A brief, clear explanation of the five hurdles that make novitiate (and religious profession) invalid.
“Helena had made her first profession in a particular institute. After four months she strongly felt that it was not the mission she had been called for. With the permission of her superiors, she went back home and completed her college studies. After completing post-graduation studies, she applied to our vocation promoter and was admitted in our congregation. She went through the pre-novitiate and novitiate programme and excelled in everything she did. A week before her first profession our provincial came to know about her incorporation in another congregation and asked her to leave only on the ground that she had not revealed this incorporation. Was that a right decision? Helena would have been an asset to the province!”
The Codes of Canon Law proposes certain impediments or invalidating factors for the admission into novitiate. The presence of an impediment makes the novitiate invalid. An invalid novitiate makes the subsequent profession of vows—first profession, renewal of vows and the perpetual profession—in the congregation invalid. Concealing one’s incorporation in an institute of consecrated life is one of the impediments. CIC c. 643 §1 and CCEO cc. 450, 4º-7º, 517 §1, 559 §1 specify five invalidating impediments. Let us look into them one by one.
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Sr Licia SMI
