Editor’s note: During the Year of Consecrated Life which ends on February 2, this is the last in a series based on the Second Vatican Council’s document, Perfectae Caritatis (Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life) written by Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, former abbot primate of the Benedictine order who now resides in Madison.
In this commentary on the Decree of the Second Vatican Council, On the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life (original = Perfectae Caritatis), we have been reflecting on how the Council Fathers envisioned a deep renewal of what the Church calls “the Consecrated Life.”
Number 14 of the decree speaks of one of the evangelical counsels, obedience. It is one of the most important ones, and gives a particular color to the entirety of Religious Life.