Institutes of consecrated life

Institutes of consecrated life are canonically erected institutes in the Roman Catholic Church whose members profess the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience by vows or other sacred bonds. They are defined in the Code of Canon Law under canons 573–730.

The more numerous form of these are religious institutes, which are characterized by the public profession of vows, life in common as brothers or sisters, and a degree of separation from the world. They are defined in the Code of Canon Law under canons 607–709. The other form is that of secular institutes, in which the members live in the world, and work for the sanctification of the world from within.

Institutes of consecrated life need the written approval of a bishop to operate within his diocese, and a diocesan bishop can erect an institute of consecrated life in his own territory, after consulting the Apostolic See.

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has ecclesial oversight of institutes of consecrated life.

Some canonical terms associated with consecrated life are frequently misused in common speech.

The Annuario Pontificio lists for both men and women the institutes of consecrated life and the like that are "of pontifical right" (those that the Holy See has erected or approved by formal decree). For the men, it gives what it now calls the Historical-Juridical List of Precedence. The arrangement of the institutes for men of Latin Rite in this list dates back many decades. It is found, for instance, in the 1964 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, pp. 807–870, where the heading is "States of Perfection (of pontifical right for men)." In the 1969 edition the heading has become "Religious and Secular Institutes of Pontifical Right for Men," a form it kept until 1975 inclusive. Since 1976, when work was already advanced on revising the Code of Canon Law, the list has been qualified as "historical-juridical" and still distinguishes "orders" from "congregations" in the case of Latin-Rite men, while not separating out "orders" and "congregations" in the case of the Eastern Catholic Churches and Latin-Rite women.

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