Institutes of religious sciences

20. Institutes of religious sciences arose to provide religious brothers and sisters an adequate level of formation in the humanities and in theological-pastoral areas, keeping in mind the social and cultural contexts of those to whom the courses are offered, in order to qualify and prepare them for diverse ecclesial services, according to the purposes of their institutes.(⁷⁸)

It is necessary to offer the participants a solid philosophical and theological foundation; to prepare them to be educators of the faith; to prepare them for the explicit proclamation of the Gospel and for human and social promotion; to make them sensitive to the relationship between the Gospel and culture, to ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, to discerning the signs of the times, to being part of an overall pastoral program, and to missionary openness in communion with the universal and particular Church.

Also, such institutes should offer a good preparation, permeated with evangelical values, in the human sciences (pedagogy, psychology, sociology, communications sciences), enabling the participants to use them for transmitting the faith and forming disciples of Christ.

Attention should also be given to assure a knowledge of the human groups and the cultural contexts which they are to evangelize, collaborating in this way to overcome the danger of a dichotomy between the formation which religious receive and an evangelization correctly inculturated.(⁷⁹)

Finally, these institutes should provide courses suitable for training religious to carry out more effectively their specific apostolate in the Church: courses for pastoral work with youth, the infirm, the elderly, the marginalized, or other particular apostolic activities proper to the mission of each institute.