The theoretical desirability.of such a program is one thing, its practicality is another, arid the latter question will be con-sidered in a second article. OUR CONTRIBUTORS JOSEPH F. GALLEN is professor of canon law at WoodstockCollege, Wood-stock, Md. HILARY R. WERTS is superior and a professo.r of moral theology at Alma College, Los Gatos, Calif. C. J. McNASPY, an authority on ~cclesiastical music, is on the faculty of St.'Charles College, Grand Coteau, La. Information on WILLIAM C. BIER is given in the prenote to his article. ' 304 \ The F:ucharis :ic Fast: Hilary R. Werts, S.3. THE. new and mitigated law of the Eucharistic fast contained in the Apostolic Constitution, Christus Dorninus; and the accom-panying Instructibn of the Holy Office, whose translations were published in this REVIEV~, last March, is a generous concession of our H01y Father the Pope who wishes to make more humanly possible the frequent and even daily reception of Holy Communion so.much recommbnded by Blessed Pope Pius X and his successors in the chair of Peter. In pro.mulgating the new law His Holiness urge~ bishops and priests to take advantage of its concessions to exhort the faithful to more frequent reception of'the Blessed Sacrament. Religious who have much contact with the faithful in schools and hospitals will find many' opportunities for their zeal to promote frequent Com~ munion by expla.ining this law'and leading people to use its condes-sions. For this purpose it is necessary that they have a clear under-standing of the conditions for the.application of these concessions. It is hoped that this article will help to this understanding. The former law for the Eucharistic fast is retained except for the particular conces~ion~ "granted in the new law. The first concession is that water does not break the fast, Water may now b.e taken at any time by anyone, right up to Communion time. The Eucharistic" fast is no longer concerned with water, and abstinence from it can no long, er properly be called fasting, though it may be an act of mortifi-cation ¯ Water here means plain water, that is, water without the admix-ture of'any other substance whatever. Water as it is found in natural conditions is plain water, even.though it be mineral water from a mineral spring, Qr ocean water with its content of salt. But minerals or salt may not be added artificially to the water that is permitted before Communion. How,ever, the chemical additions to our city water su'pplies are not to be considered, f6r otherwise we would have no water available to drink and the change in the law would be meaningless. Aside from the permitted water, the Pope confirms the former law and says that it must be observed by those who are able to do so. But this does not mean that those who c.ome under the conditions of the new concessions must worr, y as to whethe, r or not they should use .305 HILARY R. WERTS . Revieu~ for Religious them. Norm I of the Constitution says: "The law of the Eucharistic fast, to be observed from midnight, continues in force for all those who do not come under the special conditions, which We shall set forth in this Apostolic Constitution" (italics supplied). Hence there is no requirement that those who come under the concessions should rather fast from midnight if possible. Norm II of the Constitution makes concessions for the infirm. They may, without any time restriction, take something by way of drink or medicine. They may take non-alcoholic liquids and they may take medicine in either liquid or solid form at any time before the celebration of Mass or the reception of Communion. The ini~rm who enjoy this concession are either those who are sick, or thos.e who are infirm because of age. For the sick, no kind or length or degree of gravity of sickness is specified, but it is required that the infirmity be such that it is difficult to observe .the fast from midnight. The difficulty need not be extraordinary; a moderate diffi-culty will suffice. If an infirm person who desires to communicate would omit Communion because of th~ fast from mid.night, then surely he finds this fast too difficult. For example, influenza, stom-ach ulcers, diabetes, asthma, the ills of pregnancy, may be presumed to make fasting from midnight difficult. Any sickness in which the doctor recommends nourishment before Communion, or in which re-covery would be delayed by fasting, or any infirmity which causes the feeling of weakness unless nourishment is taken will suffice to permit liquid nourishment before Communion. Insomnia, severe headache, high or low blood pressure, distressing ~ough, rheumatism, arthritis, a bad cold, hay fever, may frequently make fasting rather difficult, ahd permit liquids. Some kinds of infirmity may last for a long time and permit .liquids daily before Communion; others may be tran.sitory and cause difficulty only for a day or a few days and these latter equally suffice for the use of the concession whenever ~hey occur. Since a moderately serious difficulty in fasting is required for the use of this concession, there are cases of infirmity in which the con-cession may not be used because the fast is no more difficult in these cases than it is for ordinary healthy persons; e.g., a person who has weak eyes or is blind, one who has lost an arm or leg, will have no fasting difficulty arising from his infirmity Unless other circumstances enter into the case. The difficulty in fasting required in order to permit the infirm to 306 November, 1953 THE EUCHARISTIC FAST take liquids before Communion is, according to some commentators, also required in order to permit them to take medicine. However it seems to me that a close reading of the Instruction (n. 1) reveals a distinction between liquid nourishment and medicine. There are two clauses, one concerning liquids, which are permitted fi~nder the con-dition that fasting is difficult; the other cgncerning medicine, which is permitted under the sole condition that it is real medicine. Thus [ conclude that a person with a headache, even though it is not severe enough to make fasting difficult, would still be permitted an aspirin before Communion because he is sick and aspirin is real medicine. ¯ It may happen that someone feels well on rising, but knows from exi~erience that if he fasts until he receives Communion, he will be-come ill. In this case be may take medicine or liquid under the con-cession for the infirm, in order to avoid the sickness. Sometimes a person's sickness is due to his own fault, as when one is ill the morning aft, er an evenir~g of overindulgence in food or d~ink. Nevertheless, he .may use the'concession for the sick, sup-posing that he has the .proper dispositions of body and soul for the reception of.the Blessed Sacrament. We may now examine more .in detail what is meant by liquids and medicines. The liquid permitted to the sick before Communion is anything that can be pour,ed and drunk, except alcoholic bever-ages. Thus milk, tea, coffee, broth, fruit juices, soft drinks, and. heavier liquids like egg hog, milk shake, creamed soup and raw or lightly boiled eggs. The liquid may have some° undissolved solids as lo.ng as it remains a potable liquid; e.g., broth with some bread or cracker crumbs, cereals such as cream of wheat or corn meal when diluted with suffici,ent milk to make them drinkable. But all alco-holic beverages, even with low alcoholic content, are excluded after the midnight preceding Communion. Medicine, either liquid or solid, is permitted so long as it is real medicine, and not merely something nourishing or agreeable. True medicine is somethi,ng curative, palliative, or preventive. Any medi-cine prescribed by a doctor is a true medicine, but there are also many substances that are known to be medicine and used without a pre-scription, such as aspirin, sleeping pills, cold remedie~, etc. Commen-tators dispute whether medicine containing alcohol is permitted. It may safely be said that alcoholic beverages may not be used medici-nally before Communion, but a real medicine, even if it contains alcohol, may be used. This accords with the wording of the law, 307 HILARY R. WERTS ° Review for Relioious and the law hardly requires that a sick person know the chemical con-tent of his medicine, or° be prevented from Communiofi because he must take medicine containing some alcohol. We may also note that some things which are ordinarily considered food and not medicine may in certain diseases be real medicine with curative or preventive value. Thus sugar is prescribed for diabetics who have an insulin reactidn. This concession of the use of liquids and medicines for the infirm is granted to priests or rion-priests, and to p~iests for the reception of Communion or th,e celebration of Mass, and applies whether the ¯ Mass or Communion is in the morning or in the evening. The liquids or medicine may be taken once .or several time~ after midnight, and in any quantity. The use of this concession is not directly open to all the infirm, but those who are not priests are required to first consult a confessor, that he may judge whether they may use the concessio~a. This con- ¯ sultation is required in every case, but need be made only once ,for a given cause of infirmity, and the advice of the cQnfessor maY be fol-lowed as long as the infirmity continues, even if it be life-long. When the infirmity diminishes, as during convalescence, the c6ncession may still be used until it is clear that the infirmity no longer makes fasting difficult. . The time'fo[ this consultation is any time before Comm~ion. The confessor's advice is not required to take liquids or medicines. The advice is required for Communion after having taken these things, and so .it may be asked after taking them ~but before receiving Communion. The gravity of the obligation to consult a confessor is discussed by commentators, and some hold that to use the concession without consultation would be to viOlate the law of the Eucharistic fast and commit a grave sin. Others say that a person who is sure that his case comes under the conditions of the concession would sin'venially by disobedience if he were to omit the consultation and rceive Com-munion; and that in an extra.ordinary case, when it is impossible to. consult a confessor, he could use the concession without consultation. This opinion may be followed unless the Holy See ~olves the question otherwise. Of course, if a person were not qualified to judge the matter, he would sin at least, venially b,y acting imPrudently. There is"also some discussion about the confessor who is t6 be consulted. The strictest o.pinion is that he must be a priest who 308 November, 1953 THE EUCHARISTIC FAST could h~re and now hear the confession of the one consulting, and this would be required if the advice were sbught in confession. But the law does not require that the advice be sought in confession. It may be asked in private consultation outside the confe~si6nal and, according to atenable opinion, from a priest who can hear confes-sions somewhere, even though he .has no faculties to hear confessions in the place of the consultation or of the person consulting. Certainly no one but a priest may give the required advice, though teachers and others may explain the requirements to their charges. Since the advice of the confessor may be asked out of confession, it follows'that it may be asked in personal interview, by phone or by letter, or by an int.ermediary,such as a parent or other relative, a Sister or nurse in a hospital, a teacher, etc. The advice is personal and in-dividual and could not be given to a large group together, such as Ill the people attending Mass; but.if there is a group in which the con- "fessor knows that all those present have the same reason for the use of the concession, he could advise the group together, as when all the nurses present are on night duty, or all the people present must make a long trip to Mass, and thus come under the concessions to be seen later. As seen above, a person who is not a priest must consult a con- . fessor before using the concession for the sick (and also the conces-sions to be seen below). Must the sick priest also consult a confessor before using this concession to receive Communion or to celebrate Mass? "A~ first sight the law seems to requlke this, and some com-mentators thus interpret the law., But many, i~ncluding some who are connected with the Holy Office in Rome, say that the sick priest need not consult a confessor. This seems reasonable, for if the priest can decide for others, he should be able t9 decide ~or himself. With-out entering into all the arguments, it might be well to consider one point, The Instruction of the'Holy Office concerning the sick (n. 3) says: "Priests who are ill., may likewise take advantage of the dispensation." The word likewise is a translation of the.word pariter, meaning "likewise," "in the same way." Many'commenta-tors r~fer this word to what has gone before, and understand the law to gay that priests may use the dispensation in the same way as the faithful, that is, .after consulting a confessor. It seems to be as well or even better to refer the word to what follows, and understand the sentence to mean that priests are given permission to .use the dispen-sation as well for celebrating Mass as for receiving Communion, 309 HILARY R. WERTS Review for Reliqious which is a new and very noteworthy concession, emphasized by the word pariter. The next concession is for priests in circumstances other than sickness which make fasting difficult. Three specific causes of diffi-culty are set down and the concession is grant.ed to piiests in these circumstances, without the need of consulting a confessor, and even incases where the pri, est couId fast without difficulty. The three causes are exclusive, and the concession is not to be extended to other circumstano~s, but actually the three given causes cover most of the difficult cases. The first cause is the late hour of celebrating Mass. The hour is defined as nine o'clock in the morning. If a priest celebrat,~s Mass after this hour he may take non-alcoholic !iquids as explained above, up to one hour before the beginning of Mass, and may take them as often as he wishes. The time in this case must be measured mathe-matically. There must be a full hour of fasting before the beginning of Mass. And the Mass must start after nine o'clock. If the priest leaves the sacristy promptly for a scheduled nine o'clock Mass, it will be after nine when he begin? the Mass at the foot of the altar with the sign of the cross, and he is a proper subject for this concession. When a priest is celebrating more than one Mass, and one of them is after nine o'clock, he fulfills the cbndition and may us~ the dispensation by taking liquids any time after .midnight, and therefore before his. earlier Mass, but he must observe the prescription of fasting from the liquids for one hour before each Mass. Thus if he celebrates at eight and nine o'clock, he could take liquids before seven o'clock; if he celebrates at six and nine o'clock, he could take liquids before five and again after the first Mass but before eight o'clock. The second cause which allows priests the use Of liquids up to one hour before the beginning of Mass is heavy work of the ministry done before Mass. No exact definition of this work is given, but in view of the definition of a late hour given above, and of a long jour-ney given in the next cause, it would seem safe to say that one hour or more of concentrated work, such as hearing confessions, taking~ Communion to the sick, preparing a sermon, participating in solemn ceremonies, and the like, would allow the concession, but not an hour of puttering at odds and ends while waiting for Mass time. The third cause permitting liquids to the priest up to one hour before the beginning of Mass is a long journey, before Mass. A long journey is defined by the Holy Office as a distanoe of a mile and a 310 November, 1953 THE EUCHARISTIC FAST quarter on foot, which is a walk of about 20 or 25 minutes. If transportation is used, the distance must be greater in proportion to the kind of conveyance, the d!fficulty of the road, and the condition of the traveler. The inconvenience of the trip by conveyance should be equivalent to the inconvenience of a walk of a mile and a quarter. For a healthy person and a good road, it would seem that about forty minutes by car, or thirty minutes by bus, or twenty minutes by bicycle, would be a long journey in the sense of this law. Where the road or the weather is bad, or the person old or unwell, this distance may be shortened proportionately. Since water no longer breaks the fast, it is noted that a priest celebrating more than one Mass may take the ablutions in each Mass, but using only water except at the last Mass. However, the Holy Office makes an exception to this in the case of Christmas and All Souls Day, if the priest celebrates three Masses on these feasts without interruption. In this case he should observe the rubrics of the missal which require the omission of the ablutions in the first two Masses. If on these two days the priest should take the ablutions with water, he would not be breaking his fast but he would be violating the rubrics. The Holy Office says that if the binating or trinating priest in-advertently takes wine at the ablutions of a Mass before his last one, he may still celebrate the subsequent Mass or Masses. Some commen-tators hold that this permission is granted only if the priest has some special need to celebrate the subsequent Mass, e.g. because it is a sched-uled Sunday Mass. But others say that the law does not necessarily mean any particular need for the Mass, and that the priest may pro-ceed with his Masses for no greater reason than his own devotion. It would seem that if the priest inadvertently took the wine ablu-tion into the chalice in his earlier Mass, and noticed it before con-suming the wine, he would not be obliged to dispose of it some other ~vay, but could consume it. However, if he deliberately took the wine ablution at Mass, not intending to binate, and later the need for another Mass arose, he could not celebrate again .unless there were sufficient need to allow him to celebrate after breaking his fast. But in view of the present mitigation of the law, one might be less severe than formerly in weighing this need. Having seen the concessions for priests who will celebrate Mass, we come to the concession for communicants. This concession, simi-lar to but somewhat different from the preceding, is the one which 311 HILARY Rz WERTS Re, view/or Reli~lious rules the reception of Holy Communion for all non-priests, even though they be religious or clerics in the major orders of subdeacon or deacon, and it also applies to priests who are to communicate rather than celebrate, as for example, priests who do not c~lebrate Mass on Holy Saturday. The concession is given for three exclusive causes of grave diffi-culty, namel~, fatiguing work ¯before Communion, late hour of. Communion, or a long journey before Commianion. The concession requires consultation of a confessor, as seen ~above for the infirm. When the" concession is allowed, the communicant may take .liquids as often as he wisheL from midnight until one hour b~fore Com-munion, and of course water at any time. No solid food,or alcoholic drink is allowed after midnight. Note that the hour is measured be-fore Communion, while for the celebrant we saw that it is measured before the beginning of Mass. The period of fasting must be a full hour and if in doubt about the exact time of Communion one must leave some margin Of time; or risk arriving at Communion before the full hbur is completed and thus be deprived of Communion, for there m'ust be no diminution of the hour. There are various opinions as to the application of the three causes of grave difficulty. One opinion requires not only the exist-ence of one of these three causes, but also the existence of at I~east a moderately grave difficulty in fasting from midnight for this particu-lar communica.nt, A second opinion holds that if one. of the three, causes exists, we may presume that it is actually difficult for any par-ticular person to observe the fast" from midnight, and so he should be allowed to use the concession unl.ess it is clear that fasting causes him no difficulty. A third opinion holds that the only difficulty required is the actual existence of one of the three given causes. For example, if one must make a long journey to church, he may be allowed to use the concession without inquiry as to the inconvenience he would suf-fer by fasting from midnight. TJae practical application of these¯ different opinions will be the same except in border-line cases in which the third opinion will cre-ate less anxiety in the confessor and the comrrluriicant than will the other two opinions. This third opinion has the fewest supporters,. ¯ but I adopt it'as the easiest to. apply and as defensible according to the meaning of the law. Although the tenor of the law is that it in-tends to relieve those who experience grave difficulty in fasting from midnight, it also states that there is grave difficulty in certain cases 312 November, 1953 ¯ THE EUCHARISTIC FAST given as examples. The C0n~titution also insinuates that some cir-stances which do not ~eem to be serious in a single case may have a serious cumulative effect over an extended period. Thus 'the Consti-tution says that the burden of a priest's Sunday ministry unques-tionably undermines his health; the conditions of work in the mod-ern economy and the conditions of modern living especially after re-cent wars have caused a general decline of health. The Constitution, norm V, grants the concession "because of grave incon.venience-- that is, because Of fatiguing work, or the lateness of the hour . or the long distance." (italics supplied), signif~ring that these three conditions are actually grave difficulties. The introduction to the ¯ Instruction says the concessions may be used by those who find them-selves in the particular conditions specified in the Constitution, which in this.concession are the three given causes. The Instruction states 'the concession to the sick conditionally,."if because of their illness~ they are unable without grave inconvenience, to observe a complete fast," signifying that illness may or may not be a cause of grave in-convenience. But in the concession to communicants who are not ill, it states directly that the three enumerated circumstances are (not rna~] be) causes of grave inconvenience. Furthermore, the spirit of these, documents is very lenient, considering a mile and a quarter as a gravely inconvenient walk and nine o'clock as a gravely inconvenient late horn:, if these are considered as.generally grave, there seems to be little room for a reasonable decision that in some.exceptional cases they are not grave. To draw a line betw,een grave and not grave in this matter seems to be practically impossible and the attempt to do so would lead to anxiety and scruples. So it seems to be in accord' with the meaning and spirit of this law to allow the concession to all communicants who are in one of thd three given circumstances, without trying to measure the gravity of the difficulty of fasting for each communicant. ¯ The first cause given, fatiguing work, is illustrated in the law by the cases of night workers in factories, ships or other transportation, ~hose who spend the night in the'service of the sick or as watchmen, and mothers who must perform domestic duty before going to Com~ reunion. The work may be an all-night occupatign, or it may be work done in the morning for a period long enough to make it fa-tiguing, or it may be work done during some part of the night with some sleep afterwards, as when a nurse is called at night for some emergency. An hour's heavy work in the morning would seem to jus- 313 HILARY R. WERTS Reuieto /:or Religious tify the use of the concession. Work done late in the evening does not seem to be ordinarily included in this cause, but .such work and even work done earlier might sometimes be so fatiguing that it would permit use of the concession. The law also mentions pregnant women,rand probably considers them subjects for the concession in-dependently of any work they must do before Communion, merely by reason of the pregnancy. The second cause is the late hour at which alone the communicant can receive. The late hour is not defined, but since nine o'clock has been defined as a late hour for the celebrant, it must also be a late hour for the communicant. Perhaps it was not defined because it maC/ happen that a time before nine o'clock will be a late hour for those who must rise very early. The Instruction gives the example of Communion in a place where a priest is not able to say Mass early because he must come from some distance, as happens when on.e priest has charge of two or more churches. Although the Constitution says: "The ,lateness of the hour at which alone they can receive," this must not be understood to mean that it is absolutely impossible to receive earlier, but rather that it is difficult to receive earlier, or there is some necessity for waiting until a late hour. The concession could be allowed to these: the parent who must care for the children while the other parent goes to an early Mass and then himself goes to a .later Mass; one who is awake until a very late hour at night and so needs to sleep late in the morn-ing; one who needs a late sleep on Sunday or a holiday to rest from his week's work; one who must choose a late Mass to keep peace in the family; the altar boy who is assigned to serve a late Mass, even if he could go to another earlier Mass; a worker who could.conveni-ently go to noon Mass down town but would find it inconvenient to rise early enough for Mass before work; some special reason for a late Mass, as when the bride and groom wish to receive at a late nup-tial Mass, or the family wishes to receive at a late Requiem Mass; and in general, whenever in view of the person's accustomed rising hour, the time of the first conveniently available Mass is relatively late. But one may not without some necessity freely choose the later of two Masses in order to be able to take liquids before Com-munion. A special case of a late hour, mentioned in the documents, is that of children who would have to go to church, communicate, and then return home for breakfast before school. In order to obviate this 314 Nooernber, 1953 THE EUCHARISTIC FAST difficulty, these children may take liquid nourishment up to an hour before Communion. It must be admitted that this concession is not without its own problems. Although a child could have a sufficiently nourishing breakfast made up entirely of liquids, still it might not be a satisfying breakfast for those accustomed to a more substantial meal, and the liquid breakfast might require that the child and hi~ family rise earlier than usual in order to finish it an hour before Com-munion time. From this case of the school child we may conclude that some-times the hour may be considered late because the available time be-tween Holy Communion and other duties does not permit the com-municant to obtain breakfast, readily after Communion. This may be the case not only for school children, but also for college students, and for people who work away from home and do not have conveni-ent time after Mass to return home for breakfast. The third cause which allows this concession is a long distance to travel to church. The distance in this concession is to be measured in the way explained above for priests, i.e., a mile and a quarter walk, or the equivalently inconvenient ride. Here again there must be some need for the travel. One could not choose a more distant church when there is a nearer one unless there was some fairly serious reason for doing so. Sufficient reason might be some special solemnity at the distant church, e.-g., the first Mass of a member of the family; a group Communion of a family or of the Holy Name Society or the Knights of Columbus; .an alumni or father-son Communion-group at a school; a baccalaureate Mass; the close of a M'ission or novena one has attended; but hardly the mere devotional desire to communi-cate in the distant church rather than in a near one. The final concession concerns evening Masses. These Masses are not directly permitted, but the local Ordinary may permit them on the days specified in the law, and he may permit them in all .the churches of the diocese, or in certain designated churches. He may also permit them in the oratories of religious. There must b~ some need for the evening Mass, for workers who cannot go to morning Mass, or for a gathering for a religious or social festivity such as a Eucharistic Congress, a Sodality Convention, a business, labor or scout convention, etc. The evening Mass may begin at four o'clock or later. Some have thought that an eoenin9 Mass differs from a night Mass, and have tried to assign the latest hour at which this Mass may begin as some hour earlier than midnight, but the law does 315 HILARY R. WERTS not ~eem to set a final hour at any time before midnight, and the hour may be defined by the local. Ordinary according to the need. When evening Masses are permitted, all are free t6 go to the Masses and to receive Communion, but no one may communicate twice on the same day, nor may the priest celebrate morning and evening of the same day unless he may legitimately binate on that day. Neither priest.nor faithful need consult a konfessor under this concession. The Eucharistic fast required for evening Communion is a fast "of three hours from solid food and one hour from liquids, and the time.is measured before Communion for the communicant but before the beginning of Mass for the celebrant. No hard liquor is allow~d ¯ after the preceding midnight.Light alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine are allowed in moderation, but only during a meal. Some commentators hold that these beverages may be taken at only one meal, even if the person ~ats two meals before a Mass late in the evening, But it may I~e admitted with other commentators that the law does not intend to exclude the use of these beverage's from any meal taken before evening Mass or Communion. This new law of the Eucharistic fast is a generous help for the increase of frequent Communion. Priests and other teachers of the faithful can use it effectively, as the Holy Father wishes, to encourage the frequent reception of the Blessed Sacrament, and the faithful should take full advantage of these concessions to increase their re-ception of the'Bread of Life in proportion to the greatlyincreased convenience of its reception. " BOOK NOTICI: Over twenty years ago Father Bernard Hausmann, S.J., first translated from the German a notable book on-the devotion to the Sacred Heart written by Father Christian Pesch, S.J., under the title of OUR BEST FRIEND. World War II and other causes kept the book out of print for some years. Now the publisher has reset the book entirely in very legible type. Its thirty chapters, each acom-plete unit in itself, offer ideal reading matter for daily spiritual reading during the month of June; or for the Fridays of the year. The central thought of this work, that Jesus is t, ruly our best Friend, contains the strongest possible motive for fervent practice of devotion to the Sacred Heart. (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Cc~mpany, 1953. Pp. 228. $3.00.) 316 Motu Proprio ,Jubilee C.J. McNaspy, S.J. ~IGH MASS ~nd possibly an added toothsome tidbit, at least for the choir, mark St. Cecilia's feast in many religious com-munities. This year is likely to see a fuller fe.stivity on No-vember 22, the golden jubilee of Blessed Pius X's Motu~Proprio on ¯ sacred music. 'Everything about'this famed document is rwell known to music teachers and chant directors, who often have had to flourish it in defense of their innovations or renovations. But this fiftieth anniversary may be a fit .occasion for all religious, however unmusical, .to recall what the Church has to say about her own music. If the Motu Proprio were a dead letter no one would take the trouble to commemorate it. Blessed Pius himself saw to it that this would not easily happen by enshrining his prescriptions in tt~e pre-paratory draft of canon 1264. His immediate, successor, Benedict XV, not long after stated: "We do not wish that the lapse of time should weaken the force of these wise rules.; indeed, we desire them to have their full force." On the silver anniversary, 1928, Pius XI indeed bolstered them with a new papal document, Diuini Cultus, in which he expr~essed surprise "that some have declared that these laws, though so solemnly promulgated, were not binding on their obedience." .Finally, our present Holy Father devotes several pa.ragraphs to sacred music, alway~ stressing the sameprinciples, in his masterly Mediator Dei. No one, unless wi~h a peculiar axe to grind, can say that the Motu Proprio is out of date. Another unfounded notion one sometimes hears is th~t the Motu Proprio is a bit extreme and not practical enough for us to do anything about it. The full reply to this objection would be simply to read it through. By no means does it. state or imply' that one should use only Gregorian chant in sacred worship. Quite explicitly the Holy Father states that "modern music is also admitted in church, as it also offers compositions of such goodness, seriousness, and grav-ity that they are not at all unworthy of liturgical functions." And if this were not enough, the Holy Father explains that "the Church: has always recognized and favored the progress of the arts, admitting to the service of worship everything good and beautiful that genius has been able to discover throughout the centuries." No, only one 317 C. J. McNAsPY Review for Religious type of music is condemned in the Motu Proprio, and that by indi-. rection: the music that does not possess "the qualities proper to the liturgy, namely holiness, and goodness of form, from which spon-taneously there springs its other mark, uniuersaIit~t.:" It is hard to see how anyone could find this either radical or extreme. So much has been done, especially during recent years, to carry out the requirements of the Motu Proprio that another possible qualm may occur: isn't it all so obvious that we needn't discuss it any more? Mu~n personal contact with religious, younger ones particu-larly, is so encouraging that one is tempted to let down, feeling that the battle has been won. The ever-.widening conquests of the Gre-gorian Institute, Piu; X School, and other liturgical or musical or-ganizations must surely bring added joy to the Blessed Pontiff who so recently launched the whole movement. But when one leaves religious house and seminary to venture forth into parish, or even, in some cases, cathedral, the situation is dismal indeed. True, the more offensive, bumptious Masses usual in the last century will h~rdly now be heard. But in too many instances, what replaced them is little better. In fact, there are parishes, even deaneries, Where .the Motu Proprio would seem never to have been promulgated. Sad indeed would be the Blessed Pastor were he not already in heaven. It was with real poignancy that he had written, fifty years ago, while intro-ducing his great statement, of the "many prejudices so stubbornly held even~among responsible and pious persons"; not all of the stub-bornness is gone .today. Need we recall once again that all.discussion of the role of sacred music in divine worship must be situated in the total context of the very m. eaning of liturgy.? The question cannot be simply decided on a purely musical basis. It cannot be just a matter of aesthetic value, abstractly considered, if that were possible. Much less can it be just a question of "I don't know anything about music but I know what I like." ¯ Music that would ~ank high on some ecclesiastical Hit Pa-rade or even music performed in Carnegie Hall will not necessarily be suitable as worship music. Too often, even now, dubious standards are implicitly set up. A meditative reading of the Motu Proprto could remedy that. "Sacred music as an integral part of the solemn liturgy shares in its general, purpose, which is the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful." Thus far no cavilling possible. "Its principal function is to adorn with suitable melody the liturgical text 318 November, 1953 MOTU PROPRIO JUBILEE proposed to the understanding of the faithful." Here it becomes clearer that music's place must be secondary, that of a handmaid, as Pius XI would make explicit. If tb? sacred text becomes a plaything, or in any way obscured instead of pointed and intensified, then some-thing has gone askew; this may be good concert music; it is no longer liturgical music. Then the Pontiff enumerates the three qualities of sacred music which we gave above. By "holiness" he means ~hat all profanity must be excluded, "not only in itself but also in the manner in which it is presented by the perfgrmers." Farther on he explains that nothing may be admitted ~hat contains anything "reminiscent of theatrical motifs," or "fashioned even in external pattern on the movement of profane pieces." Music of a romantic or sentimental flavor (aptly called "googaudery") in which the."pleasure directly produced by music is not always kept within bounds," is evi-dently excluded under this heading. Next, music "must be true art, for otherwise it is not possible for. it to have that effect on listeners which the Church intends to achieve in admitting the art of music into bet liturgy." This precept is commonly violated in two ways: either by singing music of low artistic worth, music that would never make its mark in "the world ~vere it not put forth under the aegis of the liturgy; or by singing worth~(music in an unworthy way. The second fault, while often less grievous because prompted by good. intentions, can sometimes do more harm than good. People have frequently grown to dislike Gregorian chant or the Church's great polyphony because they were performed with more good will than skill. For this reason Plus XI insisted that at least seminaries teach "the higher and 'aesthetic' study of plainchant and sacred music, of polyphony and organ, which the clergy should by all means thoroughly know." As the seminaries turn out pastors competent in this field, it is likely that choirs will reflect their understanding of sacred music, artistically and liturgically. The third mark of liturgical music, "universality," means that "though every nation is allowed to admit into its ecclesiastical com-positions those particular forms that constitute, so to speak, the spe-cific character of its own music, still these must be subordinated in such a way to the general character of sacred music that no one of another nation may receive a bad impression-on hearing them." This delicate catholicity, a tension between unity and diversity, is perhaps 319 C. J. MCNASPY the hardest principle to apply. However,. ,the Pontiff goes, ,on. ex-plicitly- to condemn the operatic style of his own country. We wonder~ what he would think of certain rather eccentric efforts to produce Negroid or "western" sacred music for use.in our country. But popes are ever practical, and to prevent us from being too abstract in our approach, the Holy Father immediately gives concrete examples of what the Church does want. "These qualities are found, in the highest degree in Gregorian chant,~'' which "has always been considered the supreme model 'of sacred music." Then he sets down, in italics and as unambiguously as possible, the fol-lowing'rule: "The more closely a composition for church approaches the Gregorian melody in movement, inspiration, and flavor, the more sacred and liturgical it is; and the more it departs from that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple." It would" take real in-genuity to misunderstand that. Blessed Pius next forestalls a possible escape. Granted, one might object, that.the chant is so sacred and worthy; but isn't other music really more solemn? No, says the Pope, "it must be held by all as certain that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by no other music than Gregorian chant alone.'.' How-ever, he adds, "the qualities mentioned above are also possessed in an eminent degree by classical polyphony, especially by the Roman school, which in the sixteenth century reached its highest perfection in the work 6f Pierluigi da Palestrina. . Classical polyphony is quite close to the supreme model of all sacred music, namely Gre-gbrian chant, and for that reason deserved to be received together with Gregorian chant in the most solemn functions of the Church." A fir~al scruple: is this not reactionary,, or at least over-conserva-tive? As an interesting corroboration of the Holy Father's stand I believe we could give quotations from almost every leading con-temporary music historian or theorist. To cite only the most recent,, and surely, one of the most eminent, Harvard's Professor. A. T. Davison, a no/~-Catholic. " His new book, Church Music: Illusion and Reality, could almost be called a commentary on the Motu Pro-prio. After calling our chan~ "the unchallenged example o~t:, worship become music" and speaking of Palestrina and other polyphonic corn- .posers in terms of the highest pr~iise, Dr.Davison states in reference to both: "It may appear to the reader that this music of the Roman Cath-olic Church has been rather aggressively held up as a model.If this 320 November, 1953 COMMUNICATIONS is so, it is only because of a conscientious attempt to deal objectively with the matter; for that particular music, it would seem, fulfills two all-important requisites of true church music: first, in vying with the greatest music in any field, sacred, secular, or instrumental; and second, in creating an atmosphere of worship wherein not man but God appears as the important figure in the transaction." . Surely no fine~ tribute to the sainted Pope and his liturgical work for Christ could be offered. Communications Reverend Fathers: The September issue of the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS reached me t£day and I should like" to cl~arify a reference made by WilliamGrem-ley, in his article entitled "Intergroup Relatiohs," pages 231-241. The quotation given by Mr. Gremley from This Is Our Town appeared in the old edition of the book. I have since revised all the Faith and Freedom" Readers and the particular story referred to by Mr. Gremley is no longer in the new edition. Mr. Gremley gives 1952 as the date of copyright which is also in-correct. The story referred t0 in This Is Our, Town appeared in the 1942 edition. The re~;ised book was published last spring and has a 1953 copyright. There is no 1952'edition of this particular volume. --SISTER M. MARGUERITE, S.N.D: Reverend Fathers : His Excellency, Bishop Gonzaga, of the Palo (Leyte) diocese in the Philippines; has asked me, during my brief visit to the United States, to try to interest some American Sisterhoods to undert~ike educational work in his diocese. Will you allow me to publicize his request through your e~teeme'd columns? The Holy See has entrusted to this zealous and schokirly Filipino prelate the spiritual welfare of over 1,000,000 Catholics on the large island of Leyte. During my twenty years in the Philippines, I have had the privilege of. long acquaintance with him, and know well his situation. With only about sixty-five priests (some of whom are old and sickly) and only three schools conducted by Sisters, he is in desperat9 need of spiritual reinforcements and most anxious to obtain American Sisters, and also priests, for his diocese. 321 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Reoiew/or Religious Anyone acquainted with our own country realizes that we have many regions at l~ome which need additional laborers in the vineyard of the Lord. It is this situation, no doubt, which is preventing many of our high-minded ecclesiastical, and religious superiors from allow-ing their .American subjects to go to foreign fields. On the other hand, Catholic history from the time of the Apostles is replet~ with examples of how the Church has always been prodigal in sending missionaries to foreign fields, even though their home lands were not yet fully manned nor completely evangelized. And they have been richly rewarded by the Holy Spirit, \Vho has multiplied vocations to their ranks as a blessing for their sacrifices. Those interested in further details will please write .to the under-signed. REV. G. J. WILLMANN, S.J. P. O. Box.510, Manila, Philippine Islands --29~ There are members o~ a commun;ty ~;v;ng ~ogefber who bare not spo-ken to one another over a period of four or five-years. Is the local superior obliged to try to correct this situatlbn or should a higher superior who !~nows of the maffer take a hand? As a general norm local situations as far as possible would be handled by the local superior. For a good reason in a particular case it might be deemed advisable that some other than the local superior take care of the matter; t.he case could then be referred to higher supe-riots. Such a good reasbn could be discrepancy in age between the superior and the subject'.who needs correction, possible lack of ex-perience in a younger superior, a question of tactfulness, a clash of personalities, and the like. In our instance the higher superior is al-ready acquainted with the situation; hence the lotal and higher supe-riors might confer together regarding the more prudent and more efficacious way of handling the case. Is it the mind of the Church tha÷ S~sters who de~re and even ask for correction and guidance from their superiors be left wlthouf it on ÷he ex 322 November, 1953 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS pressed opinion that the Sisters are grown women and know what they are supposed fo do? Canon 530 strictly forbids all religio~s superiors in any way to indfice their subjects to make a manifestation of conscience to them. It does not, however, forbid subjects to open their minds freely, and of their own accord to their superiors; in fact, it encourages filial trust in superiors and, if the superior is a priest, it also recommends sub-jects to reveal doubts and anxieties of conscience to such a superior. Consequently subjects are free to go to superiors, even those who are not priests,~ with their problems, especially if the problem does not in~rolve a question of sin. Superiors on their part will usually lend a sympathetic ear. But the case might arise in which the superior did not feel competent tO handle a certain problem; or one could, en-visage a particular case in which the superior judged that it would be better for the individual to resolve some simpler difficulty for himself and thereby buiid up self-confidence. In these matters a great deal of tact and Christian charity is required on the part of superiors; but subjects also should practice charity in moderating ~he demands they make upon superiors. Some problems could easily be solved on the individual's initiative after prayer and reflection. A decade ago the REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS invited discussion on the topic of spiritual direction. In the concluding survey (II [ 1943 ], 187-201) the twofold prong of spiritual direction was indicated, namely instruction and encouragement. On pages 19 I-192 the con-clusion is voiced that need of instruction should certainly decrease with the i~assage of years to such a point that normally the intellec-tual help required of one's spiritual director would be mainly friendly criticism. "In other words, these religious plan their own lives, submit their plans to a director for approval or disapproval,. and then occasionally make a report on the success or failure of the plan." In regard to encouragement, the need is more individual ~nd is usually not lessened with the years. "At various periods in our lives, most of us need sympathetic help or paternal correction lest we lose heart or descend to low ideals." Both superiors and subjects might profit by keeping those considerations in mind. --31-- If a councillor is absent and the local superior, who is not a councillor, is called to a council meeting, does the local superior give her vote ~n ÷l~e order the absent councillor would have or after all the councillors? 323 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Review for Religious ¯ Canon 106, n. 5 says in part.that among the members of any college (collegium) the right of precedence shall be determined by the legitim.ate constitutions of the college; otherwise by .lawful custom; in default of that, by the norms of the common law. Hence, the con-stitutions of the institute should be consulted. If they make no pro-vision, then follow whatever has been the legitimate custom (which here means the customary way of acting), in this situation. If neither the constitutions nor custom provide a solution, canon 106, n. 1 states that one who represents another enjoys the precedence'that person has; but anyone who is in a council or similar meeting .as a proxy yields precedence to those of the same rank who are personally present. Accordingly, then, a local superior wl~o is not a councillor but who has been summohed to take the place organ absent councillor would vote after the councillors who are present in person. m32m Acjeneral chapter is held in a branch house. When the time comes for voting, does the local superior who is not a councillor .cjeneral vote before or after the ~ouncillors cjeneral? (It is customary for Junior Sisters 1.o vote first, followed by Senior Sistei-s.I The first answer is, consult your constitutions. If they say. nothing, the.n follow whatever has been customarily done in this matter. If no solution is forthcoming from either of those sources in the order enumerated, it would seem that the local superior in this case would yield precedence to the councillors general since the latter in this instance seem to be acting in their "general" capacity, so to speak. (Possibly some institutes follow a simpler method of having all capitulars vote according to strict seniority, upwards or down-wards, without regard to offices h~ld.) ~33~ Propositions to be presented to our cjenera! chapter are very often sent throucjh some member of our cjeneral council or fhroucjh the cjenera/ council. 'Has the cjeneral, councll the right to discard a proposition that pertains dlrec~ly or indirectly to the cjeneral council itself, since the cjen-eral chapter, wh[le in session, is the highest aufhorlfy ~n the concjrecjatlon? Perhaps your constitutions or legitimate custom indicate that proEositions intended for the genekal chapter are to be forwarded ,dlrough the counciI16rs general, and that these latter have the power to judge the feasibility of presenting any such proposition to the gen- 324 0, November, 1953 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS eral chapter. Otherwise, an answer (in part) appearing in the RE-VIEW ~:OR RELIGIOUS, XI (1952), 309-310 in response to a similar question .says: "Usually they [requests" or complaints intended for thegeneral chapter] are given to one of the delegates to'the general chapter who, in turn, at the proper time, turns them in to the special committee appointed for the purpose of screening such requests .and complaints. Those that are considered worthy of the attention of the general chapter are proposed to it in due time during the chapter of affairs. At the end of the. chapter, before a vote to adjourn is taken, .any delegate may ask tha~ a request or complaint which has been turned in but has not been submitted to the general chapter 'should now be read, and the chapter will then vote first on whether the request or complaint is to be considered or not. If"it is "rejected, that is the end of the matter. If the majority is for considering it, it will then be 'considered in the same way as .the other requests or com-plaints which Were already submitted to the general chapter." m34.- ~ One of our novices left religious llfe aboufa year ago because of ill health. Now she has fully recovered and would like ÷o re-enter our com-munity. We know she has ÷o make a new novitiate, but does she have to make a new postulancy? Unless your own constitutions require a new postulancy, the ap-plicant does not have to rbpeat the postulancy. There is no special provision in the°Code of Canon Law for this case, but the conclusion is reached by analogy with two other provisions in the Code. Accgrding to canon 640, § 2, if a religious who after making profession obtained an indult of secularization is readmitted later on to a religious institute by virtue of an apostolic indult, he must make a new novitiate and a new profession, but nothing is said about making a new postulancy also. Hence a new postulancy need not be made in that case. ~ Likewise in an institute which has two canonical classes of mem-bers, if a novice or professed passes from one ciass to the other, a new novitiate must be made, but no new postulancy is required (~ee canon 558). Hence by analogy with the above two provisions of the Code, no new postulancy is required in the case proposed in our question. (See also REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS, I [1942], 357.) 325 Book Reviews RELIGIOUS MEN AND WOMEN IN THE CODE. By Joseph Creusen,'S.J. Fifth Engfish edition, revised and edited to conform wi÷h the sixth Frefich edition by Adam C. Ellis, S.J. Pp. xlv -f- 322. Bruce Publish° ing Company, Milwaukee, 19S~}. $S.S0. Religious superiors and subjects will welcome this latest edition of Father Creusen's vhluable work. In editing the fifth English edi-tion, Father Ellis has painstakingly made the various changes, addi-tions, and omissions found in the latest French edition. These emen-dations, due partly to a constant effort to keep the work up-to-date with recent pronouncements of the Holy See, serve to enhance the undoubted worth of this book. It should be kept handy alike for r~ference shelf and classroom study of the Church's law for religious. Something about the annual report and the new questionnaires for the quinquennial report is included. Appendix III gives an English translation of the questionnaire for the quinquennial report of dioce-san congregations and societies. As the author remarks in his preface: "We have not deemed it necessary to add a chapter on Secular Insti-tutes, since by no title' are they a form of the religious life nor are their members religious." There is a revised bibliography. A larger type has been used for the table of contents.--F. N. KORTH, S.J. FUNDAMENTAL PSYCHIATRY. By John R. Cavanagh, B.S., M.D., ¯ C.P., K.S.G., end James B. McGoldrlck, S.J., S.T.D., Ph.D. Pp. x Jr- 582. Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 19S3. $S.50. For fifty years psychiatry has drawn man's psychic portrait across the medical horizgn without a spiritual intellect or will, with-out a spiritual soul. For decades the brilliant analytic theories and therapeutic techniques, often investigated with scientific precision, have been built upon a false psychic substructure of practical mate-rialism and ihstinctive determinism. The emerging portrait tends to be a distorted caricature of human nature and psychic life as a mere mixture of matter and determined instinct. As a net result, psychia-trists are now left without adequate goals in life to point out to their patients. To interpret, to correct, to refashion psychiatry on the same old base has long been unsatisfactory. The present authors challenge the jaded materialistic framework at every turn ,and discard it com'- pletely. They have produced a first-rate psychiatry textbook that 326 BOOK REVIEWS turns a new medical page and builds the young ~cience of psychiatry entirely upon the time-tested framework of traditional scholastic psychology. This book is important for its psychological structure and its emphases. Perhaps more than any other psychiatry book today it emphasizes, with scientific precision, the spiritual intellect, will and soul; volitional freedom at the root of mental disorder; character formation based upon intellectual, and moral habits; and .the need of an adequate philosophy of life for true mental balance taken from both reason and revelation. Pervading the book with regard to etiology is the author's insistence upon the psychogenic or nonmaterial origin of mental disorders caused by a misuse of man's spiritual faculties. The high caliber and clear structure of Fundamental Ps~chiatr~ reminds one of Dr. Strecker's excellen~ book Fundamentals ot: Psgt-chiatr~ l. It has seven major sections, thirty-one chapters critically written and well-documented, sixty-five thorough case histories, and rich bibliographical material. Publishers and authors have designed a clear and highly readable book. It opens with intr6ductory con- ¯ cepts, the extent of mental disorders, and a picture of normal per-sonality. Five major sections treat of etiology, the clinical approach to psychiatry, psychoneuroses, psychoses, and borderlands of psy-chiatry. The conclusion is devoted to psychiatry, philosophy, and religion. The growing importance of psychiatry makes thi~ an important and valuable book for Catholic hospitals, doctors, nurses, and coun-selors, and for those engaged .in educational and sociological 'work involving modern psychiatric pkinciples.--CHARLES NASH, S.J. MOST REVEREND ANTHONY 3. SC~HULER, S.J.,D.D.,FIRST BISHOP OF I:L PASO, AND SOME CIATHOLIC~ ACTIVITIES IN THE DIOC~ESE BETWEEN 1915-1942. By Sls~'er M. Lilliana Owens, S.L., Ph.D. Pp. xxiv -J- 584. Revls÷a Clatolica Press, El Paso, 1953. $3.50. This labor of love but also a heavily documented work intro-duces us into the career of another "first l~ishop" in the United States coming from the Society of Jesus. When the diocese of El Paso was erected in 1915, the second choice for this new See was the pastor of ¯ a church in Denver, Colorado. He had seen the southwest in earlier days and knew something of the complicated and almost insoluble problems that would have to be faced. But obedience imposed the task; with confidence in God's help the new bishop put his shoulder BOOK REVIEWS Review for Reliytotts to the task. For more than a quarter of a century he carried on, then handed over a well-established organization to his successor. Less than two years later death carried his soul before his Maker. The volume is prgfusely illustrated and well printed. Six ap-pendixes add materials to those cited in the course of the narrative. Thirty pages.of bibliography give a riotion of the industry that went into the preparation of this work. There is a carefullY-madE index. In the treatment the author in the main f~llows the topical meth-od, giving for each theme the background and carrying it through the whole period of the episcopate. ]3ecause of this we do not get a very clear picture of the growth of the diocese as a whole. In giving the background more is at times given than is needed for the purpose intended. Fo~ the most part the ]3ishop appears before us, not so much initiating projects of his own, but as discreetly promoting and supporting movements set afoot by others and at times making them his own and thus leading'them to a happy solution. In his administration Bishop Schuler faced unique problems with which he had to deal prudently. Such were the bilingual popula-tion in the diocese, its location in t~ro states, the onrush of exiles due to the persecution in Mexico, the dire poverty of a large portion of the faithful, the shortage of priests and of priestly vocations. Some of these themes are treated with some completeness while others are merely touched upon--the title gives warning that the work. is not meant to be exhaustive.--AUGUSTIN C. WAND, S.J. I WANT TO SEE GOD. A Pra~:fical Synthesis of C:armellfe Splritualify. By P. Marle-Eug~ne, O.C~.D. Translated by Sister M. Verda C~lare, C:.S.C:. Pp. xxli -I- $49. F~des Publishers Association, .C:hicag~ .10, 19S3. $S.7S. This is the first of a two-volume work. The. second is to be en-titled, 1"Am a Daughter of the Church. ¯ Their grew out of a series of .conferences on the Carmelite theory and practice of prayer. St. Teresa of Avila, rather than St. John of the Cross, was chosen as the proxi-mate "guide." Of St. Teresa's writings The lnterior Castle, with its seven "mansioias," was taken as basic and typical and it provides .the plan for this exposition. St. John's doctrine is introduced here and there as a confirmation or completion of St. Teresa's, not as something that. is continuous a'nd unified in itself. Very often fu'r-ther confirmation or illustration is sought from St. Th~r~se of Li-sieux. The work as a whole has five principal parts, three of them being 328 November, 1953 BOOK NOTICES in this volume. The first part is called "Perspectives" and serves as a general introduction. "The First Stages" deals with the matter treated in St. Teresa's first three mansions. Therefore it is ascetical. Next follows "Mystica~ Li~e and Contemplation." In this section-- nearly half of volume .one--there is much that one would hardly ¯ think of in simpl~¢ reading the works of St. Teresa or St. John; for example, ch~apter two on the "The Gifts of the Holy Spirit." The two principal parts reserved for the second volun~e are "To Union of Will" and "Holiness for the Church." On the value of this study as a satisfactory synthesis of Carmelite spiritual teaching we' had better let the Carmelites themselves pro-nounce. Besides it would be premature to judge it before the second and much the more important volume appears. --AUGUSTINE G. ELLARD, S.J. BOOK NOTICES Highly recommended is THE NEW EUCHARIS:FIC LEGISLATION, by John C. Ford, S.J. This book contains the original Latin texts of the Christus Dominus and the Instruction of the Holy Office, an English translation of these texts, a stimulating and enlightening commentary on the documents, and some brief summaries that should be very useful for confessors, religion teachers, catechism teachers, and parish priests. (New York: P. J. Kenedy U Sons, 1953. Pp. vii -t- 130. $1.50.) Little less than fascinatir~g is .the story of Louis Brisson as told by Katherine Burton in So MUCH So SOON. Carthusiafi-minded himself, this man founded schools for boys and clubs for girls, and the Oblate Fathers and Sisters of St. Francis de Sales to conduct them. Of rare scientific genius, he planned his own buildings and invented various things to keep his foundations operating efficiently. With profound trust in Providence, he quietly saw most of his great works swept a