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Join with Us in Celebrating the Year of Consecrated Life!

In 2013, Pope Francis declared that a Year of Consecrated Life be celebrated throughout the world. The Year of Consecrated Life will begin on the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2014 and will close on the World Day of Consecrated Life, February 2, 2016.

Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, has emphasized that this special year (2015) has three objectives:

Remembrance of Recent Past:  “We believe that the [Second Vatican] Council has been a breath of the Spirit not only for the whole Church but, perhaps especially, for the consecrated life..."

Embracing the Future with Hope: With this positive outlook on the past, he continued, “We want to ‘embrace the future with hope’— the second objective.

Living the Present with Passion:  This hope cannot keep us from “living the present with passion” — and this is the third objective of the coming Year …  an evangelical focus.

The special year, which was announced by Pope Francis in December at a meeting with superior generals of male religious orders, was an answer to suggestions made by many religious superiors, said Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, the prefect of the Congregation for Religious. The year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Vatican II decree on religious life, Perfectae Caritatis.

The Church recognizes that we are experiencing a “difficult and delicate” time in religious life, Cardinal Braz de Aviz said. The Year of Consecrated Life is designed to help religious face the future with confidence, he said. The cardinal encouraged members of religious orders to rediscover the original charism of their communities, as set forth in their founding.

Join us, during this Year of Consecrated Life, in celebrating our lives as Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, vowed women religious in the Church today. Read our Sisters’ stories and open our web page by clicking on the icon below!