Vatican forms body of secular institutes in PH

The Vatican has formed a body of secular institutes in the Philippines to promote collaboration and recognize juridical personality.

The Conference of Secular Institutes of the Philippines (CSIP) has 14 members composed of lay people and the clergy.

In a CBCP News report published Tuesday, secular institutes are described as “societies whose members strive to attain Christian perfection through the practice of poverty, chastity and obedience and to carry out the work of the Church.”

The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life issued the decree to establish the CSIP in June 2024, but the news was made public only recently.

In his decree, Cardinal João Braz De Aviz, prefect of the dicastery, said he hoped that the conference would be an instrument for the “growth of a mentality and spirituality of communion.”

He also envisioned CSIP as “a place of dialogue and hope, where secular institutes present in the Philippines can help each other.”

The conference aims to engage in missionary works of local Churches and social and ecological activities called by the Church.

The CSIP was founded in 2015 and was formally made a member of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Mutual Relations between Bishops and Consecrated Persons in 2021. — Mariel Celine Serquiña/BAP, GMA Integrated News