ORDER OF PREACHERS
The Dominican Family
Trinidad & Tobago

DOMINICAN SECULAR INSTITUTES

Secular Institutes are a relatively new development in the Church. The first official papal document was Provida Mater Ecclesia written by Pope Pius XII in 1947.

Certain lay people desired holiness by being consecrated to God but they did not feel the call to join religious life. By consecration they realised that they would take vows, like the vows of religious, consecrated widows, consecrated virgins and some others, and live in imitation of Christ who was poor, chaste and obedient. They would not necessarily live in community but would live in the world as single lay people either alone or with their families. Nevertheless, they further understood that as they would be following their vocation in the midst of world realities, and without the support of a community where they would live their dedication as lay people, it would be necessary to follow a rule and charism.

The Dominican Order was appreciative of this way of living in the secular world and early on Dominican Secular Institutes were encouraged. For people in Trinidad and Tobago it is of interest that the Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena of Etrepagny, who are established in this country, were responsible for the foundation of one of the five Dominican Secular Institutes in France. There are no Dominican Secular Institutes in the English–speaking Caribbean

Twenty–five years after Pope Pius XII’s Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Paul VI wrote to the members of Secular Institutes around the world: “Now what was the original inspiration of secular institutes? .... It was a longing, a search, deep and preoccupying, for a synthesis, a way of life combining the two characteristic features of your way of life: full consecration according to the evangelical counsels and freedom to take on the responsibility of a presence and transforming action in the world, from the inside, to shape it, to make it a better world, to sanctify it.”

The question immediately arises: what are Secular Institutes? The quotation from Paul VI is an excellent answer but Pope John Paul II has given a more detailed response in his Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata following the Synod of Bishops on Consecrated Life. We sum up his teaching in Article 10 as follows:

·        Members of Secular Institutes are a leaven of wisdom and a witness of grace within cultural, economic and political life.

·        They are a distinctive blending of presence in the world and consecration.

·        They seek to make present in society the newness and power of Christ’s Kingdom, striving to transfigure the world from within by the power of the Beatitudes.

·        In this way, while they belong completely to God and are thus fully consecrated to his service, their activity in the ordinary life of the world contributes, by the power of the Spirit, to shedding the light of the Gospel on temporal realities.

·        Secular Institutes, each in accordance with its specific nature, thus help to ensure that the Church has an effective presence in society.

·        The members of Secular Institutes, by their presence in fields more suited to the lay vocation, can engage in the valuable work of evangelizing all sectors of society, as well as the structures and the very laws which regulate it. Moreover, they can bear witness to Gospel values, living in contact with those who do not yet know Jesus.

There are more than 200 Secular Institutes throughout the world, some in the other West Indian Islands but none in Trinidad & Tobago. Word membership is over 60,000.