Vatican City, June 16, 2022: Pope Francis on June 15 took another step to reign in new religious groups in the Catholic Church after their unregulated proliferation in recent decades led to abuses in governance that allowed spiritual and sexual misconduct to go unchecked.

The diocesan bishop must obtain a “written license” from the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life before starting a pious association of faithful.

This was decreed by Pope Francis in a rescript about public associations of the faithful “in itinere,” following an audience, granted on February 7 to Cardinal João Braz de Aviz and to Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, prefect and secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The Rescript, which came to effect on June 15 with its publication in L’Osservatore Romano, is part of the synodality process promoted by Pope Francis. It aims to develop closer collaboration between the offices of the Holy See and diocesan bishops engaging them in “mutual listening.”

Pope Francis has taken a series of disciplinary and regulatory actions in recent years after some founders and leaders of religious orders and new lay institutes turned out to be religious frauds who sexually and spiritually abused their members.

Some groups have been suppressed, others have been taken over by the Vatican for periods of reform while all have become subject to greater Vatican oversight.

This was emphasized by the Pope December 11, 2021 while addressing the plenary assembly of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The Code of Canon Law describes associations of the Christian faithful, which can be either public or private, as groups striving “in a common endeavor to foster a more perfect life, to promote public worship or Christian doctrine, or to exercise other works of the apostolate such as initiatives of evangelization, works of piety or charity, and those which animate the temporal order with a Christian spirit.”

Erection of new associations of the faithful by bishop is often the first step in the creation of a new apostolic society or institute of consecrate life.

The latest decree follows a similar one issued in 2020 that required prior Vatican approval for diocesan-level religious orders. The Vatican now has better control over the origins of new forms of religious life by taking the decisions about them out of the hands of local bishops.

In 2021, the Vatican also imposed term limits on the leaders of lay movements, which proliferated following the second Vatican Council in the 1960s as a new way for rank-and-file Catholics to get involved in the Church beyond typical parish life. The Vatican said the term limits were necessary to prevent personality cults from arising around charismatic leaders.

One lay group targeted by the new reform was Communion and Liberation, an influential group in Italy that has a consecrated branch with a few members who help run the household of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

The term limits in 2021 forced out Communion and Liberation’s Spanish head, Father Julian Carron, who had been in charge since 2005.

Just this week, the head of the Vatican’s laity office, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, wrote to Carron’s successor complaining that Carron and his followers were still exercising influence against the Vatican’s reforms. According to a copy of the letter, Cardinal Farrell faulted what he said was the “false doctrine” Carron promoted, claiming the unique spirit of the group passed from the founder through leaders like himself.

Cardinal Farrell said Communion and Liberation’s new leadership must accept the Vatican’s line and “recognize the problems and review the teachings, practices, methods of government and internal organization forms that were shown to be inadequate or even harmful.”

Sources: vaticannews.va, AP