Bishop Earl Fernandes responds to increasing desire of widows to serve God and the Church in a formal way.
Six women in Ohio whose husbands have passed away are discerning religious life in a new “Order of Widows” established by the Diocese of Columbus.
On October 16, Bishop Earl Fernandes issued a decree to establish the Ordo Viduarum, or the Order of Widows, as a community of diocesan right. It is open to widows over 60 who have been sacramentally married.
Dominican Fr. Paul Keller, who is in charge of formation for the nascent group, said that although the desire of Catholic widows to offer themselves to the Church and to God is not peculiar to the Diocese of Columbus, he is unaware of an Order of Widows having been decreed by a bishop in any other U.S. diocese.
There were Orders of Widows in the early Church, up until the Middle Ages.
In a 2006 article, M. Cathleen Kaveny, then Professor of Law and Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, noted that through an Order of Widows, the early Church “recognized the contribution that the widows could make to the well-being and spiritual growth of their fellow believers.”
“The Order of Widows can trace its biblical roots to 1 Timothy, where its qualifications for membership are listed alongside the qualifications for the ecclesiastical offices of bishop, deacon, and elder,” Kaveny wrote. “These qualifications include age (a widow must be 60 years old), only one marriage (widows must remain continent after their husbands die), and a history of good deeds.”
Kaveny said that the primary duty of the Order of Widows was to pray ceaselessly on behalf of the community.
“Their pleas are powerful because God hears the cries of the oppressed,” she wrote. “Although theirs was not a ministry of the altar, they exercised spiritual authority and influence in their ministry to the community. Widows made house visitations, where they comforted, fasted, and prayed with the sick and gave practical instruction to younger women. They prophesied. Enrolled widows also assumed a place of honor in the liturgy, sitting in the front of the assembly along with the bishops, priests, and deacons.”
Fr. Keller is aware of such orders in Italy today, but not in the US. When the Columbus diocese submitted to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a translation of the consecration rite used in Italy, no one at the USCCB mentioned that there is anything like this in the US today.
Blessing of the wedding ring
Fr. Keller, who serves as director of the diocesan Office of Divine Worship, likens the rite of consecration to that of consecrated virgins, and said
This article appeared on Aleteia and was written by John Burger – published on 11/18/24
Image Source: AB/Wimimedia Commons – Gerrit Dou – Praying old woman – M.Ob.553 MNW – National Museum in Warsaw
