Vatican Publishes Norms On Consecrated Virgins
By HANNAH BROCKHAUS
VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) — Almost 50 years after the Church published the new Rite of Consecrated Virginity, the Vatican has issued an instruction on the state of life, its discipline, and the responsibilities of diocesan bishops toward the vocation of consecrated virgins.
The instruction was created in response to requests from bishops for clarity on the role and mission of consecrated virgins, especially following an increase in the number of women discerning the vocation since the revision of the Rite of Consecration, published in 1970 with the approval of Pope Paul VI.
A consecrated virgin is a never-married woman who dedicates her perpetual virginity to God and is set aside as a sacred person who belongs to Christ in the Catholic Church.
The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which issued the instruction July 4, estimates there are now more than 5,000 consecrated virgins on all five continents “in very diverse geographic areas and cultural contexts.”
In consideration of this, the document gives explicit instructions for the prerequisites, formation, regulation, and documentation of consecrated virgins, who belong to the ecclesial “Ordo Virginum” or “Order of Virgins,” and are overseen by the diocesan bishop.
“Consecrated persons dedicate themselves to prayer, penance, works of mercy and the apostolate, each according to their own charisms, welcoming the Gospel as a fundamental rule for their life,” stated Archbishop José Rodriguez Carballo, secretary of the congregation for consecrated life.
“The charism of virginity is harmonized with the proper charism of each consecrated person, giving rise to a great variety of responses to the vocation, in a creative freedom that demands a sense of responsibility and the exercise of serious spiritual discernment.”
The instruction is called Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago.
According to the Code of Canon Law, women who pursue this vocation must be consecrated to God through the diocesan bishop, according to the rite approved by the Church. Upon consecration, they are betrothed mystically to Christ and are dedicated to the service of the Church, while remaining in a public state of life.
Consecrated virgins live individually, unless they choose to live in community with other consecrated virgins, and receive direction from the bishop. Their consecration and life of perpetual virginity is permanent. Their call to a secular state of life means they have jobs and lives like that of the average person, providing for their own needs. The local diocese is not financially responsible for consecrated virgins.