SERVING RELIGIOUS AS A PSYCHOLOGIST Assessments and Some Treatment Considerations Outline ■ About Religious life and other forms of consecrated life – Important for Identity and discernment – 8 Essential Elements of Religious Life ■ Assessment – Informed Consent – Clinical Interview ■ Attachment Theory ■ Particular questions – Tests – Feedback Session and possible treatment considerations ■ The psychologist – Integrity—objectivity – Awareness of your own transference – Not deciding if person has a genuine call or not ■ Summary and Q&A History of the Congregation for Religious/Consecrated Life ■ Prior to Vatican Council II – Sacred Congregation for Consultations about Regulars- Pope Sixtus V 1586 – Congregation of the Affairs of Religious 1908 – Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes by Pope Paul VI 1967 ■ After Vatican Council II – Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life John Paul II (CICLSAL) ■ In the U.S.: LCWR and CMSWR History cont. ■ The Church’s relationship with psychology – Dr. Carl Rogers and Dr. William Coulson – Treatment of religious ■ Removing habit ■ Disregard for their obligations ■ Lost many vocations ■ Plenty Statements from the Church re: psychology Consecrate Life-Forms of ■ State of Life—Permanent Choice – Latin Status-stable (According to Canon Law (1983) ■ Religious Institutes ■ Secular Institutes ■ Consecrated Virgins ■ Hermits ■ Societies of Apostolic Life ■ “Other Forms” Secular Institutes A secular Institute is an institute of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for the sanctification of the world especially from within. (Can. 710) – (Schoenstatt) ■ Do not profess vows as a religious. In place of vows they make a commitment. ■ Are in the world, plant the seeds of the Gospel Consecrated Virgins and Hermits ■ Through their pledge to follow Christ more closely, virgins are consecrated to God, mystically espoused to Christ and dedicated to the service of the Church, when the diocesan Bishop consecrates them according to the approved liturgical rite (Can. Law 604) ■ 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…and observes a proper program of living under his direction (Can. 603). Societies of Apostolic Life ■ Societies of apostolic life resemble institutes of consecrated life; their members, without religious vows, pursue the apostolic purpose proper to the society and, leading a life in common as brothers or sisters according to their proper manner of life, strive for the perfection of charity through the observance of the constitutions (Can. 731) – Daughters of Charity – The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (Pontifical Right) – Work joins them together. Do not profess evangelical counsels. Many do, but do not have to. Renew vows every year—not perpetual “Other Forms” ■ Das Werk -The Spiritual Family “The Work” – Founded in German--community of lay people (families), priests and sisters – Only community with papal approval that is under “other forms” or Pius Institute Ecclesial Movements ■ Not a canonical form—Need to be a bigger group-”stable” – Examples: ■ Communion and Liberation ■ Focolare ■ Neocatechumenal Way Confraternities ■ Gatherings of the Faithful – Holy Name Society – Confraternity of the precious Blood Vocation ■ Discernment – 3 ways from St. Ignatius: ■ Clear overwhelming call from the Lord which can hardly be doubted. Typically the individual knows where/when and recalls the moment with great fondness. ■ A gentle drawing that persists over time. Much like being pursued ■ The person clearly sees the choices of vocations and chooses religious life Religious Life ■ Stable form of Life – Not an intermediate state between lay and the clerical states. – Undeniably belongs to the life and holiness of the Church (Lumen Gentium, par. 44) – Evangelical Counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience. Some profess a 4th vow. Religious Life ■ Private Association of the Faithful—Less than 40 members ■ Diocesan Rite—at least 40 or more members ■ Pontifical Rite—at least 80-100 members Religious Life cont. 8 Essential Elements ■ 1) Consecration by public vows ■ 2) Communion in Community ■ 3) Apostolate and Mission ■ 4) Prayer ■ 5) Asceticism ■ 6) Public Witness ■ 7) Relation to the Church ■ 8) Formation ■ 9) Government Vows ■ Vow, Deliberate and free promise made to God about a possible and better good, must be fulfilled by reason of the virtue of religion (Can. 1191. 1). ■ Public ■ Binding Vows ■ By them [the vows], the religious gladly dedicates the whole of life to God's service, regarding the following of Christ "as the one thing that is necessary, and seeking God before all else and only him" (Perfectiae Caritatis, par.5). Public Vows ■ The very nature of religious vocation involves a public witness to Christ and to the Church. Religious profession is made by vows which the Church receives as public. A stable form of community life in an institute canonically erected by the competent ecclesiastical authority manifests in a visible way the covenant and communion which religious life expresses. A certain separation from family and from professional life at the time a person enters the novitiate speaks powerfully of the absoluteness of God. At the same time, it is the beginning of a new and deeper bond in Christ with the family that one has left. This bond becomes firmer as detachment from otherwise legitimate relationships, occupations, and forms of relaxation continues to reflect God's absoluteness publicly throughout life. A further aspect of the public nature of religious consecration is that the apostolate of religious is in some sense always corporate. Religious presence is visible, affecting ways of acting, attire, and style of life. (EE., par. 10) Public Vows ■ Religious consecration is lived within a given institute according to constitutions which the Church, by her authority, accepts and approves. This means that consecration is lived according to specific provisions which manifest and deepen a distinctive identity. The identity derives from that action of the Holy Spirit which is the institute's founding gift and which creates a particular type of spirituality, of life, of apostolate, and of tradition (cf. MR 11 (cf. ET 51; EE, par 11). Religious Life cont. ■ For Religious, prayer and the common life is central. – First “call”—who religious are (eschatological witness, the life of religious is Worship of God-i.e. the Virtue of Religion) – Second “call” is to the apostolic work ■ Danger of work taking over times of prayer, common life, relationships with Sisters Community Life ■ Communion in Christ is expressed in a stable and visible way through community life. So important is community living to religious consecration that every religious, whatever his or her apostolic work, is bound to it by the fact of profession and must normally live under the authority of a local superior in a community of the institute to which he or she belongs. ■ Normally, too, community living entails a daily sharing of life according to specific structures and provisions established in the constitutions. Sharing of prayer, work, meals, leisure, common spirit, "relationships of friendship, cooperation in the same apostolate, and mutual support in community of life chosen for a better following of Christ, are so many valuable factors in daily progress" (ET, 39). Prayer Life ■ Religious life cannot be sustained without a deep life of prayer, individual, communal, and liturgical. ■ The religious who embraces concretely a life of total consecration is called to know the risen Lord by a warm, personal knowledge, and to know him as one with whom he or she is personally in communion. ■ Knowledge of him in faith brings love….This joy of love and knowledge is brought about in many ways, but fundamentally, and as an essential and necessary means, through individual and community encounter with God in prayer. This is where the religious finds "the concentration of the heart on God" (CDm, 1), which unifies the whole of life and mission (Essential Elements) Public Witness ■ Christ came to manifest the primacy of God’s love ■ Religious, too, in their own times, are called to bear witness to a similar, deep, personal experience of Christ and also to share the faith, hope, love and joy which that experience goes on inspiring…recalling the words of Pope John Paul II: "What counts most is not what religious do, but what they are as persons consecrated to the Lord" (Message to the Plenary Assembly of the SCRIS, March 1980). ■ Eschatological Reality Public Witness ■ Religious Habit – Witness to others – For the religious ■ As an expression of poverty Psychological Assessment https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/566749934349180189/ https://www.psychologywizard.net/flooding.html Assessment Process ■ Informed Consent – Who is paying and who gets the report ■ Clinical Interview – What you would normally do.. – Attachment Theory: Why? Natural, Common life, authority figures Assessment cont. – thorough relationship History: ■ Family, boyfriends, girlfriends, significant attachments: teachers, priests, coaches ■ Emotional dependency/needs ■ Sexual history: pornography, other addictions, birth control, abortions, partners—number and sex, masturbation, abuse ■ Try to ascertain if they came from a family/environment where they had to “sneak around” to do things either because of strictness or