Who are we ?

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The Voluntas Dei Institute is a secular institute of Pontifical Right within the Catholic Church. It is made up of baptized and consecrated people who live in the world and obey the evangelical commandments of obedience, poverty, and chastity in order to be “salt of the earth,”“light of the world,” and “yeast in the dough.”

Like all secular institutes, the Voluntas Dei Institute is defined by three essential elements:

Consecration: The members are called to give

themselves entirely to God, for His

honour and service.

Apostolate: The members are called to work in

order to perfect the temporal order and

bear witness to Christ. Working with

the power of love in the world and

from the inside, they share the

evangelical task that is incumbent

upon the Church.

Secularity: All members are called to consecrate

themselves to God no matter who they

are, but they do not have to live in

community like a religious order.

All members are in communion with the Church and live in fraternity with all human beings and in accordance with their secular lifestyle.

Here is a short video that briefly explains who we are.

(For other videos about the Voluntas Dei Institute, please click on the videos page)

We count among the members of the Voluntas Dei Institute priests, celibate laymen, married couples and people who are spiritually affiliated. We have more than 900 members spread throughout twenty-three countries, including Canada, Chile, Colombia, the United States, Haiti, India, the Dominican Republic, and Sri Lanka.

Voluntas Dei priest

visiting a sick

person in a nursing home

Voluntas Dei volunteering at his parish during the pandemic to insure everyone is kept safe during service

Voluntas Dei playing the drums as part of music ministry at her parish

Voluntas Dei doing volunteer administration work for the Institute