The vocations crisis is prompting many religious institutes to look beyond their own communities for the people and support they can no longer find within them. As a result, partnerships with lay people are becoming increasingly common, taking widely differing forms and involving varying commitments and degrees of affiliation. Some of these experiences bear genuine fruit. Others create an ambiguous space in which the boundaries between consecrated and lay life become blurred, often with painful consequences for both.
The relationship between religious orders and the lay faithful has formed part of the Church’s history for centuries. Third orders, secular oblates and confraternities have enabled men and women living in the world to draw on the spirituality of a religious family. Today, however, this relationship must be considered in the light of a more mature ecclesial understanding of the lay vocation. The Second Vatican Council restored due importance to the baptismal dignity of the faithful and to their mission in the world; the same perspective runs through Evangelii gaudium.
