Editor’s Note: This article was originally written in 2024. Since its composition, the Carmelite Order has relinquished its ministerial role in the Coloma Court care home. The relevant passage has been retained as it stood at the time of writing, as the point it illustrates regarding mendicant ministry to the elderly remains valid in principle.

Introduction

The Issue

The mendicant orders – Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians, and other minor orders – founded in the thirteenth century, have been at the forefront of the Church’s pastoral approach to those in need for the better part of seven hundred years. They moved the Church from the primarily contemplative nature of monastic communities to the active life of the mendicant, living in the communities they serve while spreading the Good News, charity, and mercy of Almighty God. This prevents us from saying to a brother or sister impoverished and hungry, ‘Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled.’ [1] By ‘pursuing hospitality’ we can run hospitals to ‘heal the sick […][and] cleanse the lepers.’ [2] Because ‘he that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him: how doth the charity of God abide in him?’ [3] Solidarity is fundamental to being a Christian and is a ‘moral requirement inherent within all human relationships’. [4]

We cannot call ourselves men of God if we forsake the poor, the sick, and the damned. We are called to be a missionary Church. As for us, ‘each one not considering the things that are his own, but those that are other men’s,’ we must ‘bear one another’s burdens; and so we shall fulfil the law of Christ.’ [5] The mendicant orders fulfilled this role, but they are set up to do so in a uniquely medieval European context.

So, are they still set up to do so in a rapidly changing world, one that spans a fractured and politicized society covering six habitable continents? One where there is a loneliness and abandonment epidemic amongst the old due to a breakdown in social cohesion and family life; where the young are no longer being formed in the faith and subsequently falling into the harms of the world due to overt oversexualization, violence, and political ideologues in education and media; where the sick are left to die alone and in pain because their life is not fiscally expedient or in the interests of the ill-defined and often nefarious ‘common good’ found in socialist or crony-capitalistic healthcare systems. Or must a new form of order, adapted to the current needs of the Church’s mission, arise, carrying the flame of these august harbingers of God’s love and mercy, into the twenty-first century?

The work of the Ordo Praedicatorum, though not precluding the laudable approach of the others, even if the Dominicans will be the primary focus of this analysis, suggests otherwise. Mendicancy is as relevant to ministry for today’s issues as it was in thirteenth-century Europe. Adaptations in some places, overhauls in others, are needed, but the core approach of bringing the Church to the world – the lofty goal of these orders – is the way forward. Religious schools outperform, and have a better reach to the underprivileged than state-sponsored comprehensive schools, in key metrics such as literacy, numeracy, and career prospects. [6] Particularly in the developing world, where there are often no competing programs of education. Religious-run hospitals and hospices in the European Union outperform and have a better reach to the sick and the so-called ‘undesirables’ – such as lepers and terminally ill patients – than state-run healthcare programs. [7] The list goes on; if mendicancy created some of the secular institutions we have today to minister with and give aid to the world – such as the hospital, democracy, and schools – then it will be the hand that guides them into adaptation to the new, or at times old, problems of the twenty-first century.

Definitions

Before analyzing the relevance of mendicancy in ministry for today’s society, a definition of what is meant by mendicancy in reference to modern ministry is in order, as it will provide a helpful marker for assessing the relevance of modern mendicancy. Additionally, a brief overview of the overarching themes that trouble modern ministry will be provided before focusing on the three key groups – the old, the young, the sick – that mendicants’ ministry often deals with. Mendicancy, literally meaning ‘beggar,’ does not fully encapsulate the state of what we class as the Mendicant Orders. While they take a vow of poverty, that is not unique to these groups, and is common amongst all religious orders. The meaning of the word in regards to Catholicism is much broader than that, to the extent that John Paul II’s 1983 Code of Canon Law no longer provides a definition. The previous 1917 Code of Canon Law did provide a definition, but it was so restrictive that it excluded both the Dominicans and the Franciscans, making it of no use to repeat here. [8]

So, a definition, in fact, cannot be provided without some issue, especially as, if one puts a definitive label on a mendicant, then one will necessarily exclude another in this type of analysis. For instance, a common trait of early mendicancy would have been itinerancy; yet can you truly call a Dominican an itinerant preacher, especially in modernity with stabilized communities and studia? Instead, one must look at the characteristics of these orders as a whole to understand what mendicancy is: namely, religious men or women, priestly (for the First Order), individual poverty, preachers (again for the First Order), and itinerant (relative compared to the sedentary monastic communities). This is not an exhaustive list, but it should highlight how mendicants differ from other religious groups and, as such, how their ministry can be utilized in different contexts.

Secularization, an oft-talked-about issue for parishes and dioceses, is not of primary importance to such a ministry, at least in the scope of this analysis, I would argue. Though a recent problem, as argued by Callum Brown, it has not affected the religiosity of people; ‘arguably, the rise of popular culture has done more than any other thing to marginalize’ such sentiment, as put by Percy. [9] Even if, according to Ballard, it has led to a new, less religious focus on ministry since the 1960s. [10] Analogous with the Marxist infiltration into state institutes and non-governmental organizations. But the need for spirituality is still there.

Furthermore, the religion or irreligion of those ministered to is hardly of any relevance, though at times it will affect the method of ministry. For example, it would be forbidden under pain of mortal sin and laicization for a priest to administer viaticum to a non-Catholic Christian unless he or she ‘in grave necessity, ask[ed] for it of their own will, possess[ing] the required dispositions, and give[ing] evidence of holding the Catholic faith in regard of this sacrament’, as only a ‘baptized person not prohibited by law can and must be admitted to holy communion’. [11] But a priest being there to comfort the sick and dying – if no member of their own faith group could be, or if they have no one – is not dependent on such things, and is a most noble expression of the love God has for all mankind.

Secularization is also not relevant in regards to this type of ministry, as it can be described as a uniquely European malaise; and as such, if relevant, would only be relevant in a European context, not to the rapidly expanding parishes and dioceses in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, for instance. [12] Additionally, whilst this essay will focus on mendicancy in England, we still live in an interconnected world. For example, the English Province of the Ordo Praedicatorum ministers to missions such as St Martin’s in the Caribbean. [13] Similarly, the English Province of the Ordo Fratrum Beatissimae Virginis Mariae de Monte Carmelo ministers to their brothers in Kenya. [14] However, when considering a European context, it does become relevant, as we are also called to evangelize. As exemplified by Britain, belief in the Truth that is Christ is on the decline, with a decrease of 13.1 per cent in a decade, even if people are still maintaining ‘spirituality’. [15]

A key age group is that of the young, and as such, to understand why secularization is occurring is going to be required to adapt an approach to minister to this group and combat it. For example, ‘many young adults have had minimal church contact during their early years,’ with ‘fewer Catholic schools, less time in religious education programs, and minimal involvement with high school youth groups’ – a catastrophic failing. [16] Is it little wonder that with so little contact with the institutional Church, we are failing to minister to them, and as such causing an upsurge in disaffiliation with the Church? Are the needs being met of the faithful in urban areas where they are now in the increasingly significant minority? [17]

Understanding the role ecumenism plays in Catholicism is also required for any measured approach to this topic. For we, the Church, are not called to only minister to Catholics, but also to our separated brethren, other faith groups, as well as those who have no faith at all, as all are God’s children. [18] Its relevance is multiplied by the fact that other Christian denominations may have success in ministry in areas that warrant mentioning and perhaps can be replicated in a Catholic manner. An example would be the noble efforts made by the ministry-focused Salvation Army to help the homeless and statutory homeless populations that are rapidly increasing in Western countries such as the UK. [19] And those of the numerous Protestant faith schools that minister to those in need in developing countries. So, an understanding of how relevant mendicancy could be in the aforementioned key issue areas, could require an understanding of how mendicants can adapt by using other Christian methods.

The Case

If, then, this vallis lacrimarum is beset with strife and evil, and as ‘faith without works is dead’, we must be active in our ministry; the only suitable answer to the problems of modernity is mendicancy. [20] The mendicant orders, especially the venerable Ordo Praedicatorum, are uniquely set up to minister: in the cities where our youth are being led astray; in the hospitals where the sick are left to die alone; and in the parishes with an increasingly isolated ageing population. From their inception, they were educationally focused, teaching in the great universities of Paris and Bologna, and their charisms still bear this laudable goal. They, with their focus on God, are an answer to the failures of modern ministry in Britain that has led to the change of direction, namely, putting man’s interests before God. [21] Depriving the most vulnerable of the ‘fountain of water’ springing to ‘life everlasting’, that is Jesus Christ, which is the main goal of Holy Mother Church. [22] They were adapted to minister to an urbanizing population that had begun to rapidly expand. [23] No better approach can come from the Church in response to the crisis of modernity.

Ministry in Modernity

The Old

Who then are the old that we need to be ministering to? In a world with substantial, and increasingly so, life expectancies – including in the developing world – the demographic referred to as ‘the old’ is constantly expanding and moving towards the extremities of human life. As such, any pastoral minister will, regardless of his focus, have to serve the needs of this group. Parishes are filled with either young families or the elderly, with the latter making up almost a third in the United Kingdom. [24] Many are ministered to by an ageing priesthood as well; with, for example, the average age for a priest in England being over fifty, and the average age of some friars being over sixty. [25] For the purposes of the relevance of mendicancy, this is important, as modern mendicancy is less itinerant, and as such, many parishes are ministered to by friaries. For example, the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, the Franciscans, minister to four parishes; the Ordo Praedicatorum, the Dominicans, minister to six, as well as being heavily involved with the University of Oxford through the PPH at Blackfriars; the Ordo Fratrum Beatissimae Virginis Mariae de Monte Carmelo, the Carmelites, minister to eight, as well as the chaplaincy at the Coloma Court care home; and the Ordo Sancti Augustini, the Augustinians, minister to four. [26] The elderly, then, will be an increasing group going forward that requires specialist ministry adapted to their needs.

The Young

Who then are the young that we need to be ministering to? Well, there are many categories and many needs, but I would like to focus on two of the more pressing ones: young Catholic adults, with the definition of, as defined by the Diocese of Chicago, ‘women and men in their twenties and thirties, married and single’; as well as school-aged children in education. [27] This is because they form a distinct group, that colloquially could be referred to as ‘the future’. Their needs are subsequently forward-facing, focused on the future, as well as external: concerns limited not just to their own needs but to others’. Unlike the old and the infirm, the ministry that they require is predominantly constructive rather than sustaining. Additionally, the former group forms the core proportion of practicing Catholics globally. Even if they are not visible in the institutional Church, they not only account for almost a quarter of practicing Catholics, but they will become the leaders and ministers of the Church for the next generation. [28]

For young Catholics, the main areas of pastoral need are ‘relationships, spirituality, and work. They long for intimacy – to be loved and have others to love – and they search for a community that shares their values and interests. They seek meaning in their lives and want to connect more deeply with the Source of Life’ that is God. [29] For school-aged children, their, or perhaps more precisely their parents’, pastoral needs focus on education, job prospects, and adjustment to living in a hostile world as faithful witnesses of Christ. These needs will soon morph into those of young adults, and as such can, to an extent, be treated as one.

We live in a world where the vocation to the priesthood, religious life, and marriage in the West is on the decline. [30] Where in the developing world, ravaged by religious-ethnic violence, poverty, and Islamist terror groups, actively taking part in the ministry of the Church as a young person can have fatal consequences. [31] Therefore, ministering to the needs of the young, especially in education and faith formation, is fraught with problems and danger, and requires a specialized approach that considers regional differences as well as the local culture. ‘The Church’s rules for ordering life are far more than a set of regulations to keep the shoulder-to-shoulder traffic of humanity as far as possible from collision’; ministering to the young has to take place within a cultural context that is hostile to the Christian message, whether it be radical Islam or the hedonism of the West, whilst still maintaining that authentic message. [32] This is a uniquely challenging ministry that, arguably, the mendicant orders are better suited toward.

The Sick

Who then are the sick that need ministering to? Instead of providing a definition of various medical ailments, one must look to the primary mode of ministry itself in regard to this group: the hospital chaplain, as well as the hospital itself. As Taylor argues in his work on the effects of secularization on Christianity, secularization has led to the ‘retreat/expulsion of religion from public institutions and places’; no more is this evident than in the aforementioned public institution of hospitals. [33] This is particularly important in the United Kingdom with the National Health Service, as it means that a key group that we are called to minister to is no longer being cared for with spirituality in mind, save for an oft-overworked non-denominational chaplain that one expressly has to ask for. Therefore, and because Booth argues that socialized medicine violates Catholic social teaching on the matter, the Church needs to re-evaluate its role in how we care for our brethren, the sick. [34]

Hospital chaplaincy is very significant as ‘the chaplain is looked to in order to lend meaning/hope to an event of awful and life-changing magnitude,’ even in the secular United Kingdom, as ‘the practices and presence [of the chaplain] of that history remain.’ [35] Thus, they fulfil a uniquely dignified role in easing the suffering of the sick in an area that often prioritizes the cost-effectiveness of saving a life over the life itself. This is exemplified by the recent cases of Archie Battersbee, Indi Gregory, Alfie Evans, and numerous others in which the British state, the NHS, and the doctors acted contrary to the wishes of patients entrusted to their care, contrary to the pleas and offers for help from Rome and Pope Francis.

Mendicancy

A Brief History

It would be beneficial to examine the origins of mendicancy and its intended purpose in alleviating issues within the Church before passing judgement on its relevance to ministry. The Ordo Praedicatorum, the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, the Ordo Fratrum Beatissimae Virginis Mariae de Monte Carmelo, and the Ordo Sancti Augustini, all formally recognized by Pope Gregory X at the Second Council of Lyons, form the core of mendicancy. [36] Orders dedicated to radical poverty – something alien in Europe at the time – although there is some evidence of ‘hermit preachers’ pursuing ‘poverty, asceticism, and the practice of manual labor’ in the time before St Francis and St Dominic. [37] These orders were concerned with engaging with the world, rather than isolating themselves in the cloisters of a monastic community: as ‘genuine contemplative awareness does not lead to withdrawal from the world, but to a deep immersion in the world.’ [38] Furthermore, these orders challenged the notion that the religious were not capable of fulfilling the ministry of the preacher, which was seen as reserved for either the monk or the priest. [39] All of this occurred in the context of a Europe that had become overrun by the plague of heresy, and had rapidly expanding urban populations, with increasing poverty and disease attending them. [40] In simple terms, ‘[t]he work of the mendicants in the pulpit, in the confessional, in the service of the sick and the socially weak, in the foreign missions, had no parallel in the Middle Ages.’ [41]

The first of the orders – though contemporary with and reportedly good friends of St Dominic – was St Francis’s Ordo Fratrum Minorum, the Franciscans, who seemingly filled the role that isolated proto-mendicants had been filling in the years prior, in an organized and, more importantly, sanctioned role in the Church. [42] Until this point, the primary vehicle for ministry was through the monastic orders, the secular preacher, or organized lay groups. The concept of a wandering preacher, living in poverty like the Apostles, was isolated to heretical groups such as the Waldensians and the Cathars, or to still theologically orthodox hermits, but not to a religious community. [43] Soon to follow them were St Dominic and his Predicatio, who founded a Second Order of religious at Prouilhe who ministered orthodox Catholicism to girls who ‘had been brought up amongst the heretics.’ [44] This, in turn, evolved into the founding of the First Order, recognized by Pope Honorius III, in Toulouse in 1216. [45] And thus, the expansion of the mendicant into ministry began, leading to the dominance of these four illustrious orders at the forefront of the Church’s mission to the world for the last 700 years.

The Dominican Approach to Ministry Today

‘Education and the intellectual apostolate are a key part of the Dominican charism.’ [46] Therefore, it would be beneficial to examine the Dominicans’ approach toward education, preaching, and outreach to one of the groups identified as being a key demographic for modern ministry: the youth. The English Province operates the aforementioned Permanent Private Hall at Oxford University, which is closely associated as well with the Studium at Blackfriars; the Aquinas Institute in England; Radio Maria; the chaplaincy at the University of Edinburgh, Cambridge University, Leicester and De Montfort Universities, King’s College London, and University College London; as well as numerous other activities such as public lecture series, the apostolate Light of Truth, etc. [47] These offices collectively cater to a broad range of young people, including both the defined ‘Catholic young adult’ as well as school-aged children, through the more university-focused chaplaincy and lecture series, and the work of the Light of Truth apostolate’s visits to schools and its Children’s Liturgy of the Word, respectively. One could therefore argue that the Dominican charism is particularly well-suited for educational ministry, as demonstrated by their strong emphasis on education outside of the typical Sunday sermon.

This educational ministry focuses on the study of the divine primarily, although in different aspects than straightforward theology. This is evidenced by courses and lectures such as: ‘Le purgatoire chez Dante et les leçons d’espérance’, ‘What Literature Means to Me as a Religious’, ‘La théologie dans l’âge du selfie’, and ‘Understanding the Lay Vocation from the Virgin Mary’. [48] This is important for modern ministry as the malaise of modernity, especially in Britain, has led to an over-professionalization of the field, with less of an emphasis on God and spiritual needs, and more on secular and bodily needs. [49] Made evident by the increasingly malign nature of modern psychology, allowed and encouraged to be present in schools, which medicates, ‘educates’, and facilitates the mutilation of otherwise healthy children for profit, driven by egotistical academics who are more concerned with their own glory than the fundamental commandments of practicing medicine: ‘Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course […] Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman.’ [50] Causing a cascading harmful effect into the education of children and the formation of young adults.

When we focus on the body and the ego, we lose sight of God and fail to minister to that fundamental need – especially in children – which is the spiritual. It is especially important as young baptized adults are not disaffiliating with the Church; they are simply not interacting with the institutional Church, as their spiritual needs are not being met; and the non-baptized/members of another communion are not becoming less spiritual. [51] Since young people spend most of their time in full-time education, this is a key area that the Church writ large neglects outside the increasingly diminishing religious schools. However, for the Dominicans, this seems to be their forte, even if they do not formally run primary or secondary educational institutes. As McCarthy argues, rightly, that for pastoral theology to be effective it needs to be imbued with ‘spirituality;’ as such, the more spiritual focus of the Dominican approach to educational ministry would counteract this cancerous scourge of egotism that is to be found in the professionalization of pastoral ministry and education. [52] Returning the ‘restless searchers’ to the ‘fundamental component of our human being,’ which is to ‘live intentionally in reference to something larger than oneself,’ namely God. [53]

Something that children and young Catholic adults, finding themselves in an increasingly hostile world, need more of and not less, as has been the case for the last seventy years. Browning argues ‘that Christian practice must not be merely pragmatic or therapeutic;’ with the overt focus on pragmatic education in Britain post-Second World War, and the medicalizing of children’s natural behavior to the point of passivity, it has most assuredly become so. [54] Thus, because the Dominicans are a religious order with the charism of preaching, they are most suited to the role of imbuing spirituality into education.

Other Mendicant Approaches to Ministry

As identified, the old and the sick are the two other key groups that any healthy ministry will have to minister to. As such, I would like to highlight the efforts of the Carmelites in response to both the old and the sick, especially those in care homes. Whilst the Dominicans make laudable efforts in this area of ministry as well, as evidenced by their ministry in the Royal Free Hospital, Guy’s Hospital, and the Leicester Royal Infirmary, the purpose of this essay is to show the reader that it is mendicancy, independent of the specific orders, that is best adapted to modern ministry. [55] Therefore, an analysis of another mendicant order is required. The Carmelites minister to, as previously mentioned, the elderly in the care home of Coloma Court. Providing spiritual care to the elderly who have come in need of special care to live due to the complexities of dementia, through the Holy Mass, ‘personalized care’, liturgy, etc. [56]

This effort in providing spiritual needs in a personalized manner, to those who have become removed from society whether from age or infirmity, is significant as healthcare in Britain is socialized and often at odds with the fundamental dignity and rights of human life. Socialized medicine – that is, government-run medicine focused solely on the good of the state rather than the individual – violates human dignity, as seen in the United States’ lamentable move towards the system that Britain has. [57] The socialized model that the NHS embodies also violates the ‘degree of economic freedom’ for families that the Catholic Church teaches is required, forcing them to use a system that continuously violates basic Catholic principles and their conscience. [58] True healthcare, including palliative care, has to be based upon human dignity and must also encompass the spiritual needs of those concerned, both the patient and their family – something that the Carmelite chaplaincy at Coloma Court prides itself on.

The NHS, namely the British State, ‘regulates and controls everything’ in healthcare and palliative care, and this policy has led to grievous human rights violations such as abortions – both forced against the patients’ will as well as voluntary – and assisted suicide, both against the patients’ will as well as voluntary, etc. [59] Therefore, the humanity and the bravery of mendicant ministers, such as the Carmelite friars, not only minister to the spiritual needs of the sick or the old, but they can be an ‘advocate and support in […] a bureaucratic nightmare’ where the ‘political level’ makes the choices. [60] In Europe, religious-run hospitals already provide better outcomes, and, unlike a monastic order, mendicancy is adapted to run such institutions and minister to the sick with a focus on the fundamental and inviolable dignity of each human.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the issues that are at the forefront of ministry in modernity are the loneliness, isolation, and neglect of the old; the neglect in education of the youth, both in the faith and in general life; and the neglect and often cruel treatment of the infirm in their spiritual as well as physical needs. In the key groups of the young, the old, and the sick, with the help of mendicant orders such as the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and the Augustinians, the Church’s missions can be renewed to face modernity. This way, we can ‘not forget to do good, and to impart,’ ‘bearing the infirmities of the weak,’ being ‘mindful of the poor,’ through ‘pursuing hospitality.’ [61] The success of mendicant ministries, especially in education through university chaplaincies, engagement with young adults in lecture series, etc., as well as in hospitals and care homes, shows that mendicancy is still relevant to the Church’s mission to bring ‘the light of the nations,’ Jesus Christ, to the world. [62]