Lay-religious alliance

The history of the laity in the Augustinians of the Assumption

From the very beginnings of his congregation in the mid-19^th century, Fr. Emmanuel d’Alzon dreamed of“an Assumption made up of lay people and religious to bring the passion for the Reign of God to the world of his time“.

Thus, the first Constitutions of 1855 defined the first Assumption not as a clerical congregation, but as an association of priests and lay people, with not only religious who were not called to the priesthood, but also – and this was original at the time – lay secular brothers, called Brothers of the Third Order.

The first two to be professed were two public school teachers, Jules Monnier (1815-1856) and Eugène Germer-Durand (1812-1880), who gave up their high professional status to join Fr. d’Alzon at the Collège de l’Assomption. Not living in community, they could “devote themselves, under the direction of the Order, to works of zeal, charity and apostolate”.

But Rome didn’t quite understand why lay people, who didn’t live in community and couldn’t take the traditional vows of religion, should be an integral part of the Congregation. Discussions lasted some fifty years, without success. In the Constitutions of 1906 and 1918, the term “tertiary” was replaced by “affiliated” to the Assumption, an expression which disappeared in the 1923 text, aligned with the strict provisions of the 1917 Code of Canon Law.

The fact remains that collaboration with the lay people has remained a hallmark of the Assumption: in pilgrimages, at La Bonne presse (now Bayard), in parishes… religious and laity have always worked together.

It wasn’t until the Second Vatican Council, and the review of the Constitutions it called for, that Assumptionists began to question the place of lay people, all the more so as strong personal relationships of esteem and friendship were being forged between lay people and religious in the works.

In 1994, the Synod of Bishops convened by John Paul II highlighted the new links between lay people and religious institutes. ” Many institutes (…) have come to the conviction that their charism can be shared with the laity”, wrote John Paul II two years later in the apostolic exhortation Vita consecrata.

“Many institutes (…) have come to the conviction that their charism can be shared with the laity”,

John Paul II

This is true of the Assumption: “Our charism does not belong to us. It is entrusted to us, and we are not its owners”, stated the 1999 General Chapter. Since then, collaboration between lay people and religious has intensified in many Assumptionist works.

General Chapter 2011, number 142, states: “Since 2005, a significant advance in the lay-religious alliance has been evident. There are different ways of living this alliance: conviviality, prayer, service, mission. The charism of the Congregation and its fundamental orientations are entering more and more into the lives of lay people. This is a dynamic source of inspiration for communities, and a source of mutual enrichment for all. This General Chapter can be an opportunity to go one step further”.

“Assumption recognizes the reality of lay Assumptionists in the Congregation, as members of our family” (Acts of the 2011 General Chapter, n. 148).

“The future is not mapped out, it belongs to us. It is to the extent of our commitment, lay and religious together, that we will be able to advance on the path to the Kingdom. There’s a world waiting for hope and love. Are we ready to help the world discover the abundance of God’s tenderness? The Alliance knows it has a mission and is mobilized for the Kingdom. Father Benoît GRIÈRE, Superior General. (Letter n. 9 to Assumptionist lay people and religious on the Covenant).