What is a religious community or congregation in the Catholic Church?
A religious community or congregation in the Catholic Church is a group of men or women who are bound together in faith, and have publicly promised to serve God and his people though the imitation of Jesus Christ. They follow his way of life and carry out his mission of love to the world. While all Christians in a sense are called by Baptism to this same vocation of imitating Christ and serving others, religious do so by binding themselves through formal vows: traditionally these vows are poverty, chastity, and obedience. They lead a distinctive way of life sanctioned by the Church and governed by the Constitutions (laws) of the particular institute that they have freely chosen to join.
