My name is Kusum. I am a novice in a religious institute that has only one year of novitiate. I am supposed to make my first profession on 24th May. But now my novice mistress says that I can make my profession only after 8th June, since I was sent for a month to another community to have an experience in the healing ministry in our own hospital. How could they delay my profession by fifteen days?
To answer your question, we shall look into the Codes of Canon Law dealing with the novitiate programme. According to CIC c. 648 §1, “For validity, the novitiate must comprise twelve months spent in the novitiate community. Canon 649 §1adds that any absence of more than fifteen days must be made good. CCEO c. 523 §1 elucidates more specifically, “To be valid, a novitiate must include one full and continuous year. However, an absence of less than three months, either continuous or interrupted, does not affect the validity but, if the unfinished time exceeds fifteen days, it must be made up, even though it had been dedicated to apostolic exercises to complete the formation of the novices.”
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Sr Licia SMI
