9/19/2023 0 Comments Nun clothesIn this regard the Church has a right to expect a significant contribution from consecrated persons, called as they are in every situation to bear clear witness that they belong to Christ. The Church must always seek to make her presence visible in everyday life, especially in contemporary culture, which is often very secularized and yet sensitive to the language of signs. The rationale for the religious habit was beautifully articulated by Pope John Paul II in 1996, after a Synod held on the topic of religious life: The notion that persons consecrated to God should generally have an identifiable mode of dress has a theological basis: religious are recognizable as such by the habit that they wear, and that habit also constitutes a sign of their consecration to God, understood by all who might see them or come in contact with them. This proper law binds all members of the institute, wherever in the world they happen to be-and nobody else.Īs canon 669 indicates, one of the many things that an institute’s proper law has to address is the habit to be worn by its members. Instead, as is mentioned in canon 669, each religious institute has its own proper law, approved by the appropriate ecclesiastical authorities. These women likewise live in a religious community, but their mission is quite different: they operate hospitals, soup-kitchens, orphanages, schools, and other charitable entities, aiming to reach “the poorest of the poor.” The everyday life of a contemplative monk in Egypt, and that of a sister actively engaged in charitable work in India, are thus dissimilar-and the way that they dress may naturally reflect that.Īnd because so many different religious institutes exist for such radically different reasons, the Code of Canon Law doesn’t contain a lot of law that pertains to all of them. They lived an ascetic, contemplative life in the Egyptian desert, away from the world.Ĭontrast those 4 th-century monks with the Missionaries of Charity, founded by St. 351), who is known as the “Father of Monasticism,” was apparently the first to gather a group of men together in an organized religious community. In the nearly 2000 years that have elapsed since Christ established His Church on earth, groups of men and groups of women have repeatedly banded together to create religious institutes, for a very wide array of reasons. There are a number of different issues here, which in large part stem from the long and complex history of religious institutes in the Church. The next paragraph adds that if an institute of clerical religious does not have its own habit, they are to wear clerical dress ( c. Religious-both men and women-are to wear the habit of their institute, in accord with proper law. (By the way, they’re sisters, not nuns-see “ What’s the Difference Between Sisters and Nuns?” for more on this.) In many cases the difference is dramatic! But is it permitted? Let’s take a look at the Church’s requirements when it comes to the habits that members of religious institutes wear.Ĭanon 669.1 gives us the very basic norm on this topic. Aren’t nuns still required to wear their habits? … It doesn’t seem like anybody cares about enforcing the rules… –RickĪ: Older readers, especially those who attended Catholic elementary schools, are no doubt well aware of the basic contrast between the habits which most sisters used to wear in decades past, and the way that sisters dress today. Nowadays we’re lucky if they’ll even wear a cross that identifies them as a nun and not just a laywoman. Q: When I was a child in Catholic school, the nuns all wore full habits which reached all the way down to the floor.
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