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The consecrated life is a complex
reality, a charismatic reality that is lived and expressed in various forms of
ministry. The great majority of persons belonging to the consecrated life are
laymen or women (that is, they do not belong to the ordained ministry) and a
minority are ordained ministries (in those groups defined juridically as
“clerical institutes”). Some members of he episcopate come from the consecrated
life. This is meant to say that – from the numerical point of view – the
consecrated life belongs predominantly to the laity in the Church.
There are also among us a minority of institutes or consecrated persons
who belong to the ordained ministry and we are clerics.
When we speak of correlation – within the ecclesiology of communion – it
is important to keep in mind this difference, which has to be decisive for the
configuration of the clerical form of the consecrated life and the ordained
ministry of consecrated persons in the future. This is one aspect that should
be approached in the Synod22.
There is a different correlation between the Bishops and the laity
(including the members of institutes of brothers and sisters) and between the
Bishops and the priests and deacons (among whom are ordained ministers who
belong to the consecrated life). In the first instance the relationship is
established from the hierarchical structure of the Church, which is
differentiated due to the fact that there are clergy and laity; in the second
case, because of their participation in the same ordained, sacramental
ministry.
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