Thoughts on a New Religious Order for the 21st Century

With new religious orders being founded and old orders dying or being suppressed, what should a religious order look like today?

PUBLISHED ON

January 30, 2025

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The announcement set the Catholic infosphere abuzz: Bishop Robert Barron’s Word On Fire apostolate is now set to grow in a new direction by adding a small group of priestly religious to its roster. That news came at almost the same time as the revelation that an existing religious community, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, was being suppressed by the Vatican. Such are the vagaries of the realm of consecrated religious life in the Catholic Church in the 21st century. But those events, coupled with trends in recent decades, lead me to ask: What would a new religious order look like in our era. Or more precisely, what should a new religious order look like?

In considering this topic, we should always include the caveat that it is up to God to inspire a new manifestation of the lived-out Gospel of Jesus Christ. Much can be learned by studying the history of religious orders in the Catholic Church. We can see how different orders arose in response to the crises of a particular era, and how charisms appropriate to the task at hand came to prominence. Likewise, we can chart the decline and fall of consecrated life over the centuries—especially since Vatican II.

Indeed, the documents of Vatican II are a good place to start, especially because one dealt with religious orders: Perfectae Caritatis (Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life). That conciliar document, along with subsequent documents for its implementation, attempted to update religious life. Despite the desire “to provide for their [religious men’s and women’s] needs in our time” (Perfectae Caritatis, 1), the 1960s marked the high point (in terms of numbers) for religious life in the life of the Church. Regardless of the exact causes of the collapse of consecrated religious life, it is indisputable that almost all the orders and communities in existence in 1965 are now substantially older and typically more prone to modernist thinking.

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Deo gratias, there are encouraging trends in the other direction, particularly among contemplative religious. Consider just these few: the Fairfield (Pennsylvania) Carmelites, the Benedictines of Mary, the Carmelite “Mystic Monks” of Wyoming, and a new effort to promote the eremitic life. The Benedictines of Mary have been in the news due to the possibly-miraculous events surrounding the body of their foundress, Sr. Wilhelmina, whose life illustrates a response to the decline of religious life. Dissatisfied with how her order was accommodating itself to a laxer modern life, she chose to take up again the traditional habit and then to re-embrace the traditional Mass and liturgical life.

With all that said, my thoughts on a new religious impulse run neither to the contemplative (male or female) nor to the “active” orders in teaching, nursing, caring for the poor, etc. I propose that the greatest need is in the field of evangelization. That means a new male religious order along the lines of the Franciscans and Dominicans. I suggest a short name like “The Missionaries of Truth.”

I base that suggestion on something Dom Guéranger wrote in his always-instructive The Liturgical Year: “[I]n order to make charity grow in the world, they [the apostles] gave it a rich sowing of truth.” That was because “[w]hen Christianity first shone upon mankind, it found error supreme mistress of the world” (vol. 11, Time After Pentecost II, 459). How much more so is error supreme in our time? The motto of the Missionaries of Truth would be “Veritas de terra orta est,” the Latin of verse twelve from Psalm 84: 

Surely his salvation is near to them that fear him: that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed. Truth is sprung out of the earth: and justice hath looked down from heaven. (Douay-Rheims)

This order would be unmistakably masculine, in order to bear witness to a Christ-like manhood too often absent from the public square. In Western lands, they would wear distinctive garb in line with the many anecdotes of traditional priests/religious getting positive feedback on wearing the cassock in public. They would have a devotion to Our Lady and the Rosary. They would have the Mass memorized so that, like Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J., they could pray the Mass even if captured.  [A new religious] order would be unmistakably masculine, in order to bear witness to a Christ-like manhood too often absent from the public square.Tweet This

I imagine them organized and trained like Special Forces (Green Berets), working in small teams with specialized individual training (in addition to the usual philosophical, theological, and pastoral) in medical, communications, languages, engineering, and sub-training in secondary fields. There would obviously be no demolitions (explosives) training, but they would be trained in spiritual demolitions (exorcism). Like the Green Berets, they would often be found working behind enemy lines, conducting reconnaissance, and engaging in the spiritual aspects of nation-building. Current wisdom might lean toward new missionaries spending time on social media to connect with seekers, but I think that would be a mistake and a distraction from in-person, real-time preaching and witnessing.

Novelist Helen C. White powerfully describes the birth of the Franciscan order in her Bird of Fire, in which Francis of Assisi ruminates on a possible religious call. He rejects the idea of the structured life of the Benedictines: “His gift was for the moment’s improvisation” (41). So might it be with a new order carrying the flame of truth to a darkened world. By “darkened world” I mean two places in particular: the Western world, also known as the formerly Christian lands; and the Muslim lands, since Islam is the biggest organized religious threat to Catholicism.

Sadly, statements from the Vatican and various bishops suggest that evangelization is no longer necessary—or desired. But we must resist such defeatist rhetoric and indifferentism. One good example of the necessary mindset in re-evangelizing the world can be found in the decidedly non-ecumenical traditional prayers for the Octave of Christian Unity.

As the proverb goes: “man proposes, but God disposes.” These are just a few suggestions for pondering by faithful Catholics. Consider who might be saintly intercessors for this project to come to fruition: The North American Martyrs, Sts. Dominic and Francis, St. Francis Xavier, Sts. Padre Pio and Maximilian Kolbe, and, of course, the patroness of missions: the Little Flower, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Our darkened world needs all the help it can get.

[Photo Credit: OSV News photo]

Author

  • Greg Cook

    Greg Cook is a writer living with his wife in New York’s North Country. He earned two master’s degrees, including one in public administration from The Evergreen State College. He is the author of two poetry collections: Against the Alchemists, and A Verse Companion to Romano Guardini’s ‘Sacred Signs’.

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1 thought on “Thoughts on a New Religious Order for the 21st Century”

  1. Some of the best evangelization could be done by teaching in a Catholic elementary or high school. If religious orders returned to teaching, parents might find Catholic school education more affordable and more edifying for their children.

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