New Orders

Religious orders come and go, and for the past 40 years mainly the latter. If an order outlives its usefulness or forgets its mission, then it is best to let it go. But there are new orders and associations being founded these days, with new missions.

The purpose of a religious order is to increase the holiness of its members by serving God and man. Prayer—mainly the Divine Office and the Mass—is a primary means of doing the former and either intercessory prayer or secular service do the latter. The big religious orders that did the bulk of that secular service, mainly education and healthcare, are in serious trouble these days; the educators seem to be ignorant of Christianity, while the hospital orders are looking very sick. But many of the new fast-growing orders and associations seem to be contemplative, and are often based on the traditional Latin liturgy; this is a good start; a sick mind cannot be educated in right reason, and healing the soul is the first step in healing the body. This makes much sense: people no longer pray for themselves, so instead these new brothers and sisters have to pray for them.

Natural disasters seem to be multiplying, and often it seems that governments and agencies are at least somewhat incompetent in reacting to these. This could be a field of service for a new kind religious order, one that has disciplined members who can evacuate people from harm's way, and perform search-and-rescue missions and first aid in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. The months following a disaster is the time for the work of Catholic Charities and similar organizations: helping people find housing, finding homes for orphans, and such forth, in a mainly bureaucratic fashion. But in the proximity of disaster, special training and equipment are needed, and critically, a special kind of person. This would be similar to the type of service offered by the Red Cross, but at a much lower cost. The American Red Cross has an overhead of 75% or more; a Catholic religious order would instead have dedicated brothers doing the work with little overhead cost.

An order like this would have some similarities to the old military orders of the middle ages, for this kind of disaster service would be similar to military life: as is often said, there will be long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror. The members would have to have constant training, be willing to act under a moment's notice, and they will have to be obedient to superiors. Physical fitness and ability to withstand physical hardship would be unique requirements of this kind of order.

This kind of religious order would perhaps appeal to a different kind of person than would be attracted to a contemplative order, and also there would be a great need for secular members. A small core of members under permanent vows could make up the administration of the order and would oversee the daily operation, while a large number of secular members would do the bulk of the effort in times of disaster. A secular member could be bound to one weekend a month and two weeks a year—just like the National Guard—at the order's charterhouse for training and building community, and then go as needed to serve in an emergency.

Since a Christian has the duty to serve others out of charity, costs could be kept low. Needed supplies could be obtained by 'pledges in advance' from companies who are willing to donate transportation and material at an unspecified time in the future: as needed, when needed, also out of charity.