SOCIETIES WITHOUT PUBLIC VOWS. —
I. NOTION
They are defined by the CIC in can. 637 § 1 as follows: “Societies of men or women in which the members imitate the manner of life of religious, living in common under the rule of superiors according to approved constitutions, but are not bound by the customary three public vows,” namely, of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Essentially, therefore, such s. are characterized by four positive elements: common life, hierarchical governance, approved constitutions, and the pursuit of imitation of religious in the quest for evangelical perfection.They lack an essential feature of the canonical religious state: public vows, that is, vows received by the legitimate superior in the name of the Church (can. 1308 § 1) and recognized as such by the same. Common life brings them close to Religions (v.) and differentiates and distinguishes them from secular institutes and associations of the faithful. The absence of public vows in them does not exclude every notion of vows; on the contrary, there are s. that make promises or vows, profess one or another of the so-called “evangelical counsels,” or even all three, but in a private form, that is, without their being received in the name of the Church or recognized by it as public.
The CIC has thus included, insofar as it differentiates them from one another, within the norms governing the religious state, these institutes as well, both male and female, in which stable common life is hierarchically structured on the model of religious families properly so called.
II. HISTORY
The twelfth century saw the first s. of common life without public vows among the beguines of Belgium, founded by Lambert le Bègue in 1186. They take only a (temporary) vow of chastity, but live in common. The forerunner of such s., however, is considered to be the Dutchman Gerard Groot, who, around 1370, founded in southern Germany the Brothers of the Common Life, without vows and under the Rule of St Augustine, for the preaching and education of youth. Evidently, the juridical bond linking the members to one another creates an exceedingly broad range of s.: from the Lords of the Mission, commonly called Lazarists, founded by St Vincent de Paul and approved by Urban VIII in 1632, who make the three customary vows, but in private form, although they are vows reserved by privilege, to the White Fathers of Cardinal Lavigerie for the African Missions, who make only an oath of obedience. The Daughters of Charity, founded by St Vincent, make private and temporary vows; the Company of St Paul of Cardinal Ferrari has common life and vows that are essentially private. The Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) makes a promise of stability and observes the three evangelical counsels. The Institute of the Oratory of St Philip Neri (Oratorians), founded in 1575 and approved in 1612, has neither vows nor promises: since 1942 it has constituted a federation of autonomous houses, called « Congregations », in which priests and laymen live a common life without vows, under the authority of the « father », or provost, elected every three years, in order to sanctify themselves through the free observance of the evangelical counsels.Around these types of s. are grouped innumerable others, such as the Society of Paris for the Foreign Missions (1658), the Pontifical Institute for the Foreign Missions of Milan (1851), the Society of the Divine Word (1875; which, however, has recently been transformed into a genuine religious congregation); the Society of the Missionaries of St Joseph of Mill Hill (1897); Sulpicians, Venerini Religious Teachers, Filippini Religious Teachers, Oblates of St Charles, Fathers of Christian Doctrine, etc.
III. LEGAL REGIME
These communities and societies, when they have approved constitutions, are generally subject to the canonical norms in force for religious congregations. Thus societies too may be clerical or lay, of pontifical or diocesan right, exempt or non-exempt (exempt societies include, for example, the Pallottines and the Lazarists).The form of government of societies is left to their constitutions, which determine and circumscribe II. In general, the law governing congregations applies to them (can. 674), for example, with regard to erection and suppression (can. 671), general government insofar as it is not established by the constitutions (can. 675), the admission of new members (can. 677), observance of enclosure (can. 679 § 2), etc. Nevertheless, account must also be taken of the nature of the individual societies when deciding whether or not to subject them to the common law governing religious congregations.
Consequently, the superiors of societies all possess over their subjects dominative power, arising from the juridical-
SOC. SENZA VOTI PUBBLICI - SOCINI LELIO E FAUSTO
valid and recognized, or at least from the tacit contract by which the members are incorporated into the society; they can therefore impose observance of the constitutions even under pain of sin, and, by virtue of can. 1312 § 1, render the subjects’ vows invalid and null. If the society enjoys the privilege of exemption, the superiors also have the power of jurisdiction in the internal and external forum and, by virtue of can. 1313, 2°, may dispense subjects from vows that are not reserved. Moreover, in clerical societies the superiors have the right to administer Viaticum and Extreme Unction to subjects who are dying, to members, novices, aspirants, servants, young people, and guests of at least one day who live in the house (can. 514 § 1). They must also make the profession of faith and the anti-Modernist oath upon assuming office (Pontifical Commission for the Interpretation of the CIC, 25 July 1926), and are subject to the temporariness of office (can. 505), even when they are placed in charge of houses that do not belong to the society (ibid.). Their rights and duties are to be deduced not only from the constitutions, but also from the common law of religious congregations.
Male societies of pontifical right, like Religious Orders, procurator general (v.) who officially represents them before the organs of the Holy See.
With ecclesiastical approval, the society is elevated and constituted as a juridical person; and both the provinces into which it may be divided and the individual houses, whether subordinate or autonomous, likewise become subjects of law capable of ownership (can. 676 § 1). Here too, therefore, the assimilation to religious congregations is clear with regard to the application of the common law. The administration of goods is consequently regulated by can. 532–37 (can. 676 § 2).
The individual members, however, since they are not bound by the public vow of poverty, must regulate the acquisition, alienation, and administration of their personal goods according to their constitutions. But the proceeds acquired by them intuitu societatis for works undertaken by the respective institute, for example, preaching, schools, and so forth, are assigned not to the members but to the society’s common fund (can. 676 § 3; cf. can. 580 § 2). The same applies to what a member acquires through his particular industry or skill in a lawful activity. The constitutions will determine whether and to what extent the member acquires the use and usufruct of his own goods, gifts, and so forth, and what use he may or must make of them.
The societies and their members are subjects capable of receiving privileges and spiritual graces. Lay members too enjoy the immunities, rights, and privileges proper to the clerical state. But, without a special indult, the privileges proper to the religious state do not belong to them (can. 580); a special indult is granted, for example, to the Lazarists, the Pallottines, and others, who thereby also enjoy communication with true religious. The reason for this difference is that the equation of societies with Religious Orders is only partial, applying to the general and generic directives of the society’s life, but not on the juridical plane. Consequently, one who enters a society does not assume the obligations characteristic of public vows; nor, if he is absent from it, can he be considered guilty of sacrilege before the Church. And when he has no bonds arising from private vows or oaths of perseverance, he may freely return to the clergy or to the world, according to his personal state. If, however, after six years of membership he had been dispensed from an oath, promises, or private vows, he incurs certain incapacities, analogously to religious in the same circumstances (can. 642). The general principle also applies with regard to generic obligations: since societies remain within the sphere of the secular state, the obligations of their members are derived first of all from the constitutions and, subsidiarily, from the common law of the clerical state, unless the nature of the society and the wording and context of the law require otherwise.
With regard to the sacred studies to be undertaken before priestly Ordination, members of societies are, as a principle, assimilated to seminarians, that is, to members of the diocesan clergy; but ecclesiastical jurisprudence and practice tend rather to place them on the same footing as members of Religious Orders in the provisions on the matter that are issued from time to time. Thus, although the principles of their substantial membership in the diocesan clergy remain in force and, as such, they must obtain a canonical title for Ordination and, in the matter of dimissorial letters, depend on the local Ordinary, the Holy See customarily grants them, by way of privilege, permission to be ordained titulo mensae communis or missionis, and gives their superiors the faculty to grant them dimissorial letters.
Finally, societies are assimilated to Religious Orders, according to their particular juridical degree, with regard to the transfer of members from one society to another or from a society to a Religious Order (can. 632 sgg.), and to the voluntary or compulsory departure from the society (can. 637 sgg.), always taking into account the prescriptions of their constitutions and their particular way of life. This means that the procedure to be followed in individual cases is analogous to the procedure established for religious of the corresponding juridical degree, and that the juridical condition of those who depart is analogous to that of departing religious. With regard to penal law, can. 2386, 2389, 2410, and 2413 are also applied to members, provided that they are in the clerical state and live in common. According to the doctrine, other penal canons may be applied to members, although they refer, strictly speaking, to religious properly so called.