Sanctity of Life in Canon Law and in French Public Law. The recognition criteria in associations of the faithful

Today in the Roman Catholic Church new forms of associative communities are emerging and posing a certain number of questions in regard to Canon Law. One of the questions concerns those who choose to live a celibate state of "consecrated life" in these new forms of community life within the Church. Beyond the structures and organic criteria of consecrated life, which sometimes in itself can frustrate any serious reflection, what are the criteria in utroque iure, that would allow for the recognition of such a state of life in Canon law? New forms of consecrated life in the Catholic Church can also question French law. Some of these new forms acquire the status of an international public association in Canon law, and ask, for example, for legal recognition as a religious congregation", in French law. Questions than arise on matters such as social security, labor law, and other issues within this legal congregational status. These are the essential canonical and French legal criteria for these movements that our study is to clarify. How can the profession of the evangelical counsels, the sacred bonds, stability, fraternal life, and submission to an approved rule of life, all canonical requirements be fulfilled, while also satisfying French legal requirements, such as social security, pension schemes and litigation activity, in the new forms of associative communities?