Postulancy And Postulant

POSTULATO and POSTULANTE. — In the strict sense, p. is the period of time during which a candidate for religious life is considered as such for juridical purposes. In the broad sense, it is the period of time and probation that a candidate for religious life undergoes from entry until admission to the novitiate.

I. HISTORY

The beginnings of postulancy in the strict, or canonical, sense may be found in the provisions of the Rules of monastic life of the early centuries, in which it is prescribed that the person wishing to become a monk be tested for a more or less lengthy period. From the monks, the institution and practice of postulancy passed to all subsequent forms of religious life (Regular Canons, Mendicants, etc.). The Regular Clerics, such as the Society of Jesus (Constitutions, p. 1, chap. 4), the Piarists (Constitutions, part 1, chap. 3), the Regular Clerics of s. Paolo (Constitutions, book I, chap. 2), and the ancient congregations with simple vows, such as the Redemptorists (Rule, part 3, chap. 2) and the Passionists (Constitutions, chap. 6), followed, more or less, until the eighteenth century, the monastic prescription, instructing and testing for some time each individual aspiring to join the society. When Clement VIII, in 1603, by the decree Cum ad regularem, exhorted superiors to instruct all aspirants, including lay brothers, before admitting them to the religious habit, in the profession of the vows and obligations of religious life (Fontes, CIC, I, 189), postulancy in the strict sense became a common obligation in many male religious institutes. The S. Congr. of Religious, on 11 Jan. 1911, imposed by the decree Sacrosancta Dei Ecclesia an actual six-month postulancy on lay brothers of the regular Orders (AAS,

3 [1911], p. 26). For nuns, the traditions of the male Orders were followed: each monastery had in its legislation a fixed period of probation, although this was not a constant practice.

It was only with the decree Quo propositum of 15 Aug. 1912 that the S. Congr. of Religious imposed this obligation on women aspiring to monastic life (AAS, 4 [1912], p. 565).

With women’s congregations with simple vows, postulancy entered their particular constitutions as an obligation. Through its amendments to the constitutions, before approving them, the S. Congr. of Religious gradually developed the entire doctrine of postulancy, which was subsequently organized in the Norms of 1901, arts. 63–65, without, however, making it an absolute obligation.

Postulancy in the broad sense began around the eighteenth century, when Luigi XV, king of France, prohibited profession in the Orders before the age of twenty-one. In order to preserve and cultivate the vocation of those aspiring to religious life, they began to receive them several years before their twenty-first year, instructing them in virtue and learning. From these first attempts, the transition to increasingly organized pre-novitiates, aspirandates, seminaries, etc., was easy. In lay religious institutes, the period of postulancy in the broad sense, preceding the novitiate, is already found among the Brothers of the Christian Schools from the beginning of the foundation in 1680 (Règle du gouvernement de l'Institut des Frères des Ecoles chrétiennes). From the brothers, postulancy in the broad sense was subsequently adopted by the other lay congregations.

II. CURRENT LAW

The postulancy in the strict sense is obligatory for all women’s religious institutes with perpetual vows, and for lay brothers of men’s religious Orders. It must last at least six months. In religious institutes with temporary vows, the provisions of the constitutions must be observed; this rule also applies to religious institutes not mentioned by the CIC (can. 539). The postulancy must be carried out in the novitiate house itself or in another house, under the supervision of a suitable religious (can. 540 § 1). Postulants may receive a habit different from that of the novices (can. 540 § 2); postulants in monasteries are bound by the rules of enclosure (can. 540 § 2). The postulancy is not required for the validity of the novitiate. The purposes of the postulancy are readily apparent from history and from current canon law: on the one hand, the obligation of religious institutes to ascertain the postulant’s intentions, suitability, and freedom; on the other, the postulant’s moral obligation to examine his or her own decision and to test the life he or she intends to embrace. During this period superiors are obliged to request testimonial letters (v. VIZI). The postulancy in the broad sense has no specific prescriptions in current canon law, and these are therefore left to the individual constitutions of the religious institutes.

In clerical religious institutes, over the past fifty years, the institution of Apostolic Schools has developed. These are, essentially, true minor seminaries for aspirants to the priesthood within a religious institute. For these there is no genuine and complete legislation, but there are at least three

types: Apostolic Schools organized like any ordinary boarding school, without discrimination among pupils aspiring to the priestly, religious, or lay life; schools with pupils selected as having a general vocation to the clerical-religious life; and finally, genuine minor seminaries for aspirants to a religious institute whose vocation is already clearly defined, at least in germ. Recently, women’s religious societies, too, have established Apostolic Schools for young girls inclined toward the religious life. Leaving aside canonical norms, it must undoubtedly be emphasized, from a moral standpoint, that in all these types of institutions the principle of the absolute safeguarding of the freedom and conscience of one’s vocation to the religious life must be upheld.