The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life

Sixtus V and the birth of the Congregation of Regulars (1586)

On 27 May 1586, Pope Sixtus V instituted the Sacra Congregatio super consultationibus regularium — the Congregation for Consultations concerning Regulars — charged with overseeing and assisting the government of the religious orders of the Latin Church^[5]. This foundation came nearly two years before the great overall reform of the Roman Curia that the same pope would undertake through the apostolic constitution Immensa Aeterni Dei of 22 January 1588, which instituted fifteen permanent congregations of cardinals — among them the Congregation of Rites, from which, by an entirely different institutional line, the Dicastery for Divine Worship derives^[6]. Immensa Aeterni Dei confirmed and consolidated the existence of the Congregation of Regulars within this new curial architecture^[7].

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the bulk of the Congregation's activity consisted in settling the countless disputes over precedence, internal discipline and observance that set the various religious orders against one another and against diocesan bishops, in a Church still largely structured by the great medieval mendicant and monastic orders and by the institutes born of the Tridentine Catholic Reformation.

The 1601 union with the Congregation of Bishops

In 1601, the Congregation of Regulars was united with the Congregatio pro consultationibus episcoporum et aliorum praelatorum — the Congregation for Consultations concerning Bishops and other Prelates — forming a single organ competent over both the diocesan secular clergy and religious institutes^[8]. This union would last more than three centuries, until the great reform of the Curia undertaken by St Pius X at the start of the 20th century.

Pius X restores the Congregation of Religious to autonomy: Sapienti Consilio (1908)

On 29 June 1908, as part of an overall reform of the Roman Curia that reduced and rationalised the number of its congregations, Pope St Pius X promulgated the apostolic constitution Sapienti Consilio^[9]. This text separated once again the two matters united since 1601: bishops and the secular clergy henceforth came under a distinct congregation, while religious matters regained an autonomous organ, the Congregation of Religious (Sacra Congregatio de Religiosis), fully competent over all the orders, congregations and religious institutes of the Latin Church^[10].

1947: Pius XII creates the secular institutes, a new form of consecrated life

On 2 February 1947, on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Pope Pius XII promulgated the apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, "the Church, an attentive Mother", which recognised for the first time in the law of the Church an entirely new form of consecration: the secular institutes^[11]. Unlike religious, the members of these institutes practise the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience while remaining fully engaged in the world, with no distinctive habit and no obligatory community life, "so as to be clearly distinguished from other common associations of the faithful"^[12]. The constitution placed these new institutes from the outset under the tutelage of the Congregation of Religious, foreshadowing the administrative regrouping of the two matters achieved two decades later^[13].

Vatican II and Perfectae Caritatis: the great project of renewal (1965)

On 28 October 1965, the Second Vatican Council promulgated, by a vote of 2,321 to 4, the decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal and adaptation of religious life — one of the briefest conciliar texts, yet one whose concrete application would profoundly transform the daily life of hundreds of thousands of religious around the world in the following decades^[14]. The decree asks institutes to renew their observance in the light of the Gospel, of the spirit proper to their founder and of the pastoral needs of the present time^[15]:

"The adaptation and renewal of the religious life includes both the constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time." — Second Vatican Council, decree Perfectae Caritatis, no. 2, 28 October 1965^[16]

It was the Congregation of Religious that received the task of accompanying, on the canonical level, the implementation of this vast project of revising the constitutions of all the religious institutes of the Catholic world.

1967: regrouping with the secular institutes under Regimini Ecclesiae Universae

On 15 August 1967, Pope Paul VI promulgated the apostolic constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae, which thoroughly reorganised the Roman Curia in the spirit of the council that had just ended. The text reorganised the Congregation of Religious, which became the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes (Sacra Congregatio pro Religiosis et Institutis Saecularibus, often designated by the acronym SCRIS)^[17]. This regrouping united for the first time, under a single Roman authority, the two great canonical paths of consecration: classic community religious life and the secular consecration instituted twenty years earlier by Pius XII.

1978: Mutuae Relationes, settling tensions between bishops and religious

On 14 May 1978, the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes published, jointly with the Congregation for Bishops, the document Mutuae Relationes — "Directives for the Mutual Relations between Bishops and Religious in the Church"^[18]. This text sought to clarify, juridically and pastorally, a recurrent point of friction for centuries: the balance between the authority of the diocesan bishop, responsible for all the pastoral care of his diocese, and the proper autonomy recognised by canon law to exempt religious institutes, whose superiors answer directly to the Holy See and not to the local bishop^[19]. The document stresses the necessary complementarity between the two forms of ecclesial life rather than a logic of power struggles.

1983: the new Code of Canon Law enshrines consecrated life

The promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law by Pope John Paul II offered consecrated life, for the first time, an entire book of the universal law of the Church — canons 573 to 746 — which juridically distinguishes religious institutes, secular institutes (can. 710-730) and societies of apostolic life (can. 731-746)^[20]. This codification gave the dicastery a stable and detailed legal framework for exercising its competence of approving, supervising and suppressing institutes.

1988: Pastor Bonus and the institution's current name

The great reform of the Curia undertaken by John Paul II, the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus of 28 June 1988 — in force from 1 March 1989 — renamed the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes as the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (Congregatio pro Institutis Vitae Consecratae et Societatibus Vitae Apostolicae, acronym CIVCSVA)^[21]. This name, which for the first time explicitly included the societies of apostolic life — institutes such as the Missionaries of St Vincent de Paul or the Maryknoll Fathers, whose members do not pronounce religious vows in the strict sense but lead a common fraternal life ordered to mission — remained unchanged until the 2022 reform.

1996: Vita Consecrata, John Paul II's great doctrinal synthesis

Following the 1994 Synod of Bishops devoted to consecrated life, Pope John Paul II published, on 25 March 1996 — on the solemnity of the Annunciation — the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Vita Consecrata, "on the consecrated life and its mission in the Church and in the world"^[22]. This text remains, three decades later, the most complete doctrinal reference of the pontifical magisterium on the theological nature of religious consecration — its Christological and Trinitarian source, its prophetic dimension within the People of God, and the relationship between the three great forms of consecrated life: contemplative and apostolic life, secular institutes, and societies of apostolic life.

Approving, erecting, merging, suppressing: the heart of the mission (art. 121-122)

Article 121 of Praedicate Evangelium sets in a single sentence the spirit of the dicastery's entire action:

"It is the competence of the Dicastery to promote, animate and regulate the practice of the evangelical counsels, as lived in the approved forms of consecrated life, as well as all that concerns the life and activity of the Societies of Apostolic Life throughout the Latin Church." — Pope Francis, apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, art. 121, 19 March 2022^[23]

Article 122 details the juridical acts with the heaviest consequences for the life of institutes: the dicastery approves institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, erects them, and "grants authorisation for the validity of the erection of an Institute of Consecrated Life or a Society of Apostolic Life of diocesan right by the bishop"^[24]. In other words, even when an institute is born on the initiative of a diocesan bishop — as is the case for the great majority of contemporary new foundations — its definitive canonical validity depends on prior Roman authorisation. The same article also reserves to the dicastery the mergers, unions and suppressions of existing institutes^[25], as well as the approval of new forms of consecrated life and the erection of Unions, Confederations and Federations of related institutes.

Constitutions, temporal discipline and extraordinary measures (art. 123-124)

Article 123 entrusts the dicastery with watching over the spiritual progress and apostolic effectiveness of institutes, which in practice covers the examination and approval of each institute's constitutions — the fundamental text governing its internal life, government and proper spirituality — as well as their periodic revisions. Article 124 lists the dicastery's areas of ordinary and extraordinary competence: management of the temporal and patrimonial questions of institutes, supervision of indults of departure and of exclaustration (the temporary departure of a religious from his institute without a definitive rupture of the bond), and, in the most serious cases, extraordinary measures of government when an institute goes through a major internal crisis — dissolution of a failing provincial government, appointment of a pontifical commissioner, or temporary placing of a struggling congregation under tutelage.

Conferences of major superiors, eremitical life and the Ordo virginum (art. 125-127)

Article 125 entrusts the dicastery with the erection of international Conferences of major superiors — such as the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) or the Union of Superiors General (USG), which gather in Rome the leaders of the world's great religious institutes to coordinate their action and dialogue with the Holy See. Article 126 deals with two ancient and minority forms, canonically reaffirmed by the 1983 Code: eremitical life, practised by individual hermits recognised by their diocesan bishop, and the Ordo virginum, the ancient consecration of virgins living in the world, restored after the Second Vatican Council. Article 127, finally, extends the dicastery's competence to secular Third Orders and associations related to them, attached to the great religious families (Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelite in particular) without sharing their proper consecration.

Rejoice (2014): the first circular letter of Francis's pontificate

On 2 February 2014, on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord — the World Day for Consecrated Life instituted by John Paul II in 1997 — the Congregation published its first circular letter addressed to all consecrated persons in the world under the pontificate of Pope Francis: Rallegratevi (Rejoice)^[26]. The text, built around the new pope's teachings on evangelical joy, calls religious men and women to overcome the temptation of resignation in the face of the ageing of Western institutes and to rediscover the freshness of their founding charism.

The Year of Consecrated Life (2014-2015) and Witnesses of Joy

On 21 November 2014, on the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary, Pope Francis published the apostolic letter Witnesses of Joy, addressed to all consecrated persons on the occasion of the opening, on the following 30 November, of the Year of Consecrated Life, which would end on 2 February 2016^[27]. Taking up the objectives set fifteen years earlier by John Paul II, the pope urges consecrated persons not to content themselves with recounting a glorious history, but to build a new one:

"You are not only invited to remember and recount a glorious history, but to build an even greater one! Look to the future, where the Spirit is sending you to do even greater things with you." — Pope Francis, apostolic letter Witnesses of Joy, 21 November 2014^[28]

During this special year, the dicastery organised several international gatherings of major superiors and young religious in Rome, whose doctrinal synthesis would feed, in 2017, the document New Wine in New Wineskins.

Vultum Dei Quaerere and Cor Orans (2016-2018): reforming feminine contemplative life

On 29 June 2016, Pope Francis promulgated the apostolic constitution Vultum Dei Quaerere, "Seeking the Face of God", devoted specifically to feminine contemplative life — cloistered nuns of Benedictine, Cistercian, Carthusian, Carmelite, Poor Clare and Dominican traditions in particular^[29]. The text addresses twelve concrete aspects of this life: initial and ongoing formation, prayer, the place of the Word of God, the sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation, fraternal life in community, federations of monasteries, enclosure, work, silence, the use of the media and asceticism^[30].

On 1 April 2018, on the solemnity of Easter, the Congregation published the implementing instruction Cor Orans, "A Praying Heart", which specifies the concrete arrangements for implementing Vultum Dei Quaerere in monasteries of the Latin rite, notably the procedures for the obligatory federation of autonomous monasteries and the criteria for evaluating the formation of nuns^[31].

New Wine in New Wineskins (2017): fifty years after the Council

In 2017, the dicastery published, with the approval of Pope Francis, the orientation document New Wine in New Wineskins (Vino nuovo in otri nuovi), arising from the work of the November 2014 plenary assembly devoted to the theme "Consecrated life fifty years after Lumen Gentium and Perfectae Caritatis"^[32]. Drawing on the Gospel saying that new wine is not put into old wineskins (Mt 9:17), the text offers a lucid assessment of five decades of conciliar renewal of religious life and of the persistent structural challenges: ageing of Western institutes, the need for mergers and restructuring, initial and ongoing formation, governance of international institutes.

The magazine Women Church World and the revelation of abuse of sisters (2019)

In February 2019, the monthly supplement Women Church World (Donne Chiesa Mondo) of L'Osservatore Romano devoted its issue to the working conditions and the abuse suffered by sisters around the world, notably at the hands of priests and, in some cases, of superiors of their own institute^[33]. Asked about this, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, then prefect of the Congregation, publicly acknowledged the existence of serious cases:

"There are some truly difficult cases, in which superiors withheld the identity papers of sisters who wanted to leave the convent, or who had been expelled from it." — Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, quoted by Women Church World, February 2019^[34]

Questioned in the plane bringing him back from the United Arab Emirates, on 5 February 2019, Pope Francis himself confirmed that measures had been taken under Benedict XVI against a group stemming from a French community: the Institute of the Sisters of St John and St Dominic, formed in 2012 by sisters who had left the main community — essentially the contemplative branch of the Sisters of St John, within the Community of St John — and dissolved in January 2013^[35]. The next day, the Holy See spokesman Alessandro Gisotti clarified that the pope, in speaking of "sexual slavery", meant "manipulation", a form of abuse of power also reflected in sexual abuse, and not slavery in the literal sense^[36]. The Community of St John had itself acknowledged as early as 2013, and recalled in its statement of 7 February 2019, that its founder, the Dominican father Marie-Dominique Philippe, who died in 2006, had committed acts contrary to chastity with several adult women he was accompanying at the time, including consecrated sisters, and that brothers and priests of the community had also been guilty of abuse, many of them already punished^[37]. A Roman reception centre had already been created, under the authority of the dicastery, to take in sisters who had left their institute in precarious conditions, some finding themselves without resources or shelter^[38]. This episode led the dicastery to strengthen, in the following years, its procedures for listening to, reporting and accompanying sisters in situations of vulnerability within their own institutes.

On 19 March 2022, on the solemnity of St Joseph, Pope Francis promulgated the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium on the Roman Curia, in force from 5 June 2022, the day of Pentecost. The text everywhere substitutes the word "dicastery" for "congregation" and "pontifical council"^[39]. The Congregatio pro Institutis Vitae Consecratae et Societatibus Vitae Apostolicae thus became the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, its competences being redefined in articles 121 to 127 of the new constitution — the current legal basis of its action, detailed above.

A path between nursing, mission in Africa and psychology

Born in Monza, Lombardy, on 27 March 1965, Simona Brambilla first obtained a nursing diploma in 1986 and worked at the L. Mandic hospital in Merate before entering, in 1988, the Institute of the Missionaries of Consolata, a women's congregation of Italian origin devoted to missionary evangelisation^[40]. After her first religious profession in 1991, she obtained a licentiate in psychology at the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1998, then left for mission in Mozambique from 1999, where she was responsible for youth ministry at the Macua Xirima Study Centre in Maua^[41]. Back in Rome, she taught at the Gregorian from 2002 to 2006 and obtained a doctorate in psychology there in 2008^[42].

Superior general, then secretary and finally prefect of the dicastery

Elected on 7 June 2011 Superior General of the women's branch of the Missionaries of Consolata for a six-year term, Sr Brambilla was re-elected in 2017 for a second term ending in May 2023^[43]. On 7 October 2023, Pope Francis appointed her secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life^[44]. A little over a year later, on 6 January 2025, the pope appointed her prefect of that same dicastery, making her the first woman in history to head a dicastery of the Roman Curia^[45][46] — a function previously always entrusted to a cardinal or an archbishop. Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, a Spanish Salesian and former Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation from 2014 to 2024, was appointed pro-prefect of the dicastery on the same day^[47].

"A woman is appointed to head a dicastery at the Vatican." — ZENIT, French edition, on the appointment of Sr Simona Brambilla, 7 January 2025^[48]

This appointment is part of a broader evolution of the presence of women in the government of the Roman Curia undertaken by Pope Francis during the last years of his pontificate, through the progressive appointment of sisters and laywomen to positions of responsibility within several dicasteries.

Leadership and office-holders (2026)

The dicastery organises its administrative activity around several specialised offices — discipline of religious institutes, secular institutes, societies of apostolic life, economic and patrimonial affairs — and maintains a permanent institutional dialogue with the great international conferences of major superiors that it has itself erected: the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and the Union of Superiors General (USG), which gather in Rome the leaders of the world's principal male and female religious institutes.

This table reveals a major institutional turning point at the end of more than four centuries of existence: until 2025, the office of prefect of this dicastery — like that of all other organs of the Roman Curia — was systematically reserved to a cardinal or, more rarely in its early history, to an archbishop. The appointment of Sr Simona Brambilla breaks directly with this unbroken curial tradition since Sixtus V, without being accompanied by an elevation to the cardinalate — the prefect remains a professed religious, while Cardinal Fernández Artime, as pro-prefect, retains certain prerogatives linked to his cardinalatial dignity, notably for presiding over certain acts requiring episcopal or cardinalatial rank.

The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is not a mere registry office for religious foundations: it is the institutional instrument through which Rome discerns, approves, accompanies and, where necessary, reforms or suppresses the concrete forms taken — from the origins of monasticism to contemporary secular institutes — by the evangelical radicality of the counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. Its history — four and a half centuries of reorganisations since the Congregation of the Consultors of Regulars of 1586, the progressive integration of secular institutes then of societies of apostolic life, the great doctrinal synthesis of Vita Consecrata, heightened vigilance over internal abuse revealed in 2019, and the historic appointment, in 2025, of the first woman to head a Roman dicastery — reflects the inherent and permanent difficulty of governing, from Rome, a reality as diverse as Catholic consecrated life on a universal scale.

• Read The Roman Curia to place this dicastery within the overall central architecture of the Church since Praedicate Evangelium.
• Read The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith for a dicastery of comparable rank, competent in strictly doctrinal matters.
• Read The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints for the Roman organ competent over canonisation processes, historically linked to the same 16th-century curial roots.
• Read The Dicastery for the Eastern Churches for the equivalent Roman organ competent over the religious life proper to the Eastern Catholic Churches.
• Read The 1983 Code of Canon Law for the universal legal framework of consecrated life (canons 573-746).
• Consult the full text of the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium (19 March 2022) on vatican.va for the detail of articles 121 to 127.
• Consult the official profile of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life on vatican.va and vitaconsacrata.va for its up-to-date institutional presentation.