Part I

Part I: Admission of Probation #

CN PART I CHAPTER 1 #

[24] #

1Provincials have the faculty of admitting to probation that the general habitually communicates to them.2Others have only the faculty of admitting that the general or the provincial has communicated to them.13Only the general, by privilege, can validly admit to the novitiate candidates who have not completed their seventeenth year of age.2

Continue Reading Constitutions Chapter 2

CN PART I CHAPTER 2 #

[25] #

1In order to attain the goals of probation, sufficient human maturity and suitable preparation are requirements for candidates.2For this purpose, candidates can in different ways be recommended to certain selected fathers and brothers who will help them towards obtaining maturity in their vocation while they prepare for entrance into the novitiate by means of studies and apostolic experiments.33Where it is deemed necessary, special programs are to be established to help candidates who will become brothers and who lack adequate preparation.44Sufficient information about the Society should be given to them at this time, both by direct conversation and from a study of its history, as also from its principal documents, both older ones (such as the Formula of the Institute, the General Examen, and the Constitutions or excerpts from them) and more recent ones.5

[26] #

1A personal examination should be accurately made of candidates lives, endowments, and aptitude for the Society, their right intention, their defects of both soul and body, as well as of any impediments or hindrances that may happen to exist, paying special attention to and adapting to our own times the instructions found in the Examen, and the Constitutions.62Other appropriate means should also be used so that the Society knows them fully; therefore, unless the candidates are already well known, information should be sought concerning their health, virtues, education, practice of the Christian life, temperament, talents, studies completed and with what success, the condition of their family and its social circumstances;7and, when necessary for a fuller knowledge of them, a recommendation should be sought from those skilled in psychology. The secrecy of consultation, the candidate’s freedom, and norms established by the Church are, however, to be strictly safeguarded.83For the same purpose candidates may be invited to live for a time in one of our communities that is suitable for this.

Continue Reading Constitutions Chapter 3

CN PART I CHAPTER 3 #

[27] #

Besides what is established by universal law,9the Society retains no proper impediment rendering admission invalid.

[28] #

1The following are admitted illicitly without permission of the general:1 1One who, after completion of his sixteenth year of age,10has publicly withdrawn from the Catholic Church by denying the faith in any way whatsoever;111 2One who has publicly committed voluntary homicide or has effectively brought about an abortion, and all who have positively cooperated; 121 3One who, because of some crime committed or because of depraved morals, has lost his good reputation, in the region where this occurred;131 4One who has made temporary profession in another religious institute;14or has made first incorporation in a secular institute or society of apostolic life or common life in the manner of religious;15or who as a hermit has professed the three evangelical counsels into the hands of the diocesan bishop and confirmed them by a vow or other sacred bond, and has observed his own plan of life under the direction of that same bishop;161 5One who, after completion of his fourteenth year of age, has been converted to the Catholic faith; this applies for three full years after his conversion;171 6One who has completed fifty years of age.182The superior general should be very strict in granting permission in the first three cases.19

[29] #

Prohibitions arising from the law of the Society do not bind in cases of a doubt of law; in cases of a doubt of fact, however, provincials can dispense from them, except in the case of voluntary homicide, which is reserved to the general.20

[30] #

Those who have the faculty of admitting should use great caution in admitting a candidate about whom, because of mental illness21or particular personality problems, there is doubt whether he is suitable for a personal, communitarian, and apostolic life in the Society or whether he will persevere in it.22

Continue Reading Constitutions Chapter 4

CN PART I CHAPTER 4 #

[31] #

Those who seem suitable for the Society should spend some days of first probation, as seems necessary or suitable for each, inside or outside the community of the novices; they should consider in their own minds and before God their vocation, having before their eyes, if it seems appropriate, the different vocations that are possible namely, that of a brother and that of a priest 23and also their intention, so as to be confirmed therein. They should also get to know better and to meditate on the documents, both the older ones and the recent ones, that describe the Society’s purpose, spirit, and characteristics. At the same time the examination should be completed, if necessary, and any deficiencies that occurred in it prior to admission should be supplied. Toward the end of the first probation, they should make the Spiritual Exercises for at least three days.24

[32] #

1One who enters the novitiate, if he has personal property, is to promise that he will renounce it whenever after the completion of the first year of probation superiors will mandate it.252This promise, which is neither a vow nor a mere intention, is made under this condition: if he will have persevered and the superior will have ordered him.263The renunciation of property, however, should be made a short time before final vows and, unless the general decrees otherwise, should have no effect prior to the taking of these vows.274However, the resignation from ecclesiastical benefices, insofar as they still exist, should occur immediately after first vows and be made known to legitimate ecclesiastical authority as soon as possible; it will take effect, however, when its acceptance is communicated to the one making the resignation.28

  1. See Part I, c. 1, B C_1-141. ↩︎

  2. See P. 1, ch. 2, no. 12 C_1-160; c. 3, K C_1-187; Benedict XIV, Exponi Nobis; Leo XII, Rescript of March 2, 1827; Canon 643,§1,1°; Canon 450, 4°. ↩︎

  3. See GC 31, d. 8, no. 13. ↩︎

  4. GC 34, d. 7, no. 14. ↩︎

  5. This norm is useful for planning the prenovitiate. ↩︎

  6. See Examen, passim, and P. I, cc. 2-3 C_1-147- C_1-189; GC 31, d. 8, no. 13. ↩︎

  7. See P. I, c. 4, D C_1-196. ↩︎

  8. GC 31, d. 8, no. 13; see Canon 642; 220. ↩︎

  9. See Canon 643, §1; Canon 450. ↩︎

  10. See Canon 1323, 1°. ↩︎

  11. See Examen, c. 2, no. 1, B C_0-22, C_0-24; P. I, c. 3, no. 3, A, B C_1-165- C_1-167; GC 27, CollDecr d. 23. ↩︎

  12. See Examen, c. 2, no. 2 C_0-25; P. I, c. 3, no. 4, C C_1-168- C_1-169; GC 27, CollDecr d. 24; Canon 1041, 4°. ↩︎

  13. See Examen, c. 2, no. 2, C C_0-25, C_0-26; P. I, c. 3, no. 4, D C_1-168, C_1-170. ↩︎

  14. See Canon 655-656; Canon 526-527. ↩︎

  15. See Canon 723; 735; Canon 554. ↩︎

  16. See Canon 603, §2. ↩︎

  17. GC 27, CollDecr d. 26; see Canon 1042, 3°; Canon 762, §1, 8°. ↩︎

  18. See P. I, c. 3, no. 15, K C_1-185, C_1-187. ↩︎

  19. See Examen, c. 2, no. 6 C_0-30; P. I, c. 3, no. 2 C_1-164. ↩︎

  20. See GC 27, CollDecr d. 29; P. I, c. 3, C C_1-169; Canon 14. ↩︎

  21. See CollDecr d. 25, §2 ( GC 30, d. 60); Examen, c. 2, no. 5 C_0-29; P. I, c. 3, no. 7 C_1-175. ↩︎

  22. See CollDecr d. 27 ( GC 29, d. 39; see GC 5, dd. 52-53; GC 6, d. 28). ↩︎

  23. See GC 34, d. 7, no. 15. ↩︎

  24. See CollDecr d. 30 (see GC 4, d. 67); P. I, c. 4, no. 1, A C_1-190; C_1-191; no. 5 C_1-198. ↩︎

  25. See CollDecr d. 176, §1 ( GC 3, d. 19); Examen c. 4, no. 2 C_0-54; P. III, c. 1, nos. 7, 25, F C_3-254- C_3-255; C_3-287; P. VI, c. 2, H C_6-571; contrary to Canon 460; 467, §1, toward the end. ↩︎

  26. CollDecr d. 176, §1 ( GC 3, d. 19). ↩︎

  27. CollDecr d. 176, §2 (see GC 7, d. 17, nos. 4-7; GC 15, d. 8); see Canon 668, §4; Canon 467, §1. ↩︎

  28. CollDecr d. 176, §3 (see GC 1, d. 140; GC 5, d. 19), see Canon 1272. ↩︎