The US Association of Consecrated Virgins has said it is “deeply disappointed” at new rules issued by the Vatican that appear to say consecrated virgins need not be virgins.
The group has taken issue with section 88 of the new document, Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago, which states: “Thus to have kept her body in perfect continence or to have practiced the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to the discernment, are not essential prerequisites in the absence of which admittance to consecration is not possible.”
The USACV said it was “shocking to hear from Mother Church that physical virginity may no longer be considered an essential prerequisite for consecration to a life of virginity.”
“The entire tradition of the Church has firmly upheld that a woman must have received the gift of virginity – that is, both material and formal (physical and spiritual) – in order to receive the consecration of virgins,” the association added.
They said that the new rules do not change the prerequisites for consecration as stated in the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity, which says: “In the case of virgins leading lives in the world it is required that they have never celebrated marriage and that they have not publicly or manifestly lived in a state contrary to chastity.”
Full story at The Catholic Herald.
Well if the divorced and remarried can receive Communion, if Protestant spouses of Catholics can receive Communion, if priests and bishops can be active homosexuals, if civilly married gays can be active in church ministry and receive Communion, and if priests can openly promote undermining Catholic doctrine, then… sure… why not relax the standards on consecrated virgins too? They can consecrate a “second virginity” to Jesus. The wheels are coming off.
The divorced and remarried can not receive Communion unless they have been granted an annulment.
Protestant spouses of Catholics can not receive Communion unless they become Catholic.
Active homosexuality and heterosexuality for those outside of a sacramental marriage is a mortal sin for clergy and laity.
Civilly married Catholics (gay or not) cannot receive Communion.
Civilly married Catholics are in mortal sin and should not be in Church ministry.
1. Yes they can, read Amoris Laetitia and how it’s being implemented
2. Yes they can, it’s happening in Germany with four bishops now issuing such guidelines
3. But plenty are doing it and bishops and priests know all about “the club”
4&5. But they are, and working at high levels in the church, in parishes, in schools, in universities with full knowledge and approval of bishops, pastors, principals and parish councils
Progressives always promote things like this to destroy the Church.
I guess you haven’t been to church in awhile. We have two Protestant spouses who receive Holy Communion at our TLM!
If anyone needed proof that the WHOLE WORLD is going nuts………here it is!!!!!!
The Church has always allowed widows to enter certain orders of nuns and widowers to become priests and be consecrated to celibacy, but they certainly were not called consecrated virgins, unless their marriages were never consummated. They probably allowed non virgins to be consecrated to celibacy too, but virgins are virgins and non virgins are non virgins, but of course some are calling men, women now and vice versa.
I am staying out of this from now on as it seems most confusing, except to say it seems to me that to belong to this particular group, Consecrated Virgins, one should have to be an actual virgin.
The Anonymous post July 13 at 11:46 pm was mine — Anne TE.
I was beat, incomplete, I’d been had, I was sad and blue
But you made me feel, yeah, you made me feel shiny and new
Lol!
Where is the RESPECT due to holy Consecrated Virgins?? The Church is badly in need of good leadership– and to follow only Christ, and ignore the filthy, dark, ignorant secular world! Our Lady of Fatima warned that more souls go to Hell because of sexual sins, than for any other! Chastity is indeed a great Christ-like gift! And espousal of the soul to marry Our Lord, the Prince of Heaven and Son of God– is the highest gift of all! “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!”
A woman wishing to consecrate herself to Jesus, may also join a lay religious order— the lay Carmelites, Dominicans, Franciscans, etc. Some single men and women in lay religious orders, are also allowed to take either public or private vows of consecration to Our Lord, and to remain single, chaste, and celibate, lifelong, living according to the Rule of their lay religious order.
I’m so confused. On the one hand, the virgins are complaining about the new rules that they say don’t bind virgins, but yet it does bind virgins. What?
Anonymous— the complaint is about a lack of respect for true Consecrated Virgins! It seems that the Church wants to “dumb down” and corrupt this holy Consecration– perhaps for “all-inclusive” political reasons! The gift of holy chastity and virginity for Christ, is poorly-understood, in today’s ignorant, dark, Godless, filthy, sex-saturated modern world! We are BLESSED to have the sacred gift of these holy, Consecrated Virgins in our Church, today! Perhaps some may even someday become Saints!
Well, it seems that just as in Alice’s Rabbit Hole, words can mean just what I want them to mean. So there!
And we wonder why there is confusion and the plethora of public sin that there is?
As that old, but clever “Queen” himself wrote in his lyrics, “The world has gone mad today, good’s bad today., day;s night today………..”
If someone like such as he could recognize it, why cannot we?
Then the questioh is what are we going to do about it?
Education in our Faith, sorely lacking today, is a start. One had to know somethng before one can love it.
As Servant of God, John A. Hardon, S.J. often said, “One does not ‘loose’ the Faith. If it is no longer “practiced,” one never had it to begin with.”
Actually, I don’t see the contradiction.
According to the Rite of Consecration given in the article, the Rite doesn’t require virginity but only requires that the woman has not lived in an unchaste state. A singular screw-up [no pun] doesn’t preclude the ability to receive consecration.
It’s not consecrated chastity. it’s consecrated virginity. You can’t give what you don’t have.
Consider this: an impotent man cannot enter into marriage. The reason for that is that he cannot consummate the marriage in the marital act due to impotence. People might say that’s dumb, but it gets to the essence of what marriage is ordered towards: union and procreation. A man who is impotent cannot enter into marriage because he cannot give himself in the way proper to married life. Doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy; but he can’t give what he doesn’t have.
A non-virgin cannot give virginity to the Lord. It’s already gone.
Anonymous,
Thank you for your reply. I actually don’t know enough about this issue to comment one way or the other on your reply.
Rather, my original comment was only about the text at the end of the article which indicated that a candidate can’t live an unchaste life. Therefore, a candidate could lead a chaste life but make a singular, rash mistake when caught in an unexpected passion.
God bless and keep those holy women who choose a life as a virgin. Certainly they have a holy vocation.
So someone makes a ‘mistake’ at a younger age. I believe in a God who forgives sinners for that includes all of us.
You don’t see the contradiction?? Then what is the Consecrated Virgin consecrating to God— her virginity?? Or something else?? To be the pure and holy Spouse of God, is a tremendous thing, the highest in the world! What a hypocrisy the Vatican is, to the Consecrated Virgins!!
Anonymous,
I quoted and evaluated the old text, and I don’t see the contradiction between the old text and the newer Vatican statements. Therefore, it seems that your issue is with both the old text and the newer Vatican interpretation.
This is a ridiculous story…it is not a news item! How in the world are Church officials supposed to confirm that a woman desiring to be a consecrated virgin is actually a virgin? Also, the “new rules” permit women who are not virgins through no fault of their own (consider those who have been molested or raped) to be consecrated as virgins because they commit to living a chaste life. Think about it folks!
Yes, folks, please keep thinking until you rationalize it!
Please keep logically thinking about it so you come to a better understanding of the Church’s teaching. Knee-jerk reactions from the right or left…well, they’re just jerky and ridiculous!
This issue has little, if anything, to do with “teachings.” What it has to do with is practices. And way too many practices over the the past 50 years have had no effect other than to dilute the faith, and encouraged an exodus of many faithful. This is just more of the same old boring erosion.
The white dress doesn’t mean anything anymore. Meghan Markle wore a white dress when she married the prince, but she wasn’t a virgin. How many brides in second, third, fourth marriages wear white? Almost all of them.
Are you sure you all are Catholic?
Just these four words: Our Lady of Fatima !