Q: Is membership in the CSD Secular Institute demands a careful discernment before entering?
A: Not only in this Institute but in all cases, every individual must discern if what they are choosing fits the calling God has called them to be.
Q: Does it change my status as a Lay or Cleric if i enter your Institute?
A: following the Canon Law 711, membership in a Secular Institute like the Company of Saint Dominic does not change one's canonnical status be it lay or clerics, however, unlike ordinary individual, they are consecrated because of the evangelical counsels.
Q: What vows needed to be undertaken by those who aspire membership in the Institute?
A: The vows are, Perfect Chastity, Poverty, Obedience and Total Consecration to Mary Immaculate. Perfect Chastity is to live Celibate Lives for the sake of God's kingdom, Poverty, means detachment from worldly goods, Obedience requires submission to the Authorities of the Institute and to the Magisterium of the Church, Total Consecration to Mary Immaculate, requires a member to be strictly Marian.
Q: What if i am married? or cannot take evangelical counsels in a higher level. Am i welcome to the Institute?
A: Members of a Secular Institute are bounded by Evangelical Vows of Perfect Chastity, Poverty and Obedience, however, in the early years, CSD admitted lay affiliated also called associate members.
The Canon Law also states,
"The Institute can associate with itself by some form of bond determined in the constitutions, other members of Christ's faithful who seek evangelical perfection according to the spirit of the institute and who share in its mission"( Canon 725)
Thus, One who cannot take Evangelical Counsel vows for some other reason, were accepted for Associate Membership. Provida Mater speaks of vowed members of the Secular Institute as "Members in a strict sense", while the document Cum Sanctissimus speaks of members of the Institute who cannot take all evangelical counsel vows as "Members in a wide sense".
"Whether those who are enrolled as members in the stricter sense of the word "over and above the general habitual piety and self-denial" without which a life of perfection would be empty and illusory, are making firm and real profession of the three general evangelical counsels in one of the various forms admitted in Provida Mater (Art. III, 2). But in a broader sense there may be members, attached and incorporated in various degrees, who aspire to the perfect life of the Gospel, and try to live it in their own situation but do not, or cannot, rise to a commitment to all three counsels at the higher level"
(Cum Sanctissimus Art X, Sacred Congregation for Religious)
Associate membership in the Company of Saint Dominic are to live the spirit of the evangelical counsels according to their state in life, they make a pledge to incorporate in their lives Chastity according to their state, Poverty of Spirit, Apostolic Obedience and Total Consecration to Mary Immaculate. Associates enjoy the same privileges common to all members of the Institute.
Moreover, We should note that CSD No longer admit aspirants for associate membership. Those who wish to get affiliated with the Institute should be members of the Lay Society of St. Catherine of Siena (OP-Siena Laity), a Lay Dominican Fraternity under the direction of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena - Philippines.
Q: Is CSD an Institute under the Dominicans or the Diocese?
A: The Company of Saint Dominic is under the Roman Catholic Archdiocease of Manila, because we are a new Institute of Consecrated life. Every new established institute or congregation must go through a long process in following the provisions of the Canon Law. His Eminence, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, DD has appointed Rev. Fr. Sanny De Claro as our institute's Minister Prefect. however, we embrace the spirituality of Saint Dominic de Guzman, the founder of the Order of Preachers.
The founding members of the Institute were comprised of Single Lay Dominicans who wish to pursue a consecrated secular life while retaining their spirituality as dominicans, together with Mo. Rosario Villanueva, OP, they re-materialized the vision of a secular institute by the late Rev. Fr. Pablo Fernandez, O.P., the latter's spiritual father.
In 2009, Rev. Fr. Quirico Pedregosa Jr., O.P., the Philippine Dominican Prior Provincial as a "new entity of the OP Family in the Philippines"
Currently, the Company of Saint Dominic is spiritually guided by the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena - Philippines in our Dominican journey and formation.
In time and if God's will, this Diocesan Institute seeks to be aggregated to the Order of Preachers.
