Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
FACULTY OF CANON LAW
TRANSFER TO ANOTHER INSTITUTE

CANONS 684-685
HISTORICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND JURIDICAL
CONSIDERATIONS
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

degree Master in Theology and
Religious Studies
Promoter: BY:
Prof. dr. Rik TORFS Judith HEREFORD
Co-Promoter:
PROF. JOS WOUTERS
2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................................II
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................................IV
Primary Sources..........................................................................................................................iv
Church Documents.................................................................................................................iv
Other Primary Sources...........................................................................................................iv
Secondary Sources.......................................................................................................................v
Books......................................................................................................................................v
Articles and Other Materials..................................................................................................vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................................................XI
Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
Review of Literature.....................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER I – HISTORY OF TRANSFER..........................................................................................................4
Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
Transfer in the First Christian Century.........................................................................................4
The Council of Tribur and Gratian...............................................................................................7
Periculoso and the Council of Trent...........................................................................................10
1917 Code of Canon Law...........................................................................................................12
1983 Code of Canon Law...........................................................................................................14
Drafting of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.............................................................................14
Canons on Transfer in the 1983 Code...................................................................................19
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches....................................................................................20
CHAPTER II – SOCIOLOGY OF TRANSFER...................................................................................................23
Introduction...........................................................................................................................23
Review of the Literature.............................................................................................................23
Methodology..............................................................................................................................28
Research Question.................................................................................................................28
Survey Design and Sample....................................................................................................30
Results........................................................................................................................................30
Members................................................................................................................................31
Factual Information..........................................................................................................31
Reasons for Transfer........................................................................................................34
Process of Transfer...........................................................................................................36
Experience of Transfer.....................................................................................................39
Community Survey................................................................................................................41
Statistical Information......................................................................................................41
Narrative Responses.........................................................................................................42
Discussion..................................................................................................................................43
i
Demographics........................................................................................................................43
Experience.............................................................................................................................44
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................45
CHAPTER III – THEOLOGY OF TRANSFER..................................................................................................46
The Nature of Vocation..............................................................................................................46
The Nature of Religious Vocation..............................................................................................48
International Congress on Consecrated Life..........................................................................50
The Nature of Transfer to Another Religious Institute...............................................................52
CHAPTER IV – JURISPRUDENCE OF TRANSFER............................................................................................56
Canon Law.................................................................................................................................56
Canons 684 and 685..............................................................................................................56
Permission to Transfer......................................................................................................56
Administrative Recourse..................................................................................................57
Canons on Period of Probation.........................................................................................58
Manentibus Votis.............................................................................................................58
Rights and Obligations.....................................................................................................61
Effect of Transfer.............................................................................................................63
Particular Transfers...............................................................................................................65
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches..............................................................................68
Proper Law.................................................................................................................................72
Constitutions and Directory...................................................................................................72
Policies and Agreements.......................................................................................................74
Civil Law....................................................................................................................................80
Special Cases..............................................................................................................................83
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................85
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................86
APPENDIX I...........................................................................................................................................88
Transfer Questionnaire...............................................................................................................88
Community Questionnaire..........................................................................................................90
ii
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES
Church Documents
Benedict XVI. Caritas in Veritate: on Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth. June 29,
2009, AAS 101 (2009) . Città del Vaticano: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana.
---. Deus Caritas Est. December 25, 2005, 18: AAS 98 (2006), 217-256.
Boniface VIII. Apostolic Constitution Periculoso. 1298. In Makowski, Elizabeth M. Canon Law and
Cloistered Women: Periculoso and Its Commentators 1298-1545. Studies in medieval and early
modern canon law. Washington (D.C.): Catholic University of America Press, 1997.
Commission for the Interpretation of the Code. “Utrum suffragium Capituli,.” Acta Apostolici Sedes
XVI (1922): 528.
John Paul II. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Rev. ed. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1999.
---. Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches: New English Translation. Latin-English ed. Washington,
D.C: Canon Law Society of America, 2001.
---. Codex Iuris Canonici. in Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Translation. Washington (D.C.):
CLSA, 1983.
---. Redemptionis Donum. March 25, 1984, AAS 76 (1984) 513-546.
---. Vita Consecrata. March 25, 1996 AAS 88 (1996) 372-498.
John XXIII. “Allocution Announcing the Roman Synod, The Ecumentical Council and the Renewal of
the Code of Canon Law. January 25, 1959..” AAS 51 (1959): 65-69.
Paul VI. “Pastorale Munus.” AAS 56 (1964): 5-12.
Pii X. Codex Iuris Canonici. Roma: Tipografia poliglotta Vaticana, 1917.
Pius XII. Postquam Apostolicis Litteris. 9 February 1952. AAS 44 (1952) 65-152.
Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law. “Utrum verbo
'religiosus,'” Acta Apostolici Sedes 79 (1987): 1249.
Pontificia Commissio Codici Iuris Canonici Recognoscendo. “Principia quae Codicis iuris canonici
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Sacred Congregation for Religious and for Secular Institutes. “The Contemplative Dimension of
Religious Life.” Origins 10 (1980): 550-555.
Schema Canonum de Institutis Vitae Consecratae per Professionem Consiliorum Evangelicorum.
Roma: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1977.
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. Lumen Gentium. November 21, 1964. AAS 57 (1965) 5-75.
---. Perfectae Caritatis. October 28, 1965. AAS 58 (1966) 702-712.
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American-Cassinese Congregation. The Constitutions and the Directory, 1990.
iii
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Friedberg, Emil, ed. Decretum Magistri Gratiani. 2nd ed. Corpus Iuris Canonici, 1. Leipzig:
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Migne, J. P., and A. G. Hamman, eds. Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Latina. 223 vols. Paris:
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Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet. Constitution, 1984.
Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and the Contemplative Sisters of the Good
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Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictine Monasteries. The Constitutions and the Directory,
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Verheyen, Benedict. The Holy Rule of St. Benedict. Atchison, Kansas: St. Benedict's Abbey, 1949.
United States Internal Revenue Service, Rev. Rul. 77-290. 1977-2 C.B. 26.
SECONDARY SOURCES
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Beyer, Jean. La Vita Consacrata. Roma: Centro Studi U.S.M.I, 1977.
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Bouscaren, T. Lincoln, Adam C. Ellis, and Francis N. Korth, eds. Canon Law: A Text and
Commentary. 4th ed. Milwaukee (Wis.): Bruce, 1966.
Chiramel, Jose, and Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, eds. The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches:
A Study and Interpretation. Alwaye, India: Star Publications, 1992.
Chittister, Joan. The Fire in These Ashes: A Spirituality of Contemporary Religious Life. Kansas City:
Sheed & Ward, 1995.
Coleman, Simon, and John Elsner. Pilgrimage: Past and Present in the World Religions. Cambridge,
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Confoy, Maryanne. Religious Life and Priesthood: Perfectae Caritatis, Optatam Totius,
Presbyterorum Ordinis. Paulist Press, 2008.
France, Peter. Hermits : the insights of solitude. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.
Fulwiler, Anne. “Transfer and Readmittace in Non-Clerical Institutes of Simple Vows.” Thesis,
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iv
Hefele, Karl Joseph von, and Henri Leclercq, eds. Histoire Des Conciles D'après Les Documents
Originaux. 2nd ed. Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1911.
Hite, Jordan F., Sharon Holland, and Daniel J. Ward. A Handbook on Canons 573-746: Religious
Institutes, Secular Institutes, Societies of the Apostolic Life. Collegeville (Minn.): Liturgical
Press, 1985.
Konrad, Joseph G. “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community.” Thesis, Catholic University
of America, 1949.
Pospishil, Victor J. Eastern Catholic Church Law. 2nd ed. Staten Island, N.Y: Saint Maron
Publications, 1996.
Quiñonez, Lora Ann, and Mary Daniel Turner. The Transformation of American Catholic Sisters.
Women in the political economy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.
Radcliffe, Timothy. Sing a New Song: The Christian Vocation. Springfield, IL: Templegate Pub, 1999.
Schmitt, Miriam, and Linda Kulzer. Medieval Women Monastics: Wisdom's Wellsprings. Collegeville,
Minn: Liturgical Press, 1996.
Schneiders, Sandra M. Finding the Treasure: Locating Catholic Religious Life in a New Ecclesial and
Cultural Context. Paulist Press, 2000.
---. New Wineskins: Re-Imagining Religious Life Today. New York: Paulist Press, 1986.
---. Selling All: Commitment, Consecrated Celibacy, and Community in Catholic Religious Life. New
York: Paulist Press, 2001.
Schaff, Philip, ed. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church.
Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1886.
Sheehy, G., ed. The Canon Law Letter and Spirit: A Practical Guide to the Code of Canon Law. Repr.
London: Chapman, 1996.
Vorgrimler, Herbert, ed. Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II. Translated by Lalit Adolphus,
et al. New York: Crossroad, 1989.
Ward, Daniel J., and Jane Mitchell. Procedures and Documents for Canonical Separations and Other
Canonical Processes. Washington (D.C.): Leadership Conference of Women Religious, 2001.
Wittberg, Patricia. Creating a Future for Religious Life: A Sociological Perspective. New York:
Paulist Press, 1991.
---. Pathways to Re-Creating Religious Communities. New York: Paulist Press, 1996.
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in religion, culture, and society. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
Articles and Other Materials

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Abeyasingha, Nihal. “Religious Life: Naturally Sacred vs. Graced Sacred?.” Review for Religious 64,
no. 1 (2005): 6-21.
v
Andrés Gutiérrez, Domingo J. “Gli eremiti del canone 603. Commentario teologico-giuridico al
Codice. Dossier attuale.” Commentarium Pro Religiosis et Missionariis LXXXVIII, no. 1-3/07
(2007): 7-220.
Anonymous. “The Sparrow Has Found Its Home At Last: A Personal Account of Transfer.” Review
for Religious 51, no. 1: 22-27.
Anslow, T.C. “"Pre-Probationary" Period for Transfer between Institutes.” Roman Replies (2005): 69-
71.
Aschenbrenner, George. “Active and Monastic: Two Apostolic Lifestyles.” Review for Religious 45,
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consenso.” Commentarium Pro Religiosis et Missionariis LXXX, no. 1-3 (1999): 127-154.
Beagle, Gilmary. “Transfer: A Journey Home.” Review for Religious 40 (August 1981): 601-603.
Beha, Marie. “Transfer to a Contemplative Community.” Review for Religious 40, no. 3 (June 1981):
345-353.
Beyer, Jean. “De Iure Vitae Consecratae in Novo Codice.” Periodica 75, no. 3 (1986): 590-593.
Campbell, Peter. “Temporalities for Religious - Six Practical Cases: II. Financial and Civil Law
Considerations.” Canon Law Society of America Proceedings 46 (1984): 82-97.
Cerullo, Deborah M. “Distinctiveness, Diversity, and Commonness in Consecrated Life.” Review for
Religious 61, no. 3 (2002): 272-279.
Chicoine, Maureen. “Hope in Transfer.” Sisters Today 55 (September 1983): 9-13.
Claffey, James. “Musings About Vocations.” Review for Religious 51, no. 4 (August 1992): 581-590.
CLSA Taskforce. “Schema of Canons on Institutes of Life Consecrated by Profession of the
Evangelical Counsels.” Canon Law Society of America Proceedings 39 (1977): 98-111.
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1996).
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vi
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vii
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ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge and thank all those who have assisted me in
researching and writing this thesis. Professors Rik Torfs and Jos Wouters have provided much needed
advise and support during the development of the project and writing of the thesis. In addition, my
heartfelt thanks go to the librarians at KU Leuven, and to the librarians at Kenrick Seminary in St.
Louis, MO, at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and the resources made available
to me at the office of the Tribunal of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, MO. I also thank all my colleagues
at the Faculty of Canon Law at KU Leuven.
The chapter on Sociology of Transfer was greatly enhanced by Sr. Mary Charlotte Chandler,
RSCJ who shared her professional expertise and experience in assisting with the survey design and
provided important insights on the analysis of the data. I am also grateful for nearly one hundred
members of religious institutes who shared their experience of transfer in the online survey. It was a
privilege to read their reflections. I am likewise grateful to nearly fifty religious institutes who
provided information about their experience of transfer. The information they provided enabled me to
come to a greater understanding of the phenomenon of transfer from the viewpoint of those most
intimately involved.
I also had the opportunity for some important personal interviews. Sr. Anne-Louise Nadeau,
SNDdeN has worked with hundreds of sisters who have transferred institutes over the last thirty years.
Her insights and reflections were helpful and she provided important critiques of my developing
understanding of the phenomenon of transfer. Sr. Marian Cowan, CSJ has worked in formation and
leadership in my own institute, has assisted members in transfer and is a long time spiritual director.
She provided important insights and helped refine my thoughts on the nature of vocation, of religious
vocation and of the theology of transfer. Sr. Sharon Holland, IHM has spent over twenty five years
working at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, most
recently as the head of the english language section. I had the opportunity to discuss the project with
her and she too provided an important perspective and understanding of transfer.
Finally I must thank the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet who have lived, worked and prayed
with me over the years and who supported me in this project and in so many ways. May God bless and
reward them all for their goodness and love.
x
TRANSFER TO ANOTHER INSTITUTE
CANONS 684-685
HISTORICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND JURIDICAL CONSIDERATIONS
INTRODUCTION
This project will explore Canons 684-685 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, on transfer of a
member from one religious institute to another, exploring historical, sociological, theological and
juridical considerations. It will concentrate particularly on the case of transfer of women religious in
the North American context. Some references may nevertheless be made to other cases of transfer.
The paper will first consider an historical study of the notion of transfer of a member, and
particularly study of the regulation of this practice. The section will explore the early development of
religious life and the rise of the notion of stability. It will then turn to the conditions under which a
member might nevertheless be able to transfer and the consequences of such a move. It will first
examine the notion from the viewpoint of the religious institutes and their members, and the rules
developed by the institutes to regulate this practice. It will then explore legislation by bishops and
councils regarding the practice, and finally look at how this legislation developed and was
incorporated into the two Codes of Canon Law.
The second chapter will treat the topic from a sociological perspective; it will explore the lived
experience of religious institutes from which and to which1 members transfer, and the experience of
the members themselves. This section will make use of both published materials on the subject and
survey results from leaders of institutes and from members who have transferred. The section will
show the very different experiences of the various parties, a difference that can give rise to divergent
expectations as institutes seek to provide pastoral care for members who are considering transfer and
can lead to misunderstanding by leaders and members.
The third chapter will develop a theology of transfer. Building on the historical notions and the
sociological perspectives already discussed, it will explore first the notion of vocation in general, then
turn specifically to the vocation to religious life. Finally it will seek to articulate a theology of transfer
within the concept of religious vocation. This theology will describe the original and receiving
communities, and the member in a dynamic relationship.
The final chapter will treat juridical aspects of transfer, considered both from canonical and civil
perspective. Building on the theological understanding discussed above, it will examine the two
canons on transfer from one institute to another, and will further explore the canonical consequences
of the transfer of a member and common issues that arise in this context. It will then turn to the civil
law issues that arise when a member seeks to transfer from one institute to another. This treatment will
1 The institute from which, a quo, a member transfers will hereafter be referred to as the original institute or
community. The institute to which, ad quem, a member transfers will hereafter be referred to as the receiving
institute or community.
1
focus exclusively on United States civil law, however, it is expected that it will also provide helpful
guidance for those in other jurisdictions, at least by indicating issues that may be of concern.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The literature on transfer of a member to another religious institute is found in three extended
treatments and in commentaries on the 1917 Code of Canon Law and the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
The three works on transfer are a 1949 thesis by Joseph Konrad, on the canons on transfer in the 1917
Code of Canon Law, a second thesis in 1980 by Anne Fulwiler, on the interim norms that were in
effect after the Second Vatican Council and before the implementation of the 1983 Code of Canon
Law, and an article by Abbass comparing the canons on transfer in the 1983 Code and the 1990 Code
of Canons for the Eastern Churches.
Konrad's thesis provides and extensive catalog of the regulation of transfer, beginning in the
early councils. He also includes detailed discussion of the various privileges granted to clerical orders
through the middle ages. The second part of the thesis discusses the canons of the 1917 Code that
regulated transfer; he includes an analysis of the opinions of various canonists on disputed issues
regarding the interpretation and application of the canons.2
Fulwiler, in her 1980 thesis, discusses the perceived increase in the numbers of transfers in the
United States, particularly among women religious. She presents some research data from the period,
but the information does not present information on the number of members who transferred in the
years prior to the Second Vatican Council for comparison. Nevertheless, the information is helpful as a
background to the research presented in Chapter Two of the present thesis. Fulwiler discusses the
interim norms on transfer of members, particularly the relegation of permission for transfer to diocesan
bishops in some cases. She does not discuss the process of the revision of the canons on transfer, but
only those interim norms that were in effect in 1980 when the thesis was written.3
Abbas, in a1998 article makes a comparative analysis of the Latin and Eastern canons on
transfer, including an analysis of the drafting process for both codes that helps to shed light on the
difference between them.4
There are also articles and commentaries by canonists which discuss the transfer process. In
addition to their legal analysis, these articles often reflect 'conventional wisdom' regarding the
phenomenon of transfer, and often portray a striking suspicion of the process of transfer and of
members who might contemplate such a move. The surveys, both from members and from leadership
of institutes from which and to which members transfer provide a very different picture of the process.
2 Joseph G. Konrad. “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community.” Thesis, Catholic University of
America, 1949.
3 Anne Fulwiler. “Transfer and Readmittace in Non-Clerical Institutes of Simple Vows.” Thesis, Catholic
University of America, 1980.
4 Jobe J. Abbass. “Transfer to another Religious Institute in the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches.”
Commentarium Pro Religiosis et Missionariis LXXIX, no. 1 (1998): 121-151.
2
We turn now to the first topic for consideration, namely an exploration of the history of transfer,
and of legislation on transfer. This will provide a window into the history of consecrated life itself and
into the history of legislation on it. In addition, it will give an introduction to the phenomenon of
transfer as it has been experienced over the centuries.
3
CHAPTER I – HISTORY OF TRANSFER
INTRODUCTION
This chapter will trace the history of the phenomenon of the transfer of a member to another
religious order, and on its regulation, focusing particularly on the conditions which are placed on a
member who might wish to transfer and on the consequences of that transfer. Legislation on this topic
goes back to the early Christian centuries. Transfer involves the movement of a member from one
monastery or community to another:
Transfer is the process by which a duly incorporated member of a religious

institute loses the juridical bond which incorporates him in a stable way in
that community and becomes subject simultaneously to a new juridical bond
which incorporates him in another community.5
Transfer involves the relationship between an institute and its member, and the relationship
among the various institutes. While an amicable transfer could well be arranged among those parties,
if any difficulties arose, legislation on the matter had to come from some authority outside either
institute. For this reason bishops and councils issued norms on transfer from the earliest centuries.
TRANSFER IN THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CENTURY

Background. According to Western tradition, religious life as we know it today traces its
origins back to the ascetics of the Egyptian Desert starting early in the third century. Eastern tradition
believes religious life traces its origins to apostolic times, and understands the continuous presence of
ascetics, hermits and monastics6 through the ages to be a form of apostolic succession along side that
of the bishops.7 Christian monasticism has continued to evolve and develop through the ages, and
other forms of religious life have arisen alongside it, particularly in the West.
In the earliest days, the bond between a community and its members was seen as a practical
means of mutual support and of initiation of new monastics. Cenobitic or communitarian monasticism
existed alongside eremetic forms, in which individuals lived in greater solitude. These were seen as
two ways of living out the basic ascetic lifestyle which itself was simply a more intense response to
the call of the Gospel. In addition to these more stable forms of the ascetic life, there is also an ancient
5 Joseph G. Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community” (Thesis, Catholic University of
America, 1949), 81.
6 “Monastics” is a term used for both monks and nuns, it is in common usage in American English, particularly
in monastic circles.
7 Boniface Luykx, Eastern Monasticism and the Future of the Church (Redwood Valley, CA: Holy
Transfiguration Monastery, 1993), 93 ff.
4
tradition of pilgrimage which was written about by Gregory of Nyssa,8 Jerome9 and Egeria;10 in early
Christian times these pilgrimages could last for many months, or even years.11 Pilgrimages called for
spiritual commitment, ascetic practices and an abandonment of the safety and security of ones home
and community.
Monastic Response. A phenomenon arose of ascetics and monastics who wandered from place
to place, seeking admission to one monastery, and then to another. Monasteries were generally seen as
places of hospitality which welcomed Christians coming for spiritual renewal, as well as pilgrims and
traveling monastics. However, experience showed that some of these wanderers were unsettled
persons who were unable to adapt, some were even found to be sowers of discord in the monasteries
they visited. For this reason, there was a growing understanding of the need for a certain stability in
monastic life and some monasteries sought to limit the movement of their members and to limit their
openness to wandering monastics from other monasteries. Benedict of Nursia (480-547) openly
condemns such pretenders while urging his own monks to remain steadfastly in the monastery where
they began:
Quartum vero genus est monachorum quod nominatur girovagum, qui tota
vita sua per diversas provincias ternis aut quaternis diebus per diversorum
cellas hospitantur, semper vagi et numquam stabiles, et propriis
voluntatibus et guilæ inlecebris servientes, et per omnia deteriores
sarabaitis. De quorum omnium horum miserrima conversatione melius est
silere quam loqui. His ergo omissis, ad coenobitarum fortissimum genus
disponendum, adiuvante Domino, veniamus.12
Caesarius of Arles (470-542) also urged stability for monastics in his rules. The first chapter of
each rule begins with an admonition to persevere in the monastery where they began:
Imprimis si quis ad conversionem venerit, ea conditione excipiatur, ut usque

ad mortem suam ibi perseveret.13
8 Gregory of Nyssa, "On Pilgrimages" found in Philip Schaff, ed., A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-
Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1886) Series II, Volume 5, 382-383.
9 Ibid., Series II Volume 6, xxxiii.
10 Egeria, Egeria: Diary of a Pilgrimage, ed. George E Gingras (New York: Newman Press, 1970).
11 Simon Coleman and John Elsner, Pilgrimage: Past and Present in the World Religions (Cambridge, Mass:
Harvard University Press, 1995), 16.
12 Benedict Verheyen, The Holy Rule of St. Benedict (Atchison, Kansas: St. Benedict's Abbey, 1949), I.
Verheyen (trans): But the fourth class of monks is that called Landlopers [wanderers], who keep going their
whole life long from one province to another, staying three or four days at a time in different cells as guests.
Always roving and never settled, they indulge their passions and the cravings of their appetite, and are in
every way worse than the Sarabites. It is better to pass all these over in silence than to speak of their most
wretched life.
13 J. P. Migne and A. G. Hamman, eds., Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Latina (Paris: Migne, 1844),
LXVII, 1099. (Unless otherwise noted, the translations are by the author.) In the first place, whoever has
come to conversion, it is on the condition, that one should persevere there up to one's death.
5
Imprimis observandum est ut de monasterio usque ad mortem suam nulla
egrediatur.14
Chalcedon. While the early legislation in the West came in the form of monastic rules written
by and for monastics, councils and emperors also intervened in the matter in the East. The Council of
Chalcedon in 451 enacted canon four which treats of monks doing anything against the will of their
own bishop, of monks making Christian pilgrimages, founding a monastery or taking on worldly
concerns. Bishops were given authority over the monks in their dioceses, with the right to permit or
forbid the foundation of new monasteries – in general, the traveling of monks was forbidden, the
traveling of clerics was also limited in several other canons.
Those who truly and sincerely live the monastic life should be accorded
appropriate recognition. But since there are some who don the monastic
habit and meddle with the churches and in civil matters, and circulate
indiscriminately in the cities and even are involved in founding monasteries
for themselves, it has been decided that no one is to build or found a
monastery or oratory anywhere against the will of the local bishop; and that
monks of each city and region are to be subject to the bishop, are to foster
peace and quiet, and attend solely to fasting and prayer, staying set apart in
their places. They are not to abandon their own monasteries and interfere, or
take part, in ecclesiastical or secular business unless they are perhaps
assigned to do so by the local bishop because of some urgent necessity.15
The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon indicate that the text of canon four was introduced by the
Emperor Marcian and was adopted as he proposed it.
Occasion for this canon seems to have been given by monks of Eutychian
tendencies, and especially by the Syrian Barsumas, as appears from the
fourth session. He and his monks had, as Eutychians, withdrawn themselves
from the jurisdiction of their bishops, whom they suspected of
Nestorianism.16
The text and circumstances of adoption of the canon seem to indicate that transfer of members
was not specifically a matter of concern for Marcian or the Council. Nevertheless limits on travel
supported the stability of monastics, and this canon was also cited in subsequent documents for the
proposition that bishops should exercise some control over the monastic movement.
Second Council of Nicea. The twenty-first canon of the Second Council of Nicea, held in 787
addressed the matter of transfer directly:
14 Ibid., LXVII, 1103. In the first place it should be observed that one should not go out from the monastery
until one's death.
15 Schaff, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, 2nd Series, Vol.
XIV, 270.
16 Ibid., 2nd Series, Vol. XIV, 217.
6
Non oportere monachum, vel monacham, monasterium proprium relinquere
et ad alia proficisci. Quod si contigerit hoc, recipi hunc hospitio necesse est:
assumi autem eum sine voluntate abbatis eius non convenit.17
This is the first mention of actual transfer of a member by a Council. Transfer may be seen as a
special case of the wandering monastic who might be allowed, on the condition that the permission of
the superior was obtained. Notice that this canon treats both male and female monastics, implying that
both men and women had sufficient freedom of movement to move from monastery to monastery, and
that they were in fact so moving.
THE COUNCIL OF TRIBUR AND GRATIAN

Council of Tribur. The Council of Tribur was held in 895 and its canon twenty-six is one of
the sources of Gratian's treatment of transfer. However, it seems that subsequent documents misquoted
the canon. Canon twenty-six of the Council of Tribur is reported as follows in Hefele-Leclercq:
Si, pour le salut de son âme ou pour le salut de l'âme d'un de ses frères, un
moine veut quitter son monastère et entrer dans un autre, il peut le faire
avec l'assentiment de l'évêque, de l'abbé et de ses frères. Quant aux moines
qui, par pur caprice, abandonnent leur monastère, on doit les forcer à
retourner.18
Thus this Council conditioned the transfer on the good of the soul of the transferring monk, and
that of the monastic community. This good is assured by seeking and obtaining the prior permission of
the bishop, of the abbot and of the community. In addition the canon forbade those who might attempt
to transfer for motives of caprice.
Ivo of Chartres. Ivo of Chartres (1040-1115) attributed his provision on the transfer of
members to the Council of Tribur just quoted, but modified its provision somewhat. Ivo states:
Virgines sacre si pro lucro anime sue propter districtiorem vitam ad aliud
monasterium ire disposuerint, ibique manere decreverint, synodus concedit.
Si uero fuga discipline alium locum quaesierint, redire cogantur.19
17 Norman P. Tanner and Giuseppe Alberigo, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (Washington: Georgetown
university press, 1990), vol. I, 154. Tanner (trans): It is not right for a monk or a nun to leave his or her own
monastery and transfer to another. However, should this occur, it is obligatory that hospitality be given, but
such a person should not be accepted as a member without the agreement of his or her monastic superior.
18 Karl Joseph von Hefele and Henri Leclercq, eds., Histoire Des Conciles D'après Les Documents Originaux,
2nd ed. (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1911), Tome IV, 2ieme partie, 701. If, for the health of his soul, or for the
health of the soul of one of his brothers, a monk wishes to leave his monastery and enter into another, he can
do so, with the assent of the bishop and of the abbot and of his brothers. But when, for mere caprice, monks
abandon their monastery, one should force them to return.
19 Migne and Hamman, Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Latina, CLXI, 554. The synod allows holy
virgins who, for the good of their soul, by means of a stricter life, arrange to go to another monastery and are
determined to remain there. If in reality they seek flight from true discipline in another place, they should be
compelled to return.
7
Thus the transfer should indeed be for the good of the person's soul, however, it added that this
was shown through a stricter life in the new monastery. Here the requirement of permission is not
present, having been exchanged for strictness of the new community as a condition for the transfer. It
may be that the strictness of the community was introduced because the good of the soul is an elusive
concept, difficult to establish juridically, but the strictness of the community, based solely on external
observances would be easier to ascertain. Note also that Ivo's text limits the application to professed
virgins, while Canon 26 of Tribur on which he relies applies to a monk.
Gratian's Decree. Gratian's Decree in 1140 also treated the matter of transfer to another
monastery in several canons in Causa XX questio IV. Questio IV, canon 1, again quoting from the
Council of Tribur (895) stated:
Non sunt prohibendae virgines sacrae, que causa religionis aliud

monasterium adire desiderant: Virgines sacrae si pro lucro animae suae
propter distritiorem uitam ad aliud monasterium pergere disposuerint,
ibidemque conmanere decreverint, sinodus concedit. Si vero fuga disciplinae
alium locum quesierint, redire cogantur.
Gratian. Quod autem de virginibus sacris hoc capitulo statuitur de
monachis etiam consequenter inteligitur, de quolibet clerico.20
As may be seen, the canon maintains the additional clause regarding strictness found in Ivo of
Chartres. Thus the conditions placed here for the transfer are that it should be for the good of the
member attempting the transfer, “pro lucro animae suae.” The good of the member is seen as tied to
the strictness of the new life to which the member is requesting to transfer. The other two canons in
the same question make reference to the need for permission of the superior, bishop or abbot. Gratian
permits a transfer for the good of the person; he seems to view strictness as an indication of a transfer
that will be for the spiritual good of the member. Also note that while he follows Ivo of Chartres who
had applied his canon only to virgines, Gratian, in a note, extends its application to monachis as well,
and to clerics vowed to life in community.
After Gratian. In the time after Gratian, popes and councils continued to legislate on the matter
of transfer of monastics, indicating that it continued to be an issue of concern, despite much stricter
cloister for men, and complete cloister for women imposed by Boniface VIII in Periculoso in 1298.21
Much of the succeeding legislation however was in the form of privileges. Certain monasteries
were granted privileges which allowed or prevented their members from transferring, or which
allowed or disallowed the monastery from receiving members from other monasteries. Often new
20 Emil Friedberg, ed., Decretum Magistri Gratiani, 2nd ed., Corpus Iuris Canonici, 1 (Leipzig: Tauchnitz,
1879), C. XX q. IV c. 1. Holy virgins are not prohibited, who on cause of religion to another monastery
desire to go: Holy virgins who, for the good of their soul, by means of a stricter life, arrange to go on to
another monastery and are resolved to remain there, the synod allows it. If in reality they seek flight from
true discipline in another place, they should be compelled to return. Gratian: What then is established for
virgins in this chapter is also understood for monks and whatever clerics.
21 Boniface VIII, Apostolic Constitution Periculoso, 1298. In Makowski, Elizabeth M. Canon Law and
Cloistered Women: Periculoso and Its Commentators 1298-1545. Studies in medieval and early modern
canon law. Washington (D.C.): Catholic University of America Press, 1997., 135.
8
decrees abrogated earlier privileges, leading to a situation in which it was difficult to know which
transfers would be allowed at any given time, and under what conditions. Some of this legislation
concerned the transfer of clerics and the relative strictness of various orders of men, thus indicating
which orders could receive members and which would lose members in transfers. During the period of
reforms this became particularly important.22 However, since this study is focused on transfer of
women religious, these matters are outside the scope of the present discussion.
Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologica in 1265–1274 and treated the matter of
transfer in the Secunda Secundae. Though this is not a legislative text, it is illustrative of the thinking
on the matter at the time. Thomas quotes Gratian's Decree, cited above, then goes on to elaborate. He
does not recommend the practice because of “scandal” to the original community,23 and because of the
greater difficulty of maintaining continued spiritual progress when one transfers to another institute.
Transire de religione ad religionem, nisi propter magnam utilitatem vel

necessitatem, non est laudabile. Tum quia ex hoc plerumque scandalizantur
illi qui relinquuntur. Tum etiam quia facilius proficit aliquis in religione
quam consuevit, quam in illa quam non consuevit, ceteris paribus.24
Nevertheless he allows that transfers may sometimes be commended, elaborating three particular
reasons for this practice; first, zeal for the fuller perfection of religion (zelo perfectioris religionis)25
which Aquinas sees not as the life found in a stricter monastery, but the life in a monastery where the
life is more perfectly suited to the ends of religious life. The second reason for transfer was because
one's own institute ceased to lead an appropriately fervent life (propter declinationem religionis debita
perfectione).26 Here he speaks not of the life one is able to live oneself, but the life that is lived by the
institute, or at least the majority of its members. While he speaks of laxity, he must certainly be
thinking of his own definition of a superior institute as one whose lives are more suited to the goals of
religious life, not simply those who have more or lest practices or observances. The final stated reason
for transfer is the sickness or weakness (infirmitatem vel debilitatem)27 of a member which does not
allow them to live the lifestyles practiced in their current institute. Nevertheless, he states that
permission must always be obtained in order to ensure good discernment, and minimizing the possible
negative consequences.
22 Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 34, 50.

23 By scandal, Aquinas meant that the members might question their own vocation, or feel betrayed by the other
member's departure.
24 Summa Theologica II-II q.189, a.8. It is not laudable to transfer from one religious order to another, unless on
account of greater usefulness or necessity. Both out of the scandal it causes to those who remain and because
it is easier to make progress in a religious order to which one is accustomed than in one to which one is not
accustomed, other things being equal.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
9
PERICULOSO AND THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
Periculoso. It will be helpful to note provisions of the constitution Periculoso of Boniface VIII
in 1298 because, by placing severe restriction on the movement of women religious, it nearly
eliminated the possibility of women religious having the opportunity to transfer. Periculoso imposed
strict cloister on all women religious, even on institutes founded for active apostolates.
Praesenti constitutione perpetuo irrefragabiliter valitura sancimus,

universas et singulas moniales, praesentes atquae futuras, cuiuscunquae
religionis sint vel orginis, in quibuslibet mundi partibus exsistentes, sub
perpetua in suis monasteriis debere de cetero permanere clausura ita, quod
nulii earum, religionem tacite vel expresse professae, sit vel esse valeat
quacunque ratione vel causa, ... monasteria ipsa deinceps egrediendi
facultas.28
Under the threat of divine judgment and eternal damnation, bishops were charged with
imposing cloister on women's monasteries, evoking if necessary the aid of the secular arm in enforcing
its provisions.29 However, centuries passed before the constitution was widely in force throughout the
western Christian world.30
Council of Trent. Trent's decree on regulars essentially restated the principles of the apostolic
constitution Periculoso. In Chapter Four, Trent's Decree on Regulars forbade regulars to leave
without permission, under penalty of being punished as deserters. In addition it required students who
were away from their own communities to live in religious houses or be punished by the bishop.
Chapter Five of the decree, appealing to the above-mentioned constitution of Boniface VIII,
strongly impels bishops “under pain of eternal damnation” to restore the enclosure of nuns, using the
assistance of the arms of secular authorities if necessary. The same Chapter states:
Bonifatii VIII constitutionem, quae incipit Periculoso, renovans, cuncta

synodus universis episcopis sub obtestatione divini iudicii et interminatione
maledictionis aeternae praecipit, ut in omnibus monasteriis sibi subiectis
ordinaris, in aliis vero sedis apostolicae auctoritate clausuram
sanctimonialium, ubi violata fuerit, diligenter restitui, et, in ubi inviolata est,
conservari maxime procurent.... Nemini autem sanctimonialium liceat, post
professionem exire a monasterio, etiam ad breve tempus, quocumque
28 Boniface VIII, Apostolic Constitution Periculoso, 135. Makowski (trans): We do firmly decree by this
present constitution which shall forever remain in force, that nuns collectively and individually, both at
present and in the future, of whatsoever community or order, in whatever part of the world they may be,
ought henceforth to remain perpetually cloistered in their monasteries, so that none of the, tacitly or expressly
professed, shall or may for any reason or cause ... have permission hereafter to leave their monasteries.
29 Ibid., 135. "... Sub obtestatione divini iudicii et interminatione maladictionis eternae ... Invocato ad hoc, si
opus fuerit, auxilio brachii secularis".
30 Elizabeth M. Makowski, Canon Law and Cloistered Women: Periculoso and Its Commentators 1298-1545,
Studies in medieval and early modern canon law (Washington (D.C.): Catholic University of America Press,
1997), 67.
10
praetextu, nisi ex aliqua legitima causa, ab episcopo approbanda, indultis
quibuscumque et privilegiis non obstantibus.31
The Chapter goes on to forbid entrance to the enclosure of nuns to anyone of whatsoever birth,
or condition, sex, or age, under pain of excommunication (ipso facto incurrenda). The Chapter ends
with an exhortation to move monasteries that are outside the city walls into the cities, because of the
dangers of plunder and crimes. Bishops and other superiors are to determine if it seems expedient to
move these communities into monasteries in the cities. There is no provision made for consulting the
nuns themselves or the superior of the monastery on the matter. If the bishop determines a move is
necessary, he is charged to call on the secular arm if necessary, and punish those who obstruct the
move or disobey with censures.
As in other provisions, Trent places the primary authority on the bishop to ensure vigilance for
the enclosure and to impose his decisions on the monasteries and ensure that they comply with the
requirements set out.
The matter of transfer was taken up briefly by the Council of Trent in canon nineteen of the
Decree on Regulars of session twenty-five. That decree has only one sentence on transfer, namely:
“Nemo etiam regularis, cuiuscumque facultatis vigore, transferatur ad laxiorem religionem...."32 In
this formulation, the notion of the good of the soul has completely disappeared. While this sentence
does not indicate that permission was required for a member to transfer, the rest of the Decree on
Regulars places strict limits on the movement of all religious, and renews the requirement of complete
cloister for women. Thus it may be presumed that permission would have been required to be outside
of the monastery for any reason, including the desire to transfer to another community.
Following Trent, in 1569, Pius V issued the Constitution Quaecumque, which revoked all
privileges of all institutes to receive members through transfer. In addition it provided that all who had
so transferred were to be returned to their original institutes.33
31 Trent. Chapter 5. Renewing the constitution of Boniface VIII that begins Periculoso, this holy synod
commands all bishops under the threat of divine judgment and eternal malediction, that in all monasteries
subject to them and in others subject to the Apostolic See, that the cloister of nuns, where it has been
violated, that it be diligently restored and where it is intact, that it be preserved with utmost care.... No nun
has permission, after profession of going out of her monastery, even for a brief time, under whatever pretext,
unless for a legitimate cause, approved by the bishop, whatsoever indults and privileges notwithstanding.
32 Tanner and Alberigo, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 781-782. Tanner (trans.): No regular may be
transferred to a less strict religious institute in virtue of any faculty...
33 Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 31ff.
11
1917 CODE OF CANON LAW
The 1917 Code of Canon Law required permission of the Holy See for all transfers “even to a
stricter” institute, thus apparently allowing transfers to a less strict institute, relaxing the requirement
in Trent. The 1917 Code treated the matter of transfer in several canons. In that code, a single set of
canons, found in Title XIV, contained in canons 632-636 regulated the matter. The requirement for
transfer was stated in canon 632:
Religiosus nequit ad aliam religionem, etiam strictiorem, vel e monasterio

sui iuris ad aliud transire sine auctoritate Apostolicae Sedis.34
Though the official text gives the Council of Trent as a source, it introduces changes.
Boscuaren35 notes that Gaspari's manuscripts of the drafts of the 1917 code show no indication of
sources for this legislation, which he says indicates that it is Gaspari's original composition.
Permission to transfer from one institute required a “just cause” in the view of most
commentators, and in the practice of the Holy See.36 This is in contrast to a grave or very grave reason
required for exclaustration or secularization,37 Permission of the superior of either the original institute
or the receiving institute is not required by the canons, but in practice was sought by the Holy See.38 In
addition, the code provided further details on the process of transfer, for example, in Canon 633, the
member was required to remake novitiate in the receiving institute.
Transiens ad aliam religionem novitiatum peragere debet; quo durante,

manentibus votis, iura et obligationes particulares, quas in religione
derelicta habuit, suspensa manent, et ipse obligatione tenetur Superioribus
novae religionis et ipsi novitiorum Magistro parendi etiam ratione voti
obedientiae.39
34 Pii X pontificis maximi iussu digestus Benedicti papae XV auctoritate promulgatus, Codex Iuris Canonici
(Roma: Tipografia poliglotta Vaticana, 1917), Canon 632 No religious can transfer to another institute, even
a stricter one, or a monastery sui iuris without the authority of the Apostolic See.
35 T. Lincoln Bouscaren, Adam C. Ellis, and Francis N. Korth, eds., Canon Law: A Text and Commentary, 4th
ed. (Milwaukee (Wis.): Bruce, 1966), III, 364.
36 Servus Goyneche, “De Transitu Ad Aliam Religionem,” Commentarium Pro Religiosis et Missionariis I
(1920): 221; Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 119.
Canon 638.
38 Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 222.
39 Pii X pontificis maximi iussu digestus Benedicti papae XV auctoritate promulgatus, Codex Iuris Canonici,
Canon 633 One transferring to another religious institute must perform the novitiate; during which the vows
remain, but special rights and obligations possessed in the former institute are suspended, and one is bound
by the obligation of complying with the Superiors of the new institute and the Director of novices also in
virtue of the vow of obedience.
12
Canonical requirements for novitiate would have to be met, including permission of the major
superior with the vote of the council, and freedom from impediments.40 Any additional requirements of
the proper law of the receiving institute would also have to be met.
As noted above, all privileges to release or receive members in transfer had been abrogated by
Pius V in 1569. Nevertheless, a few privileges remained, for example, Jesuits retained the right to
transfer to Carthusians, and the superior general of the Jesuits could dismiss a member and allow him
to the order he designated, if that superior agreed. However, without the corresponding right to receive
members, this privilege remains unused in practice.41 Shortly before the promulgation of the 1917
code, and again afterwards, decrees were issued allowing the Benedictine Abbot Primate to give
permission for members of one congregation of the order to transfer to another of the same order. The
Abbot Primate acted as a delegate of the Holy See in granting this permission.42 In addition, diocesan
bishops were given the faculty of granting permission for the transfer of a member from one diocesan
institute to another.43
At the end of the novitiate, the member had two options, first, to make profession in the original
institute, if admitted to profession according to the requirements of the receiving institute's proper law.
For example, permission of the superior, with consent of the counsel, or chapter. Commentators held
that because this was the first profession of the member in the new institute, the most stringent
requirements for admission to profession should apply.44 For example if permission of the council or
chapter was required for first profession, but not for final profession, that stricter requirement would
be required for admission of a transfer to a new perpetual profession. The second option open to the
member was return to the original institute. If however, the member was in temporary vows, and those
vows had expired, that member had neither the right nor the obligation to return to the original
institute.
Si in religione ad quam transiit, professionem non edat, ad pristinam

religionem redire debet nisi interim votorum tempus exspiraverit.45
In Canon 634, the code made provision for members to transfer from an institute of solemn
vows to one of simple vows, or the reverse. The religious may be admitted to temporary profession or
to perpetual profession. The superior could prolong the period of probation before perpetual vows, but
not for more than one year.46
Canons 542-543.
42 Ibid., 112.
43 Bouscaren, Ellis, and Korth, Canon Law: A Text and Commentary, 315.
45 Pii X pontificis maximi iussu digestus Benedicti papae XV auctoritate promulgatus, Codex Iuris Canonici,
Canon 633.2. If one does not make profession in the institute to which one transfers, one must return to the
first institute, unless in the interim temporary vows have expired.
46 Ibid., Canon 634. Sollemniter professus aut professus a votis simplicibus perpetuis, si transierit ad aliam
religionem cum votis sollemnibus ve1 simplicibus perpetuis, post novitiatum, praetermissa professione
temporaria, de qua in can. 574, vel admittatur ad professionem sollemnem aut simplicem perpetuam, vel ad
13
Canon 635 stated the effects of transfer and made provision for the temporal goods acquired by
the member while in the original institute. Property remains with the first institute, if it was acquired
by the member by reason of the institute while in the first institute.47 However the dowry or any
personal goods of the member are transferred to the receiving institute when the transfer is complete.48
The Code also provides that the receiving institute has the right to a just payment for the support of the
member during the time of novitiate.49 The Code does not specify where this payment would come
from; in some instances it came from the original institute, in other cases it was provided by a family
member or friend who wished to support the transfer of the member.50
In 1963, in the Motu Proprio: Pastorale Munus, Paul VI gave to the diocesan bishop the faculty
of permitting religious to transfer from one institute of diocesan right to another.51
1983 CODE OF CANON LAW
Drafting of the 1983 Code of Canon Law

On January 25, 1959 Pope John XXIII called for a double celebration: a Synod of the Diocese
of Rome and an Ecumenical Council. This would be followed by the revision of the Code of Canon
Law which would accompany and crown the two celebrations.
Pronunciamo innanzi a voi, certo tremando un poco di commozione, ma

insieme con umile risolutezza di proposito, il nome e la proposta della
duplice celebrazione: di un Sinodo Diocesano per l'Urbe, e di un Concilio
Ecumenico per la Chiesa universale.
Per voi, Venerabili Fratelli e Diletti Figli Nostri, non occorrono

illustrazioni copiose circa la significazione storica e giuridica di queste due
proposte. Esse condurranno felicemente all'auspicato e atteso
aggiornamento del Codice di Diritto Canonico, che dovrebbe
accompagnare e coronare questi due saggi di pratica applicazione dei
provvedimenti di ecclesiastica disciplina, che lo Spirito del Signore Ci verrà
suggerendo lungo la via.52
pristinam redeat religionem; ius tamen est Superiori eum probandi diutius, sed non ultra annum ab expleto
novitiatu.
47 Ibid., Canon 635.1 "Religio vel monasterium a quo bona servat, quae ipsius religiosi ratione iam ei quaesita
fuerunt....".
48 Ibid., Canon 635 §2 ...Quod spectat ad dotem eiusve fructus et alia bona personalia, si qua habeat
religiosus, servandum praescriptum can. 551, §2....
Canon 635 §2 ... demum nova religio ius habet pro novitiatus tempore ad iustam retributionem, si eidem
locus sit ad normam can. 570, §1.
51 Paul VI, “Pastorale Munus,” AAS 56 (1964): #38 Permittendi sodalibus religiosis transitum ab una ad aliam
Religionem iuris dioecesani.
14
Although a Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law was established on March
28, 1963, work on the revision of the Code was suspended until the completion of the Second Vatican
Council. On November 20, 1965 just before the close of the Council, an expanded Commission
reconvened and work on the revision was begun in earnest. On that occasion and frequently thereafter,
Paul VI called for two elements to underlay the entire revision process, namely, the new mentality of
the Second Vatican Council and the new needs of the people of God:
Scilicet accommodari debet novo mentis habitui, Concilii Oecumenici

Vaticani Secundi proprio, ex quo curae pastorali plurimum tribuitur, et
novis necessitatibus populi Dei.53
The draft of canons on Consecrated Life, Schema Canonum de Institutis Vitae Consecratae per
Professionem Consiliorum Evangelicorum, was completed and sent for revisions in 1977. This
Schema had two parts, the first set forth the general provisions of canon law for Institutes of
Consecrated Life, the second part provided a typology of the various types of institutes, setting out
special norms that applied to each type of institute.54 The Schema had only three canons on transfer
(canons 75-76 and 104), in place of five canons in the 1917 Code; it also provided some significant
changes in legislation regarding transfer. While retaining the negative language of the 1917 Code, the
Schema no longer required a member to obtain permission of the Apostolic See in order to transfer, the
matter would be henceforth within the competence of the supreme moderators of each institute. In
addition members were no longer required to repeat the novitiate in the new institute, being required
instead to complete a three year period of probation. The provisions of these two canons underwent
only slight revision before the final promulgation where they are found in Canons 684-685 of the 1983
Code of Canon Law. Two additional canons were later introduced providing for transfer between
different types of Consecrated Life.
The Canons of the Schema on transfer reflect some of the guiding principles of the revision of
the Code of Canon Law, particularly to foster a more pastoral approach through relaxation of norms
52 John XXIII, “Allocution Announcing the Roman Synod, The Ecumentical Council and the Renewal of the
Code of Canon Law. January 25, 1959.,” AAS 51 (1959): 65-69. We announce to you, certainly trembling
with emotion, but with a humble resolution of purpose, the proposal of the twofold celebration: of a Diocesan
Synod for the City [of Rome] and an Ecumenical Council for the Universal Church. For you, our venerable
brothers and beloved children, plentiful illustrations are not necessary to show the historical and legal
significance of these two proposals. They will lead happily to the hoped for and expected modernization of
the Code of Canon Law, which ought to accompany and to crown these two events with practical application
of the provisions of ecclesiastical discipline, than the Spirit of the Lord inspire in due course.
53 Paul VI, Allocution to the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law, November 30, 1965.
AAS 57 (1965): 44-45. See also John Paul II. Codex Iuris Canonici. in Code of Canon Law: Latin-English
Translation. Washington (D.C.): CLSA, 1983. p. xxxvi The Supreme Pontiff further indicated to the
Commission two elements which should underly the whole revision effort. First of all it was not simply a
matter of a new organization of the laws as had occurred at the time of the Pio-Benedictine Code; but rather it
was also and especially a matter of reforming the norms to accommodate them to a new mentality and new
needs even if the old law was to supply the foundation for the work of revision.
54 Schema Canonum de Institutis Vitae Consecratae per Professionem Consiliorum Evangelicorum (Roma:
Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1977).
15
that were unduly rigid (Principle 3), to limit those matters which required recourse to the supreme
power of the universal Church (Principle 4) and to ensure that decisions are made by those closest to
the situation, employing the principle of subsidiarity (Principle 5).55
In addition, the Praenotanda to Schema set out further guiding principles that would govern the
drafting of the Canons on Consecrated Life. Two of these principles are particularly at work in these
canons. First, the drafters sought to leave as much as possible to the Constitutions of the individual
institutes, so that the law could be adapted to the style of life of each institute.
2. … Ius commune seu universale sancire debet dumtaxat principia

generaliora quae omnibus institutis faciliter applicari possunt quaeque
congruam libertatem eis relinquant ut ad finem proprium efficiter tendere
posint.56
Second, the drafters sought to achieve a certain flexibility in what was established by providing a
framework that could be further specified by the proper law of the institutes themselves and the
application of law to particular cases.
3. … In normis disciplinaribus statuendis congrua flexibilitas in tuto

ponatur, ut eae normae faciliter aptari possint diversis conditionibus et
exigentiis Ecclesiae et ipsorum Institutorum.57
In addition, the Praenotanda notes that drafters made a conscious decision to find terminology
different from that of the 1917 Code which would be applicable not only to religious institutes, but to
other classes of Consecrated Life:
Praesertim quoad terminologiam, necessariam fuit invenire -- potissimum in

prima parte Schematis --plures voces et expressiones diversas ab illis quae
habebantur in Codice. Ipsa enim terminologia applicari debet non tantum
Institutis religiosis sed etiam aliis duobus generibus Institutorum vitae
consecratae.58
A further reason advanced for the simplification of the process for transfer is to enable religious
to follow his or her true vocation.59
55 Pontificia Commissio Codici Iuris Canonici Recognoscendo, “Principia quae Codicis iuris canonici
recognitionem dirigant,” Communicationes 1 (1969): 77-85; John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, in Code of
Canon Law: Latin-English Translation (Washington (D.C.): CLSA, 1983), xxxvi.
56 Schema Canonum de Institutis Vitae Consecratae per Professionem Consiliorum Evangelicorum,
Praenotanda n. 5 (2). The common or universal law should decree only the more general principles which
can easily be applied by each institute and which will leave them a suitable freedom to be able effectively to
reach out to their own particular end.
57 Schema Canonum de Institutis Vitae Consecratae per Professionem Consiliorum Evangelicorum.
Praenotanda n. 5 (3). In establishing disciplinary norms a suitable flexibility sould be observed, so that the
norms may be easily adapted to the various conditions and the needs of the Church and of the Institute itself.
58 Ibid., Praenotanda n. 6. Especially as regards terminology, it was necessary to find - above all in the first part
of the Schema - numerous formulas and expressions different from those which were found in the Code.
59 Jos Wouters, quoting Jean Beyer in an email to the author, December 22, 2009.
16
Canon 75 set forth the requirements and process for transfer to another institute, Canon 76
enumerated the consequences of transfer.
Canon 75 shows the new terminology of the Schema, using the term sodalis in place of
religiosus in the 1917 Code, likewise preferring Supremus Moderator to Superior, Institutum to
Religio and definiat cooptatus to sollemniter professus aut professus a votis simplicibus perpetuis and
sacrum ligamen to votum.60 Paragraph one of Canon 75 changes the provisions of canon 632 of the
1917 Code; it provides that the a member cannot transfer to another institute without the consent of the
Supreme Moderators of both Institutes, thus no longer would the permission of the Apostolic See be
required. Derogating from the requirement of a new novitiate found in canon 663 §1 of the 1917 Code,
in paragraph two, the Schema called for a time of probation with the length and method of probation
being determined by the Constitution of the receiving institute. In paragraph three, corresponding to
canon 663 §2, the canon provided that on completion of the probation, a definitively admitted member
will be definitively incorporated into the new institute. The Schema also allowed temporarily
professed members to transfer. In this case, the member would be admitted to temporary profession for
at least three years.
Canon 75 §1. Sodalis nequit a proprio ad aliud Institutum vitae consecratae

transire nisi de consensu Supremi Moderatoris utriusque Instituti cum
suffragio deliberativo sui cuiusque consilii.
§2. Constitutiones autem definiant probationis tempus et modum, qua
probatione peracta sodalis ad novam cooptationem admitti potest ad
normam Constitutionum.
§3. Qui momento transitus definitive cooptatus erat, post peractam
probationem definitive cooptetur in novo Instituto; qui vero non erat
definitive cooptatus temporaria assumat vincula saltem per triennium
duratura.61
Canon 76 of the Schema treats the rights and obligations during and after the transfer process,
and consequences of transfer. The first paragraph corresponds to canon 633 §1 of the 1917 Code and
states that rights and obligations of members in the original institute are suspended during the time of
probation, though the vows remain, and the member is subject to the superiors of the receiving
institute. The second paragraph corresponds to canon 633 §2, and provides that at the end of the
probation, the member must either be incorporated into the receiving institute, or return to the original
institute, unless, being bound by temporary vows, those vows have expired. The second paragraph of
the new canon 76 adds another option, namely that the member might seek and receive a dispensation
60 Ibid., Canons 75-76.

61 Ibid., Canon 75 §1. A member cannot transfer from one's own institute of the consecrated life to another such
institute without the consent of the supreme moderators of both institutes with the deliberative vote of their
respective councils. §2. The Constitutions should determine the time and the manner of probation; at the
conclusion of the probation, the member may be admitted to a new incorporation in accord with the norms of
the Constitutions. §3. One who at the time of transfer was incorporated definitively, will be, upon completion
of probation, definitively incorporated into the new institute; the one, however, who was not definitively
incorporated, should assume temporary bonds lasting for at least three years.
17
from their bonds (dispensationem a ligaminibus). The third paragraph corresponds to canon 635 1° of
the 1917 Code, stating that, on definitive incorporation into the new institute, the rights and
obligations of the member in the former institute cease.
Canon 76 §1. Usque ad novam cooptationem, manentibum sacris

ligaminibus, iura et obligationes particulares quae sodalis in priori Instituto
habebat, suspensa manent; ab incoepta tamen probatione sodalis statutis
novi Instituti tenetur.
§2. Si ad cooptationem non admittatur vel ipsemet eam renuat, sodalis ad
pristinum Institutum redire tenetur, nisi dispensationem a ligaminibus
obtinuerit aut praecedentis cooptationis tempus iam expariverit.
§3. Per cooptationem sodalis novo Instituto incorporatur, cessantibus sacris
ligaminibus, iuribus et obligationibus praecedentibus.62
The provisions of the 1917 Code that provided for details of the financial arrangements between
the two institutes are not found in the Schema. In addition, because the distinction between simple and
solemn vows is not found in the Schema, the detailed provisions regarding change from simple to
solemn vows or the reverse are not found in the Schema.
Canon 104 provided for transfer of monastics between autonomous monasteries of the same
institute. Following the provisions of Canon 633 §3, no new novitiate or new profession was required,
however the deliberative vote of the monastic chapter of the receiving monastery was required.
Canon 104 §1. 1°) Transitus a monasterio ad aliud eiusdem familiae

monasticae vel regulae fieri potest de consensu utriusque Moderatoris cum
voto deliberaschschtivo capituli monasterii recipientis, salvis semper
Constitutionibus.
2°) Professio tamen monastica non iteratur, nisi aliud in Constitutionibus
expresse caveatur.
§2. Ceteri transitus iure universali retuntur.63
Commentators on the Schema agreed with the relegation of many details that had been in the
1917 Code to the proper law of the various institutes. However, “after the draft had been completed by
the subcommission, all references to ius particulare were deleted and Constitutiones substituted.”64 In
many cases commentators felt that these provisions should not be in the Constitutions, but in the
62 Ibid., Canon 76 §1. Until his new incorporation, his sacred bonds remain in effect, but the particular rights
and obligations which the member had in the former institute remain suspended. However, from the start of
probation, the member is bound by the statutes of the new institute. §2. If the member is not admitted to
incorporation or refuses it, s/he must return to the former institute, unless s/he has received a dispensation
from the bonds or the time of the preceding incorporation has already expired. §3. By incorporation the
person becomes a member of the new institute and the former sacred bonds, rights and obligations cease.
63 Schema Canonum de Institutis Vitae Consecratae per Professionem Consiliorum Evangelicorum. Canon 104
§1. /1°) The transfer from one monastery to another of the same monastic family or Rule may be made with
the consent of both moderators with the deliberative vote of the Chapter of the monastery receiving the
person, however, the Constitutions are always to be observed. /2°) On the other hand, the monastic profession
is not to be repeated unless the Constitutions expressly stipulate otherwise. §2. Other forms of transfer are
governed by the universal law.
18
secondary documents, thus ius particulare or an equivalent term was preferred. This comment applies
to the provision in Canon 75 that the time and method of the period of probation was to be according
to the Constitutions of the institute. In addition, the typology of institutes of consecrated life in Part
Two of the Schema was widely criticized.
A suggestion was made by a Task Force of the Canon Law Society of America that the
permission of the moderator of the first institute not be required, but only their opinion. The Task
Force believed that “in too many cases this moderator can veto a transfer without sufficient
motivation.”65 In addition, commentators gave a variety of suggestions on how to provide for members
in temporary vows whose vows expired during the period of probation. This problem had arisen under
the 1917 Code, when a member's vows expired during the novitiate. In that case, the member could
not renew vows in the former institute, nor make vows in the new institute. If the member did not
make vows in the new institute at the end of novitiate, they had no right to return to the former
institute, their vows having expired. This issue was eventually resolved in the 1983 Code by providing
that members in temporary vows could not transfer, except in the case of a member transferring to
another autonomous monastery of the same institute.66
Canons on Transfer in the 1983 Code

The Schema was reorganized before the promulgation of the 1983 Code. The extensive
typology was removed and replaced with a simpler distinction between Institutes of Consecrated Life
which might be Religious or Secular, and Societies of Apostolic Life. With the change, came a
reordering of the material on transfer. All the provisions of Canons 75, 76 and 104 were combined into
canons 684 and 685, with some revisions and reordering. New provisions were introduced regarding
transfer between different types of institutes; these new provisions are found in canon 730 for transfer
to or from a secular institute and canon 744 for transfer to or from a society of apostolic life. The 1983
Code requires permission of the Holy See for these transfers between different types of institutes. One
proponent of this change introduced in the 1980 Schema was the Congregation for Religious which
made the following observation:
Given ... the actual tendency, especially among female religious, of

transferring from a religious institute to a secular institute, we wonder if it
would not be better to restrict the concept of transfer only to religious
institutes, saying, for example, "Ut a proprio ad aliud Institutum
religiousum...."67
Thus they would have eliminated all transfers to secular institutes; instead in the final code, these
transfers are allowed, but permission for them is reserved to the Holy See.
64 CLSA Taskforce, “Schema of Canons on Institutes of Life Consecrated by Profession of the Evangelical
Counsels,” Canon Law Society of America Proceedings 39 (1977): 101.
65 Ibid., 108.
66 John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 684.3.
67 J Abbass, “Transfer to another Religious Institute in the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches,”
Commentarium Pro Religiosis et Missionariis LXXIX, no. 1 (1998): 138.
19
Commentators also note that the lifestyles of religious and secular institutes and societies of
apostolic life vary significantly. Therefore more care is needed in providing for the transfer between
these institutes. In addition, smaller institutes and societies may be assisted by the expertise of the
Congregation for Religious.68 Thus the permission of the Apostolic See in the 1983 Code is generally
seen as facilitative, enabling religious institutes of significantly different forms to provide adequately
for members who request permission to transfer.69 The canons state an additional requirement for
transfer between different types of institutes and societies with slightly different language, namely:
Canon 684.5: … requiritur licentia Sanctae Sedis, cuius mandatis standum

est.
Canon 730: ...licentia requiritur Sedis Apostolicae, cuius mandatis standum
est.
Canon 744.2 ...licentia requiritur Sanctae Sedis, cuius mandatis standum
est.70
Currently then, transfer is allowed to or from any institute, congregation or society, provided
appropriate permission is obtained. No reference is made to the strictness of the order or to the good of
the soul of the member who seeks to transfer. The requirement of a probation, organized according to
the proper law of the institute has replaced the requirement for a new novitiate found in the 1917
Code. Specification of financial matters is likewise left to proper law and to the institutes.
CODE OF CANONS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES

Prior to 1990, transfers were governed by the1952 Motu Proprio Postquam Apostolicis Literis
of Pius XII. Canons 182-186 of Postquam Apostolicis treated the matter of transfer in a way that
somewhat simplified the provisions of the then current Latin legislation found in canons 632-636 of
1917 Code of Canon Law.71 That document granted Patriarchs permission to allow transfers between
monasteries sui iuris or transfers within the Patriarchal territory.72
The canon law of the Eastern Catholic Churches, underwent its own process of codification,
resulting in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches promulgated in 1990 by Pope John Paul II.
The drafters of the Eastern Code considered the provisions of the 1983 revision of the Latin Code, but
determined that the provisions of Postquam Apostolicis referring the matter to the Patriarch were more
in keeping with Eastern ecclesiology and should be retained.73
68 John P. Beal, James A. Coriden, and Thomas J. Green, eds., New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law
(New York: Paulist, 2000), 1444.
69 Jordan F. Hite, Sharon Holland, and Daniel J. Ward, A Handbook on Canons 573-746: Religious Institutes,
Secular Institutes, Societies of the Apostolic Life (Collegeville (Minn.): Liturgical Press, 1985), 226.
70 John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici. Canon 684.5 ... permission of the Holy See is required, whose mandates
must be observed. Canon 730 ... the permission of the Apostolic See is required, whose mandates must be
observed. Canon 744.2 ... requires the permission of the Holy See, whose mandates must be observed.
71 Abbass, “Transfer to another Religious Institute in the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches,” 122.
72 Pius XII, Postquam Apostolicis Litteris, 9 February 1952. AAS 44 (1952) 65-152 Canons 182-186.
20
In transfers between sui iuris monasteries, the member is ascribed to the new monastery from
the first day of the transfer. The typikon, the proper law of the monastery, may specify the procedure
for temporarily professed members who transfer. However, it should be kept in mind that not all
eastern monasteries provide for temporary profession, though they may have diverse degrees of
monastic consecration.74 In the East, the President of the confederation of monasteries give the
permission to transfer, rather than the superiors of the monasteries as in the West. The Eastern Code
also retains the negative phraseology in the canons on transfer giving as the motivation that
Stability of monks ... is part of the constant tradition. ... However, as

experience has shown, circumstances and personal or environmental factors
can exist which advise transfer to another monastery instead.75
The drafters rejected the proposal to have permission only from superiors, and not from president of
confederation because this might make transfers too easy.76 For those considering transfer to the
monastery of another Church Sui Iuris, the permission of the hierarchs of both monasteries is needed,
as well as the consent of the Apostolic See.77 If both monasteries are monasteries sui iuris the transfer
is complete from the day the member enters the second monastery, from the day of the transfer, the
rights and obligations in the original monastery cease and the rights and obligations in the receiving
monastery begin. A receiving monastery may require the member to complete a period of probation,
but no new profession is required. Abbass states that the definitive corporation in the new monastery is
delayed, but is automatic after the completion of the probation.78 Canons 488 and 545 provide for the
financial arrangements between the monasteries. These norms had been present in Postquam
Apostolicis following the provisions of the 1917 Code. Although the norms are not found in the Latin
Code, they are retained in the Eastern Code.
In the norms in Canons 544-545 on transfer found between religious institutes or between a
monastery and an institute, the Eastern Code permits transfer of temporarily professed members. In
this case the transfer requires a new novitiate as well as a new profession. The Latin Code had
eliminated this possibility, in part to avoid the dilemma of expiration of vows during novitiate. The
Latin Code opted for a period of probation, rather than a novitiate to eliminate the conflict of being at
the same time a novice and a professed member. Nevertheless, the time of novitiate can be reduced to
six months if the member transfers to the same type of institute.79
Conclusion. This brief study of the notion of Transfer to another Religious Institute has
revealed a number issues. As a matter of substantive law, the transfer of a member to another institute
has been subject to various requirements. Initially it was the prerogative of individual institutes to
74 Victor J. Pospishil, Eastern Catholic Church Law, 2nd ed. (Staten Island, N.Y: Saint Maron Publications,
1996), 310.
75 Nuntia 6 (1978): 53.
77 John Paul II and Canon Law Society of America, Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches: New English
Translation, Latin-English ed. (Washington, D.C: Canon Law Society of America, 2001) Canon 487.
79 John Paul II and Canon Law Society of America, Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches Canon 544-545.
21
establish the requirements for such transfer. Increasingly bishops and councils intervened to establish
criteria for the transfer of members. Three criteria were advanced at various times, and in various
formulations and combinations, namely: the good of the soul, and perhaps also of the institute; the
permission of the superior, and sometimes also of the bishop or the institute; and strictness of the new
institute. Current legislation requires only permission to transfer, though the source of the permission
varies with the type of transfer.
As a matter of legal history, this study has provided an interesting example of the interplay
between the rules of monasteries and religious institutes on the one hand, and the law of bishops and
councils on the other. In addition it shows the metamorphosis of a single text, the twenty-sixth canon
of the Council of Tribur, as it was originally enacted, and as it was transmitted and received over the
centuries. More extensive examination of the manuscripts would provide greater understanding of this
process.
Having examined the history of the institute of transfer, with particular attention to the
legislation of this practice, we turn in the next chapter to examine the lived experience of members of
religious institutes who have transferred since the promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. The
chapter will also examine the experience of institutes who have members who have transferred to or
from other institutes.
22
CHAPTER II – SOCIOLOGY OF TRANSFER
Introduction
Having explored the notion of transfer through history, with a particular focus on legislation
regulating the practice, this chapter turns to an exploration of transfer from a sociological perspective,
that is, it will explore the lived experience of religious institutes from which and to which members
transfer, and the experience of the members themselves. This chapter will make use of both published
materials on the subject and survey data providing statistical information on the phenomenon of
transfer since 1983, as well as personal testimonies from leaders of institutes and from members who
have transferred. The discussion will show the very different experiences of the various parties, i.e. the
original community, the receiving community and the member. A better understanding of this
difference in perspective and experience can help to inform expectations as institutes seek to provide
pastoral care for members who are considering transfer and as members work through their own
process and work with both institutes in discerning and in arranging for the transfer. Furthermore this
discussion will provide a basis for the next chapter which will seek to develop a theology or
spirituality of transfer; these two chapters in turn will provide helpful background in exploring the
juridical conditions and consequences of transfer.
This chapter will begin with a survey of articles written by members of religious institutes who
have transferred and who have written to share their experience. Much of what is in these articles is
articulated and further elaborated by the survey results. However, the survey provides a broader base
of insight into the similarities and differences among those who have experienced transfer.
Next the chapter will turn to the survey itself. This will take up the major part of the chapter,
discussing first the methodology, then the results and finally a discussion of the results.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Nine articles present the experience of members of religious institutes who have transferred to
another institute. The earliest stories are from the early 1980s, and the most recent is from 2005. Eight
of the articles are written by the members themselves and tell their experience as they moved through
the process. Most are told by members who were in the process of transferring when they wrote, two
are from members shortly after they completed the transfer process. Two are from men, the rest are
from women. Each member's story will be briefly recounted, followed by their description of their
process; most give only a few details of their story, concentrating on their personal experience as they
went through the process. From these accounts, it will be possible to begin to appreciate the diversity
among those who transfer, as well as some of the common themes.
Brigetta Slinger entered religious life after two years of college, but at her family's insistence,
she left religious life after only one year, completed college, then entered the same religious institute,
23
despite her family's continued objection. This time she remained, made profession and engaged in her
institute's mission for many years. The Second Vatican Council came and brought new hopes, but also
divergent responses from religious. Slinger found her own responses diverging more and more from
those of other members of her institute; slowly the idea of transfer came to her. She began a journey,
describing herself as a “pilgrim” who was called to leave “friends and the community I loved.” The
difficult decision to transfer was only the beginning of her struggles through the process which
involved “total letting go and complete dependence on God.” Through the process of leave taking and
incorporation into the new institute, she felt profoundly alone, even though the members of her new
local community were supportive. Reflecting on the process after five years, she feels that for her the
process of transfer was a “gift of God” in which her relationship with God deepened and she became a
much more compassionate person. She now lives in a profound inner peace, desirous of embracing all
that God offers.80
Gilmary Beagle grew up in an atmosphere that was strongly influenced by a particular religious
institute. However, when she decided to enter religious life, she entered another institute for reasons
that she does not clearly articulate. After some years, she sought to transfer to the institute that had so
deeply influenced her childhood, feeling this to be somewhat of a spiritual homecoming. As she began
the process, Beagle experienced separation and abandonment, being cut off from everything that was
familiar; she had to begin again to redefine her identity. This abandonment led her to become more
rooted in deep faith, as she sought to “be faithful to the graces God was offering me regardless of the
cost.” She struggled with her vowed commitment to live in her original community “until death”; what
did her desire to transfer mean in this context? “In my present community I was known, I had a niche,
was accepted. In the new one I would be virtually an unknown quantity.” Her close friends in the
original community could not sustain her in this new journey. Nevertheless she experienced a certain
peace that dominated other tumultuous emotions.81 Beagle remains in her receiving community after
more than a quarter century, grateful for her opportunity to transfer.82
In the midst of fear of the unknown, sadness at the loss of the known and
familiar, disappointment of friends, loneliness and confusion, there was
always a deep and permanent sense of peace. I knew that, whatever I might
have to experience as transient emotions, I was going home."83
Marie Beha does not tell the story of her transfer, but instead relates the account of her
experience in helping individuals discern a vocation to transfer to a contemplative institute. While
most of this paper focuses on transfers from one apostolic institute to another, Beha's article provides
some insight into the similarities and differences of transfers to contemplative institutes.
80 Brigetta Slinger, “Transfer Experience: A Gift from God,” Sisters Today 52 (February 1981): 335-336.
81 Gilmary Beagle, “Transfer: A Journey Home,” Review for Religious 40 (August 1981): 601-603.
82 Gilmary Beagle, Unpublished correspondence with the author. September 30, 2009.
83 Ibid.
24
Transferring from one apostolic congregation to another has its own
dynamics, quite distinct from what is involved in making the transition into
contemplative community life.
Beha articulates some dangers in moving to a contemplative institute, primarily any form of escapism
from the original institute; she suggests the best candidates for transfer are those who were well
integrated and lived happily in their original institute. There is an additional concern in moving to a
contemplative institute since there is, among some, the notion that the life is “better,” therefore some
may be less careful in discerning the true motivations for the transfer. For example, it is natural for a
person's prayer life to deepen over the course of religious life; this movement toward contemplative
prayer may not be a call to transfer, but a call to a deeper prayer life in one's current institute. All
transfers involve serious risk. While vows are a commitment to God, they are made in a particular
community; changing communities risks undermining one's vocational stability, and gives rise to
feelings of “lostness” and confusion, as well as a deep questioning that often cannot be articulated, and
for which there are no answers. Transfer involves a deeper disorientation than that of one initially
entering religious life, because the community of origin has claimed more of one's adult commitment.
In addition, the transfer of a member may cause increased vocational questioning of others in the
original institute. Beha notes that the transferring member's sense of loss is tempered by the
understanding that unless one had truly given oneself in the original institute, there would not be the
pain of separation. Sometimes a member discerning transfer will have a sense of imperative, that they
must transfer, even if they have difficulty unraveling all the motivations; this may be a sign of the
movement of the Spirit. The discernment does not end when a person moves into the new institute;
instead this begins a process of living discernment where a member's ability to adjust and begin to
grow and flourish in the new institute gives added clarity to the discernment process.84
Pat Morrison wrote from the midst of an awkward in between moment in which she was living
her transfer process. She had left her original institute, but remained a member, she was living in her
new institute where she was not a member; she is a new creation. All are called to be created anew,
even daily, but a member in transfer lives this more externally, obviously, openly. Morrison sees
transfer as a metaphor, a sacrament of transformation in Christ. In this awkward liminality, she finds
new meaning in the words of God, spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “See I am doing something
new!”85 It is not that the old is bad, but the new is fresh, a new revelation of love; in this new creation,
each is called, loved and sent, and each is most truly oneself when living out of that reality. One can
choose to yield or to resist God's touch; when we surrender to the creative movement of God, there
may be pain, but there is also something of playfulness, leisure, joy and beauty in the re-creation.
Morrison ends her account with a passage from the prophet Habbakuk:
84 Marie Beha, “Transfer to a Contemplative Community,” Review for Religious 40, no. 3 (June 1981): 345-
353.
85 Is 43:19; Rev. 21:5.
25
Be utterly amazed!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not have believed, were it told.86 87
Maureen Chicoine described her experience of transfer using the image of transplanting
seedlings. As a child, she had helped in the garden as her father planted fragile seedlings and saw them
wilt, before finally taking root. She experienced this shock of transplanting as she began her transfer.
The experience “shook my self confidence, tried my faith, and questioned the very roots of my
vocation as a Christian and as a religious.” “Physical and emotional stress of changing so many areas
of my life” at the same time, gave a feeling of death. She found herself experiencing wilting,
mourning, crisis, and some growth. Formerly a confident member of her community, as she entered
the receiving community, she was unable to cope with minor problems, and had difficulty articulating
her needs. In this situation, Chicoine searched for anchors in prayer and in old friends; her
homelessness gave rise to a greater sense of home in God, as well as a compassion for others who
were alone through death or divorce. In the time of deep questioning of herself and her identity she
found helps in 1.) regular contact with a companion sister in her new community who she described as
a “co-reflector”, reflecting with her on her journey and the work of God in her life; 2.) a small,
supportive, stable community, to which she was introduced by leadership and with whom she shared a
group reflection on the experience of loss, failure and disruption; 3.) exploration of convergences
between her old and new communities; and 4.) “contact with the living tradition” of the new institute
by being with members of the new institute in projects, work and community events. Though the
change was “exhausting … messy and painful” she found joy in discovering her deep coherence with
the receiving institute.88 Chicoine has been in her receiving institute over twenty-five years, longer
than in her original institute and feels completely integrated there.89
Carol Klem entered her original institute in 1966; though she had considered entering a
contemplative community at that time, she chose to enter the teaching community she knew through
school. She attempted to transfer to a contemplative community in 1984, but returned to her original
community after just a year. After continued discernment, she began the transfer process again in 1988
and wrote her article during the process of this second transfer experience which she describes as a
"graced yet painful journey." She compares her extended discernment and transfer process using the
metaphor of bodily illness; when something is not working well, one must work to discover what is
wrong and remedy it. One consults professionals who may prescribe medicine, but perhaps only
“radical surgery” will bring a person back to health. Such surgery involves “risk, fear, and much pain”,
the same is true of “spiritual surgery”, the process and healing “takes time.” For Klem, the spiritual
journey was at the heart of her transfer experience. She felt “the gamut of emotions”, including
“feelings of guilt” for leaving aside her initial “sacred commitment” in her first institute. She felt
86 Hab 1:5.
87 Pat Morrison, “"See I Am Doing Something New!" Transfer: The Experience of Re-creation,” Review for
Religious 41, no. 5, Communal Commitment (October 1982): 704-707.
88 Maureen Chicoine, “Hope in Transfer,” Sisters Today 55, no. Aug/Sept (September 1983): 9-13.
89 Maureen Chicoine, Unpublished correspondence with the author. September 30, 2009.
26
loneliness as she moved from one institute to the other which “seemed to last for eternity.”90 Though
she does not allude specifically to it, her article seems to echo a passage from Ecclesiastes:
There is an appointed time for everything,

and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.91
Lawrence Rywalt had worked in vocation and formation work in his original institute before
beginning to discern a call to transfer. The process began as he started to explore “uneasy feelings of
restlessness” in his original community of brothers, and an increased attraction for liturgy and
ordained ministry. He described his journey as a combination of anthropological liminality,
termination, leave-taking and canonical process. He was seeking his identity in his original
community; failing to find it there, he experienced a certain disorientation which led him to further
discernment: “the Lord had stirred the waters and I had to take the plunge.” Rywalt described both the
difficulty and importance of communicating with his community of origin about his choice, both with
members as well as with leadership, a difficulty which is increased by the fact that “in this liminal
state, the individual is extremely vulnerable.” In this situation he wrote of the importance of the
receiving institute providing “frequent, clear” communication, with all decisions in writing. During
this time, the member moves from being a “loved and respected” member of the original institute to
being a “liked and suspected” member, to being “an unknown neophyte” in the new institute, a process
which gives rise to diverse strong feelings and disorientation: “anger, despair, fear, chaos, denial,
bewilderment, malaise” as the member lets go of “commitments and well woven masks.... Who am I?
Where am I? What am I doing here?” Revitalization of the member takes time, the canonical process
gives three years, but the individual make need more or less time; it is a very individual process “like
mourning our own death.” “We cannot love deeply without being vulnerable to loss.” During this
liminal time, Rywalt describes feel that he was: “pushed and pulled beyond my limits and want to cry
out: Enough!” He found the biblical image of walking on water from the fourteenth chapter of
Matthew's gospel92 to be sustaining for him as he moved through the process.93
Corey Van Kuren tells the story of his reentry into the Franciscans. He had first entered the
community in 1973 and left in 1981, before final vows. He reentered briefly and left again before
being ordained a diocesan priest in 1986. As he wrote the article, he was again in the process of
reentry in 1992. Van Kuren identified with the experience of Rywalt in the above article, adding that
90 Carol Klem, “The Anatomy of a Transfer,” Review for Religious 48, no. 4 (August 1989): 548-552.
91 Ecc 3:1-4.
92 Matt 14: 22-33.
93 Lawrence Rywalt, “Walking on Water: Reflections of a Transfer,” Review for Religious 50, no. 5 (October
1991): 731-737.
27
his own experience was not of many calls, or sequentially taking up and leaving off of a vocation.
Instead he experienced the various peregrinations as integral parts of an unfolding vocational journey.
For each person, vocational discernment has high moments of decision and commitment, however, for
Van Kuren vocation is as much about the ongoing story as it is about those high moments.94 His return
to the Franciscans was short lived, he is currently a diocesan priest serving as chaplain to university
students.95
Jeannine Gramick tells that “pain and happiness marked [her transfer] journey” which was also
marked by “struggles with the Vatican.” Gramick ministers with gays and lesbians and describes her
transfer story in that context. The gay or lesbian with whom she works discover their identity and sees
that at odds with those around them. Subsequently, they discover others like themselves, but find that
they must leave their family and friends to “come home” to those with whom they share a deeper
identity. Gramick's original institute supported her for 27 years in her ministry with gays and lesbians,
but many in the institute were troubled when her stance raised concerns with Vatican officials. In
2000, she was called to Rome and threatened with “serious consequences” if she did not comply with
“every aspect of the directives forwarded to her superiors by the Vatican.” Jeannine believes that her
transfer was more difficult for her original institute than for her. “While I had a welcoming community
to embrace me, many [in her former institute] had no corresponding joy to assuage their bereft
feelings.”96 Gramick remains happy with her decision to transfer and life in her receiving institute.97
These articles provide a glimpse into the variety of stories of members who transfer, or in one
case reenter a religious institute, and into some of the common emotional and spiritual experiences
that they undergo as they discern and move through the process of transferring to another religious
institute. The survey discussed below attempts on the one hand to quantify the phenomenon of
transfer, and on the other to explore the range of experiences of those religious who have transferred to
another religious institute.
METHODOLOGY
Research Question
The survey seeks to explore four primary aspects of transfer: first, factual information regarding
the phenomenon, second, the reasons for transfer, third, the process of transfer and finally the
experience of transfer.
The research first sought to obtain factual information regarding transfer. There is currently no
repository of information regarding the phenomenon. Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, all
members who wished to transfer were required to request permission from the Holy See.98 The
Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes was charged with the responsibility of responding to
94 Corey S. Van Kuren, “I Leap Back over the Wall,” Review for Religious 51, no. 3 (June 1992): 337-340.
95 Corey S. Van Kuren, “Interview with the author,” Phone Call, November 2, 2009
96 Patricia Lefevere, “Sister Finds Joy Belonging with Transfer,” National Catholic Reporter, February 25,
2005, 41(17) edition.
97 Jeannine Gramick, “Unpublished Letter to Author,” September 28, 2009.
28
these requests and would have information on the numbers involved worldwide. However, under the
1983 Code of Canon Law, transfers between religious institutes require the permission of the supreme
moderators of each institute, and do not require permission of the Holy See.99 For this reason, there is
no centralized repository of information on the numbers of transfers since the promulgation of the new
Code. Quinquennial reports which religious institutes send to Rome would generally note any
members in the process of transfer in or out of the institute, however, this information is not
systematically gathered or available, nor would it be complete if available.100
For this reason, it was important to gather some basic factual information on the phenomenon to
ascertain the numbers of members who have transferred and to attempt to determine whether the
number of transfers is increasing or decreasing. It is also helpful to know something about the age of
members who transfer, their time in the former community and the length of the transfer process. In
addition, information was sought to help determine whether there were certain institutes that primarily
lost their members to transfer, and others who primarily received members in transfer. Information
was sought about the size, numbers of new members and numbers of transfers in these institutes.
Unfortunately it was impossible to find consistent information about members who attempted to
transfer or seriously considered it, but either returned to their former community or left religious life
before completing the transfer. This is because this information was not consistently tracked by
institutes.
The second area of inquiry was the reasons for transfer. Much of the literature identifies the
desire to change spirituality or to change ministry as the primary reasons for transfer. The survey
sought to test this assumption by asking members who had transferred to rate five different reasons for
transfer, and gave respondents the opportunity to provide additional reasons.
The third area of inquiry sought to identify the elements involved in the transfer process, and to
gather members' comments on the value of various elements of that process. It was hoped that by
asking both closed and open-ended questions on this issue the respondents would begin reflecting on
their experience and this would better prepare them to respond to the final questions on experience of
the transfer.
The final area of inquiry sought to elicit information about the experience of the members as
well as of the former and receiving institutes with the process of transfer. There was only one question
for the institutes, both original and receiving institutes were asked to describe their experience with
members who had transferred in or out. Some institutes had members who had transferred both to and
from them; however, the majority have members transferring primarily in one direction, either in or
out. In this section, the respondents were asked two questions, one which sought to evoke the
members' memory of the experience of transfer, the second asked for a more mature reflection, taking
into account not only the original transfer experience, but the experience of having lived in the
receiving institute, sometimes for several decades.
(Roma: Tipografia poliglotta Vaticana, 1917). Canon 632. Religiosus nequit ad aliam religionem, etiam
strictiorem, vel e monasterio sui iuris ad aliud transire sine auctoritate Apostolicae Sedis
99 John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, in Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Translation (Washington (D.C.):
CLSA, 1983). Canon 684 § 1. Sodalis a votis perpetuis nequit a proprio ad aliud institutum religiosum
transire, nisi ex concessione supremi Moderatoris utriusque instituti et de consensu sui cuiusque consilii.
100Sharon Holland, “Interview with the author at the Congregation for Institutes for Consecrated Life and
Societies of Apostolic Life in Rome, Italy,” Notes, April 8, 2009.
29
Survey Design and Sample
The survey was designed as an online instrument for which respondents could access and
submit responses through the Internet. The initial website provided introductory information and links
to two separate surveys, the first for members who had transferred and the second for institutes from
which or to which members had transferred. Text of both surveys may be found in Appendix I below.
The survey was tested with several members of the target group and adjusted for clarity and ease of
use. The survey was powered by Google Docs, and allowed for instant access to results and full ability
to read and analyze results and perform statistical analyses.101
The online nature of the survey could skew the results toward respondents who were more
computer literate. However, the oldest respondent reported her age as 80, and several respondents
reported their age in the 70s. One institute leader wrote to say that all members who had transferred
were responding, with the exception of two elderly members who had transferred many years ago, and
whose first language was not English.
The introductory information for the survey specifically requested information from members
and from leadership about those who had transferred under the 1983 Code of Canon Law. However,
several members who had transferred before this time responded to the survey. This information was
analyzed to determine the similarities or differences that could be seen between these earlier transfers,
now thirty years or more after their transfer experience.
Announcement of the online survey was sent through the internal email lists of the leadership
conferences of religious in the United States, and through the publications of several national
associations serving religious institutes. Those organizations which publicized the surveys in this way
were: The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, The Conference of Major Superiors of
Women Religious, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, The Religious Formation Conference
and the National Religious Vocation Conference. These organizations combined reach nearly all
religious institutes with major superiors or formation houses in the United States. The only major
group that did not receive any of these communications are the communities of contemplative women.
Whereas the contemplative men are part of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the
contemplative women are not part of either of the leadership conferences of women. A few responses
were received from contemplative women who may have had the information forwarded to them, or
who may participate in the national formation or vocation conferences.
RESULTS
The survey results will be presented here, first for the members' questionnaire, and then for the
communities' questionnaire.
101“Help, Forms: Viewing Form Responses,” Google Docs: Help File,

http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139706.
30
Members
Although the number of members who have transferred is not known, an estimate was made
based on the experience of several religious institutes, and with the help of Sr. Anne Louise Nadeau,
SNDdN who has worked with members who were transferring at a national workshop for over twenty
years, which covers nearly the entire period covered by the 1983 Code of Canon Law.102 According to
that estimate, approximately 600 women have transferred since 1983, or just under one percent of
women religious. This estimate was verified by information collected from the communities'
questionnaire. Similar information on men who have transferred was not available, however, it is
generally believed that transfer is less common among men. The research concentrated on transfers to
and from active institutes, however, some information was also received from contemplative institutes.
The total number of individual respondents was 87, 84 women and 3 men. Based on the
estimated population of women who have transferred, the response rate for women was 14%. This rate
allows for a high degree of confidence in extrapolating results to the wider population.
Factual Information
The respondents were asked the years of birth, entrance into novitiate, beginning of the transfer
process and transfer of vows. The data is presented on Table 1 below. It indicates that members who
were born in the 1940s and entered religious life in the 1960s represent one half of all respondents
who have transferred. These numbers are consistent with the overall numbers of religious women
entering during these decades, and remain in the communities to the present day. However, the
number of members who transfer has remained steady over the past three decades. Of those reporting
approximately one third transferred in the 1980s, approximately one third in the 1990s and
approximately one third in the first decade of the 2000s. This study shows the number of members
transferring holding steady.
For all those reporting, the average age at entrance into novitiate was 21.6 years, for those who
transferred under the 1917 Code of Canon Law the average age at entrance into novitiate was 18.1
years, with a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 20 years. For those transferring under the 1983
Code of Canon Law the average age at entrance into novitiate was 22.5 years, with a minimum of 16
years of age and a maximum of 44 years of age. All this information seems consistent with the broader
population of those entering religious life with those entering under the 1983 Code being generally
older, and having more diversity in their ages.103
102Anne-Louise Nadeau, “Interview with the author,” Phone Call, July 21, 2009.
103For those transferring under the 1917 Code, the standard deviation for age at entrance into novitiate was just
1.1 years, while for those transferring under the 1983 Code, the standard deviations for age of entrance into
novitiate was 5.5 years.
31
Table 1 Members who have transferred
45
40
Numbers in each decade
35
30
Birth
25
Entrance
20 Transfer
15 Vows
10
5
0
1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Decade
Next the length of time in the original institute, from entrance into novitiate until beginning of
the transfer process, was analyzed. For all those reporting, the average time spent in the original
institute was 22.6 years, for those transferring under the 1917 Code the average time spent in the
original institute was 15.3 years and for those transferring under the 1983 Code the average time spent
in the original institute was 24.3 years. Though the average length of time in the original community
was longer under the 1983 Code, it showed only slightly more diversity than the earlier group.104 The
minimum time reported in the original institute was 4 years, and the maximum time reported was 46
years. Over the years since the 1983 Code, there has been no significant trend toward shortening or
lengthening the time spent in the original institute.105 There was a trend for lengthening of the time in
the original institute under the 1917 Code. However, this is probably due to the fact that members
stayed in the original institute until the 1983 Code was promulgated so that they would be able to take
advantage of its more favorable provisions which allowed for permissions to be obtained from the
supreme moderators of the two institute rather than requiring permission of the Holy See as was the
case under the 1917 Code. Most respondents report preferring not to make a new novitiate, preferring
the probation period required under the 1983 Code.
The length of time in the transfer process for all those reporting was 3.3 years. Again, there was
a significant difference between those transferring under the 1917 Code and those transferring under
the 1983 Code. Under the 1917 Code, members were required to make a new novitiate in the receiving
institute106 and then could be admitted to perpetual profession; the average length of time between start
104For those transferring under the 1983 Code, the standard deviations for age of novitiate was 5.5 years, and
the standard deviation for years in the first institute was 8.8 years. For those transferring under the 1917
Code, the standard deviation for age at entrance into novitiate was just 1.1 years, and the standard deviation
for years in the first institute was 7.2.
105Pearson Correlation between the year and the length of time in the original institute was -0.03.
106Pii X pontificis maximi iussu digestus Benedicti papae XV auctoritate promulgatus, Codex Iuris Canonici.
Canon 633. § 1. Transiens ad aliam religionem novitiatum peragere debet; quo durante, manentibus votis,
iura et obligationes particulares, quas in religione derelicta habuit, suspensa manent, et ipse obligatione
32
of the transfer process and transfer of vows was two years, with the minimum time reported as one
year and the maximum of seven years. This would be consistent with the requirement of novitiate
which was two years in most institutes. Under the 1983 Code, the law requires a minimum of three
years of probation;107 the average length reported for the transfer process was 3.6 years, with a
minimum of one and a maximum of seven years. There is no significant trend for shortening or
lengthening the process shown in the data. However, there is a slight inverse correlation between the
age of the member who is transferring and the length of the transfer process; members who transfer at
a younger age show a slight tendency to have a longer process than those who transfer at an older
age.108 The same correlation exists between time in original institute and length of the transfer process;
members who were in the original institute for a shorter period tended to have a slightly longer transfer
process.109
Table 2 Comparison of Data Under Two Codes
30
25
20
1917 Code
15 1983 Code
10
0
Age at Entrance Years in first Institute Length of Transfer Process
Another piece of data that may be derived from the information provided is the communities to
which members transferred. Only a few respondents reported the names of the institutes from which
they transferred, but two thirds reported the institutes to which they transferred. Among the women,
there were three religious families that received 87% of the respondents. These families were first,
various Franciscan institutes, who received 34% of those responding. Of this group nearly half
reported that they were transferring from another Franciscan institute. The second receiving family
tenetur Superioribus novae religionis et ipsi novitiorum Magistro parendi etiam ratione voti obedientiae.
107John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici. Canon 684 § 2. Sodalis, post peractam probationem quae ad tres saltem
annos protrahenda est, ad professionem perpetuam in novo instituto admitti potest. Si autem sodalis hanc
professionem emittere renuat vel ad eam emittendam a competentibus Superioribus non admittatur, ad
pristinum institutum redeat, nisi indultum saecularizationis obtinuerit. .
108Pearson Correlation between the age of the member at the time of transfer and the length of the process was
-0.25.
109Pearson Correlation between the age of the member at the time of transfer and the length of the process was
-0.27.
33
was the various institutes of the Sisters of St. Joseph who received 28% of those responding and the
third family was the Sisters of Mercy who received 25% of those responding. See Table 3 below.
Table 3 Women's Institutes Receiving Members in Transfer
Other 13%
RSM 25%
Franciscan 34%
CSJ 28%
Finally, the nomenclature for the two institutes was examined. Almost all respondents used the
term “receiving community” for the institute to which they transferred; only a few used the term
“transfer community”. While not all respondents referred to the institute from which they transferred,
a greater variety of terms was seen in these references. There was a slight preference for the term
“former community” (44%), followed by “original community” / “community of origin” (30%), only
22% used the term “parent community” and just 1% used the term “sending community.” This variety
of terminology seems to reflect an ambivalence of respondents about their ongoing relationship to a
community where they spent nearly half their lives before transfer. Some of the literature introduces
other terms, some simply using the Latin: a quo and ad quem. Other terms include “releasing
institute”.110 This paper will use the term “original community” / “community of origin” ; while this is
not the first choice of respondents, it pairs better with “receiving community”. Only two respondents
reported having transferred more than once, so that for most, original institute / receiving institute will
will adequately designate the two institutes.
Reasons for Transfer

Respondents were asked to respond to a series of questions regarding their reason for transfer.
First they were given five categories of reasons for transfer: Spirituality, Ministry, Lifestyle,
Community and Leadership, and asked to rank each from one to five, indicating its importance in their
decision to transfer. Table 3 below shows the results from that inquiry. Most members rated all five
reasons as very important, though Ministry and Leadership were somewhat less important. A few
respondents rated all five categories as very important, or all as somewhat important. This data is
contrary to the understanding of reasons for transfer found in some of the canonical writings on the
110Joseph G. Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community” (Thesis, Catholic University of
America, 1949).
34
topic. Many of these see change of ministry as one of the primary reasons, and change in spirituality.
While spirituality is often listed as very important, the narratives which will be discussed later often
state that the respondent found that the spirituality of the receiving institute, though different, was in
continuity with the spirituality of the original institute. While spirituality was seen as very important in
the decision to transfer, it was not so much a change in spirituality as it was the opportunity to
continue to grow in one's own spirituality which the new institute afforded.
Table 4 Reasons for Transfer
90%
80%
70%
60% Spirituality
Ministry
50%
Lifestyle
40% Community
30% Leadership
20%
10%
0%
Important Unimportant
It is significant that respondents indicated that all five reasons were very important. This
indicates that the decision to transfer is not based on a dissonance in only one area or the other, e.g.
spirituality, or ministry. Instead it indicates that respondents found a broad based dissonance in their
experience of life in the original institute. Many indicated in the narrative that they had been very
active and engaged members of the original institute, and their personal and spiritual lives had been
deeply shaped by their experience there. Nevertheless they began to experience a growing disconnect
between their own deepest calling and the life that they were living. In the narratives, the respondents
described the time it took them to come to an understanding of their continuing commitment to living
religious life, while at the same time experiencing a broad based dissonance with their life in the
community of origin.
In addition to indicating the importance of listed reasons, respondents were given the
opportunity to indicate additional reasons of their own. 95% of respondents wrote in additional
reasons. Some of these responses referred to factors or personal circumstances particular to a certain
individual, e.g. a family situation, health, location. However a majority of the reasons volunteered by
respondents fell in one of two categories. 57% of all respondents wrote that they were seeking a
community that had adopted a renewed approach to living religious life or living the vows, according
to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Respondents had various ways of expressing the issues
that they found to be particularly important to their decision to transfer. Respondents mentioned
35
interpretation of the vows, theology of religious life, the emphasis on external structures over values,
etc.
The second additional category of reasons for transfer volunteered by respondents was the
notion of dying, mentioned by 15% of respondents. Some stated that their original institute was dying,
and that if they wanted to continue to live, they felt they must seek to live out their religious life in
another institute. Others stated that they felt that they were themselves dying, and the transfer was
necessary to allow them to continue to live and grow personally and spiritually.
Process of Transfer
Respondents were asked to indicate which of the items listed were part of their transfer process.
The items marked by most respondents included Application, Interviews, Ritual and a Companion or
Director of the Transfer Process. About one quarter (28%) reported participating in classes with others
in formation and about one quarter also reported that they participated in formal classes at a college
and/or university, or some preparation for ministry. Respondents were given an opportunity to indicate
other elements of their process. The elements most frequently listed were living in a community of the
receiving institute, meeting with members of the receiving institute to read, reflect and study the
constitutions, history and charism of the receiving institute, and participation in a national workshop
for members who are transferring to another religious institute.111
Table 5 Elements of Transfer Process
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Interviews Formal Education Director Other
Application Ritual Formation Classes Ministry Education
Respondents were then asked to describe the process of transfer and to indicate those things
which they found most helpful or least helpful. In these narratives, respondents generally reported a
high level of satisfaction with the transfer process as a whole, while critiquing those elements that
were more or less useful to them. The one area that many members (39%) reported as very helpful was
the opportunity to meet members of the receiving community and have meaningful contact with them.
These experiences included living in houses of the institute, working in a sponsored ministry,
111A few mentioned the Divergent Paths workshop, presented annually for members in transfer. Annual
attendance at the workshop is usually between 20 and 30 members.
36
performing some type of service for the institute, visiting local communities or ministries of the
institute and participating in community events. Several mentioned that living or working at the
mother-house, or at a retirement facility of the institute afforded the member an important opportunity
to hear the stories and absorb the culture of the institute. One of the difficulties reported by members
who have transferred is the lack of a common history, the lack of a network of friends and a support
system in the new institute. Those who found a way to have ongoing regular contact with members of
the institute found themselves building this common history more readily and naturally than those who
lacked this opportunity. This was particularly helpful if it was an opportunity for regular contact that
was a natural part of their life or ministry, rather than a series of tasks to be performed or meetings to
be scheduled in addition to obligations of full-time ministry and life in a local community.
A second opportunity that respondents reported to be helpful was the opportunity to meet with
other religious who were transferring or who had transferred (26%). Some respondents reported
frequent contact with other members in transfer within their own receiving institute. Others reported
attending a workshop for religious in transfer. While most respondents reported this as being helpful, a
few (5%) mentioned that they had the opportunity for such experiences, but they reported that the
experience was unhelpful, or in one case, “a waste of time”. Since these are narrative responses, not
simply check off responses, they are of greater significance. While some general conclusions may be
drawn about what is helpful for most members in transfer, each person lived a very individual process,
and needs will vary according to the nature of the person, and the situation of the original institute and
of the receiving institute.
Respondents also reported needing more time for prayer and reflection and needing time to
“process” their experiences of leaving one institute and entering into another institute (20%). They
also indicated the importance of spiritual direction, counseling and/or close friends to walk with them
through the process of integration into the new institute. In a later question in which respondents were
asked for their overall reflection on the process and possible advice for someone considering transfer,
these themes were reiterated. The most common advice given was: “pray, trust and follow your heart.”
Respondents reported that the process of transfer required them to actively engage in discernment and
of fulfilling the requirements to apply for transfer, then doing the work of integration into the new
institute. Some also reported undergoing the process on a deep spiritual level. A published article by a
member in the transfer process was entitled See I Am Doing Something New!112 referring to the passage
from Isaiah 43 where God takes the initiative to make of Israel a new creation. This process of
spiritual integration takes time. Many respondents reported seeing the spiritual journey as perhaps the
most important part of the transfer process, which they lived at the same time that they were going
through a major transition of life and ministry in the external part of the transfer process.
Respondents were generally satisfied with elements of the process, but they also named some
obstacles to their integration, which caused them suffering as they moved into the new institute.
Nearly all wrote of the difficulty of leaving their original institute. As seen above, the average member
entered religious life in their early twenties, at the threshold of adult life, and spent over twenty years
112Morrison, “"See I Am Doing Something New!" Transfer: The Experience of Re-creation.”
37
in their original institute. Thus they had spent about half their life in the institute, and all of their adult
life there; all their ministry experience, socialization and spiritual formation as an adult had taken
place in the original institute. Nearly all respondents reported that leaving the original institute was a
source of pain; they had to grieve the loss of their former life, with its support and its security, before
they had the opportunity to establish themselves in the new institute, and often before they even knew
whether they would ever really be accepted or feel a sense of belonging to the new institute.
Nevertheless, they reported their commitment to live religious life, and to life it in another institute,
requiring a level of trust in God, and trust in their own ability to seek out and follow God's call in their
lives. Leaving their original institute was a transition of seismic proportions, and some decades after
their transfer, respondents still used vivid language in describing it, using the terms: “dying” (17%),
“divorce” (15%), “divorce and remarriage” (4%), “deep darkness” (7%).
The pain of grieving and transition was sometimes accentuated by two additional obstacles. The
first obstacle reported by 30% of respondents was resistance and delay on the part of the original
institute. Some reported that their institutes delayed or refused to give permission to transfer, others
allowed initial inquiry, then refused the member further contact with the new institute. Some reported
that their original institute leadership refused to respond to correspondence and requests for
information. Respondents reported that this was true, even though third parties were engaged to
intercede, e.g. religious leadership, bishops or canon lawyers. Some respondents reported that the
members of the original institute couldn't understand or support them in their choice; particularly
painful was the loss of long standing friends of one's own age who felt betrayed by the member's
choice to transfer. On the other hand, those respondents who reported that their original institute, while
saddened at their departure, nevertheless supported them (9%), found that this was an important aid to
them as they moved through the process and enhanced their freedom in discerning the transfer.
Another obstacle named by respondents was raised by the receiving institute, and while
problematic was not described as painfully as the above. Some respondents (21%) said that the
leadership or the membership of the receiving institute treated them “like a novice”, without
acknowledging their decades of experience in religious life. This came in the form of basic
instructions on the vows, classes with those in initial formation, or the perception that the member was
not fully accepted into the local community. Some also reported that years after they had completed
the transfer process and made perpetual profession in the new institute, they were still referred to as
“the transfer.” Several reported the moment when they finally overcame this obstacle, reporting with
satisfaction their appointment to a committee or a particular role in the community, or that members
had finally come to view them as simply “a member” rather than a “transfer-member”. One respondent
pointed out that “transfer” is a verb – it is something that one does, it is not a noun, it is not something
that one is for the rest of one's life.
In the course of their narratives of describing the transfer process, some made suggestions for
improvements to the process for the probationary period. Because the situation of each member who
transfers is different, a needs assessment would be helpful in developing a process that would be most
helpful to the member in integrating into the new institute. This should take account of the fact that the
38
members are generally in full time ministry during the transfer process and would take into account
that those who come for transfer have varying needs and experiences when they come to the receiving
institute. In addition, a leader of one institute suggested some information be given to the general
membership of the receiving institute to help them understand the process of transfer and the particular
situation of the member in the transfer process.
Experience of Transfer
The final area explored in the questionnaire was the experience of the members on a personal
and spiritual level. The questions were designed to elicit memories of the dynamic of transfer from one
institute to another, as well as to explore the members' reflection on that dynamic decades after it
occurred. Members responded in good numbers, and were willing to share their experience with some
depth and clarity and also at some length; the average survey was over 300 words. Some of the
respondents who had transferred were counselors, spiritual directors, theologians, psychologists and
social workers, or formation directors or superiors in their original institute who brought their
ministerial expertise to their reflections, providing a very rich source of material. There are several
published essays by members who have transferred113 that provide insight into the experience of
transfer through reflections that are more complete and polished. Though their comments are similar to
those found in the questionnaire, the questionnaire draws from a broader base, is more spontaneous
and because of its anonymity, allows respondent to express the full range of experience more freely.
The respondents described the seismic shift involved in leaving the institute where they had
lived their entire adult life. Terms used for this included “dying” and “divorce” as described above.
However, members also noted that if they had stayed, they would have died interiorly, so dissonant
had the experience become for them. Many identified the primary journey of transfer to be a spiritual
journey; almost every respondent wrote of a profound spiritual deepening as they left behind all they
had known in adult life, not knowing if they would be accepted in the receiving institute, not knowing
if life there could offer more than the institute they left behind. Many years later, their descriptions are
vivid and passionate as they share the 'deep story' of their journey. The narratives describe the
difficulty of coming to a decision to transfer, and the time it took for respondents to come to realize
that they were still committed to religious life, but that they could no longer live it in their original
religious institute. This involved a painful struggle as they came to understand the distinction between
the call to vowed religious life and the call to live that life within the context of a particular religious
institute. Often respondents reported that contact with other members who had transferred helped them
to clarify this issue. Even if the original and receiving institutes in each case were different, there
appeared to be a similarity in the dynamic of transfer itself; respondents reported that sharing of that
experience helped them to clarify their own direction and to live their choices.
113Beagle, “Transfer: A Journey Home”; Beha, “Transfer to a Contemplative Community”; Klem, “The
Anatomy of a Transfer”; Morrison, “"See I Am Doing Something New!" Transfer: The Experience of Re-
creation”; Rywalt, “Walking on Water: Reflections of a Transfer”; Anne Steinacker, “Transfer: A "Second
Journey" Experience,” Review for Religious 45, no. 6 (December 1986): 914-921.
39
Two respondents reported having transferred twice, once unsuccessfully, then after a few years
in the second institute, they attempted transfer to a third institute. Both describe the experience in the
most extreme language: “devastating,” “wrenching,” “hellish,” “spiritual abandonment,”
“disorientation.” However, both describe their experience in the third institute very positively and after
many years report that they are active and engaged members of their current institutes and that their
experience, though painful, has forever marked their spirituality and identity.
Respondents overwhelmingly report that they are happy with their receiving institute, many
report that the experience has led them to a much deeper spirituality and has led to personal growth
that might not have been possible otherwise. The leaders of institutes who responded to the
community questionnaire also report that the members that have come are active and engage in the
new institute and that they are generally well integrated into the life and mission of the institute. Only
two of the eighty-seven respondents questioned their choice to transfer. One transferred many years
ago and questions whether return to the original institute might be possible; the other is a more recent
transfer who does not yet feel integrated and wonders whether the transfer was worth it, given all the
personal suffering it involved. Other than these two, all responses are positive, even enthusiastic, about
their institute and about their decision to transfer.
Most respondents refer to the consonance between their own life and spirituality and that of
their receiving institute. They refer to “a good fit,” “a good match,” “a sense of belonging,” and “a
sense of being at home” in the receiving institute. Some report that they felt an almost immediate
sense of belonging in their new institute, a feeling that surprised them, given the dissonance they had
experienced in their former institute. Fewer respondents reported that it took time to develop the sense
of belonging in the new institute, but that in time it had become very deep and real. Some reported an
awkwardness as they felt themselves to be on the one hand “veteran religious” and on the other hand,
they did not know the stories, culture and particular terminology of their receiving institute. In spite of
this awkwardness, many reported a deep sense of belonging that transcended these factors and gave
them the courage to continue on the journey and find a way to bring their story into the mix.
Several reported that they found themselves integrating the spiritualities of the original institute
and the receiving institute into a personal synthesis. As they moved into the new spirituality, they did
not abandon their spiritual tradition acquired in the first institute. Instead, they reported that many
parts of their original spirituality flowed into their new spirituality; the new spirituality was an
expression of latent elements of their spiritual past that brought a fresh vitality and a renewed
expression to the members' prayer life. Many respondents expressed gratitude for the rich spiritual
tradition that they had lived in their original institute and an overflowing gratitude for the opportunity
that transfer gave them to allow that spirituality to blossom into a full vitality that they experienced as
more truly their own, a better fit than that of the original institute.
Only a few respondents mentioned their ongoing relationship with the original institute. Some
continued to communicate with members of the original institute and found this to be a great support;
for others, contacts were only limited and strained, and respondents expressed regret that they were
unable to maintain meaningful contacts.
40
Respondents were asked for their reflections after years of life in the receiving institute, and
particularly what they might say to another person who might be considering transfer. These
reflections covered much of what has already been said: it is painful, but it is worth it if it is right for
the person; one must be willing to forfeit all that is familiar and comfortable and move out into the
unknown and the insecure; seek wise counsel and spiritual direction; give yourself the time you need,
the journey has its own rhythm; though they were afraid to go, they knew they could not stay. In
addition, the final recommendation of most can be summed up as follows: “Pray, trust and follow your
heart.” God calls to a deep trust, in the darkness and pain of the journey, amid misunderstanding, even
one's own, but God opens up entire new vistas and dimensions for those who abandon everything to
follow the divine call.
All those who responded to the survey were currently settled, or settling into their receiving
institute. Not present are those who may have attempted to transfer but then either returned to their
original institute or left religious life. There were two respondents, mentioned above, who went on to,
and were received into a third institute. But of those who responded, in good numbers, the experience
was profoundly significant and overwhelmingly positive.
Community Survey
The questionnaire directed to religious institutes received a total of 38 responses. Only 23 of the
respondents provided complete information to the questions regarding numbers in the institute,
numbers of members who had transferred and numbers of final professions. The other 15 responses
were analyzed for their narratives, but were not included in the statistical information.
Statistical Information
Only womens religious institutes responded, of these, the majority described themselves as
apostolic, with the remainder describing themselves as evangelical, monastic or contemplative. A few
institutes marked multiple responses; see Table 6 below.
Table 6 Types of Institutes Responding
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Apostolic Contemplative Monastic Evangelical
41
The twenty three institutes who provided complete demographic information had a combined
6,841 members, representing 11.5% of the 59,601 women religious in the United States.114 The
institutes were asked how many members had transferred into and out of their institutes. A total of 125
members were reported transferring into these institutes, but only 25 members were reported as
transferring out of these institutes. It is clear that those institutes who received members were much
more likely to respond to the survey; the responses indicate that they were five times as likely to
respond. Some institutes reported members transferring in and out, however, most of those reporting
had a majority either transferring in, with only a few transferring out, or a majority transferring out,
with only a few transferring in. Only three institutes, with a total of eight members transferring,
reported equal numbers in and out. The narrative responses for these various groups are similar.
However, the institutes who had received more members in transfer tended to be more positive about
the experience and tended to be more extensive in their responses than those who have fewer members
transfer, or have members transfer out more than in.
Respondents were asked the number of members who had transferred in and the number of final
professions since 1983. Several institutes reported that as high as 30% or in one case nearly 50% of
their final professions were members who had transferred in. The twenty three responding institutes
combined reported 125 transfers out of 506 final professions, meaning that 25% of their final
professions were members who had transferred vows. The members who had transferred represented
1.8% of the total membership of these institutes; while the members who have made final profession
after 1983 represent 7.4% of the total membership of these institutes.
Respondents were not asked to give information on members who had transferred but had
subsequently left the institute. Reasons for this include the lack of clear records in those institutes that
were initially examined, and the difficulty of obtaining equivalent statistics from the various institutes.
However, five institutes provided this information in their narratives. Two institutes who reported
receiving a total of sixty members transferring in reported only four departures among that group of
members who had transferred. However, the other three institutes reported receiving only fourteen
transfers among them, and additionally reported that nine of these members left after five or ten years.
From this limited data, it appears that those institutes who receive more members in transfer are
significantly more successful in retaining those members.
Narrative Responses
Narrative responses concentrated on four areas: 1) overall experience of the community with
members who had transferred; 2) perception of the members who had transferred; 3) description of the
process; and 4) discussion of the level of integration of members who had transferred.
Those who commented on the communities' experiences of the members who had transferred
were positive (61%), noting that the members were a gift to the receiving institute (37%) and noting
the various roles that had been played by these members.
114Annuario Pontificio Per L'anno (Città del Vaticano: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 2009).
42
Some respondents also noted that the members themselves were active, engaged and
participative members of the new institute (32%). This description of the members as active and
engaged members parallels the self-description of many members as they described their experience in
their original institute.
A majority of respondents (63%) discussed the process of transfer; one third of respondents
focused exclusively on this with almost no evaluative comments on the process. They wrote of the
need to develop a process that honored the experience of the member in living religious life, and the
need to provide opportunities for gaining an experiential knowledge of the charism, life and mission of
the receiving institute. Some mentioned the need for an individualized process (12%), others described
the importance of the support of the original institute in the process (15%). Receiving institutes
worked to include the original institute in the rituals of acceptance into the transfer process and the
final celebration of transfer of vows. While they recognized the sadness of the former community, they
appreciated their presence in support of their member. Some noted the difficulties presented when
original institutes did not provide this support.
Nearly all the respondents (87%) wrote about the need of the transferring member for
“integration,” “belonging,” “fit” or “becoming a part” of the receiving institute. They discussed efforts
made, the difficulties in reaching integration and generally spoke of the eventual success of this
process. For most, this seemed to be the criterion of success of the transfer process.
Those institutes who had more members who had transferred out (13%) responded only briefly,
restricting their comments to the process of obtaining permission for transfer.
DISCUSSION
Demographics
From the above information, it is clear that although there is significant variety in the
experience of transfer, there is also a marked convergence. Members who discern a call to transfer are
a small minority (1.5%) of women religious. They come from various institutes, usually as individuals,
and discern a call to another religious institute. Despite the variety, it is possible to formulate a 'profile'
of a member who transfers, from which there is nevertheless significant variation. The member likely
entered religious life in her early twenties and spent nearly twenty five years in her original institute. It
is likely she has been an active and engaged member of her original institute, but that she has come to
experience increasing dissonance with the institute which makes her perceive ongoing life in that
institute difficult, or even impossible. She generally takes time in discerning the call, and partially
because of her high level of engagement in the original institute and its ministry finds departure to be
deeply painful; at the same time she experiences a sense of call or invitation to new, deeper, fuller life
in another religious institute.
In an article written in the 1980s, Hill noted that the call to the renewal of religious life issued
by the Second Vatican Council caused institutes and their members to undertake the significant task of
43
updating their lifestyles. As institutes and their members moved through this process, there were often
differences of opinion on how that process should unfold. This divergence gave rise to the dissonance
that was the impetus for some members to seek to transfer to another religious institute. At the time
Hill stated that he did not believe that members transferred in greater numbers either way – from
traditional to renewed institutes or from renewed institutes to traditional institutes.115 The survey data
examined here seems to indicate that there is in fact a differential. It is more likely that members
transfer from traditional institutes to renewed institutes. This trend does not seem to have changed
over the period of years examined. The same finding was reported in a survey of members transferring
in the 1970s.116 In addition, three families of institutes receive nearly ninety percent of all members
who transfer, namely the Franciscans, the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Sisters of Mercy. Among these,
the Franciscans are somewhat more likely to receive members from other Franciscan institutes. The
others do not report this phenomenon.
Experience
The experience of members who transfer often begins with a broad dissonance with another
institute, although a few report that they first sensed the call to a new institute which did not involve
the experience of dissonance. Members are often active in their original institute and experience a
great sense of loss in leaving that institute as they leave a community with whom they have spent their
entire adult life, leaving all that is familiar and secure, and leaving behind much of their personal
support system. While this process is painful, it nevertheless involves a great spiritual deepening as the
member moves into the unknown, then eventually becomes integrated into the new institute. Although
there is much to learn about the new institute, its life and mission, integration into a new institute
happens primarily on an experiential level as members come to know the life and mission in its lived
reality. Members reported that the experience, though painful, was positive, and they reported a high
level of satisfaction with their new institute. Asked to share advice with others who may be
considering transfer, members made three recommendations: spend time in prayer and discernment,
taking advantage of wise counsel and spiritual direction; trust in God, through the chaos as life in the
original institute disintegrates and life in the receiving institute begins to take root; and in this posture
of prayer and trust, follow your heart, where God's invitation is most deeply perceived.
Institutes that received members were generally positive in their assessment of the transfer
phenomenon, noting their concern to assist the member in their ongoing discernment, as well as the
members' deepening integration in the life and ministry of the institute. Through the process of
transfer, they received members who had lived religious life for many years, and had gone through a
process of discernment of vocation as adults and recommitted themselves to living religious life, albeit
in a new context. These members often proved to be as active and engaged in their new institutes as
they had been in their original institutes.
115Richard A. Hill, “Transfers of Religious,” Review for Religious 44, no. 6 (December 1985): 930.
116Rosemary Sabino, “Transfer Sisters,” Review for Religious 37, no. 7 (July 1978): 579-590.
44
Institutes whose members sought to transfer to another institute suffered loss of the member and
found it difficult to understand why a member who had been so active might decide to leave them.
This was sometimes perceived as a betrayal or an implicit negative judgment on the original institute,
thus some questioned the integrity or vocational commitment of these members.117 However, if the
original institutes were able to support the member in the process of transfer, those members generally
appreciated that support, and, likely, those members would be more positively disposed to returning to
that institute, in the event that they did not complete the transfer process. Hill notes that the permission
of the original institute to allow a member to transfer includes the unconditional permission to return
to the original institute.118 However, McDonough states that it sometimes happens that the original
institute is unable to do this, a fact which is indicative of the negative attitudes which may surround a
member who chooses to begin a transfer, even if that member should return to the original institute.119
CONCLUSION
This chapter, particular in the discussion of the survey results, has shown that the experience of
transfer is different for each of those involved: the original community, the member who transfers and
the receiving community. Understanding this diversity is helpful as the two institutes and the member
work through the transfer process; it is helpful in understanding the process and in providing pastoral
care for the member who is transferring as well as the other members of the two institutes. In addition,
understanding the various perspectives will be helpful as we move into the articulation of a theology
of transfer in the next chapter, and attempt to understand the legislation over the years and to interpret
the current legislation. That legislation has sometimes reflected an understanding of the spiritual
richness of the process of transfer, at other times it has been more suspicious of those who seek to
transfer, seeking to severely restrict the practice. At best, legislation should embody the values of the
society it seeks to regulate. The movement of the spirit that is evident in some of these transfers should
be supported and encouraged, even as caution is advised to ensure careful discernment of this
movement, and ample protection of the rights of the member and of the two institutes as the process
unfolds.
117Hill, “Transfers of Religious,” 930.

118Ibid.
119Jordan F. Hite, Sharon Holland, and Daniel J. Ward, A Handbook on Canons 573-746: Religious Institutes,
Secular Institutes, Societies of the Apostolic Life (Collegeville (Minn.): Liturgical Press, 1985), 229-230.
45
CHAPTER III – THEOLOGY OF TRANSFER
This chapter will explore the transfer of a member to another religious institute from the
perspective of theology and spirituality. It will examine the phenomenon in the context of the nature of
vocation and the nature of religious life. Transfer is a vocational choice that is made by a member who
has lived religious life for many years and is experienced in the dynamics of vocation. The member is
willing and able to engage in the process of re-creation of his or her vocation, a process in which the
member becomes extremely vulnerable; the process of transfer causes the stability of their vocation to
be deeply undermined as they leave behind so much of what has nourished and sustained them over
the years. Nevertheless, those who move through this process find that the roots of their vocation are
strengthened; they discover the depth of their commitment to God, as this commitment is uprooted
from the context of the original religious institute and is transplanted into the receiving institute.
If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss....120
THE NATURE OF VOCATION

Vocation is a term often used to refer to the basic calling or choice of a person for a particular
state in life121 However, beyond this general sense it is difficult to describe its dynamics precisely.
Etymologically, the word comes from the Latin vocare, to call or summon. The notion of vocation as
understood today however, is both call and response. “Vocation is mysterious interplay between God's
call and the human response – in the dynamic of human holiness.”122 Thus vocation may be considered
a dialogue or relationship. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes vocation as “the calling or
destiny we have in this life and hereafter. God has created the human person to love and serve him; the
fulfillment of this vocation is eternal happiness.”123
In his encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate, Benedict XVI discusses the notion of the vocation to
integral human development, stating that “a vocation is a call that requires a free and responsible
answer.”124 Benedict includes in the term “vocation” both the call and the response. The response
120If by Rudyard Kipling in Rewards and Fairies. London: Macmillan and Co, 1910.
121vocation. (2009). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved December 7, 2009, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vocation.
122Rosemary Smith, “Issues of Separation and Transfer Among Religious: Context and Procedure,” Canon Law
Society of America Proceedings 47 (1985): 97-114.
123John Paul II, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Rev. ed. (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1999), Glossary.
124Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate: on Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth, June 29, 2009,
AAS 101 (2009) (Città del Vaticano: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana), 17.
46
required must be both free and responsible, “no structure can guarantee it.”125 Further he states that
acceptance of the vocation leads the person to “true autonomy, because it sets them free.”126 While the
encyclical is focused on the vocation to integral human development, Benedict states that the
principles presented apply on both the natural and supernatural planes:
Precisely because God gives a resounding “yes” to the person, they cannot
fail to open themselves to the divine vocation to pursue their own
development. ... Integral human development on the natural plane, as a
response to a vocation from God the Creator, demands self-fulfillment in a
“transcendent humanism, which gives [to the person] their greatest possible
perfection: this is the highest goal of personal development” (Populorum
Progressio, 16). The Christian vocation to this development therefore applies
to both the natural plane and the supernatural plane.127
Vocation is both call and response; it is the call to enter freely and responsibly into the process
of fulfilling the purpose of one's existence. God is Love,128 and God creates in love; as Benedict puts it,
in creation, God “gives a resounding 'yes' to the person.”129 God creates us in love, and for love. The
human vocation is the free and responsible response to this creative love: “they cannot fail to open
themselves to the divine vocation.”130 In his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Benedict stated that the
Christian vocation “is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an
event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”131 Thus the vocational call is
more than a call to respond to a single question, or even to perform a task; it is a call to relationship, a
call to a life journey in love. The vocational response is a particular choice, a “resounding 'yes'” to the
call, but it is also the free and responsible commitment to live out that relationship; it is the daily
growth in that commitment and its fulfillment.
In addition to the notion of call and response, vocation includes the notion of a life project.
Vocation is a choice to commit one's whole life in religious life, marriage, priesthood, etc. But it is
also a choice that is definitively made at some point in time, and then is lived out over a lifetime, a
choice that requires regular re-commitment if it is be authentic. At profession, a person commits their
whole life, however, in reality, a person can only commit the present moment, and have the firm
intention of committing all the rest of their 'present moments,' as they come along over the course of
life.
A painting is greater that the sum of its brush-strokes, but there is no painting without brush-
strokes, and some strokes are more important to the painting than others. Likewise there is no poem
without words, but a poem is greater than the words that make it up; there is no music without notes,
125Ibid.
126Ibid.
127Ibid., 18.
1281 John, 4:16.
129Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 18.
130Ibid.
131Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, December 25, 2005, 18: AAS 98 (2006), 217-256, 1.
47
but a song is greater than the sum of its notes; a dance is greater that the sum of its steps, it is dance
that gives life and meaning to the steps. There is no work of art without 'technique', execution, choice,
engagement, evoking deep values, truths and emotions. In the same way, there is no vocation without
footsteps, without heartbeats, without the days that make it up. But vocation is more than the footsteps
and the heartbeats. Vocation is the deep story that underlies the choices of where one lives and how
one spends their days.
The call evokes a response - even a 'no' will do - and our 'no' can never frustrate that call or
vocation, because the vocation is also the response to the call. At root the call is God, and the response
is self, a response given one footstep at a time, day by day, heartbeat by heartbeat. It is a response that
is sometimes bold, sometimes faltering, sometimes shabby, often messy. A parent rejoices over the
first steps of a child, not all the tumbles it took to get there; and remembers the first word of a child,
not all the incoherent babel that preceded. But there is no first step without lots of tumbles beforehand,
and there is no first word without lots of babbling. The baby's first step is only the beginning; without
it there would be no marathon runner. The first word is only the beginning; even Shakespeare had a
'first word'. So vocation involves an important first step, but it is also the commitment to living out that
step in an ongoing relationship.
Thus vocation is “a call that requires a free and responsible answer,”132 it is a response to “God's
resounding 'yes'” to the human person, which opens the person to pursue their integral human
development, on the natural and supernatural planes.133 It is the call and the commitment to an ongoing
life project which is beyond one's own self.134
THE NATURE OF RELIGIOUS VOCATION

Having discussed the nature of vocation in the human and Christian sense, we turn now to the
nature of religious vocation. The religious vocation may be distinguished from other vocations by two
principal factors. The first and most obvious is the profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty,
chastity and obedience. However, the counsels are a metonymy for an entire lifestyle that developed in
the early church. The Second Vatican Council described it as follows:
Indeed from the very beginning of the Church men and women have set
about following Christ with greater freedom and imitating Him more closely
through the practice of the evangelical counsels, each in his own way leading
a life dedicated to God. … Driven by love with which the Holy Spirit floods
their hearts (cf. Rom. 5:5) they live more and more for Christ and for His
body which is the Church (cf. Col. 1:24).135
132Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 17.

133Ibid., 18.
134Ibid., 35.
135Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Perfectae Caritatis, October 28, 1965. AAS 58 (1966) 702-712., 1.
48
Thus the counsels are a particular way of responding to the call of the Gospels which is made to all
Christians: “the ultimate norm of the religious life is the following of Christ set forth in the
Gospels.”136
A second way of viewing the distinguishing factor of religious life is found in Lumen Gentium
which describes the religious vocation as one in which “a person is totally dedicated to God, loved
above all things,” and is “more intimately consecrated to divine service.” The religious state “more
fully manifests … the presence of heavenly goods already possessed here below.”137 In these and
similar statements, the document attests to a greater commitment or intensity of the basic Christian
commitment. However, this would seem to imply that the basic Christian commitment can be
improved or intensified.
Canon 573 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law takes up the attempt to characterize religious life,
stating:
Vita consecrata per consiliorum evangelicorum professionem est stabilis

vivendi forma qua fideles, Christum sub actione Spiritus Sancti pressius
sequentes, Deo summe dilecto totaliter dedicantur, ut, in Eius honorem
atque Ecclesiae aedificationem mundique salutem novo et peculiari titulo
dediti, caritatis perfectionem in servitio Regni Dei consequantur et,
praeclarum in Ecclesia signum effecti, caelestem gloriam praenuntient.138
Canon 207 states that religious are called from both the lay state and the clerical state to the profession
of the evangelical counsels, they are not part of the hierarchical structure of the Church, but are part of
its life and holiness.139 Thus there are just two states, lay and clerical, and religious are called from
both. Nevertheless, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, promulgated in 1990, article 9, paragraph
4 is divided into three sections, one each on the hierarchy, on the laity and on consecrated life.140 This
tri-partite division is maintained in Vita Consecrata where, in 1993, John Paul II felt the need to
“clarify the specific identity of the various states of life.”141 After emphasizing the common dignity of
all the Christian faithful, called to holiness and mission, he characterized the specific states as follows:
136Ibid., 2.
137Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Lumen Gentium, November 21, 1964. AAS 57 (1965) 5-75, 44.
138John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, in Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Translation (Washington (D.C.):
CLSA, 1983), Canon 573 §1.The life consecrated through the profession of the evangelical counsels is a
stable form of living by which the faithful, following Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit,
are totally dedicated to God who is loved most of all, so that, having been dedicated by a new and special
title to His honor, to the building up of the Church, and to the salvation of the world, they strive for the
perfection of charity in the service of the kingdom of God and, having been made an outstanding sign in the
Church, foretell the heavenly glory.
139John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici. Canon 207 §2. Ex utraque hac parte habentur christifideles, qui
professione consiliorum evangelicorum per vota aut alia sacra ligamina, ab Ecclesia agnita et sancita, suo
peculiari modo Deo consecrantur et Ecclesiae missioni salvificae prosunt; quorum status, licet ad
hierarchicam Ecclesiae structuram non spectet, ad eius tamen vitam et sanctitatem pertinet.
140John Paul II, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 871-945.
141John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, March 25, 1996 AAS 88 (1996) 372-498, 4.
49
For the mission of the lay faithful, whose proper task is to "seek the
Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them
according to the plan of God", the consecration of Baptism and Confirmation
common to all members of the People of God is a sufficient foundation. In
addition to this basic consecration, ordained ministers receive the
consecration of ordination in order to carry on the apostolic ministry in time.
Consecrated persons, who embrace the evangelical counsels, receive a new
and special consecration which, without being sacramental, commits them to
making their own — in chastity, poverty and obedience — the way of life
practiced personally by Jesus and proposed by him to his disciples.142
Despite the common dignity and organic communion of all the faithful emphasized in the document,
John Paul insisted on the “objective superiority”143 of consecrated life.
International Congress on Consecrated Life

The First International Congress on Consecrated Life was held in 2004 in Rome, Italy.
Organized by the International Union of Women Superiors General and the Union of Superiors
General, the Congress sought to explore the nature of religious life and to discuss the many challenges
confronting religious life today. Two presentations from that congress will be discussed here to further
explore the nature of religious vocation. The first is a presentation by João Batista Libânio, entitled
“The Impact of Socio-cultural and Religious Reality on Consecrated Life from a Latin-American
Perspective: A Search for Answers.”144 The second is a presentation by Sandra M. Schneiders, entitled
“Religious Life in the Future.”145
Libânio begins his presentation with a description of religious life:
Religious life is understood as having three structural elements, a founding

experience of God, community life and mission, and not as based on the
vows to a great extent.146
He goes on to explore the nature of religious life as a life that is deeply characterized by this
foundational experience of God, which then colors the way of living in community and the type of
mission adopted by the group as well as the way of carrying out that mission. This focuses on the
individual and collective encounter with the living God, an encounter which calls the individual and
the group to a free and responsible commitment. However, by characterizing religious life in this way,
Libânio does not distinguish it from the life of any group of persons of good will who gather around a
particular experience of God, for the purpose of advancing the cause of the Gospel. Later in the
142Ibid., 31.
143Ibid., 32.
144João Batista Libânio, “The Impact of Socio-cultural and Religious Reality on Consecrated Life from a Latin-
American Perspective: A Search for Answers” (presented at the First International Congress on Consecrated
Life, Rome, November 22, 2004).
145Sandra M. Schneiders, “Religious Life in the Future” (presented at the First International Congress on
Consecrated Life, Rome, November 22, 2004).
146Libânio, “The Impact of Socio-cultural and Religious Reality on Consecrated Life from a Latin-American
Perspective: A Search for Answers.”
50
presentation, Libânio discusses the difference between vocation and career; while a career is directed
to competence and productivity, vocation is gratuitous, and is the motivation behind career.
Vocation exists in a world of gratuitousness. Motivation comes from within.

The "more" is revealed in whatever activity the person engages in. In the
most adverse situations, such as illness and old age, vocation persists, even if
it is only in prayer and in the giving of one's life. It is characterized by its
perennial nature, specific to giving oneself to God.147
Schneiders offers a different perspective. While Libânio sees the vows as a secondary element
in the project of religious life, Schneiders sees them as central to creating an alternate world. She
begins her presentation by noting that religious life is on the one hand “profoundly Christian,” sharing
the identity and mission of all the baptized, and on the other hand “a distinctive lifeform in the
Church,” which is recognizable and has a specific place in the life and mission of the Church.148
Religious, by the vows they profess and live, create an alternate "world" in
the midst of this world, the saeculum. Religious do not simply attempt to live
differently in the world, which all Christians must do, but to create a
different world which will offer a prophetic witness in, to, and sometimes
against the world and even the institutional Church.149
The vows themselves give rise to the distinctiveness of religious life by creating a “characteristic
approach to material goods, power, and sexuality.” It is this alternate approach to possessions, power
and sexuality that produces a “particular concrete realization of the Reign of God.”150 The alternate
world is created not by physical separation, but by an ideological separation by which religious life
stands apart as a critique of the “powers of the Prince of this World.” Each religious institute embodies
a particular charismatic vision of this new world, and a particular way of bringing it into reality.
The vows, whichever ones are made in particular congregations, are Gospel-
based, global metaphors for the stance Religious take toward the
fundamental coordinates of human existence, material goods, sexuality, and
power.151
Thus in place of a global “commodity economy” characterized by scarcity, religious commit

themselves to a “gift economy” in which wealth is found in what one can give, not in what one can
possess. In place of the politics of domination and power, religious commit to the “politics of
responsible participation and whole-hearted cooperation. In place of the sexuality of exclusivity and
domination, religious commit to relationships of “mutual respect between equals.”152 While Schneiders
147Ibid.
148Schneiders, “Religious Life in the Future.”
149Ibid.
150Ibid.
151Ibid.
152Ibid.
51
identifies a lifeform distinct from the basic Christian commitment, her analysis does not show how the
various institutes of consecrated life differ from one another.
Combining the insights of Libânio and Schneiders, affords a fuller description of consecrated
life as a distinct form of life characterized by vowed life, but a vowed life lived in a context that is
characterized by a particular experience of God, a particular mission or approach to mission and a
particular way of living community.
Like every vocation, the vocation to religious life is a call that requires a free and responsible
answer, a call and commitment to a life project which is beyond one's own self. The religious vocation
is a call and commitment to a very specific life project, a life project rooted in the Gospel as is the life
of every Christian, but directed to the creation of an alternate world established by the vows, and
characterized by a particular experience of God, community and mission.
THE NATURE OF TRANSFER TO ANOTHER RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE

Having examined the nature of vocation, and explored the concept of religious vocation, this
section will discuss the nature of transfer to another religious institute, within the context of religious
vocation. It is set in this context because it involves a major change in the living out of the vocational
commitment; the transfer to another institute is completed by making a new profession of perpetual
vows in the receiving institute. In addition, members who have transferred describe the experience of
transfer as one of deeply questioning their vocational commitment, and of going forward both in
fidelity to their original vocational commitment, and in dynamic response to a new call.
In a transfer, the basic commitment to consecrated life remains, but it is transferred into a new
context. Schneiders sees the fundamental nature of religious life to be the alternate world created by
the vows:
By their vows Religious create an alternate world which, on the basis of the
Gospel, prophetically challenges the power of the Prince of this World.153
A member who transfers remains committed to the creation of this alternate world, and to the vows
which bring it about. Members who have transferred describe their deep sense of the continuity of
their lives on the level on consecrated life, even though all of the external manifestations of that
commitment seem to be in flux.
The transfer of a member to another religious institute involves discontinuity on the level of
institute; the new institute, while it shares the commitment to the vowed life, lives this commitment in
a different understanding. Libânio describes consecrated life as a life characterized by a particular
experience of God, community and mission. The process of transfer involves moving to group that is
characterized by an experience of God, community and mission that is distinct from that in which the
member began religious life. The member who transfers discovers within him or herself a divergence
between their inner experience of God, community and mission, and the experience of others in their
institute among whom they live and work. Although they continue to share consecrated life, the
153Ibid.
52
divergence of spirituality and charism becomes so acute for these members that they are willing to
undertake the effort involved in searching out a more consonant expression of religious life.
Some members describe their experience as an initial attraction for another institute, followed
by an awareness of their distance from their own institute. However most members describe the initial
experience of dissonance, which impelled them to set out to find a new institute with whom they might
more deeply resonate.
After the period of exploration, discernment and transfer, members come to understand their life
in the new institute as an extension of their initial commitment to religious life; the newness comes to
be experienced as gift. The transfer to another institute is experienced as a metaphor for a deep
renewal and transformation, an experience that is shared by those who accompany the transferring
members and receive them into their institutes.
The experience of transfer can be seen in the context of the Gospel narrative of Luke 5:1-11.
Sitting in a boat, Jesus taught the crowds on the shores of the Lake of Gennesaret.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water
and lower your nets for a catch." Simon said in reply, "Master, we have
worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will
lower the nets."154 When they had done this, they caught a great number of
fish and their nets were tearing. … Amazement at the catch of fish they had
made seized them.
The member who has transferred has generally been in religious life for a good length of time,
and has been “hard at it all night.” Yet they experience the call of God to “put out into deep water,” to
move out of their comfort zone, to set out without knowing where this new call will lead them. On
following this call, they unexpectedly find that great catch of fish, and experience the amazement at
how their vocational journey unfolds in new and unexpected ways.
The member experiences a deep continuity in their journey, continuity of vowed commitment
and of the spiritual journey. However, this continuity is experienced in the context of a deep
discontinuity with regard to the difference between the original institute's and the receiving institute's
experience of God, community and mission. By identifying and rooting themselves in the deeper
continuity, the member finds a deep engagement with a God who calls them “into the deep water.” It
is here that the person finds vocational stability, and the source of strength to navigate the radical
discontinuity of the transfer. The differences are real, and the member needs time to discern the
consonance of their vocation with the life of the receiving institute.
When a member transfers, the experience of the two institutes is distinct. The original institute
experiences the departure of a member who has lived, prayed and worked among them, generally for
about twenty years. The members of the institute experience a loss and grieving for the member, and
often they experience a questioning of the motivations for the departure, which some may see as a
betrayal. Some reported in the survey that the transfer of a member is more puzzling than the departure
of a member from religious life altogether; this seems to be what Aquinas reported as “scandal” of the
154Luke, 5:4-6, 9.
53
members when he wrote about transfer. The original institute experiences principally the discontinuity
of their member's vocational journey. However, if they are able to sense the deeper continuity which
calls their member forth into a new institute, they seem to be more able to find the generosity to
support that member in their discernment. If this deeper continuity is not experienced, the experience
of discontinuity is unmitigated, and the institute and its members seem acutely challenged by the
experience of loss and even betrayal by one of their members. Members who leave such institutes
report being deeply hurt by the negative reaction of members or of leadership in their original institute.
On the other hand, if the institutes are able to support their members who transfer out, those members
are deeply appreciative and find this to be an important support along their journey.
The experience of the receiving institute is also one of discontinuity; the member seeking to join
them through transfer is often completely new to the receiving institute, even though they may know
some members through shared ministry, or other experience. However, the receiving institute
experiences this discontinuity as a gift; a definitively professed religious feels drawn to their institute,
and wishes to join them in life and ministry. They too are challenged to see the deeper continuity of
the member's vocational journey and to help the member integrate this into their new life in the new
institute. Members who have transferred report a more positive experience of transfer when the
receiving institute is able to balance the notion of continuity, recognizing the member's experience in
religious life, with the notion of discontinuity, recognizing the member's need for help in learning and
integrating the new institute's spirituality, ministry and lifestyle. Because of their relatively more
positive experience of receiving a member in transfer, rather than loosing a member, the receiving
institute may be in a position to assist the original institute to come to appreciate the continuity in the
member's vocational journey. They may do this by actively inviting members of the original institute
to participate in the rituals of beginning the transfer process and of making their new perpetual
profession in the new institute.
This chapter has attempted to explore the theology and spirituality of transfer of a member to
another religious institute. Having explored the history of transfer, and the experience of transfer, this
discussion explored the nature of the phenomenon of the transfer of a member to another institute. It
sought to understand this phenomenon in the context of the nature of vocation and the nature of
religious life. Understanding the deep story of transfer is helpful in understanding its long history, in
understanding legislation about transfer and in applying the law to particular cases.
The next chapter will turn to legal considerations. The legal framework provided for transfer
should help the member and the two institutes to respect the continuity of the vocational journey and
to manage the discontinuity. Rights and obligations of the member and the institutes should be clearly
stated, the process should provide the appropriate time and means to move through the ambiguity of
the situation and should foster the means to help the member and the institutes to make a good
decision. It is impossible to legislate good discernment, however, certain conditions placed on the
transfer process can improve the possibility for good discernment, namely requiring consultation and
permissions, and providing a probationary period for testing the propriety of the transfer. In addition,
54
law can provide a safety net for ill-advised transfers. It can do this by providing documentation and
agreements in advance of the transfer, and by stating the rights and obligations of the member and of
the institutes.
55
CHAPTER IV – JURISPRUDENCE OF TRANSFER
CANON LAW
Law is the tool by which a society expresses and protects its values. Current legislation reflects
the history of the ordering of a particular field, and knowledge of this history can be helpful in
interpreting current laws. Legislation responds to current social conditions, although as a society
grows and develops, legislation is often found to lag behind the lived reality. Law also reflects the
values of a society, so too the law of the Christian community reflects its theology and spirituality.
This chapter builds on the foundation laid in previous chapters that discussed the history, sociology
and theology of transfer to another religious institute.
The first section of this chapter will discuss current legislation on transfer to another religious
institute as found in Canons 684 and 685 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. It will briefly discuss other
types of transfer and transfer in the Eastern Code, by way of contrast. Next it will turn to the
legislation on transfer as found in the proper law of institutes and discuss policies and agreements
regarding transfers in particular cases. Though transfer to another religious institute is a canonical
process, it has certain civil law consequences. These civil issues raised by transfer of a member and
civil consequences in the next section. Finally a few special cases will be examined; these will provide
an opportunity to explore the application of the law on transfer in more complex circumstances. First
though, we turn to the two canons on transfer to another institute found in the 1983 Code.
Canons 684 and 685
Permission to Transfer
Canon 684 primarily treats transfer to another religious institute; transfers between other types
of institutes are treated in §5 of Canon 685 and in Canons 730 and 744, and are discussed below. The
five sections of Canon 684 discuss permission for transfer, probationary period, transfer between
monasteries sui iuris, applicable law, and transfer to other types of consecrated life. The canon applies
only to perpetually professed members, with the exception of §3 which applies to members in
temporary profession as well. The canon uses a negative formulation, stating that a member cannot
transfer without the permission of the supreme moderators of both institutes with the consent of their
councils. These permissions are required for validity.155
155Jordan F. Hite, Sharon Holland, and Daniel J. Ward, A Handbook on Canons 573-746: Religious Institutes,
Secular Institutes, Societies of the Apostolic Life (Collegeville (Minn.): Liturgical Press, 1985), 223.
56
Canon 684 §1. Sodalis a votis perpetuis nequit a proprio ad aliud institutum
religiosum transire, nisi ex concessione supremi Moderatoris utriusque
instituti et de consensu sui cuiusque consilii.156
A member seeking to transfer begins the formal, juridical process of transfer after prayer and
discernment, and after exploring the possibility with the institutes involved. The member petitions the
supreme moderators of both institutes, stating the motivation for the transfer. The canon gives no time
limits for a response by the supreme moderators, but the matter should not be unduly delayed.157 The
supreme moderators or their councils may seek further information from the member, respecting
always the members' freedom of conscience.158 If permission to transfer is denied, or the member
receives no response to the petition to transfer, the member may pursue administrative recourse.
Administrative Recourse
Canons 1732-1739 establish the process for seeking recourse against administrative action, or
inaction. Canon 1733 urges the parties themselves to seek reconciliation even if formal recourse has
been initiated; the local Bishop or Vicar for Religious may help the member in an informal mediation
process. For formal administrative recourse, the member first directs a petition for reconsideration to
the superior, seeking that they amend their decree, or issue one in their favor. This initial petition must
be received within a time limit of ten useful days of the legal notification of the action.159 The superior
has a period of thirty days within which to respond to this petition. If the superior's response leaves the
member aggrieved, or if the superior fails to respond in 30 days, the member has fifteen days to
initiate formal recourse to the Diocesan Bishop in the case of an institute of diocesan right or to
CICLSAL in the case of an institute of pontifical right.160 This recourse can be sent to superior who
must forward it to the Congregation. The member making recourse against a decree has the right to
engage the services of a canon lawyer.161
The Congregation or the Bishop may direct that the superior grant the member permission, or
the Congregation may dispense the member from the requirement of the permission of the original
institute. If the Diocesan Bishop or CICLSAL does not act within three consecutive months of
receiving the recourse, canon law presumes that the response is negative.162 If there has been no
response with in the three months, or if the Bishop or Congregation has issued a decision that leaves
the member still dissatisfied, they have the right to make further recourse against the decision of the
156John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Can. 684 §1. A member in perpetual vows cannot transfer from one
religious institute to another except by a grant of the supreme moderator of each institute and with the
consent of their respective councils.
157Ibid., Canon 57.
158John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 630; See also Hite, Holland, and Ward, A Handbook on Canons
573-746, 224.
CLSA, 1983), Canon 1743.
160Ibid., Canon 1737.
162Ibid., Canon 57.
57
Congregation to the Apostolic Signatura within thirty calendar days of the expiration of the three
month period, or thirty calendar days from the receipt of the Congregation’s decision.163
Canons on Period of Probation

The norms applicable to the period of probation before profession of vows in the receiving
institute are found in Canon 684 §§2 and 4 and Canon 685 §1. Canon 684 §2 describes the framework
for the transfer. After a probation lasting at least three years, the member can be admitted to profession
in the new institute.
Canon 684 §2. Sodalis, post peractam probationem quae ad tres saltem
annos protrahenda est, ad professionem perpetuam in novo instituto admitti
potest. Si autem sodalis hanc professionem emittere renuat vel ad eam
emittendam a competentibus Superioribus non admittatur, ad pristinum
institutum redeat, nisi indultum saecularizationis obtinuerit.164
Canon 684 §4 states that the proper law determines the length and mode of the period of probation.
Canon 684 §4. Ius proprium determinet tempus et modum probationis, quae
professioni sodalis in novo instituto praemittenda est.165
Finally, Canon 685 §1 states that during the period of probation, while the vows remain, the rights and
obligations of the member in the former institute are suspended, and the member is bound to observe
the proper law of the new institute.
Can. 685 - §1. Usque ad emissionem professionis in novo instituto,

manentibus votis, iura et obligationes quae sodalis in priore instituto
habebat, suspenduntur; ab incepta tamen probatione, ipse ad observantiam
iuris proprii novi instituti tenetur.166
Manentibus Votis
The vows are described in canons 599-601, with additional norms being found in other canons
of the code. The vows are further specified in the Constitutions of each institute.167

164John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 684 - §2. After completing a probation which is to last at least
three years, the member can be admitted to perpetual profession in the new institute. If the member refuses
to make this profession or is not admitted to make it by competent superiors, however, the member is to
return to the original institute unless an indult of secularization has been obtained.
165Ibid., Canon 684 §4. Proper law is to determine the time and manner of the probation that must precede the
profession of a member in the new institute.
166Ibid., Canon 685 §1. Until a person makes profession in the new institute, the rights and obligations that the
member had in the former institute are suspended although the vows remain. Nevertheless, from the
beginning of probation, the member is bound to the observance of the proper law of the new institute.
58
Chastity carries the obligation of perfect continence in celibacy. Juridically the vow is
essentially the same in all institutes, although its integration into the spirituality of each particular
institute may differ.
Canon 599 Evangelicum castitatis consilium propter Regnum coelorum

assumptum, quod signum est mundi futuri et fons uberioris fecunditatis in
indiviso corde, obligationem secumfert continentiae perfectae in caelibatu.168
The vow of poverty entails the obligation of a life poor in fact and in spirit, a life of work,
which is foreign to earthly riches, and a dependence and limitation in the use and disposition of goods.
This more detailed juridical obligation is further specified in the proper law of each institute.
Canon 600 Evangelicum consilium paupertatis ad imitationem Christi, qui

propter nos egenus factus est cum esset dives, praeter vitam re et spiritu
pauperem, operose in sobrietate ducendam et a terrenis divitiis alienam,
secumfert dependentiam et limitationem in usu et dispositione bonorum ad
normam iuris proprii singulorum institutorum.169
While the distinction between solemn and simple vows was not retained in the 1983 code, there
remains the distinction, found in Canon 668, between institutes whose vow of poverty allows them to
own, but not to use personal goods, and institutes in which complete renunciation is required, that is,
the members loose the capacity to acquire and possess goods. The proper law of institutes gives further
specificity to the vow, both in its juridical content and in its theological content. In addition, the daily
life of a religious institute and its members involves the use of material goods; various policies and
practices develop over time.
The member who transfers retains the vow of poverty, however the member is required to live
the vow according to the proper law of the receiving institute; the proper law and the practice of the
vow in the receiving institute may be significantly different from that of the original institute. This
may give rise to juridical and practical issues. Juridically, it may happen that a member transfers from
an institute whose vow of poverty does not include complete renunciation to an institute in which this
is required. Alternatively a member may transfer from an institute of complete renunciation to an
institute in which this is not required. In either case, the question may arise whether complete
renunciation is part of the vow that remains, or part of the proper law of the institute that is lived
according to the proper law of the receiving institute.
The issue may be illustrated by examining the case of a member who receives an inheritance
during the process of transfer from an institute of complete renunciation to one in which this is not
required. The vow included complete renunciation when it was made in the original institute, however,
168Ibid., Canon 599. The evangelical counsel of chastity assumed for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, which
is a sign of the world to come and a source of more abundant fruitfulness in an undivided heart, entails the
obligation of perfect continence in celibacy.
169Ibid., Canon 600. The evangelical counsel of poverty in imitation of Christ who, although he was rich, was
made poor for us, entails, besides a life which is poor in fact and in spirit and is to be led productively in
moderation and foreign to earthly riches, a dependence and limitation in the use and disposition of goods
according to the norm of the proper law of each institute.
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the receiving institute in which the member is now living does not require renunciation. If renunciation
is part of the vow, the inheritance would belong to the original institute, and the member would have
no right to it. If it is part of the proper law, then the member would have the right to acquire the
inheritance, but would not be able to administer it. If the member did not make profession in the
receiving institute, but returned to the original institute, he or she would return with the inheritance
acquired, and would be required, on return to the original institute, to renounce the inheritance under
the original institute's law.
The distinction between the simple vow of poverty and the solemn vow of poverty, which
required complete renunciation existed in the 1917 Code, thus it may be helpful to examine its
treatment of the matter. Speaking of the solemnity of vows in a member who transfers, that code stated
that the solemnity of the vows is “extinguished” by the profession of simple vows in the receiving
institute. Under that legislation, the solemn vow of poverty with obligation of complete renunciation
would have remained until the member professed simple vows in the receiving institute. Thus
historically the complete renunciation is seen as part of vow that remains.
Can 636. Sollemnitas votorum in eo qui legitime secundum superiores

canones vota simplicia in Congregatione religiosa nuncupat, eo ipso
exstinguitur, nisi aliud in apostolico indulto expresse caveatur.170
Under this interpretation the member in transfer process whose vow includes complete renunciation
would be bound by that obligation in the case of inheritance received in the probationary period.
It must however be noted that this distinction between simple and solemn vows in general
legislation was abrogated with the promulgation of the 1983 Code. Nevertheless, the institutes
themselves were left free to maintain their traditional formulation and interpretation of the vows, but
this is now regulated exclusively by the proper law of the institute.171 Because the distinction no longer
exists in universal law, it may be argued that the vows that remain (manentibus votis), according to
canon 685 §1, are the vows as described in universal law; in the case of the vow of poverty, it is the
vow described in canon 600. All further description and specification of the vow is found in the proper
law of an institute; the vow never exists in the abstract, but always as expressed in a particular
institute. The vow of poverty would be lived by the member according to the constitution of the
receiving institute. Under this interpretation, the transferring member who moves from an institute of
complete renunciation to one without complete renunciation would be free of that obligation; it would
be suspended during the period of probation. The member could acquire the inheritance and would be
required to cede administration according the to proper law of the receiving institute. If the member
would return to the original institute, the obligation of complete renunciation would again oblige the
170Pii X pontificis maximi iussu digestus Benedicti papae XV auctoritate promulgatus, Codex Iuris Canonici
(Roma: Tipografia poliglotta Vaticana, 1917), Canon 636. The solemnity of vows in one who legitimately
according to the above canons pronounced simple vows is a religious Congregation is extinguished, unless
something else is expressly provided in the apostolic indult.
171There is however an exception found in Canon 668, which treats the obligations of members under the vow
of poverty. In that treatment a distinction is made between those who may renounce ownership and those
who are required to do so by their vow or the nature of the institute.
60
member, and the goods would be renounced under the constitutions of the original institute. This
would appear to be the more appropriate result because it allows the member to experience more fully
the vows as lived by the institute that they are attempting to join. In any case, it is generally best that
any financial arrangements made during the probationary period be contingent in nature, so that the
member is free to discern their vocation. At the end of the process the member either returns to the
original institute, or makes vows in the new institute; at this time, adjustments can be made to reflect
the current state of member.
In addition to the juridical issues regarding the nature of the vow that remains, there are
practical issues in acclimating the member to the particular way of living the vow of poverty in the
new institute. Thus, poverty should be an area of particular attention during the probationary period so
that the member is introduced to the proper law and the practice of the vow, which may be
significantly different from the original institute. Financial issues should also be treated in agreements
made between the two institutes, recognizing the difference of practice between the two institutes.
The vow of obedience also remains, obliging a member to obey legitimate Superiors when they
command according to the constitutions. As with the other vows, the vow of obedience is further
specified in the proper law of the institute and may vary between institutes. A member is bound by the
vow, but follows the proper law of the new institute to which the member is introduced during the
probationary period.
Can. 601 - Evangelicum oboedientiae consilium, spiritu fidei et amoris in

sequela Christi usque ad mortem oboedientis susceptum, obligat ad
submissionem voluntatis erga legitimos Superiores, vices Dei gerentes, cum
secundum proprias constitutiones praecipiunt.172
Members of some institutes make a fourth vow, such as a vow of service to the poor.173 Most
commentators held that, under the 1917 Code, the fourth vow was suspended, and that the vows that
remained were only the three vows described in the code. Since these vows are particular to the
original institute, they are suspended during the time of probation, and are extinguished when the
member makes profession in the receiving institute.174
Rights and Obligations

Canon 685 §1 states that the rights and obligations that the member had in the previous institute
are suspended until the member makes profession in the new institute: iura et obligationes quae
172John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 601 The evangelical counsel of obedience, undertaken in a spirit
of faith and love in the following of Christ obedient unto death, requires the submission of the will to
legitimate superiors, who are obliged to represent God, when they command according to the proper
constitutions.
173Vow of service to the poor is taken by many institutes including the Sisters of Mercy, see Constitutions of
the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas #1-2, the Missionaries of Charity, see for example Constitutions and
Way of Life of the Lay Missionaries of Charity #28-30 and the Daughters of Charity, see Constitutions &
Statutes of Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul, C. 56.
174Joseph G. Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community” (Thesis, Catholic University of
America, 1949), 155-156. See also footnote 76.
61
sodalis in priore instituto habebat, suspenduntur.175 The member loses active and passive voice, the
rights and obligations of prayer particular to the institute, living in a house of the institute, wearing its
typical dress, carrying out the ministry of the institute and being responsible to its superiors. These
rights and obligations remain, and are merely suspended during the time of probation. They will revive
if the member returns to the original institute, or they will be extinguished if the member makes
profession in the new institute, or leaves religious life altogether.
During the period of probation, the member is bound to observe the proper law of the receiving
institute. This law imposes obligations of prayer particular to the institute, living in a house of the
institute, wearing its typical dress, carrying out the ministry of the institute and being responsible to its
superiors. The code does not establish the rights the member may have in the new institute by virtue of
being a member in the probationary period. The member would retain the basic rights of the Christian
faithful176 and the right to what is necessary for the member to live his or her vocation according to the
constitutions of the receiving institute.
Canon 670 - Institutum debet sodalibus suppeditare omnia quae ad normam

constitutionum necessaria sunt ad suae vocationis finem assequendum177
Determination of other rights is left to the proper law of the receiving institute by canon 684 §4,
which allows that institute's law to determine the time and manner of the period of probation before
the member's profession in the new institute. Some rights are clear, for example, the member does not
acquire active or passive voice in the new institute until profession is made in the new institute. By
giving permission to a member to transfer into an institute, the superiors of that institute agree to
provide for the member and to introduce the member into the life, spirit and mission of the institute.
It sometimes happens that a member encounters a crisis of a serious nature, e.g. a financial
crisis, a major illness or medical condition, or even death. In this case, the two institutes may have a
prior agreement as to the responsibility for the member, or they may come to an agreement as the
situation arises. The original institute remains ultimately responsible for its member, but the receiving
institute, by giving permission to the member to begin the probationary period, has accepted a certain
responsibility for the member as well. Such cases call for sensitivity, generosity and understanding on
the part of both institutes, and the resolution in a particular case will depend on the specific facts of the
situation. In the event the two institutes cannot come to an agreement, a Vicar for Religious or the
CICLSAL may be called upon to facilitate a resolution. Naturally, a serious crisis may also negatively
impact the continuing discernment of transfer by both the receiving institute and the member. The
institute may judge the crisis as an adverse sign regarding the suitability of the member; likewise the
member may feel unable to continue with the discernment until the crisis is resolved. Examples of this
will be discussed in the last section of this chapter.
175John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 685 §1. The rights and obligations which the member had in the
former institute are suspended....
176Ibid., Canons 208-223.
177John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici Canon 670. An institute must supply the members with all those things
which are necessary to achieve the purpose of their vocation, according to the norm of the constitutions.
62
The period of probation must last at least three years. The Code does not limit the period of time
a member may be in probation, but the name itself implies that it is a temporary period, and justice and
the good of the member seem to demand that the time not be unduly prolonged. The period is begun
by the granting of permission by the two supreme moderators, or at the time stated in their grant of
permission.
Effect of Transfer
The period of probation may be ended by a new perpetual profession in the receiving institute,
by return of the member to the original institute or by an “indult of secularization.”
Canon 684 §2. Sodalis, post peractam probationem quae ad tres saltem
annos protrahenda est, ad professionem perpetuam in novo instituto admitti
potest. Si autem sodalis hanc professionem emittere renuat vel ad eam
emittendam a competentibus Superioribus non admittatur, ad pristinum
institutum redeat, nisi indultum saecularizationis obtinuerit.178
The transfer ends when the competent Superior of the receiving institute admits the member to
perpetual profession according to the institute's proper law, and the member makes profession. The
institute would generally follow its procedure for admission to perpetual profession. However, since
this is the first profession the member is making in the new institute, Goyeneche believed that under
the provisions of the 1917 Code, which are similar to the 1983 Code in this respect, the most stringent
requirements for admission to profession must be met. For example, if the entire chapter must consent
to the admission of a member to first profession, but the permission of the superior and council is
sufficient for perpetual profession, Goyeneche believed that the chapter must be consulted for
admission of a transfer to perpetual profession.179 The Commission for the Interpretation of the Code
confirmed Goyeneche's interpretation.180 The requirements for admission to profession for a
transferring member may also be specified in an institute's proper law.
The canon on admission to perpetual profession would apply, namely, the member must freely
ask for admission to profession and be judged suitable;181 the competent Superior must freely give
permission;182 the profession must be explicit, made without force, fear or deceit;183 the profession be
178Ibid. Canon 684 §2. After completing a probation, which is to last at least three years, the member can be
admitted to perpetual profession in the new institute. If the member refuses to make this profession or is not
admitted to make it by competent superiors, however, the member is to return to the original institute unless
an indult of secularization has been obtained.
179Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 175; Servus Goyneche, “De Transitu Ad
Aliam Religionem,” Commentarium Pro Religiosis et Missionariis I (1920): 217. See also note 8.
180Commission for the Interpretation of the Code, “Utrum suffragium Capituli in admitendo religioso, de quo in
canon 634, ad professionem sollemnem aut simplichem perpetuam, habeat vim deliberativem an tantum
consultivam. Resp: Affirmative ad primum partem, negative ad secundum,” Acta Apostolici Sedes XVI
(1922): 528.
181John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 657 §1.
182Ibid., Canon 656 3°.
183Ibid., Canon 656 4°.
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received by the legitimate Superior;184 and the profession may be anticipated for a just reason, but not
by more than three months.185 Other requirements for perpetual profession will have been met by the
member in the original institute, these include requirements of age and years in temporary profession.
The original institute gave permission for the member to begin the transfer process, no further
permission is needed to make the new profession in the receiving institute, though the receiving
institute should inform them when the member makes perpetual profession.
The rite of perpetual profession is made according to the proper law of the receiving institute.
Suitable adjustments may be made to celebrate the continuing religious consecration of the member,
now being expressed by perpetual profession in the receiving institute. It is also helpful if members of
the original institute can be present and share the celebration of the ongoing journey of one their
members who shared a significant period of years in prayer, life and ministry with them. In any case,
the receiving institute should notify the original institute of the member's new perpetual profession.
Once the profession is made, the member is definitively incorporated into the receiving institute
and all vows, rights and obligations in the original institute cease.
Canon 685 - §2. Per professionem in novo instituto sodalis eidem

incorporatur, cessantibus votis, iuribus et obligationibus praecedentibus.186
Historically, some vows obligations, and the member was bound by certain limitations, e.g. the
member who had transferred could never accept an office outside the new institute. However, all of
these limitations were abrogated in the 1917 Code.187
There remain some areas of ambiguity regarding the rights of the member in the receiving
institute. For example, certain acts and certain offices require that a member be perpetually professed
for a period of years. This may include years of profession in both institutes, or only the years of
profession in the new institute. Sometimes the proper law will simply require that a member be
“perpetually professed for ten years.” In this case, since it is a matter of rights, the provision would be
interpreted strictly, and the ten years should be from the perpetual profession in the original institute.
However some proper law specifies that a member must be “perpetually professed in the institute for
ten years.” In this case, the ambiguity is removed and only the years in the new institute are counted.
In other areas such as jubilees and anniversaries, the practice may vary, though the usual custom is to
count the anniversary, including the years spent in the original institute.188
184Ibid., Canon 656 5°.

185Ibid., Canon 657 §3.
186Ibid., Canon 685 - §2. Through profession in the new institute, the member is incorporated into it while the
preceding vows, rights, and obligations cease.
187Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 185.
188Most members who transfer spent over twenty years in their original institute. It may happen that a members
has a silver jubilee during the period of probation. One member who had transfer described the celebration of
this jubilee as an important moment in the process, celebrating the joy and sorrow of the event, and the
mystery of vocation. Another member recounted her sorrow that she was not invited to celebrate with other
members of the receiving institute with jubilees that year. Many institutes make it a practice of introducing
the member to those who entered the same year, and that group offers a special welcome to the member,
including them in group events and jubilees.
64
If the member chooses not the make profession in the receiving institute, or is not admitted to
profession by the competent Superior in the receiving institute, the member must either return to the
original institute or seek dispensation. The member has the right to return to the original institute, and
the institute has the obligation to accept the returning member, who remains a definitively
incorporated member of that institute. When the member returns, their rights and obligations in the
original institute, which had been suspended during the period of probation, automatically revive.
Experience has shown that in some cases, the original institute is unwilling to accept the
returning member or accepts the member back, but only on a provisional basis.189 Given the animosity
sometimes experienced between the original institute and the transferring member, this unfortunate
situation is not surprising. If this cannot be resolved, the member may consider seeking a dispensation,
or reconsider transfer. In this situation, the receiving institute, the Vicar for Religious or CICLSAL
may be in a position to assist the member who is undoubtedly in a vulnerable state, facing the
disappointment of not completing the transfer, and of not being accepted back into the institute where
he or she rightly belongs.
The member may choose to seek a dispensation. In this case, the member is seeking a
dispensation from the vows in the original institute, and the petition should be made through the
Supreme Moderator of that institute who forwards the request to the Apostolic See, or to the Diocesan
Bishop in the case of an institute of diocesan right.190 The member should also inform the competent
Superior of the receiving institute of the decision to not to continue the transfer process. With the
permission of that Superior, the member may continue to reside in a house of the receiving institute
while the request is being considered. Alternatively, the member has a right to return to the original
institute until the indult is received, or may seek an indult of exclaustration to live away from either
institute during that time.
Particular Transfers
The 1983 Code provides the most detail on transfer of a member to another religious institute,
however the code also treats several other types of transfers that will be discussed here. The first,
treated in Canon 684 §3, is the transfer of a member from one monastery sui iuris to another
monastery of the same institute, federation or confederation; the member is transferring to another
monastery with the same spirituality, the same rule and the same constitutions.191 In this case, the
consent of the major Superior of each monastery is required, along that of the receiving monastery's
chapter.
Canon 684 §3. Ut religiosus a monasterio sui iuris ad aliud eiusdem instituti
vel foederationis aut confoederationis transire possit, requiritur et sufficit
consensus Superioris maioris utriusque monasterii et capituli monasterii
189Hite, Holland, and Ward, A Handbook on Canons 573-746, 225.

190John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 691.
191Elizabeth M. McDonough, “Transfer,” Review for Religious 61, no. 1 (February 2002): 100.
65
recipientis, salvis aliis requisitis iure proprio statutis; nova professio non
requiritur.192
Because the monasteries share the same spirit, rule and constitutions, no new profession is required;
the transfer takes effect from the day the member receives the permissions and takes up residence in
the new monastery. Proper law may however impose further requirements.
An authentic interpretation of this section of Canon 684, given in 1987, states that the word
religiosus in this section refers also to member is temporary vows,193 though rest of Canon 684 applies
to members in perpetual profession only as stated in Canon 684 §1.194 If the member is in temporary
vows, it may happen that those vows expire before the member and the receiving monastery are able
to make a suitable discernment about admission of the member to further profession. Thus it is
important for these monasteries to enter into an agreement regarding this matter as part of their
permission for the member to the transfer. Alternatively the monastery, monastic institute, federation
or confederation may issue norms that may be generally applicable in these cases.
Canon 684 §5 treats the case of a transfer to another type of institute, namely, from a religious
institute to a secular institute or to a society of apostolic life, or from either of these to a religious
institute. Permission for these transfers is still reserved to the Holy See, which will also issue norms to
be followed regarding the procedure of the transfer. Because these transfers are being made from one
type of consecrated life to a different type, there may be more significant differences between the
institutes and societies, and their ways of life. Recourse to the Holy See enables CICLSAL to provide
assistance for institutes in designing an appropriate process for members seeking to transfer. In
addition, it has the further effect of making these transfers more difficult. Although the canon does not
indicate that the permission of the institutes is required, the practice of CICLSAL is to seek this
permission. A member seeking to make such a transfer would request permission from both supreme
moderators, and one of the supreme moderators would forward the member's request and the letters of
both supreme moderators to CICSAL for consideration.195
Canon 684 §5. Ut ad institutum saeculare aut ad societatem vitae

apostolicae vel ex illis ad institutum religiosum fiat transitus, requiritur
licentia Sanctae Sedis, cuius mandatis standum est.196
192John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 684 §3. For a religious to transfer from an autonomous monastery
to another of the same institute or federation or confederation, the consent of the major superior of each
monastery and of the chapter of the receiving monastery is required and is sufficient, without prejudice to
other requirements established by proper law; a new profession is not required.
193Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law, “Utrum verbo 'religiosus',
de quo in can. 684, § 3, intelligatur tantum religiosus a votis perpetuis an etiam religiosus a votis temporariis.
Resp. Negative ad primum, affirmative ad secundum.,” Acta Apostolici Sedes 79 (1987): 1249.
194John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 684 §1. Sodalis a votis perpetuis nequit a proprio ad aliud
institutum religiosum transire....
195Daniel J. Ward and Jane Mitchell, Procedures and Documents for Canonical Separations and Other
Canonical Processes (Washington (D.C.): Leadership Conference of Women Religious, 2001), Tab 10.
196John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 684 - §5. For a transfer to be made to a secular institute or a
society of apostolic life or from them to a religious institute, permission of the Holy See is required, whose
mandates must be observed.
66
Canon 730 provides that for transfer between two secular institutes, the provisions of Canons
684 §§1, 2, 4 and 685 are followed. However as was seen above, for transfer to a different type of
consecrated life, permission of the Apostolic See is required.
Canon 730 - Ut sodalis instituti saecularis ad aliud institutum saeculare

transeat, serventur praescripta cann. 684, §§1, 2, 4 et 685; ut vero ad
institutum religiosum vel ad societatem vitae apostolicae aut ex illis ad
institutum saeculare fiat transitus, licentia requiritur Sedis Apostolicae,
cuius mandatis standum est.197
Canon 744 treats the transfer between Societies of Apostolic Life in a similar manner. However,
it does not simply refer to the canons on transfer between religious institutes, but establishes a simpler
norm, namely that the rights and obligations in the first institute are suspended until the member is
definitively incorporated into the new institute. There is neither a provision for probation, nor a
minimum time period before definitive incorporation. This would be left to the proper law of the
Societies or to the agreement between the supreme moderators; it may be incorporated into the letter
of permission to transfer. Societies may find guidance in the canons on transfer between religious
institutes, which they are not obliged to follow, and may also look to their own norms on formation
and incorporation into the institute, which also do not apply, but may be used for guidance.
Canon 744 - §1. Supremo quoque Moderatori cum consensu sui consilii
pariter reservatur licentiam concedere sodali definitive incorporato ad
aliam societatem vitae apostolicae transeundi, suspensis interim iuribus et
obligationibus propriae societatis, firmo tamen iure redeundi ante
definitivam incorporationem in novam societatem.198
As was seen above, for transfer between different types of consecrated life, namely to or from
an institute of consecrated life, religious or secular, the permission of the Holy See is required.
Canon 744 - §2. Ut transitus fiat ad institutum vitae consecratae vel ex eo

ad societatem vitae apostolicae, licentia requiritur Sanctae Sedis, cuius
mandatis standum est.199
No norms are given for transfer of a member from an institute of consecrated life or a society of
apostolic life to or from the life of a hermit as described in Canon 603 or a consecrated virgin as
described in Canon 604. Some religious institutes have a practice of some of their members living an
197Ibid., Canon 730 In order for a member of a secular institute to transfer to another secular institute, the
prescripts of cann. 684, §§1, 2, 4, and 685 are to be observed; moreover, for transfer to be made to a religious
institute or to a society of apostolic life or from them to a secular institute, the permission of the Apostolic
See is required, whose mandates must be observed.
198Ibid., Canon 744 - §1. It is equally reserved to the supreme moderator with the consent of the council to grant
permission for a definitively incorporated member to transfer to another society of apostolic life; the rights
and obligations proper to the society are suspended in the meantime, without prejudice to the right of
returning before definitive incorporation in the new society.
199Ibid., Canon 744 - §2. Transfer to an institute of consecrated life or from one to a society of apostolic life
requires the permission of the Holy See, whose mandates must be observed.
67
eremitic life within the institute, in a manner regulated by their proper law. However the hermit
described in Canon 603 is an individual who is dedicated to the consecrated life through profession of
the evangelical counsels in the hands of the diocesan Bishop and lives according to his or her own
program of life, under the direction of the bishop.
Canon 603 §2. Eremita, uti Deo deditus in vita consecrata, iure agnoscitur
si tria evangelica consilia, voto vel alio sacro ligamine firmata, publice
profiteatur in manu Episcopi dioecesani et propriam vivendi rationem sub
ductu eiusdem servet.200
The consecrated virgin, on the other hand, does not profess the evangelical counsels, but is
consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop and dedicated to service of the church.
Can. 604 §1. Hisce vitae consecratae formis accedit ordo virginum quae,
sanctum propositum emittentes Christum pressius sequendi, ab Episcopo
dioecesano iuxta probatum ritum liturgicum Deo consecrantur, Christo Dei
Filio mystice desponsantur et Ecclesiae servitio dedicantur.201
Both of these forms of consecrated life involve individual life commitments whose details are worked
out in the particular situation by the person and the diocesan bishop. A person who wishes to move
between one of these individual forms of consecrated life and an institute or society, would be taking
on a distinctly different commitment. While there may be elements in common, a substantially
different type of screening and formation would be required; there is currently no provision in law for
this type of transfer. Profession as a hermit or consecration as virgin is not mentioned in the Code as
an impediment to entrance into novitiate or subsequent profession. However, religious profession in a
particular institute would supplant the program of life formerly embraced. A hermit or virgin would
certainly be required to notify his or her bishop before entrance into a religious institute, and particular
elements of the life may be suspended during formation in the institute, or may be dispensed. A
member of an institute or society would require a dispensation in order to take up the life of a hermit
or consecrated virgin as described in Canons 603 and 604.
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches

The Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches treats the matter of transfer of a member to
another monastery or another institute of consecrated life in several sections. As with the Latin Code, a
distinction is made between transfer from one monastery to another, and transfer between distinct
religious institutes. In the East, monasticism is historically the only form of religious life, with some
more recent foundations following the Western model of religious congregations.
200Ibid., Canon 603 §2. 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, confirmed by vow or
other sacred bond, and observes their own program of life under his direction.
201Ibid., Can. 604 §1. Similar to these forms of consecrated life is the order of virgins who, expressing the holy
resolution of following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to the
approved liturgical rite, are mystically betrothed to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of
the Church.
68
It is essential to see monasticism not as an 'establishment' but as a living
movement in the church that we have to rip free from the narrowing,
immobilizing western concept of 'religious orders; a movement, a stream of
living water that springs straight out of the wellspring of the gospel and
keeps flowing int he bed of holy tradition. ... a world-wide contemplative
movement.202
For this reason, the concept of distinct monastic orders or religious orders, which is very
familiar in the West, is seen as somewhat puzzling in the East where all monasticism is seen as rooted
in the Gospel – the primary monastic rule is the Gospel itself. Monasteries establish a typikon for the
good ordering of life and temporalities. However, a distinct spiritual patrimony of an institute is
foreign to the tradition of Eastern monasticism. Traditionally, all monasteries were seen as part of a
single monastic movement, beginning in apostolic times, and constituting a certain 'apostolic
succession,' a living link between the early Church to our own day, parallel to the apostolic succession
of bishops.203 Despite the unity of monasticism, over time stability within a particular monastery came
to be valued.
Stability of monks ... is part of the constant tradition. ... However, as

experience has shown, circumstances, and personal or environmental factors
can exist, which advise transfer to another monastery instead.204
The treatment of transfer to another monastery by the early councils of the Church was
recounted in Chapter One above. This early legislation came from the East and reflected the Eastern
experience of monasticism.
The legislative predecessor of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches was a series of
documents issued motu proprio during the Twentieth Century; the norms on religious life were found
in Postquam Apostolicis Litteris,205 issued in 1952 by Pope Pius XII. The norms on transfer found in
that document were more lenient that those found in the 1917 Code. The document granted patriarchs
permission to allow transfers between monasteries sui iuris within patriarchal or eparchal
territory.206 The drafters of the 1990 Code considered adopting the provisions of the 1983 Code, but
finally decided to retain the provisions of Postquam Apostolicis since they were more in keeping with
Eastern ecclesiology with its close relationship between the patriarch and monasticism.
Transfer to another monastery is treated in the section on monastic life in canon 487 on
conditions of transfer and canon 488 on the process of transfer.207 The provisions are similar to those
discussed in Latin Canon 684 §3 on transfer to another sui iuris monastery. While in the West, there is
202Boniface Luykx, Eastern Monasticism and the Future of the Church (Redwood Valley, CA: Holy
Transfiguration Monastery, 1993), 31.
203Ibid., 57.
204J Abbass, “Transfer to another Religious Institute in the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches,”
Commentarium Pro Religiosis et Missionariis LXXIX, no. 1 (1998): 129.
205Pius XII, Postquam Apostolicis Litteris, 9 February 1952. AAS 44 (1952) 65-152.
206Abbass, “Transfer to another Religious Institute in the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches,” 128.
207John Paul II and Canon Law Society of America, Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches: New English
Translation, Latin-English ed. (Washington, D.C: Canon Law Society of America, 2001).
69
an authentic interpretation extending Canon 684 §3 to members in temporary vows, the Eastern Code
'seems to have in mind' perpetually professed monastics.208 The transfer requires the permission of the
president of the confederation of monasteries. If the two monasteries are in different confederations,
permission is required from the president of each of the confederations involved. The permission of
the patriarch and that of the president of the confederation to which a monastic transfers can only be
granted after consulting the superior of the monastery sui iuris from which the member is transferring.
Canon 487 §4 states that if the transfer involves the transfer of a member to another Church Sui Iuris,
permission of the Apostolic See is required, this is in accord with the provisions of the canons on
ascription to a Church Sui Iuris.209 Consent of the synaxis (equivalent to the monastic chapter in the
West) is required as well. The transfer is complete when the superior admits the member to the
monastery, having first obtained this consent.210
Canon 488 discusses the process of transfer to another monastery sui iuris. No new novitiate or
new profession is required. Instead, from the day of admittance into the new monastery, the rights and
obligations in the former monastery are dissolved and those of the new monastery begin. A cleric is
also ascribed to the monastery from that day. If the transfer is to a monastery of a different
confederation, the typikon of that monastery may require a new novitiate and profession, or the
superior may require a period probation, for not more than one year. If the member transfers to a
religious congregation, the norms of Canons 544-545 are followed. The final section of the canon
determines the distribution of goods between the monasteries, following the provisions of the 1917
Code and of Postquam Apostolicis, the dowry follows the member, and the goods earned while the
member was in the first institute stay with that institute.211
208Abbass, “Transfer to another Religious Institute in the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches,” 128.
209John Paul II and Canon Law Society of America, Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Canons 29-41.
210John Paul II and Canon Law Society of America, Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. Canon 487 - §1.
Sodalis non potest transire a monasterio sui iuris ad aliud eiusdem confoederationis sine consensu scripto
dato Praesidis confoederationis. §2. Ad transitum a monasterio non confoederato ad aliud monasterium
eidem auctoritati subiectum requiritur consensus eiusdem auctoritatis; si vero monasterium, ad quod
transitus fit, alii auctoritati subiectum est, requiritur etiam consensus huius auctoritatis. §3. Patriarcha,
Episcopus eparchialis et Praeses confoederationis hunc consensum dare non possunt nisi consulto Superiore
monasterii sui iuris, a quo transitus fit. §4. Ad validitatem transitus ad monasterium alterius Ecclesiae sui
iuris requiritur insuper consensus Sedis Apostolicae. §5. Transitus fit admissione a Superiore novi
monasterii sui iuris de consensu Synaxis concessa.Canon 487 - §1. Sodalis non potest transire a monasterio
sui iuris ad aliud eiusdem confoederationis sine consensu scripto dato Praesidis confoederationis. §2. Ad
transitum a monasterio non confoederato ad aliud monasterium eidem auctoritati subiectum requiritur
consensus eiusdem auctoritatis; si vero monasterium, ad quod transitus fit, alii auctoritati subiectum est,
requiritur etiam consensus huius auctoritatis. §3. Patriarcha, Episcopus eparchialis et Praeses
confoederationis hunc consensum dare non possunt nisi consulto Superiore monasterii sui iuris, a quo
transitus fit. §4. Ad validitatem transitus ad monasterium alterius Ecclesiae sui iuris requiritur insuper
consensus Sedis Apostolicae. §5. Transitus fit admissione a Superiore novi monasterii sui iuris de consensu
Synaxis concessa.
211Ibid. Canon 488 §1. Transiens ad aliud monasterium sui iuris eiusdem confoederationis nec novitiatum
peragit nec novam professionem emittit et a die transitus amittit iura et solvitur ab obligationibus prioris
monasterii, alterius iura et obligationes suscipit et, si clericus est, eidem etiam ut clericus ascribitur. §2.
Transiens a monasterio sui iuris ad aliud monasterium sui iuris ad nullam vel ad diversam confoederationem
pertinens servet praescripta typici monasterii, ad quod fit transitus, circa obligationem peragendi novitiatum
70
The 1983 Code provides for a probationary period, rather than a new novitiate, thus eliminating
the conflict of a person being a definitively professed religious and a novice at the same time, which
was the norm under the 1917 Code. In the Eastern canons on transfer between monasteries, the
possibility of that conflict remains. It also remains in the canons on transfer to a religious order or
congregation, though the novitiate can be reduced to as short as six months.
Canon 544 establishes the conditions for transfer to another religious order or congregation. If
made within the territorial boundaries of a patriarchal Church, such a transfer requires the permission
of the patriarch, the superior general of each order or congregation, and the consent of the respective
council, or synaxis in the case of a monastery. If the transfer is between congregations of eparchal
right, the eparchal bishop can give permission, with the consultation of the superior general a quo and
the consent of the superior general or monastic superior ad quem, with the prior consent of their
council or synaxis. Other transfers require the consent of the Apostolic See.212
Canon 545 gives the norms on the process of transfer. A member must repeat the entire
novitiate, the term of which can be reduced, but not to less than six months. The vows remain, but
rights and obligations are suspended, as in Canon 685 §1 of the 1983 Code. After novitiate, the
member makes a new profession and is definitively incorporated into the receiving congregation.
However, if the member was in temporary vows, a new temporary profession is made, lasting at least
three years, unless the member completed an entire novitiate of three years in the receiving institute. If
the member does not make profession, he or she returns to the former institute, unless vows have
expired. This canon incorporates the provisions of Canon 488, §4 regarding goods and dowry.213
et emittendi professionem; si vero in typico de re non cavetur, nec novitiatum peragit nec novam
professionem emittit, sed effectus transitus locum habent a die, quo transitus fit, nisi Superior monasterii ab
eo exigit, ut aliquod tempas non ultra annum experimenti causa in monasterio transigat; transacto
experimenti tempore aut a Superiore de consensu sui consilii vel Synaxis ad normam typici stabiliter novo
monasterio ascribatur aut ad pristinum monasterium redeat. §3. In transitu a monasterio sui iuris ad
ordinem vel congregationem serventur congrua congruis referendo cann. 544 et 545. §4. Monasterium sui
iuris, a quo sodalis discedit, bona servat, quae ipsius sodalis ratione iam ei quaesita sunt; quod spectat ad
dotem, ea debetur sine fructibus iam maturis a die transitus monasterio, ad quod transitus fit.
212Ibid. Canon 544 §1. Intra fines territorii Ecclesiae patriarchalis sodalis ad aliud institutum religiosum
valide transire potest de consensu scripto dato Patriarchae et de consensu proprii Superioris generalis et
Superioris generalis ordinis vel congregationis, ad quem transire vult, aut, si de transitu ad monasterium
agitur, Superioris monasterii sui iuris; ad hunc consensum praestandum Superiores indigent praevio
consensu sui consilii vel, si de monasterio agitur, Synaxis.§2. Sodalis valide transire potest a congregatione
iuris eparchialis ad aliud institutum religiosum iuris eparchialis de consensu scripto dato Episcopi
eparchialis loci, ubi est domus princeps instituti religiosi, ad quod fit transitus, consulto Superiore generali
congregationis, a qua fit transitus, et consentiente Superiore generali congregationis aut Superiore
monasterii sui iuris, ad quod fit transitus; ad hunc consensum praestandum Superiores indigent praevio
consensu sui consilii vel, si de monasterio agitur, Synaxis.§3. Ceteris in casibus sodalis non potest ad aliud
institutum religiosum valide transire nisi de consensu Sedis Apostolicae.§4. Ad validitatem transitus ad
institutum religiosum alterius Ecclesiae sui iuris requiritur consensus Sedis Apostolicae.
213Ibid. Canon 545 §1. Transiens novitiatum ex toto peragere debet, nisi Superior generalis vel Superior
monasterii sui iuris, uterque de consensu sui consilii, tempus novitiatus ob specialia adiuncta reducit, sed non
infra sex menses; novitiatu durante manentibus votis iura et obligationes particulares, quae sodalis in priore
ordine vel congregatione habuit, suspensa sunt et ipse Superioribus et magistro novitiorum novi instituti
religiosi subest etiam vi voti oboedientiae.§2. Post peractum novitiatum transiens, qui iam professus a votis
71
Canon 562 treats transfers to another society of living in common according to the manner of
religious. In this case, a member needs permission of the society a quo. A member transferring to a
religious institute makes the entire novitiate. If the member is moving to a different Church Sui Iuris
permission of the Apostolic See is also required.214
The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches treats the matter of transfer in a manner distinct
from the 1983 Code, this is principally because of the distinct position of consecrated life in the
ecclesiology of the Eastern Churches and the more natural recourse to hierarch in matters of
importance. Also, because celibacy is required of hierarchs and not of all clerics, many hierarchs are
drawn from monasteries, thus have a more personal understanding of the issues involved in the
transfer of a member. These canons are of concern to Western religious institutes only if a member
seeks to transfer between an Eastern monastery, order or congregation and a Western institute or
society. In this case, these norms will be applicable.
PROPER LAW
Constitutions and Directory

Canon 684 §4 states that the institute's own law is to determine the time and method of
probation, though the period must be at least three years as specified in canon 684 §2. The 1917 Code
provided more detail regarding the procedure for transfer; the member made a new novitiate, which
followed the requirements of universal law and the proper law of the institute. Some details of
financial arrangements between the institutes were also specified in the 1917 Code. The 1983 Code
leaves all this to the proper law of the institute; it may be found in the constitutions, in the secondary
document or in policies of the institute. These procedure for transfer should include the requirements
for admission, the length of the period, the director of the probation, the method of introducing the
member to life and mission of the new institute, the method of evaluation of the member and the
procedure for admission to vows, the requirements to be met, the financial arrangements, the
guidelines for residence and ministry, and the rights and obligations of the member, etc.
This section will examine the provisions in the proper law of selected institutes. Institutes may
provide some norms in their constitutions, but these provisions usually simply refer to the Code of
perpetuis est, publice professionem perpetuam emittat secundum praescripta statutorum novi instituti
religiosi, qua professione novo instituto plene aggregatur et, si clericus est, ei etiam ut clericus ascribitur; qui
vero adhuc professus a votis temporariis est, eodem modo professionem temporariam emittat saltem per
triennium duraturam, nisi totum triennium novitiatus in monasterio sui iuris, ad quod transit, peregit.§3. Si in
novo instituto religioso sodalis professionem non emittit, ad pristinum redire debet, nisi interim tempus
professionis elapsum est.§4. Circa bona et dotem servetur can. 488, §4.
214Ibid. Canon 562 §1. Circa transitum ad aliam societatem vitae communis ad instar religiosorum vel
institutum religiosum requiritur consensus Superioris generalis societatis, a qua transitus fit, et, si de
transitu ad societatem vel institutum alterius Ecclesiae sui iuris agitur, etiam consensus Sedis
Apostolicae.§2. Sodalis, qui transit ad institutum religiosum, integrum novitiatum peragere debet et ceteris
novitiis eiusdem instituti aequiparatur; circa professionem standum est statutis novi instituti.
72
Canon Law without further comment. More information is found in the statutes, directory or in other
policies of the institutes.
Guidance for the requirements of the period of probation may be found in the canons on the
novitiate and in the institute's proper law on initial formation. Most of the canon on the requirements
of novitiate deals with matters of consecrated life and spirituality in general; the transferring member
is already familiar with these matters. Therefore the primary focus for the period of probation should
be on the unique character and spirit of the receiving institute: de instituti indole et spiritu, fine et
disciplina, historia et vita edoceantur.215
Constitutions of twenty-two religious institutes were examined to determine the treatment of
transfer in these documents. Eighteen of these were from women's institutes, four were from men's
institutes; half were monastic institutes, six of which were contemplative institutes. Of the group,
eleven of these documents had no provision on transfer. The other eleven either repeated some of the
requirements of Canons 684 and 685 or simply stated that universal law is followed in the matter of
transfer of a member to another religious institute.
Constitutions of some institutes contained additional requirements in either the constitution or in
the secondary code. Some institutes require further permissions. All the monastic institutes require, in
addition to the permission of the supreme moderator, the permission of the superior of the specific
monastery to which the member is transferring, with the consent of the council and the monastic
chapter. One institute requires the permission of the provincial with the consent of the council for
admission to profession.216
One monastic institute has detailed provisions. For transfers from another religious institute, in
addition to the permission of the supreme moderator of the original institute and the abbot president of
the receiving monastery, the abbot, council and chapter of the receiving monastery must consent to the
transfer. The consent of the receiving chapter is again sought at the end of the probationary period,
before admission to monastic profession. In addition, a serious reason is required, whereas Canon 684
CLSA, 1983), Canon 652 §2. Novitii ad virtutes humanas et christianas excolendas adducantur; per
orationem et sui abnegationem in pleniorem perfectionis viam introducantur; ad mysterium salutis
contemplandum et sacras Scripturas legendas et meditandas instruantur; ad Dei cultum in sacra liturgia
excolendum praeparentur; rationem addiscant vitam ducendi Deo hominibusque in Christo per consilia
evangelica consecratam; de instituti indole et spiritu, fine et disciplina, historia et vita edoceantur atque
amore erga Ecclesiam eiusque sacros Pastores imbuantur. Canon 652 §2. Novices are to be led to cultivate
human and Christian virtues; through prayer and self-denial they are to be introduced to a fuller way of
perfection; they are to be taught to contemplate the mystery of salvation and to read and meditate on the
sacred scriptures; they are to be prepared to cultivate the worship of God in the sacred liturgy; they are to
learn a manner of leading a life consecrated to God and humanity in Christ through the evangelical counsels;
they are to be instructed regarding the character and spirit, the purpose and discipline, the history and life of
the institute; and they are to be imbued with love for the Church and its sacred pastors.
216“Constitutions of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and of the Contemplative Sisters
of the Good Shepherd,” 1987, n. 74.
73
§1 does not speak of a reason, but merely requires the permission of the supreme moderators with their
respective councils. Presumably a just reason would suffice.217
The length of the probationary period is treated by some constitutions. One institute stated that
the probationary period must be three years, and additionally stated that it could not go beyond five
years.218 Another institute stated that the probation was always four years, and gave no provision for
how that period might be shortened or lengthened.219
The monastic constitutions had more detailed provisions on transfer to another monastery of the
same institute, and only limited provisions on transfer to another institute. One institute referred in its
constitution to the further permission from the Apostolic See which is necessary for members of
Secular Institutes or Societies of Apostolic Life.220 Three of the institutes had provisions in their
secondary document. One stated that in the matter of jubilees, the total years in both institutes are
counted.221 Another institute's directory referenced articles on the requirements for entrance into
novitiate, stating that members seeking to transfer mus also meet these requirements.222 Another
institute's directory had detailed provisions on the procedure for transfer.223
Policies and Agreements

Having examined universal and proper law on transfer, the next section will examine policies on
transfer and agreements that are or should be made between institutes when a member transfers. Some
institutes have established policies on transfer; these are often only stated in general terms, leaving the
details of the transfer to be worked out in each individual case. Even if details are worked out in a
particular case, there should be an indication of areas of concern to be treated in such an agreement.
These topics include the application and screening process; the length of the transfer process, and
guidelines on the rituals marking the beginning and ending of the process; those responsible for the
process, and their responsibilities; guidelines on information to be covered and experiences expected
in the transfer process; evaluation of the member and procedure to admit the member to profession;
living arrangements for the member; and prayer, ministry and financial arrangements.
217Swiss-American Congregation of Benedictine Monasteries, The Constitutions and the Directory, 2008, C 41
2) For a serious reason a member of another religious institute in perpetual vows may transfer to a monastery
of our Congregation. This is granted by the supreme moderator of that institute with the consent of his
council and by the abbot president of this Congregation with the consent of the abbot of the receiving
monastery and his council and of the chapter of the receiving monastery. After completing a probationary
period of three years, the transferring religious may be admitted to solemn profession as a monk of the
receiving monastery. Consent of the chapter of the receiving monastery is again necessary at least at the end
of the probationary period (CIC 684.1-2).
218“Constitutions of the Sisters of Saint Mary of the Third Order of Saint Francis,” 1984, n. 163.
219“Rule and Constitutions of the Discalced Nuns of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel,”
1991, n. 189.
220Ibid.
221“Constitutions of the Sisters of Saint Mary of the Third Order of Saint Francis,” n. 163.1.
222“Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” 1982, n. 130.
223“Constitution of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet,” 1984, 85 A-J.
74
Application: A member considering transfer will generally have an initial period of inquiry,
exploration and discernment before any formal application is made. This may occur in the ordinary
course of life as the member encounters members of the receiving community in ministry, or in an
inter-community living situation. Once the member begins seriously considering transfer, he or she
may seek more specific information about the institute and its openness to receiving members in
transfer. At this time, it is important that specific, clear information be given to assist the member in
ongoing discernment. The institute's leadership or vocation/formation directors are usually responsible
for this phase. The formal application is generally similar to the application process required for
members entering initial formation; a member provides information about his or her life, education
and ministry; medical and psychological assessments are generally required. Certificates of baptism
and confirmation will be available from the original institute. Proof of freedom to enter the institute
may be presumed since the member is still bound by vows, and other impediments may be presumed
absent.224 Recommendations from the member's original institute may be helpful, however, due to the
experience of some who have experienced difficulty with the original institute, this should be
considered in light of circumstances. All the information provided should assist in determining if the
member possesses the health, character and maturity for life in the particular institute: ad vitam
instituti propriam amplectendam.225 In addition, the screening process assists the member and the
institute in discerning whether the mission and character of the new institute provide a more integral
expression of the member's vocation and spirituality.226
Time: Canon 684 sets the period of probation at a minimum of three years; it sets no maximum,
but justice demands that the time not be unduly delayed. Further specification of the time may be
found in an institute's proper law.
Some institutes provide a pre-probation period, which may be obligatory or optional. This
period of time may allow the individual and the institute to become better acquainted before the formal
period of probation begins. However, the member's status during this period is legally ambiguous. The
member remains a definitively incorporated member of the original institute, while living in the
receiving institute. Some original institutes are reluctant to grant their members permission to live in
this ambiguous state, indeed some original institutes insist on granting the member an indult of
exclaustration during the time of this pre-probationary period. This latter practice seems inappropriate
because the very name implies that the member is living outside of religious life, whereas a member in
a non-canonical pre-probationary period would be still be living religious life, though in the house of
another institute.227 This non-canonical pre-probationary period seems somewhat analogous to the
period of postulancy, candidacy or pre-novitiate required of members in initial formation. However, a
transferring member has already spent a significant period of time in religious life, an average of 24
years,228 obviating the need for time to adapt to living in community. In addition, under the 1917 Code
224John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canons 641-645.

226“Constitution of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet,” n. 85.
227T.C. Anslow, “"Pre-Probationary" Period for Transfer between Institutes,” Roman Replies (2005): 70.
228See discussion of transfer survey results, Chapter II above.
75
which required a transferring member to repeat the novitiate, most commentators held that a
postulancy was not appropriate and could not be added to the required novitiate.229 The pre-
probationary period is analogous and should not be required. Because the probationary period can be
arranged according to the time and method of the receiving institute, the institute may provide that the
first year of the probationary period be more tentative in nature and be dedicated to orientation of the
member. The next two or three or more years would then be designed to accomplish the rest of the
transfer program.
Some question whether the transferring member is to be considered a member of the receiving
institute during the period of probation, or if they are analogous to a novice or temporary professed.
The member is in a unique position of being a definitively professed member of the original religious
institute who is formally engaged in a process of becoming a member of the receiving institute.
Calling the person a member or non-member is a conclusion which carries consequences; it is more
appropriate to describe the person as a vowed member in transfer, and to enumerate the consequences
of that status.
The Code states that the member's vows remain, and the member is bound to live according to
the proper law of the receiving institute, while their rights and obligations in the original institute are
suspended. The rights and obligations of the member during this period should be determined by the
proper law and policies of the receiving institute. Because they are bound by the obligations of that
law, it may be assumed that they have some of the rights of members, however, it is for the receiving
institute to determine which rights those are, e.g. the right to live in a house of the institute and the
right to all that is necessary to live out the vocation proper to the institute according to its
constitutions.230 Active and passive voice in canonical gatherings may be reserved to definitively
incorporated members of the institute, but a vowed member in transfer may have the right to
participate in community gatherings and local house meetings.
The period of transfer begins when the member has obtained permission from the two supreme
moderators, or at some other agreed-upon time; it ends officially with the new perpetual profession of
the member in the receiving institute, or with return to the original institute or departure from religious
life altogether. Both the beginning and end of the process are appropriately celebrated, with the focus
being on the new perpetual profession which is generally marked with the rite of religious profession.
Formation: Some institutes' policies have detailed provisions regarding organization of the
formation for the probationary period. A member of the institute is appointed as director or companion
to the member in transfer, with the responsibilities of meeting regularly with the transferring member
and assisting in the organization of the probationary period. Regular evaluations are made by the
member, by the director, often by the local community where the member is living, and by one or
more members of the leadership team.
Topics covered in classes and meetings focus on those subjects particular to the receiving
institute, its history, life, prayer and ministry. Because the member is familiar with consecrated life, it
229Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 133.

230John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canons 665 and 670.
76
is generally inappropriate to follow the complete program of initial formation. However, it may be
helpful to participate in those parts of the program that address the proper law of the institute, its
spirituality and its particular way of living community and doing ministry. In addition, each institute
has its particular way of living the vows, particularly poverty and obedience, which should be
explained to the member. The survey results, reported in Chapter II above, indicate that transferring
members most appreciated discussions of these topics with members of the receiving institute, either
in their local community or in other groups gathered for this purpose.
In addition to information about the receiving institute, the program should have an experiential
element to facilitate the member's spiritual and social integration with the receiving institute. This
aspect of the program is often the particular responsibility of the local community where the member
lives during the probationary period. This community may have regular discussions with the member
on aspects of the institute's life, spirituality, mission and history. They may also participate as a group
in programs offered by the institute on its life and spirituality. In addition, the local community may be
involved in regular evaluations of the member. Transferring members report that they found it helpful
when the entire local community evaluated its life together, in addition to evaluating the integration of
the transferring member into that life.
A major purpose of the period of probation is the ongoing discernment of the member and the
receiving institute about their mutual suitability. Information gathered and experience gained during
this time will assist this discernment, but it is not a replacement for the discernment process itself. In
addition, the probationary process is not a way to completely integrate the member into the receiving
institute. Some who have transferred experienced a strong feeling of belonging very early in the
process. For others, it took many years before they felt a deep sense of connection with the new
institute.231 Integration takes time, sensitivity and respect. In the course of the probationary period, the
institute or the member may determine that the transfer is not appropriate. In this case, the member
may need additional time to choose their next step. This will require patience and wisdom on the part
of the director or companion, and the leadership of both institutes. It is also important to remember
that full integration into the new institute is a lifelong process. The probationary period should allow
the member and the institute to make a confident choice to request admission to perpetual profession,
and to admit the member. But it is to be expected that the member will continue to grow in their
vocation and integration into the institute throughout their life.
In addition to orientation to the spiritual patrimony of the receiving institute, the member may
need other assistance during the process of transfer. Most members benefit from spiritual direction,
many find counseling helpful as well; some members have found classes in spirituality or theology to
be useful, others who are changing ministry may need professional updating. However, some members
find the adjustment to a new life, new community and perhaps a new ministry to be so demanding that
they would not benefit from this assistance during the probationary period. A needs assessment,
carried out in the first year of the probationary period, may help to balance the program to be as
helpful as possible for the member and for the institute.
231See Chapter Two above, especially the section Experience of Transfer on page 39 and following.
77
Life, Prayer and Ministry: The member will generally live in a house of the receiving
institute, sharing life and prayer with the members of that community. This is a significant part of the
member's orientation to the receiving institute. It is important that this community be chosen with care
and that the community be given some orientation to the nature of the transfer process and the
responsibilities of the local community in the probationary period. Generally, members who transfer
are in full time ministry and maintain full time ministry through most or all of the probationary period.
This means that all the requirements of the program must be met outside the ministry schedule and the
participation in a local community. This should be kept in mind in developing the program.
Financial Matters: Financial matters are often not treated in detail in policies on transfer. As
long as nothing unexpected arises, this may be acceptable, however, the failure to discuss financial
matters may allow the two institutes and the member to unwittingly have different assumptions about
the appropriate treatment income and assets. This can give rise to misunderstandings and conflict,
which could have been avoided by communicating the expectations openly.
The 1917 Code had some provisions on finances that can be used as guidelines for the financial
arrangements for the transferring member. Under that code, dowry and patrimony remained the
property of the member, but the original institute held them until the member was definitively
incorporated into the receiving institute at which time they were given to the receiving institute. All
goods earned by the member while a member of the original institute remained with that institute.232
Thus some goods followed the member, and some goods remained with the original institute. Two
modern issues may be evaluated in the light of the principles underlying the 1917 Code, namely
pension and royalties. Pension is generally considered earned during a person's work, therefore if a
member earned a pension while in the original institute, that institute may have a claim to it. However,
the person earns title to the pension, but does not actually have possession of it until retirement.
Pensions generally follow the person, and in equity, a person who comes to the receiving institute later
in life will need support for their later years. Thus the pension rightly remains with the member who
moves into the new institute. On the other hand, the original institute may rightly claim royalties that
are earned from creative work done while the member was in that institute. Even if creative works
have not been published when the member transfers, income from these works belongs to the first
institute. However, the case of unfinished works is less clear. All of this, and other issues particular to
the member, should be the subject of written agreement between the institutes and the member. It may
be that there is an interim agreement, while the member is in the probationary period, with a final
resolution indicated when the process is complete.
The beginning of the transfer process may have costs associated with screening and application,
and with travel. While screening and application costs are generally born by the receiving institute, the
other costs may be born by the original institute, depending on circumstances.
Renunciation of goods for a member who transfers is a complex issue that has been variously
treated over the centuries, and a variety of practices were in place under the 1917 Code.233 Those
232Pii X pontificis maximi iussu digestus Benedicti papae XV auctoritate promulgatus, Codex Iuris Canonici,
636.
233Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 195ff.
78
goods that were renounced while the member was in the original institute remain with that institute, if
the institute allowed ownership of goods, the goods will follow the member into the new institute.
Once the member is fully incorporated into the receiving institute, if it is one of complete renunciation,
the member must make the complete renunciation of all goods, including those acquired during the
time the member was in the former institute. If the receiving institute is not one of complete
renunciation, once the member is fully incorporated, the proper law of the receiving institute binds the
member.
During the period of probation, the treatment of goods is less clear, particularly if one institute
has complete renunciation and the other does not. For the reasons discussed above,234 complete
renunciation is suspended during the period of probation. Therefore the person is able to acquire the
goods, but disposition of the goods depends on where the member is at the end of the probation. If the
member ends up in an institute with the obligation of renunciation, that obligation applies and the
goods must be renounced. If the member is in an institute without the obligation of renunciation, the
member cedes administration, or may renounce the goods under that institute's proper law. If the
member makes profession in the new institute, the goods are treated according to that institute's proper
law. In the interim, the member should cede administration in accord with Canon 668 §1.
Under Canon 668 §1, a member must cede administration to goods that are possessed. The
member may change this cession document in the probationary period with the permission of the
competent superior. Because the proper law of the receiving institute binds the member, the competent
superior would be the one designated under that institute's proper law.235 Institutes that permit but do
not require complete renunciation, generally allow a member to make such an act only after a period
of time in the institute, to ensure the act is made after mature reflection. A member in the period of
probation is in a particularly vulnerable state, and it would be ill advised for such a member to choose
to renounce goods during that time. Such an act could not be made validly under the constitutions of
the receiving institute because the member is not definitively incorporated, nor under the law of the
original institute, because the member's rights and obligations in that institute are suspended.
The income and support of the member should be a matter of agreement between the institutes.
Under the 1917 Code, the member was required to remake the novitiate and therefore was not
productive during that period. For this reason, the 1917 Code stated that the receiving institute had the
right to a just compensation for the cost of supporting the member during the novitiate. In the current
situation, no new novitiate is required, and members are generally in full time ministry during the
period of their probation. Generally the income acquired for the institute goes to the receiving institute,
whose proper law binds the member and the receiving institute also supports the member. In those
cases in which a member is unable to support himself or herself, an agreement must be made between
the institutes.
Responsibility for health insurance and major medical care depends on particular circumstances.
If health insurance is available through the member's ministry, this can continue; if the member is part
234See discussion of complete renunciation in the section on Manentibus Votis on page 58 above.
235Ibid., 222.
79
of a plan of the original institute, this should continue until the member transfers vows. Particular facts
and circumstances may, however, advise an alternative solution to this issue. The care of the member,
including major medical expenses remain the ultimate responsibility of the original institute, until the
member is definitively incorporated into the receiving institute. However, the receiving institute may
agree to take on some or all of these expenses in a particular case.
CIVIL LAW
The transfer of a member to another religious institute is primarily a matter of personal response
to one's vocation. The canonical requirements, both in universal law and in the law of the institutes,
seek to provide a framework to ensure due consideration is given to the seriousness of such a move, to
protect the rights of the member and of the institutes, and to provide for the orderly movement of the
member from one institute to the other. Civil law is not directly involved in ordering this process,
however there are civil law consequences when a member transfers from one institute to another.
This section will examine several civil law issues that are raised when members transfer to
another religious institute, focusing on civil law of the United States, both federal law and state law.
There is some difference in the law of the several states, for this reason state issues are treated here in
a general way. The first issue to be addressed is the position of the member vis-à-vis the institutes.
Following from this discussion, certain civil law effects of this will be discussed, including support
and remuneration, liability, insurance, tax and social security, and retirement. Finally, civil law
documents necessary during the transfer process will be discussed.
The position of the member with respect to the institute in civil law depends on the nature of the
institute and its civil law documents. In the United States, it is common for religious institutes to
establish one of two types of civil corporations. One is a general non-profit or church corporation,
depending on the jurisdiction; the other is a membership corporation. In most monastic institutes,
where important decisions require the approval of the monastic chapter, the civil corporation is often
established as a membership corporation in which all members of the monastic chapter (generally, all
the definitively professed members of the monastery), are members of the civil corporation. In this
model, certain powers are reserved to the corporate members; these powers closely parallel those
decisions that require the approval of the monastic chapter in proper law. Most apostolic institutes use
a general non-profit or church corporation without a membership board; the corporate directors and
officers are the canonical leadership of the institute,236 but the members of the institute at large have no
legal connection to the civil corporation. The study discussed in Chapter Two above indicates that the
majority of members have transferred to this later type of institute; therefore the succeeding discussion
will focus on this model.
236Amy Hereford, “Requirements for Corporation Documents of Religious Orders,” Legal Bulletin 78 (2004):
11-20. Canonical leadership may be ex officio the officers and directors of the corporation, or the corporate
directors may be 'self-perpetuating,' i.e., the current canonical leadership, in its role as corporate directors,
appoints the next canonical leadership to be the new board of directors. Both the ex officio model and the
self-perpetuating model have their advantages and drawbacks.
80
If the institutes involved do not have members of the institute as members of the civil
corporation, the individual member has no legal relationship to the civil corporation. All issues derive
from their membership in the institute which is an unincorporated association under civil law. There
are some particular circumstances in which the civil law recognizes a 'religious order' whose members
'take a vow of poverty.'237 For the purposes of tax and social security, membership in the 'religious
order' becomes a matter of some importance as will be discussed below.
As was seen in Chapter Two above, women religious in the United States who transfer to
another institute are generally in their forties and continue in full time ministry during most or all of
their process of transferring into another religious institute. Income from this ministry gives rise to
concern over the civil status of the member with respect to the receiving institute for purposes of
compensation and taxation. While the transferring member is never a member of the civil corporation,
as discussed above, she may be considered a 'member of the order' for certain civil matters.
A written agreement between the institutes should detail the treatment of income and support
for the member. Generally, the member's income is remitted to the receiving institute and the receiving
institute in turn provides general support for the member. This allows the member to experience the
practices of the receiving institute related to poverty and the treatment of personal finances. The
member remits income, not to his or her original institute, but to the receiving institute.
The taxation of the income of such a member is treated in Revenue Ruling 77-290, which
provides in part:
In cases where a member of a religious order receives income [from another
entity of the supervising church] as an agent of the order, and, pursuant to a
vow of poverty, remits the income to the order, such income is the income of
the order and not of the member.238
For tax purposes, the person may be considered a member of the receiving institute, more specifically,
a transferring member. In this way, the appropriate tax treatment of personal income is preserved.
Likewise, Social Security for the member is dependent on the person's membership status in the
institute. Most citizens are included in the federal Social Security program through their employment,
however, members of religious institutes working within the church are not so included. Nevertheless,
a religious institute may elect to participate in the Social Security program for all of its members, but
only for its active members, as described in the Internal Revenue Code:
For purposes of this subsection, a member of a religious order means any

individual who is subject to a vow of poverty as a member of such order and
who performs tasks usually required (and to the extent usually required) of
an active member of such order and who is not considered retired because of
old age or total disability.239
Here the definition of membership is tied to the vow of poverty and the performance of tasks usually
required of an active member of the order. Canon 685 §1 provides that the member's vows remain,
237Rev. Rul. 77-290, 1977-2 C.B. 26.

238Ibid.
239Internal Revenue Code § 3121 (r).
81
thus they are still “subject to the vow of poverty,” and that the member is bound to observe the proper
law of the new institute, thus they “perform the tasks usually required … of active members of the
order.” For this reason, the transferring member is a 'member of the order,' in the receiving institute,
for purposes of Social Security. It is expedient for the receiving institute to have its members covered
by the program. It often happens that a member transfers from an institute that has not elected to
participate in the Social Security program into an institute that does participate. In this case, the
member may not be covered, and it will be in the interest of the receiving institute that the member
acquires coverage as soon as possible.240 Nevertheless, an institute has some freedom in defining
membership for the purposes of the Social Security program, e.g. retirement age, members serving
outside the US, and it may choose to include or exclude transferring members. It is necessary that the
policy be applied evenly; an institute cannot include one member and exclude another similarly
situated member.
Health insurance coverage during the period of probation should be negotiated between the
institutes. It is generally advisable to retain the coverage the member had before the period of
probation if this is at all feasible, e.g. through the original institute or through the employer. In most
cases, if there was no insurance coverage, the original institute agrees to provide coverage.
Vicarious liability for acts done by the member during the period of probation will depend on
the facts and circumstances of the particular case. However, the most direct liability will run to the
receiving institute because it is more directly responsible for the member. Nevertheless, it is not
unlikely that the original institute would be named as a co-defendant in an action against the member.
The responsibility of the original institute would be to accurately represent to the receiving institute
any sources of concern regarding the member's behavior. The receiving institute would have the
responsibility to appropriately screen and to supervise the member. Any liability would be tied to a
failure in the duty of care of the institute toward its member, and the causal link between that failure in
the duty of care and the harm caused by the member.
The treatment of retirement benefits and pension will depend on the facts and circumstances of
the particular case. Generally, it will depend on when the pension was earned, and in whose name it is
held. Benefits earned before the individual became a member of the original institute belong to the
member, unless they were renounced either according to the nature of the institute, or under its proper
law. Benefits earned while the person was a member of the original institute belong to that institute,
according to Canon 668 §3, which provides in part:
Quae ei ratione pensionis, subventionis vel assecurationis quoquo modo

obveniunt, instituto acquiruntur, nisi aliud iure proprio statuatur.241
240There is a complex formula for determining Social Security coverage. Generally, a person is covered after
working for forty calendar quarters, i.e. ten years. If a member did not work before entering religious life,
and an institute never paid in for that member, it will take the full ten years before the member is fully vested.
241John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canon 668 §3. ...Whatever accrues to a religious in any way by reason of
pension, subsidy, or insurance is acquired for the institute unless proper law states otherwise.
82
However, pension benefits are earned for the purpose of providing for the member in their old age,
thus it is appropriate for the original institute to transmit these benefits to the receiving institute, when
the member is definitively incorporated into the receiving institute. Alternatively, pension benefits
may be held in the name of the member and it may be civilly required that these benefits follow the
member, even though they are canonically earned for the original institute. This should be a matter
discussed and agreed upon between the institutes, taking into account the aforementioned issues, as
well as the age and health of the transferring member and the financial ability of the two institutes.
When a member begins the probationary period, it is important to review the civil documents
described in Canon 668 §1, namely the will and any document ceding administration of personal
goods. Changes to these documents require the permission of the competent superior. Before the
period of probation, this requires the permission of the superior competent according to the proper law
of the original institute; during the period of probation, it requires the permission of the superior
competent according to the proper law of the receiving institute.242 In addition, it is advisable for the
receiving institute to require the member to execute a document declaring that his or her remuneration
belongs to that institute, according to the requirements of Canon 668 and the proper law of the
receiving institute.243
SPECIAL CASES
Thus far, this chapter has examined the canonical requirements and consequences of the transfer
of a member to another institute and the civil law issues raised by such a process. This final section
will examine special cases of transfer, namely, a member seeking transfer who cannot obtain
permission for the transfer from the original institute; a member who has a major crisis or illness
during the probationary period, or even dies during that period; and a member already on
exclaustration who seeks to transfer to another institute.
There are indications in the literature244 and in the survey responses discussed in Chapter Two
that it happens not infrequently that the original institute places obstacles and delays in the path of its
member who is seeking to transfer, and in some cases, that institute may completely refuse to allow
the member to transfer. In this case, the member may seek intervention from a third party, e.g. a vicar
for religious or from CICLSAL, to urge the superior of the original institute to grant the member
permission to transfer. However, if the superior continues to refuse, the member may be required to
seek dispensation from the original institute and request subsequent admission to the second institute.
In this case, the second institute would be bound by universal law and its own proper law on admission
to the novitiate and to temporary and final profession. Prior incorporation in an institute or society is
242Ibid., Canons 668 §2, and 685 §1.

243Hite, Holland, and Ward, A Handbook on Canons 573-746, 182.
244John P. Beal, James A. Coriden, and Thomas J. Green, eds., New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law
(New York: Paulist, 2000); Hite, Holland, and Ward, A Handbook on Canons 573-746, 229ff; CLSA
Taskforce, “Schema of Canons on Institutes of Life Consecrated by Profession of the Evangelical Counsels,”
83
not an impediment to novitiate in universal law as long as it is disclosed, however it may be an
impediment in the proper law of the second institute.245 In this case, the second institute may adjust the
program for the member to the extent possible, dispensing from those requirements of initial formation
that would not be helpful for a transferring member.
A second special case is that of a major crisis for the member during the probationary period;
the crisis may involve health, misconduct, or other crisis in the member's life. In such a case, the
receiving institute or the member may deem it advisable to end the probationary period, with the
member returning to the original institute, unless an indult of separation has been obtained. Should the
member decide to request exclaustration, this must be requested from the original institute. If the
probation is ended under such circumstances, it should be made clear at that time, whether or not the
receiving institute would be willing to discuss the possibility of receiving the member in transfer at
some time in the future. This would likely depend on the nature of the crisis. If the crisis arises from
misconduct by the member, the receiving institute could take any necessary action under its own law,
however if the misconduct warranted separation from the institute, the receiving institute could only
end the probation, it would devolve to the original institute to take any further action necessary. These
cases highlight the need for proper screening by the receiving institute and adequate agreements
between the institutes and documentation of events that occur during the process of transfer.
In one case, a member died during the period of probation. The member remained definitively
incorporated in the original institute, however, in this case, both institutes agreed that the member
would have preferred to be buried as a member of the receiving institute. Therefore, the funeral was
celebrated at the mother house of the receiving institute, with members of both institutes in attendance,
and the member was buried in the cemetery of the receiving institute.246
Finally, it may happen that a member who is in the process of vocational discernment may seek
exclaustration, and then later seek to transfer to another institute. The member seeks permission to
transfer from the supreme moderators of both institutes as required by Canon 684. It is not necessary
that the member end the exclaustration and return to the original institute before seeking permission,
or before beginning the transfer. It has happened that a superior will deny permission to transfer until a
member returns, however this is not a requirement of law.247 It is important to determine the most
245John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici. Canon 643 §1. Invalide ad novitiatum admittitur: ... 3° qui sacro vinculo
cum aliquo instituto vitae consecratae actu obstringitur vel in aliqua societate vitae apostolicae incorporatus
est, salvo praescripto can. 684; ... 5° qui celaverit suam incorporationem in aliquo instituto vitae
consecratae aut in aliqua societate vitae apostolicae. §2. Ius proprium potest alia impedimenta etiam ad
validitatem admissionis constituere vel condiciones apponere. Canon 643 §1. The following are invalidly
admitted to novitiate:... 3º one who is currently bound by a sacred bond to some institute of consecrated life
or is incorporated in some society of apostolic life, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 684; 5º one who
has concealed his or her incorporation in some institute of consecrated life or in some society of apostolic
life. §2. Proper law can establish other impediments even for validity of admission or can attach conditions.
246Anne-Louise Nadeau, “Interview with the author,” Phone Call, July 21, 2009.
247This is in contradistinction to the opinion expressed by Eileen C. Jaramillo in her article “Religious on
Exclaustration Joining Different Congregation. (Advisory Opinion),” in Roman Replies and CLSA Advisory
Opinions (2004): 138-139. The author states there that the member must return to the original institute in
order to end the period of exclaustration before seeking transfer.
84
pastorally appropriate responsel while a member should give due consideration to the decision to
transfer, returning to the original institute in this circumstance may be very disruptive to the member
seeking transfer and to the other members of the institute. The superior may express concerns to the
member, and, within the limits of confidentiality, to the superior of the receiving institute. In addition,
the superior should express willingness for the member to return, should the member not make
profession in the receiving institute. However, completely blocking the transfer is a violation of the
rights of the member to follow his or her vocation,248 particularly if the member is so determined that
he or she is willing to seek dispensation and then seek admission to the second institute.
Conclusion
This chapter has explored the legal requirements for transfer and the best practices, as found in
the proper law and the policies and practices of institutes. This discussion is facilitated by the
foundation laid in previous chapters on the history, sociology and spirituality of transfer. Current
legislation, as found in Canons 684 and 685 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, provides some minimum
guidelines for the transfer process, leaving the time and method of the transfer to the proper law of the
institutes. While some institutes have basic provisions in their constitutions, more detailed information
may be found in the policies of the institute. These policies seek to embody the values of the institute
in welcoming a new member in transfer, respecting the original institute and the member's experience
there, and providing the opportunity for mutual discernment and for the gradual incorporation of the
member into the life and mission of the receiving institute.
The Council of Tribur had identified the good of the member and the good of the two institutes
as the primary concern of legislation regarding conditions of transfer.249 It sought to ensure this good
by seeking permission of the institutes and chapters and the bishop. Later, the requirement of a stricter
institute was added, a requirement that, at Trent, completely supplanted other methods of determining
the propriety of the transfer.250 The current legislation looks to the superiors of the two institutes to
give permission for the transfer, but gives them no guidance on the criteria to use for the transfer.251
The process of transfer has also undergone metamorphosis; at first it was a simple matter of the
member taking up residence in the receiving institute. Later, as transfers were being discouraged, the
requirement of a new novitiate was imposed. The current code gives only a minimum time frame,
leaving all other details of the process to the law of the institute and to the discretion of the superiors.
248John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici. Canon 219. Christifideles omnes iure gaudent ut a quacumque coactione
sint immunes in statu vitae eligendo. All the Christian faithful enjoy the right to be free from any kind of
coercion in choosing a state of life.
249Karl Joseph von Hefele and Henri Leclercq, eds., Histoire Des Conciles D'après Les Documents Originaux,
2nd ed. (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1911), Tome IV, 2ieme partie, 701.
250Norman P. Tanner and Giuseppe Alberigo, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (Washington: Georgetown
university press, 1990), 781-782.
251John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici, Canons 684-685.
85
CONCLUSION
This thesis explored the transfer of a member from one religious institute to another, as set forth
in Canons 684-685 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. It treated the subject from four distinct
perspectives: history, sociology, spirituality and jurisprudence.
The exploration of the history of transfer, and of legislation on transfer provided a window into
the history of consecrated life itself and into the history of legislation on it. The transfer of a member
to another institute has been subject to various requirements. Initially it was the prerogative of
individual institutes to establish the requirements for transfer of their members. Later bishops and
councils intervened to establish criteria for the transfer of members. Three criteria were advanced at
various times, and in various formulations and combinations, namely: the good of the soul, and
perhaps also of the institutes; the permission of the superior, and sometimes also of the bishop or the
institute; and strictness of the new institute. Current legislation requires only permission to transfer,
though the source of the permission varies with the type of transfer. This study also provided an
interesting example of the interplay between the rules of monasteries and religious institutes on the
one hand, and the law of bishops and councils on the other. In addition, it shows the metamorphosis of
a single text, the twenty-sixth canon of the Council of Tribur, as it was originally enacted, and as it
was transmitted and received over the centuries.
The discussion of the sociology of transfer provided insight into the phenomenon in the
experience of members who have transferred and in the experience of institutes that have lost or
received members through transfer. The members described the experience as a deeply traumatic
journey and seismic experience that was also profoundly transformative spiritually and vocationally.
Communities that lost members in transfer struggle to understand the meaning of their member's
choice to leave them to live their vocation in another institute. The receiving institutes generally find
that the members who transfer bring renewal and vitality. Thus the experience of member and of
original and receiving institutes are quite diverse; the member experiences transfer as fidelity to a
vocational journey, the original institute experiences it as loss and betrayal, and the receiving institute
experiences it as gift and renewal.
The chapter on the theology of transfer explored the phenomenon in the context of the nature of
vocation and of religious vocation. Transfer is a vocational choice that is made by a member who has
lived religious life for many years and is well versed in the dynamics of vocation. The member is
willing and able to engage in process of re-creation of vocation, a process in which the member
becomes extremely vulnerable as the stability of their vocation is deeply undermined and they leave
behind so much of what has nourished and sustained them. Nevertheless, those who move through this
process find that the roots of their vocation are strengthened, they discover the depth of their
commitment to God, as this commitment is uprooted from the context of their original religious
institute and is transplanted into the receiving institute.
86
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss....252
The requirements for transfer in the 1983 Code of Canon Law are limited; universal law
requires only permission of the supreme moderators and a three year probation. These requirements
have the function of giving a framework for the transfer process and of prohibiting a precipitous move.
However, those who have undergone the process testify to the seriousness of the process and counsel
that the personal hardship of making the transfer is enough to forestall all but those who are seriously
following a vocational journey. Many canonical and civil consequences follow on the the transfer of a
member; these should be discussed, agreed upon and documented by the institutes in order to facilitate
the transfer.
The current canons on transfer could be improved by requiring only the consultation of the
original institute, with perhaps the information of bishop or CICLSAL, in the case of adverse
recommendation by that institute. This would prevent the possibility of the original institute blocking
the transfer of a member, while at the same time seeking to prevent ill-advised transfers. In addition,
an outer limit on the amount of time in the transfer process should be established, just as there is such
a limit on the novitiate and on temporary profession. For example, the law might provide that the
probationary period is at least three years, and no more than five years.
Law does not create life, but law creates the framework that will allow life to flourish. The first
canon on consecrated life, describes the life as the following Christ ... under the action of the Holy
Spirit, in total dedication to God who is loved most of all.253 The succeeding canons provide the norms
that give the framework for that life to flourish, including the norms on transfer. All the norms are best
understood, interpreted and applied in the light of the purpose of consecrated life: the following of
Christ, under the action of the Spirit, in total dedication to God, loved most of all.
252If by Rudyard Kipling in Rewards and Fairies. London: Macmillan and Co, 1910.
253John Paul II, Codex Iuris Canonici. Canon 573 §1. Vita consecrata per consiliorum evangelicorum
professionem est stabilis vivendi forma qua fideles, Christum sub actione Spiritus Sancti pressius sequentes,
Deo summe dilecto totaliter dedicantur, ut, in Eius honorem atque Ecclesiae aedificationem mundique
salutem novo et peculiari titulo dediti, caritatis perfectionem in servitio Regni Dei consequantur et,
praeclarum in Ecclesia signum effecti, caelestem gloriam praenuntient.
87
APPENDIX I
TRANSFER QUESTIONNAIRE
What is your Year of Birth?
What year did you begin novitiate?
What year did you begin the transfer process?
What year did you transfer vows?
Regarding your reasons for transfer, how important was spirituality?
Important 1 2 3 4 5 Unimportant
Regarding your reasons for transfer, how important was ministry?

Regarding your reasons for transfer, how important was lifestyle?

Regarding your reasons for transfer, how important was community?

Regarding your reasons for transfer, how important was leadership?

Regarding your reasons for transfer, what other issues influenced your decision?
Mark those elements that were part of your transfer process.

* Application
* Interviews
* Ritual
* Formal Education (e.g. College or University)
* Classes with Others in Formation
* Companion or Director of Transfer
* Education or Formation for Ministry
* Other: ___________________________________
88
Describe the process of transfer, noting what was most and least helpful.
Describe your experience of transfer on the emotional and spiritual level.
Looking back on the experience, what are 2 or 3 positive or negative insights you might like to
share? E.g. what might you say to someone you know who is considering transfer?
Contact information (name / email): The following are for verification purposes only, and to
send the report if you request it.
Would you like to receive a copy of the final report?
Place of Birth
Gender
89
COMMUNITY QUESTIONNAIRE
Thank you for participating in this study on the process of members transferring from one
religious community to another. In this survey, you will be asked information about members who
have transferred to or from you community between the 1983 promulgation of canon law and the
present. In addition you will be asked about your reflections about this from the perspective of the
community.
How many members are currently in your Congregation?
How would you describe your community? Check all that apply
* Apostolic
* Contemplative
* Monastic
* Evangelical
* Society of Apostolic Life
* Secular Institute
* Other:
How many members have transferred FROM your community since 1983?
How many members have transferred TO your community since 1983?
How many have made perpetual profession in your community since 1983?
Describe your experience and/or that of your community with respect to the transferring
member(s).
Contact Information: Name and Email Address (This and the following in formation is
confidential, for verification purposes only, and to send the final report if requested.)
Would you like to receive a copy of the final paper by email?
Your Role Also indicate if you have had any specific part to play in the transfer of members.
Congregation (Including Province, Monastery, etc.)
Location:
90

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KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN

FACULTY OF CANON LAW

TRANSFER TO ANOTHER INSTITUTE

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the

Other Primary Sources

Articles and Other Materials

Transfer is the process by which a duly incorporated member of a religious

TRANSFER IN THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CENTURY

Imprimis si quis ad conversionem venerit, ea conditione excipiatur, ut usque

THE COUNCIL OF TRIBUR AND GRATIAN

Non sunt prohibendae virgines sacrae, que causa religionis aliud

Transire de religione ad religionem, nisi propter magnam utilitatem vel

22 Konrad, “The Transfer of Religious To Another Community,” 34, 50.

Praesenti constitutione perpetuo irrefragabiliter valitura sancimus,

Bonifatii VIII constitutionem, quae incipit Periculoso, renovans, cuncta

Religiosus nequit ad aliam religionem, etiam strictiorem, vel e monasterio

Transiens ad aliam religionem novitiatum peragere debet; quo durante,

Si in religione ad quam transiit, professionem non edat, ad pristinam

1983 CODE OF CANON LAW

Drafting of the 1983 Code of Canon Law

Pronunciamo innanzi a voi, certo tremando un poco di commozione, ma

Per voi, Venerabili Fratelli e Diletti Figli Nostri, non occorrono

Scilicet accommodari debet novo mentis habitui, Concilii Oecumenici

2. … Ius commune seu universale sancire debet dumtaxat principia

3. … In normis disciplinaribus statuendis congrua flexibilitas in tuto

Praesertim quoad terminologiam, necessariam fuit invenire -- potissimum in

Canon 75 §1. Sodalis nequit a proprio ad aliud Institutum vitae consecratae

60 Ibid., Canons 75-76.

Canon 76 §1. Usque ad novam cooptationem, manentibum sacris

Canon 104 §1. 1°) Transitus a monasterio ad aliud eiusdem familiae

Canons on Transfer in the 1983 Code

Given ... the actual tendency, especially among female religious, of

Canon 684.5: … requiritur licentia Sanctae Sedis, cuius mandatis standum

CODE OF CANONS OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES

Stability of monks ... is part of the constant tradition. ... However, as

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

There is an appointed time for everything,

101“Help, Forms: Viewing Form Responses,” Google Docs: Help File,

Reasons for Transfer

112Morrison, “"See I Am Doing Something New!" Transfer: The Experience of Re-creation.”

117Hill, “Transfers of Religious,” 930.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

THE NATURE OF VOCATION

THE NATURE OF RELIGIOUS VOCATION

132Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 17.

Vita consecrata per consiliorum evangelicorum professionem est stabilis

International Congress on Consecrated Life

Religious life is understood as having three structural elements, a founding

Vocation exists in a world of gratuitousness. Motivation comes from within.

Thus in place of a global “commodity economy” characterized by scarcity, religious commit

THE NATURE OF TRANSFER TO ANOTHER RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE

Canons 684 and 685

Canons on Period of Probation

Can. 685 - §1. Usque ad emissionem professionis in novo instituto,

163Ibid., Canon 1445.

Canon 599 Evangelicum castitatis consilium propter Regnum coelorum

Canon 600 Evangelicum consilium paupertatis ad imitationem Christi, qui

Can 636. Sollemnitas votorum in eo qui legitime secundum superiores

Can. 601 - Evangelicum oboedientiae consilium, spiritu fidei et amoris in

Rights and Obligations

Canon 670 - Institutum debet sodalibus suppeditare omnia quae ad normam

Canon 685 - §2. Per professionem in novo instituto sodalis eidem

184Ibid., Canon 656 5°.