Lansing, Michigan
Consecrated virgins ‘shocked’ by new Vatican rules
The US Association of Consecrated Virgins has said it is “deeply disappointed” after a Vatican instruction suggested the discipline was open to women who were not virgins. The document, Ecclesiae Sponsae Imago (“The Image of the Church as Bride”), said: “To have kept her body in perfect continence … or to have practised the virtue of chastity in an exemplary way, while of great importance with regard to discernment, are not essential prerequisites.” The US group called this “shocking”, adding: “The entire tradition of the Church has firmly upheld that a woman must have received the gift of virginity”, both physical and spiritual, “in order to receive the consecration of virgins”.
