Dear Sister Laurel, First of all, thank-you so much for your blog. I have been reading it for close to 8 or 9 years. It has been a great inspiration and help. . . . I could be missing something essential regarding Canon 603, but I have the impression that your general designation of ‘Catholic/Diocesan Hermits’ as ‘Canon 603 Hermits’, and not more exactly as ‘Canon 603,2 Hermits’ or as ‘professed Canon 603 Hermits’, may, inadvertently on your part, be contributing to the misunderstanding some of your unprofessed hermit-readers have regarding their canonical status. - Some (most) of these hermits do not live this vocation in the name of the Church, but all the same do have a canonically circumscribed and recognized place in the Church through Canon 603,1. Hopefully, this fact should assuage any sense of insecurity some of your hermit-readers may have regarding the recognition of their vocation by the Church
- Some of these hermits are called by God and the Church to indeed live out their vocation in the name of the Church, as in your case, and this is where paragraph 2 of Canon 603 ‘kicks’ in. These hermits can be called ‘Catholic Hermits’ or ‘Diocesan Hermits’ and are, technically speaking, ‘Canon 603,2 Hermits’.
If I am indeed correct regarding this distinction, my suggestion would be to refer to those Catholics who live the eremitic vocation in the name of the Church, and thus answer to their bishop regarding their eremitic life, as ‘Catholic Hermits’, ‘Diocesan Hermits’ or as ‘professed Canon 603 Hermits’, and to refer to all other Catholics who live the eremitic life, as ‘unprofessed Canon 603 Hermits’, whether they be lay, professed as a religious, or ordained.]]
With regard to canon 603 itself, while unprofessed (lay, but also clerical) hermits may live some version of the life described in c.603.1, they do not actually live under nor are they juridically bound by the canon. In other words, their lives are not actually or truly circumscribed by the canon because they have not entered the state of life it requires, provides for, and defines. They may live aspects of c 603.1; it may more or less describe the way they model their lives as hermits, however, when you write that these folks live according to canon 603.1 and are technically canon 603.1 hermits, that is simply not true. Even when such persons use canon 603.1 to inspire and guide their eremitical lives because of its clear description of the life's central elements, they are not, either technically or substantively, canon 603 hermits because they are not hermits living under this canon in a juridical sense. (By the way, religious who live as hermits under the proper law of their congregations and who are inspired by c 603.1, are also not canon 603 hermits, not even technically.) Let me lay out the reasons I say this in the next several paragraphs. But first, the text of Canon 603:
Can. 603 §1. In addition to institutes of consecrated life, the Church recognizes the eremitic or anchoritic life by which the Christian faithful devote their life to the praise of God and the salvation of the world through a stricter withdrawal from the world, the silence of solitude, and assiduous prayer and penance.
§2. A hermit is recognized by law as one dedicated to God in consecrated life if he or she publicly professes in the hands of the diocesan bishop the three evangelical counsels, confirmed by vow or other sacred bond, and lives his or her own plan of life under his direction.
N.B., some translations read "and lives a proper Plan of life. . ." This is not a Britishism --- as though one needs a proper Plan or Rule much like one needs to start the day with a "proper breakfast". Instead proper here means one's own legally binding plan of life -- much as Institutes of Consecrated Life have their own Constitutions and Statutes in addition to being bound under the pertinent norms (canons) of Canon (universal Church) Law. Note that living a "proper plan" under the specific direction of the diocesan bishop clearly establishes him as the hermit's legitimate superior, not merely as a spiritual director, for instance.
Canon 603 defines one, not two vocations:
I think it is clear that canon 603 does not define two different eremitical vocations, one lived in the name of the Church and one not. Certainly the Church fathers who authored and promulgated this canon did not intend to do so. Instead they were describing one canonical vocation lived under the specific governance and in the name of the Church who summons and commissions the person to do so; moreover they were doing so in two interrelated sections, section 603.1, which lays out the central elements which must be found in such a vocation because these elements are eremitical per se, and 603.2, the specific juridical provision for such a life and what is necessary for doing this in law. Thus, the Church fathers were not suggesting a canon 603.1 vocation and a c 603.2 vocation with two separate sets of canonical rights and obligations (or rather with one vocation with additional rights and obligations and the other without these), but one (solitary eremitical) vocation characterized as described and lived under canon law in accordance with canon 603 as a whole.
Note well that in c 603.1 the phrase besides institutes of consecrated life refers directly to consecrated life (that is, life in the consecrated state); it clearly interposes c 603 vocations as a new form of consecrated life alongside institutes of consecrated life. Moreover, it does so in a way which implies the need for c 603.2 as completion and exposition or legal specification. 603.2 thus states explicitly what was implied in 603.1. Canon 603.1 and 603.2 together refer to a single new form of consecrated life. Moreover, the canon does not merely describe such a vocation (c 603.1), it makes explicit provision for it in law in a way which make it real and governable in space and time for those admitted to profession under this canon (c 603.2). In other words, in light of canon 603, while there are now (provisions for) canon 603 hermits, and hermits who belong to institutes of consecrated life, there is simply no such thing as a c 603.1 hermit which is distinct from a canon 603.2 hermit.
Getting to the heart of the problem, failing to esteem lay vocations:
Your solution/distinction is incredibly interesting and creative but as noted above, I believe it causes more problems than it might ever solve: Firstly, it does not get to the heart of the problem you have described very well. I believe that in fact, it misses this problem and allows others to actually evade it, namely, the Church has not yet effectively found --- and MUST find --- ways to take the lay vocation, including lay eremitical life, seriously and work to convince every baptized person that their callings are rooted in the consecration of baptism. This rooting means they are profoundly significant for the Church and the world without being "canonical" or associated with a "second consecration" as is religious life, etc. For too long the Church has spoken of "vocations" as though the word only meant vocations to the consecrated, religious, and ordained states of life. Vatican II made serious headway in terms of theological and ecclesial foundation but translating that into an appreciable shift in attitudes on the ground has not yet sufficiently occurred.
Regarding the problem of envy and resentment more generally or that of false notions of freedom, the solution is outlined in the essential problem: namely, find ways to have the Church truly esteem lay vocations, including the vocation to lay eremitical life. Find ways to help people make explicit their baptismal promises in terms of eremitical life, for instance, and celebrate this -- not at Mass, perhaps, but in some other way. Help them to understand the significant, responsible, and even prophetic nature of lay eremitical life (as was true with the Desert Abbas and Ammas). If we could do that, and if we could make clear the fact that baptismal consecration is more than the act of joining a religious club, and that it initiates one into a very real and profound vocation in itself, we would do well in our catechesis and pastoral praxis to help everyone in the Church to understand and truly appreciate this.
Once again, failing to regard canonical standing as a matter of legal rights and obligations:
Secondly then, your proposal exacerbates problems because it fails to recognize that canonical standing implies rights, obligations, and appropriate expectations beyond those associated with baptism. Especially important is the fact that those whom you describe as "technically" living under the canon, would NOT be bound by canon 603 in any juridical way; that is, they would have neither accepted nor been extended any of the legal rights and obligations associated with standing in law under canon 603. To say one is "canonical" means necessarily to be given and have accepted the rights and responsibilities associated with a canonical state beyond those associated with the baptized or lay state. This is the universally understood sense of the term “canonical.” Also, one enters the canonical state in this case via profession and consecration, whether by using vows or other “sacred bonds”; this is necessary because the graces associated with fulfilling such vocations and with the assumption of specific rights, obligations, and expectations beyond baptism also differ. Again, none of this means that these vocations are better or higher than eremitical lives lived in the lay state, but at the same time they are different in their rights, obligations, and appropriate expectations, as well as in the graces which allow their fulfillment.
If one were to allow canon 603 to refer to two separate and canonically disparate vocations, we would begin to see lay hermits without the commensurate rights and obligations calling themselves "canonical"; they would be distinguishing themselves from and (at least subtly) pitting themselves against those who had fully accepted the sanctity and significance of eremitical life in the lay state. It would introduce a new, more dangerous, and insidious way of saying, “I am not just a lay hermit! I am canonical!” --- though the term remains relatively empty of real distinction. For those I hear from most (or complain about myself), to proceed in this way would be handing them permission to continue and indeed, to intensify the fraud they are perpetrating in the Church today. I know people who claim to be consecrated hermits though they are not. Some do so to beg for support and perks, not to serve God in his Church. Were they to start calling themselves “canonical” (albeit “only” c 603.1) in order to exploit a purported "technical" difference, they would claim canonical standing in their parishes and online and, given the normative meaning of the term canonical given above, this would be untrue and confusing. Most hermits, of course, would not seek an improper advantage; others would merely not understand the issues involved, but motives aside, the usage would still be untrue and confusing.
In any case, again, we do not resolve the issue of envy or a mistaken notion of freedom by calling something canonical that is not so. We cannot dignify a relatively meaningless label in this way, a notion of "canonical standing" which is without the additional rights, obligations, and expectations or the associated necessary graces inherently associated with canonical standing. That would be akin to emptying the term "canonical" of meaning at the same time we exacerbate the problem of trivializing vocations in the lay state. Moreover, it would be profoundly uncharitable, and it would make the problem of mistaking license for "authentic freedom" much worse as it would do with the problem of individualism hiding under the guise of eremitism --- only now this would be occurring under the guise of a completely ungoverned and putative "canonical" eremitism.The bottom line in all of this is that canon 603 provides for a single eremitical vocation, not two where one of which is lived in the name of the Church with all the graces associated with this right and obligation and one is not. If one is admitted to profession under canon 603 one can be said and expected (!) to live eremitical life in the name of the Church and her life will be governed appropriately under law. Instead, solitary canonical eremitical life calls for and is governed by both parts of this canon, a description of the life provided for in law which requires Rule, supervision, legitimate superiors, etc. Yes, the Church hopes that all hermits will take the description of eremitical life in c 603.1 seriously as the Church's own wisdom in this matter, no matter the state of life in which this is done, but she will admit only a small fraction of these to profession and consecration under canon law, whether in institutes of consecrated life or as a solitary hermit under this canon specifically. The remainder she will quite rightly expect to live as significant examples of life lived in the baptized state alone just as did the Desert Abbas and Ammas.
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