Secular Institutes are a special gift of the Holy Spirit, a form of total consecration to Christ in the Church through the profession of the vows of chastity, obedience and poverty. The first official recognition dates back to February 2nd 1947. It was the Pope Pius XII who recognized and officially approved their form of living. The Canon Law, can. 710, has fixed their legal aspects: “the Secular Institute is an institute of consecrated life in which faithful people, living in the world, aim at the perfection of charity and engage themselves for the sanctification of the world, mainly acting inside it”.

The Secular Institutes are constituted by “faithful lay people and diocesan priests, called to live with Gospel radicalism precisely that secularity in which they are immersed by virtue of their state of life or pastoral ministry” (Benedict XVI).

The Pope himself points out their essential quality and stresses their special mission declaring: “your fervour is born from having discovered the beauty of Christ and of his unique way of loving, healing and meeting the needs of life and of enlivening and comforting it”.