The establishment of the religious province, originating in a time of flourishing development of the mendicant orders in the 13th century, allowed a decentralization of authority and facilitated the spread of religious institutes in their mission of service to the Gospel. The renewal called for by Vatican II, and the changing circumstances of diminishing vocations and the closing or restructuring of apostolic works, challenged contemporary religious institutes to examine their own operating structures to see whether they still met the needs of our time. Among the structures of religious life that the institutes have examined and adapted is the province. As an ecclesiastical juridic person by the law itself, the province possesses certain rights and obligations, including the acquisition, ownership, administration and alienation of temporal goods in pursuit of its mission. The competent authority of the religious institute can establish, reorganize and suppress provinces, according to its constitutions. When separate provinces are joined together to form a new one, besides the norms of proper law, certain canons on juridic persons apply, and, in particular, the intentions of donors and founders, as well as any acquired rights of the former provinces must be respected. There are also important civil law issues involved in the restructuring of provincial corporations. The rapid geographic expansion by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in North America led to the establishment of five provinces in the United States by the mid-20th century. The consolidation of the U.S. Oblate provinces in 1999 was the culmination of a gradual process of collaboration and restructuring over a period of more than 30 years. The decision by the Oblate superior general and council to consolidate provinces followed a period of spiritual, psychological and juridical preparation, and an official consultation of the membership. This thesis, using the experience of the U.S. Oblates as a case study, proposes to describe the procedure to be followed for successful consolidation of provinces from the canonical and civil law perspectives. What canonical structure might best be able to govern and animate the life of local apostolic communities in a unified missionary presence? What problems might be faced by those involved in the consolidation process? What are the pitfalls to be avoided? What were the civil legal, corporate and financial issues that had to be carefully addressed before the restructuring took place? We hope that this study would be of practical benefit to any religious institute contemplating a consolidation or reorganization or provinces.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/9326 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Brown, Warren A., III. |
| Contributors | Morrisey, Francis G., |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 346 p. |
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