Do Secular Institutes take vows?

Some do! Yes, it is commonly perpetrated that secular institutes do not take vows, but in fact, there are some that do.  While the foundation document for Secular Institutes, Provida Mater Ecclesia, did not necessitate public vows for Secular Institutes, neither did the revised Code of Canon Law prohibit the possibility of public vows. So some do, and some don't. 

In norms common to ALL Institutes of Consecrated Life, the church teaches that "Life consecrated through the profession of the evangelical counsels is a stable form of living, in which the faithful follow Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit, and are totally dedicated to God, who is supremely loved...The state of persons who profess the evangelical counsels in these institutes belongs to the life and holiness of the Church..." Canon Law, #573, #574 Key here, is that consecrated life is marked by "profession of the evangelical counsels". Each institute determines the manner in which this happens.

Then, with respect to Secular Institutes in particular, it teaches that "the constitutions are to establish the sacred bonds by which the evangelical counsels are undertaken in the institute." Canon Law, #712.

So what is a sacred bond? Most often, in the context of consecrated life, it is understood as an oath or a promise. However, marriage is constituted by a sacred bond, the nature of which is deemed a "vow". So a sacred bond does not exclude a vow.

But in secular institutes, aren't vows "private vows"?

Irrespective of the "nature" of the sacred bond - vows, promise, oath, ..., for an Institute of Consecrated Life, to be "official", such vows (or other form of sacred bonds) are officially "received" by a delegate of the Institute in the name of the Church and made according to the constitutions of the Institute. Such conditions constitute the nature of a public vow - see Canon 1192. However, members of Secular Institutes who live their consecration "in the world" usually do so with a degree of approved and appropriate "discretion". Such discretion is often misinterpreted as rendering their consecration of a private nature, when in fact it has public, i.e. "official", recognition within the church.

So what Secular Institutes take vows?

The Company of St Ursula, Secular Institute of St Angela Merici, gives its members the choice of vow or promise as their sacred bond for professing the evangelical counsels. Notre Dame de Vie is another secular Institute which professes the evangelical counsels through the sacred bond of a vow. There may well be others. 

Vocations- if all are equal and in service of one another, how do we speak of them?

Vatican II affirmed the universal call to perfect holiness of all Christians, whatever their state or condition,[1] with the following of Christ, whose life was poor, chaste and obedient, being the foundation of perfect love.[2] Indeed,  Rincón-Pérez notes that “the Council, as emerged from the development of chapters V and VI of Lumen gentium, deliberately suppressed the term “state of perfection” to avoid making any suggestion that Christian perfection is a monopoly reserved to a canonical state.”[3] All Christians are called to live a life that is chaste, obedient to God and the Church, and reasonably detached from material possessions appropriate to their state.[4] In so doing, all Christians are called to the perfection of love in accordance with the fit of their proper vocation,[5] for diversity of gifts is the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus describing consecrated life as more perfect, more complete, more radical, undermines the universal call to holiness of all the baptized.

So how do can we reflect on and speak of the differing vocations in service of one another without retreating to former language of more perfect or more radical. Does the following hold any possibilities?

• Christian marriage is a graced way of being to image/make present/to be an icon of the convenant relationship of love between God and the People of God.
• Consecrated life (or more particularly, consecrated celibacy) is a graced way of being to express the primacy of Christ and His Kingdom in our lives.
• The single way of life? A graced of way being that reflects/images God's openness to all? inclusivity? universal call to holiness? 
• ........

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[1] Lumen Gentium 11, 29.

[2] Perfectae Caritatis 1, 466. This was affirmed again in John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation. Vita Consecrata 31.

[3] Tomás Rincón-Pérez, “Introduction to PARS III De institutis vitae consecratae et de societatibus vitae apostolicae” in E. Caparros et al., Exegetical Commentary on the Code of Canon Law: Book Ii: The People of God (Canons 460 - 746). Vol. 2,2 (Midwest Theological Forum, 2004). 1455.

[4] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation. Vita Consecrata 30.

[5] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation. Vita Consecrata 31.