Canon 603: A Process of Approval or a Process of Discernment?

[[(. . .This negative affirmation reminds me all over again why not to be involved in a newish canon law that allows such persons with history of hubris, nastiness, and outer attack not only of myself but of others over the past 12 years and likely longer, to have been approved by a bishop. This reminder of the inconsistency and lack of holy bishops having time to supervise their approved hermits, brings up what seems a solid suggestion. When bishops who have canonically approved persons in their diocese to be hermits, are transferred with a new bishop arriving, the person who was approved by the first bishop ought be taken through the approval process over again by the next bishop (and so on with new bishops), for not all bishops would approve of certain types of persons. In not continuing my writing as a Catholic hermit, I will definitely not miss this person nor the person's followers, but I will pray for them as I pray for the salvation of all the world. I also hope in God that you readers will pray for me.)]]

Sister, could you comment on this passage? I think it's messed up in some way, but I can't explain exactly how.

Sure, and I agree that your basic sense is correct. Personalities aside, this passage raises an important question, namely, does admission to perpetual profession and consecration represent a bishop's personal "approval" of the candidate for profession or is there something more involved? There is a corollary: should canonical hermits be run through the process of discernment and profession again and again as the diocesan bishop changes? (For instance, my own diocese has had 5 bishops -- 4 installed and one interim --- in the time I have lived here and first petitioned for admission to profession under c 603. Should I have been asked each time to undergo a new discernment process, and if so, what happens to the concepts of life or perpetual profession and consecration?) I have emboldened the critical part of the post cited and formulated these questions in a way which highlights what is actually at stake here, namely, do we accept the Church's theology of consecrated life or not? Do we accept the Church's theology of vocation or don't we?  Once someone is perpetually professed and consecrated, once they have been initiated into this stable state of life with all of the graced ontological changes that implies, it cannot simply be taken from them without grave reason and canonical process, nor can they be asked to "do it all again" whenever there is a change in the office of Bishop (or for any other similar situation).

The Problem with the term "Canonical approval":

The term "canonical approval" is inaccurate and, depending on how it is used, it can be seriously misleading. Someone who has petitioned for admission to public profession and divine consecration are either approved or disapproved for this specific admission. If they are professed and consecrated they assume a canonical standing they did not have before. They are not "canonically approved" nor is the approval given to admit to profession about whether they are a certain kind of person or not.  Neither does it have to do with whether or not the bishop likes or dislikes them, their theology, their personalities, reading habits, taste in music, or any similar thing. It has to do with whether or not this person has been discerned to have a divine vocation. God calls whom he will and when one is determined (as best as this is possible) to have a vocation to the solitary consecrated eremitical state, for instance, they will be allowed and (if they petition) required to accept the canonical rights and obligations associated with profession to this under c 603. In this way they are initiated into to the state of life of those called to live this life in the name of the Church. They become Catholic hermits. Canonical standing does not assure anything more than the fact that the Church and the person professed and consecrated has been determined, as well as can be by those with oversight in such matters, to be called to this; it says nothing about their personalities or a bishop's personal approval of them in a more general sense.

If, after profession/consecration the person lives the vocation with fidelity it makes no difference whether or not an incoming new bishop likes her much or not at all. She has been deemed ready for, called to, and admitted to a perpetual commitment and consecrated by God in the hands of her bishop who represented the whole Church in doing so. Yes, it is a big step and petitioning for and accepting this new standing in the Church under canon law by the hermit is a big decision. But it has been done and cannot be undone on a whim or bit of personal pique. There is a performative or "making real" quality to profession and consecration. They literally change reality. For this reason, the incoming bishop will learn to work with this hermit or not, he will supervise this vocation adequately or not, but without grave reasons having to do with the hermit's own failure to live her vocation, a bishop cannot take action against the hermit, nor can he simply deprive her of her vows or the state of life associated with her consecration by God. She has standing in law and that is something incoming bishops also have to honor.

There is a theology of consecrated life and profession at play here that I don't have the sense that the poster you quoted understands in the least. When one continues to speak in terms of canonical approval one gives signs of not having understood the seriousness or nature of the commitment one is being asked for the right to make or the church agrees to receive.. When I petitioned my diocese to admit me to profession and consecration as a diocesan hermit I was asking to be allowed not only to live eremitical life, but to be graced (in fact, consecrated) in a way which allowed me to do so in the name of the Church, and with all of protections and demands of canon law, church law, that pertained. I was petitioning to live this life in the very heart of the Church, and to do so as one whose life would exemplify this call if I were faithful to God in my living out of it. I was petitioning to be allowed to accept a public role, an infinitesimally small yet significant part in the long tradition of eremitical life that had helped shaped the Church and religious life. And I was asking to be allowed all of these things for the whole of my life --- to pour myself into my relationship with God as he poured himself into my heart and took me into himself in the silence of solitude --- all without having to worry that somehow the values and concerns of "the world" or even my own insecurities re "worthiness" or "ability" would be obstacles to this.

Perpetual profession and consecration under canon law provides all of this. Because the Church recognizes divine vocations (ALL vocations!) as significant gifts of God she creates laws to govern and nurture them. One dimension of canon law and having canonical standing as a hermit is the freedom to pursue one's vocation as God calls one without having to fear being deprived of what is necessary to live this calling for merely superficial or selfish reasons. None of this occurs because a bishop likes or "approves" of a person personally. After long discernment a bishop approves someone for admission to profession because it seems clear they have a vocation to eremitical life lived in the name of the Church, and because using canon 603 in this way could benefit the diocese. Similarly, a bishop receives one's profession and mediates God's consecration in the name of the church. The qualification, "in the name of God" is critical here because it emphasizes a recognition of God's calling here. After profession and consecration the bishop supervises this vocation as do others who might take his place as bishop. Again, none of this merely depends on the diocesan bishop's approval of the hermit personally, nor does canonical standing imply merely personal approval --- though I am sure there cannot be serious concern with nor disapproval of the way a hermit lives her vocation or action would be taken to assist her with this. In any case, I hope you can see the difference here.

The Problem with the term "approval process":

The process is rightly called a discernment process, not an approval process because one will approve a person for admission to profession and consecration if one determines they have a divine vocation. Approval for admission to profession is the natural consequence of a process of discernment involving many people, Vicars, canonists, pastors, spiritual directors, and bishop.  We name the process after the  thing everyone is most concerned with, namely seeing (or not seeing) the hand of God in this person's life and petition. Do we discern that canonical standing, admission to public vows and divine consecration reveals, nurtures, and protects the hand of God in this life and in the Church, both local and universal? Are we willing to undertake the obligations of canon 603 here (because the local and universal church also take on rights and obligations in admitting to profession, etc.) because we believe this person has a vocation to consecrated solitary eremitical life or not?

In case this is not clear though, imagine what the discernment process would be like if a diocese were to say: we are going to determine whether you have this vocation and are ready for perpetual profession; if we determine you have such a vocation and are called to perpetual profession, we want you to make your profession and give your entire self to God for the whole of that life --- but should something happen to the bishop, we'll ask you to do it all again, and again, and again --- as often as a bishop dies, or is transferred or becomes an Archbishop somewhere else, etc etc. Oh, and about the Divine consecration you receive at that perpetual profession, well, though we can't change it, we'll just act as though it never happened and ask God to do it again if and when the time comes! Unless of course the next bishop or the one after that doesn't personally "approve of you", or of having diocesan hermits at all, in which case we'll ask you to just cease being who you are (and who we have made you with the grace of God) and take up a new life in the Church. Meanwhile, we want you to live your vocation like its an eternal gift of God and to do so in our name, because that is what we teach it is. Are we asking you to live a lie? No. Are we giving the lie to what we are asking you to live? Yes.

You see, the very idea that the Church could pull the rug out from under this vocation once an honest discernment process had been done and profession and consecration occurred makes the state of life entered into by the hermit radically unstable. It gives the lie to every element in the situation being enacted in either profession or consecration: the vows cannot truly be perpetual, the consecration is made subordinate to the whims and vagaries of historical circumstances and a particular bishop, rather than being honored as the will of the eternal God, while vocation itself is treated like something one can regard or disregard, turn on or off like a light, without serious consequences for the person, the vocation itself or the Church's theology of vocation. Meanwhile, the canons which carefully provide the needed conditions for a truly stable state of life are emptied of meaning.

Summary:

When the Church admits someone to perpetual profession they have determined the person has a divine vocation.  When the Church uses the solemn prayer of consecration she mediates God's own consecration and will govern and supervise it for the glory of God. The Church recognizes she is not the source of such a vocation but its servant. Part of her service is engaging in an honest discernment process --- nothing less and nothing other. As a result of a positive discernment, the church agrees to celebrate a liturgy in which God's call and consecration of the person is publicly mediated to the hermit and the hermit's response and life commitment are also received in God's name. Together with the one called, the Church works to provide a stable foundation for the vocation to thrive and the person living that vocation to grow into the authentic likeness of the God she loves more than any other. Canonical standing is a fundamental part of this obligation for both the larger church and the individual hermit. This means that were the church to do as the poster you cited suggested she would be guilty of abandoning the gift of vocation altogether.