New Vatican Document for Contemplative Women Religious

On May 15, 2018, we were thrilled to hear the news that the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL) issued Cor Orans, the long-awaited implementing instruction on Pope Francis' 2016 Apostolic Constitution Vultum Dei quaerere (On Women's Contemplative Life).  Cor Orans provides norms to help contemplative communities of women put into practice the ideas the Holy Father expressed in Vultum Dei.  

The document affects several major areas of life, such as the process of formation, the associations between contemplative communities. Our community wasted no time digging into Cor Orans, and during one of our weekly study periods shortly after its release, we gathered to view the press conference with CICLSAL officials on the new document.  We are looking forward to studying and implementing its important directives over the coming months!

To learn more about Cor Orans check out this article.  You can also read the full text of Cor Orans here.  And you can watch the press conference for the release of the document at this link.  The conference is in Italian, but never fear!  Fr. Arthur Carillo, CP, generously took the time to translate the conference for us, which you can also listen to using this snazzy mp3 widget.

(Correction to the translation: the approximate number of nuns throughout the world is 37,000 not 37,000,000)