Our way of life has never been more necessary
August 19th, 2008 by Fr. Pius, OP
The Catholic Herald–”Britain’s leading Catholic newspaper”–recently published a story on the resurgence of the Dominican friars in England. Published on the feast of St. Dominic, the article notes the reduction in the size of the Order–and religious life generally–experienced after the Second Vatican Council. The article goes on to note a new renaissance in Dominican life in England and throughout the world.
The Dominican Order suffered after Vatican II, says Anna Arco. But the English province is at the centre of a renaissance of Dominican life
8 August 2008
From St Thomas Aquinas to Fra Angelico, St Dominic de Guzman to Meister Eckhart, the Dominicans have been a dominant force on the intellectual life of the Church. Marked by a rigorous academic tradition matched with a duty to save souls, to be both apostolic and contemplative, the Order of the Friars Preachers has been around for almost 800 years. But in the period spanning between 1963 and 1984, it looked as though the Dominicans might be among the first casualties of the collapse in religious life that followed the Second Vatican Council. Like many other religious orders, the Dominicans revised their constitutions and began to re-examine their charism. In that period, over 3,000 brethren left the Order, world-wide, and by 1975, over 700 priests were laicized, according to Fr Benedict Ashley, an American Dominican. They were in the midst of a serious identity crisis.
But today, in the English Province, the Order of the Friars Preachers, is witnessing a slow and steady resurgence. Over half the friars are under 40, while most of the older ones are over 60. The English Province has 75 friars at present and a small but constant trickle of energetic novices. Young and enthusiastic or older and experienced, they are all Dominicans. Whatever their differences as men, they see themselves as called to follow St Dominic’s mission to preach and save souls. A running catchphrase in their conversations is “that is typically Dominican” and a strong formation marks that identity. Fr Richard Finn, the Regent of Studies at Blackfriars, Oxford, says: “We are blessed with vocations and their educational backgrounds and interests are important to us. We don’t take them to turn them into a standard Dominican product, but there is a strong Dominican formation and that is a strong intellectual formation. …
To read the rest of the article, visit the Catholic Herald website by clicking here.
The homepage of the English Dominican Province can be found here. Also, the Dominican Students in England run their own website, called Godzdogz, a pun on the Latin Dominicanes, which can read as Domini Canes, the hounds of the Lord.
