CatholicNews ■ Sunday February 19, 2006 15

celebrate the World Day of Consecrated
SINGAPORE – Handshakes and hugs
abound as some 200 religious priests,
brothers and sisters, and members of
secular institutes, many still in the Lunar
New Year festive mood, gathered to
make the Word of God part and parcel of
Life on Feb 2, the feast of the Presentation
of the Lord.
At a Mass at the Church of the Holy
Spirit, they lit candles and renewed their
vows.
In his homily, Archbishop Nicholas
Chia thanked them for their contribution to
society and the archdiocese. He challenged
them to make Christ meaningful to a
globalised world, encouraged them to
(Below) Religious priests, brothers and sisters
their lives, and to allow the Holy Spirit to
transform them and those they serve.
The archbishop added that consecrated
life is not so much a choice as a response
to the call of God, a surrender to his will
which entails sacrifices. He urged them to
follow Mary as a model in bringing Christ
to others, and he prayed that the Holy Spirit
will guide, inspire and empower the religious
to be the light of Christ to the world. ■
listen to Brother Paul Segarra in the attic of
the Church of Holy Spirit before Mass. Brother
Paul is a member of the Focolare Movement,
a secular institute with 87,000 committed
members working in various fields (as lay
consecrated persons) in 180 nations. Brother
Paul has taken the vows of poverty, chastity
and obedience. He was posted here from the
Philippines more than a year ago and teaches
Chemistry at Raffles Secondary School.

ways to the problem, one of establish schools.

CatholicNews begins a series
on the religious communities
in the Singapore Archdicese
with this report by Sister
Wendy Ooi, fsp, on what
religious life is like and how
it all began
THERE ARE VARIOUS states of
life encouraged by the Catholic
Church to live the baptismal call
to holiness. While most people
are called to marriage, some are
called to the lay single state, or to
the ordained ministry or to the
consecrated life. Among those
called to the consecrated life are
members of secular institutes and
religious priests, sisters, and
brothers.
Religious life thus refers to
the vocation of men and women
who are called to dedicate or
consecrate themselves totally to
God through profession in a
religious community. They
usually join a religious order and
share a common life of prayer
and service, according to the
charism (the particular spirituality
and mission) of their founder.
A religious priest is different
from a diocesan priest in that the
diocesan priest is ordained for a
certain geographical area (the
diocese) and promises to lead a
celibate life, to respect and obey
his bishop and to live a simple
lifestyle.
A religious priest, on the other
hand, belongs to an order (e.g.
Carmelite, Redemptorist) and
professes the vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience. These
vows are also known as the
Evangelical Counsels.
“Evangelical” means “contained
in the Gospel”; the word
“Counsels” implies that the vows
are an invitation – not a
compulsion – to live the Gospel
in a radical way.
While each order has its own
way of expressing the vows,
generally, poverty entails sharing
all things in common (without
personal ownership), chastity is
the choice to live a life of celibate
loving rather than enter into a
conjugal relationship, and
obedience indicates a preference
for the common good over
personal desire. All three vows
help the religious to live the
Gospel in freedom. When they
are lived well, the vows lead
them to live in the best possible
way the commandment to love
God and neighbour.
Origins of religious life
The call to live Gospel values in
a radical way can be traced back
to the third century when
anchorites and hermits started to
withdraw from “the world” to
settle in the outskirts of villages
and cities, or in the deserts (of
Egypt and the Middle East).
Many of them eventually came to
live together in loosely structured
communities. This led to the
development of monasticism with
monks living in cloister and
devoting themselves to
contemplation, prayer and work.
This monasticism, which was
prevalent mainly in the East, soon
spread to the West and influenced
it.
By the sixth century, Benedict
of Nursia had founded a
community on Mount Cassino,
Italy and the “Benedictine Rule”
became the standard for West
European monasteries. They
eventually grew to be centres of
culture, art and spirituality in a
milieu of feudalism.
After the turn of the first
millennium, Europe suffered
several political and religious
crises. Reform in the church
affected monastic life and
reformed monastic orders, like
the Cistercians and Carthusians,
came into being.
However, cloistered monks
could not adequately address the
challenges caused by changes in
civilisation and the growth of
towns and cities which brought
with them new social problems.
A new type of religious life was
needed and this came in the form
of Mendicant Orders, notably the
Franciscans and the Dominicans.
(The term mendicant means
dependent on alms for a living.)
These new orders went
beyond the confines of their
communities to preach and
conduct apostolic service in cities
and towns. “Ministry” became a
service to the people, “out in the
world”. Religious life thus began
to touch the various spheres of
society – through pastoral care of
the poor and sick, education and
other services.
Since the time of Jesus, who
was accompanied by a group of
women, religious women have
also come together as
communities. Like their male
counterpart, over the centuries,
female apostolic congregations
also sprouted to meet the
changing circumstances of
society and the church even as
contemplative monasteries
remained (and some expanded).
At the end of the 18th century,
the church faced another major
crisis that was triggered by the
French Revolution – laicization.
The anti-clerical movements that
forced the separation of the state
and the church not only in France
but also across Europe weakened
the temporal powers of the
church. It responded in various
which was to make mission work
beyond the European Continent
an urgent priority for the church
and religious orders. One
beneficiary of this expanded
missionary activity outside
Europe was Singapore.
Religious arrive in Singapore
Christianity came to Singapore
(known then as Temasek) from
Peninsular Malaysia around 1811
(several years before the arrival
of Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819).
By 1832, there were around
300 Catholics on the island and
Father Julien Marc Clemenceau
of the Paris Foreign Missions
(MEP) was appointed to shepherd
them by Bishop Bartholomeu
Bruguiere, coadjutor of Vicar
Apostolate of Siam.
In 1839, Father Jean Marie
Beurel built the Good Shepherd
Church (now, the Cathedral of the
Good Shepherd).
Father Beurel invited the first
religious orders to Singapore.
The De La Salle Brothers and the
Infant Jesus Sisters came in 1852
and 1854, respectively, to
Religious orders were established
to meet certain needs of the
church and society. Throughout
the centuries, orders whose
mission and charism respond to
ongoing concerns survived while
others gradually ceased to exist
due to their mission becoming
archaic. Many new orders are still
being founded today to meet the
new challenges in society and the
church.
Since the Second Vatican
Council (1962-1965), religious
life has also moved gradually
closer to the life of the laity.
The next religious orders did
not come until the next century.
The 1930s saw the arrival of
several orders: CICM Scheut
Missions (1931), Redemptorist
Fathers (1935), Sisters of the
Poor (1935), Gabrielite Brothers
(1936) and Carmelite Sisters
(1938).
The 1940s, perhaps because
of the Second World War, saw
only the Good Shepherd Sisters
(1940) and the Canossian Sisters
(1941) arriving. The 1950s was a
period of growth with the arrival
of the Franciscan Missionaries of
the Divine Motherhood (1950),
Jesuits (1951), Marist Brothers
(1955), Franciscan Friars (1957)
and Fathers of the Sacred Heart
(1958).
More recent arrivals include
the Missionaries of Charity
(1985), Daughters of St. Paul
(1994), Brothers of Mercy
(1995), Carmelite Fathers (1996),
Verbum Dei Missionaries (1997),
Religious of Cenacle (1997) and
Dominican Friars (2000). ■
Next issue – CatholicNews
visits the Religious of the Cenacle
in Jurong for their Singapore
story.
Some religious priests, brothers
and sisters have established
smaller communities and become
neighbours to their lay brothers
and sisters. (This is prevalent
especially in the USA.) Some
orders have put aside their
religious habit or garb for
ordinary clothes.
But, with or without
their habits, the religious
continue to be a force at the
service of the church, witnesses
in striving to live the Gospel
radically and a light to lead others
to Christ. ■