The birth pangs of the fourth genus of Christian or laymen in search of the state of perfection

Abstract

If a zoologist chose to discuss a particular species of monkey not in the context of his general exposition of the Simian group, but in the context of the human group, one would suspect that there was some doubt about its status, or some confusion in his mind, or, perhaps, both. If the Second Vatican Council chose to discuss the so called 'Secular Institutes', which Pius XII had clearly stated were lay in character, not in the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, but in the Decree on the renewal of the Religious Life, similar suspicions naturally arise.