ROME – Religious representatives are converging on the Vatican this week to prepare for the upcoming 2025 Jubilee of Hope celebrations, which are expected to draw around 35 million pilgrims over the course of the year.
From 1 - 4 February, more than 300 representatives of various consecrated communities from over 60 countries will be in Rome to participate in a special meeting in preparation for the 2025 jubilee that while focusing on Hope, will be occurring against a less than hopeful backdrop of falling numbers in religious orders and a slew of high-profile scandals.
According to a 30 January press release from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, this week's summit “will translate into a mandate to return to their countries as signs of reconciliation” for humanity. It notes that each country participating in the gathering will be represented by one religious, one member of a secular institute and one consecrated woman belonging to the <em>Ordo Virginum</em> (“Order of Virgins”).
As part of the forthcoming jubilee year, a special Jubilee for Consecrated Life will be held from 8 - 9 October 2025. Its theme of “Pilgrims of hope, on the way to peace” will allow members of consecrated and religious life to reflect “on the great need for peace, so urgent in our time”, notes the press release.
It also stated: “The jubilee is an event of great spiritual, social and ecclesial significance, an important time when God’s people ask to experience God’s forgiveness and mercy,” adding that male and female religious members “are also called to be witnesses and prophets of hope and peace, particularly on the occasion of the upcoming jubilee".
Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, also known as the Dicastery for Religious, asked those who will participate in both this week’s Rome gathering and next year’s jubilee to “immediately enter this pilgrimage together, bringing the true hope that is in our hearts and for which our lives are in service”.
This week’s gathering of consecrated persons comes amid a growing crisis in religious life, which in recent decades has been plagued by various sexual abuse scandals, revelations of the abuse and exploitation of women religious, and a rapid drop in numbers.<br><br>Members and former members of countless orders have complained of suffering physical, psychological, spiritual and emotional abuse from superiors who manipulate and mistreat those under their charge.
According to a <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2024/01/survey-finds-most-u-s-orders-didnt-have-a-single-member-take-perpetual-vows-in-2023"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">recent study of religious life</mark></a> in the United States, the decline in religious numbers is expected to continue. Of the 508 consecrated communities that responded to a survey on the number of men and women who made professional vows in 2023, 438 reported having not a single new member who did so, thereby constituting 87 per cent of American religious communities.
Recent scandals include the <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/jesuits-exhaustively-warned-slovenian-diocese-against-incardination-of-rupnik/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">case</mark></a> of Slovene Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, a former Jesuit who was expelled from the order last year and who faces allegations of sexual abuse from over 20 adult women, including members of a community he helped found in Slovenia. Another scandal involved the <em>Sodalitium Christianae Vitae</em> (SCV), a Peruvian order whose founder Luis Fernando Figari has been sanctioned by the Vatican for various abuses, and which is currently undergoing an inquiry by the Pope’s top investigating duo.
Amid these and other crises, there have been calls from some for a review into how religious community life is conducted, with a specific <a href="https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2024/02/religious-converge-on-vatican-amid-falling-numbers-growing-scandals"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">evaluation of the vow of obedience</mark></a> in light of charges of abuses of power, authority and conscience.<br><br><em>Photo: Nuns attending the Pope's weekly Angelus prayer at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, Italy, 11 December 2022. (Photo by VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
ROME – Religious representatives are converging on the Vatican this week to prepare for the upcoming 2025 Jubilee of Hope celebrations, which are expected to draw around 35 million pilgrims over the course of the year.
From 1 - 4 February, more than 300 representatives of various consecrated communities from over 60 countries will be in Rome to participate in a special meeting in preparation for the 2025 jubilee that while focusing on Hope, will be occurring against a less than hopeful backdrop of falling numbers in religious orders and a slew of high-profile scandals.
According to a 30 January press release from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, this week's summit “will translate into a mandate to return to their countries as signs of reconciliation” for humanity. It notes that each country participating in the gathering will be represented by one religious, one member of a secular institute and one consecrated woman belonging to the <em>Ordo Virginum</em> (“Order of Virgins”).
As part of the forthcoming jubilee year, a special Jubilee for Consecrated Life will be held from 8 - 9 October 2025. Its theme of “Pilgrims of hope, on the way to peace” will allow members of consecrated and religious life to reflect “on the great need for peace, so urgent in our time”, notes the press release.
It also stated: “The jubilee is an event of great spiritual, social and ecclesial significance, an important time when God’s people ask to experience God’s forgiveness and mercy,” adding that male and female religious members “are also called to be witnesses and prophets of hope and peace, particularly on the occasion of the upcoming jubilee".
Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, also known as the Dicastery for Religious, asked those who will participate in both this week’s Rome gathering and next year’s jubilee to “immediately enter this pilgrimage together, bringing the true hope that is in our hearts and for which our lives are in service”.
This week’s gathering of consecrated persons comes amid a growing crisis in religious life, which in recent decades has been plagued by various sexual abuse scandals, revelations of the abuse and exploitation of women religious, and a rapid drop in numbers.<br><br>Members and former members of countless orders have complained of suffering physical, psychological, spiritual and emotional abuse from superiors who manipulate and mistreat those under their charge.
According to a <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2024/01/survey-finds-most-u-s-orders-didnt-have-a-single-member-take-perpetual-vows-in-2023"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">recent study of religious life</mark></a> in the United States, the decline in religious numbers is expected to continue. Of the 508 consecrated communities that responded to a survey on the number of men and women who made professional vows in 2023, 438 reported having not a single new member who did so, thereby constituting 87 per cent of American religious communities.
Recent scandals include the <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/jesuits-exhaustively-warned-slovenian-diocese-against-incardination-of-rupnik/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">case</mark></a> of Slovene Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, a former Jesuit who was expelled from the order last year and who faces allegations of sexual abuse from over 20 adult women, including members of a community he helped found in Slovenia. Another scandal involved the <em>Sodalitium Christianae Vitae</em> (SCV), a Peruvian order whose founder Luis Fernando Figari has been sanctioned by the Vatican for various abuses, and which is currently undergoing an inquiry by the Pope’s top investigating duo.
Amid these and other crises, there have been calls from some for a review into how religious community life is conducted, with a specific <a href="https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2024/02/religious-converge-on-vatican-amid-falling-numbers-growing-scandals"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">evaluation of the vow of obedience</mark></a> in light of charges of abuses of power, authority and conscience.<br><br><em>Photo: Nuns attending the Pope's weekly Angelus prayer at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, Italy, 11 December 2022. (Photo by VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
