The decree Perfectae caritatis has experienced multiple stages of processing, many amendments, a large collaboration of the Council Fathers and was approved October 28, 1965 with 2,126 votes in favor and 13 against. The decree doesn’t want to define the religious life, but to promote renewal and adaptation, so it is practical and operational.

The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (1964) that prepares it, the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae sanctae  for implementation (1966), the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelica testificatio (Paul VI, 1971) are the frame of Perfectae caritatis.

It’s offered to the Church, the religious Institutions, the civil community, a number of elements starting a strong renewal, which was not exhausted and still in progress, of the consecrated life. I’m presenting some important elements: the reality of the 'renewal', vows, community life, education.

 
Renovation
In the document there is the understanding that we come from a principle that is the community of the apostles and of those, men and women, have wanted and managed under the impulse of the Holy Spirit to begin a variety of life forms designed to imitate more closely Jesus and followed Him with greater freedom. Our attention is immediately placed on Jesus, the renewal takes the form of a look back at the source (Jesus through the Holy Scriptures and the individual Founders / man and women) and realizes that the changed conditions of the times and life require an adaptation of the religious life that highlights the contribution to the vitality of the Church in the way of human history and salvation. The variety of Institutions is the beautiful dress that the Bride-Church wears for the Bridegroom and for all the wedding guests.
Scripture is book to have in our hands, mind and heart, determining and characterizing the prayer of each both the type of study and change the tone of the meetings with others, inside and outside of the community. The setting of prayer changes for all the men that open (and educate) a biblical and liturgical prayer much more widespread than was customary. The horizon broadens and you enter into God’s horizon, you are holding the tools to live 'from the roof up', ridding by closed and limited horizons that led to the navigation of small vessels, opening up a brave actions in solidarity, witnesses humanity and joyful faith, paying attention to scan the horizon with hope.

We do reference to founder father, founder mother: they have opened cross walk and ways of life that had the characteristic of not being simple repetition and clumsy imitation of something already existing, but to respond to the Spirit's prompting, to the needs of people in moments and daily environments. If, by the time of the founding, some forms of life no longer show their originality and some founders are not known to the members of the same institutions, the Council invites us to study sources and thought, and will return to the genuineness of the insights that have given life in specific vocations to special forms of "special consecration". The expression "special consecration" is derived from an address by Pope Paul VI (23 May 1964): "The profession of the evangelical vows is added to the consecration of baptism and completes as a particular consecration, because the believer offers and devoted himself entirely to God, making his life a service to Him alone."

The renewal is expressed as inclusion of consecrated life in the path of Christian life: not a tertium genus, third category, but people with vows or other similar bonds "offer themselves totally to God who is loved above, so as to be a new and special title for the service and honor of God." Dead to sin they are living only for God. Their whole life "has been placed at the service of God, and this is a special consecration which is deeply rooted in baptismal consecration, and it is a more perfect" (PC5). This will open a wide debate: the religious is consecrated or is sacred? The protagonist is the human being or God? Only if and when it becomes clear, meaning that the Christian life, a life of relationship with God is where God and human beings interact and act together, this debate can be overcome.

The renewal is summed up, perhaps, in a few basic words, on which and with which the religious life is still working (PC 5): to live for God, love for Christ (leaving everything for love of Him, following Him as the only thing needed, listening to His words, concerning for the things of Himself), to the service of the Church. Joining contemplation (cleaving to God with the mind and the heart) and apostolic zeal (collaborating to Redemption and expanding the Kingdom of God). In a few sentences that contain the work of recent decades, with large concrete elements and challenges: to live for God alone, how effectively? With which events and extensions? How open your heart? How are living union with Christ so intimate and complete that announces total and immediate adhesion, face to face, which will take place in the celestial glory?

 
The vows

The traditional way to list the vows, in shades of ancestry (poverty, chastity, obedience) is replaced with a list already existing in LG 43: chastity, poverty, obedience, showing that at first it 's love, not resignation.

 
Chastity
Chastity is indicated in its positive character (PC 12), is a gift of grace (a nice gift that God gives), enriches the person and stimulates the service of God and apostolic activity. It should give care, that is, to believe in the words of the Lord, do not presume of our forces, to have care about the health of the body and the mind; genuine practice of fraternal life is necessary. Value of chastity, but not pride or vainglory (saint Jerome deplored it, but obviously the risk of temptation still exists). Mortification and custody of the senses, practicing asceticism that allows you control of your body, but health’s care. Psychological and affective maturity. Personal enrichment for  integral development, a harmonious building, personal but not isolated, diffusive love, construction of self and of others.

Celibacy for the Kingdom of Heaven: if the heavenly things are summed up in the happiness of possessing God face to face, in union with all the elect, chastity foretaste of the 'ownership' of God, opens the heart to the entire human community.

Poverty
Although poverty is love of Christ, before renunciation (PC 13). In fact it is participation in the poverty of Christ (the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head; the Redeemer of being rich, he became poor to enrich us), not simply renunciation of worldly goods; it is spiritual spoliation, desired poverty around the human being who puts in the Incarnation’s life: total renunciation of assets with a view to offering to the Father. Not just dependence of the Superiors (ie poverty and obedience), but life according to the Gospel’s ideal: accumulating treasures for Heaven. You do not need many words to tell about the strength of this vow at the present time with its new forms of poverty. Perfectae caritatis remembers that the consecrated person is a subject, like all living things, to the obligation, the common law, of work. Begging out of work can not be considered an ideal form of poverty.

Personal poverty and collective poverty have to coexist. Great was the commitment of these years to make existential and concrete this call. "Institutions are required to avoid any appearance of luxury, excessive profit and the accumulation of goods": do not aiming to make profits, rather give charity outside and even within the Institutions themselves. Living in poverty is to anticipate that eternal life is where and when the Lord is the only and total wealth. The constant attitude, personal and communal, to have faith  in Providence excludes any avidness in search of temporal goods and all anxiety for the necessary.

Obedience
The document distinguishes nature and foundation of obedience (PC 14), makes recommendations to members, advice to the superiors, in a balanced, comprehensive, current and traditional view of religious obedience. As a basis, we remember that the human being is called to be conformed to the will of God, in imitation of Christ, in service to the Church. Obedience as an attitude of the will, the consecration of it, dedicatio. The renunciation of the will can be directed to God alone, is offered to God for themselves. Mystical value of obedience: it aims to unite with God, so expands being, develops according to the size of the will of God. It implies faith: the religious subject themselves in faith to their superiors, representatives of God. Then they develop in the spirit of faith, realizing the agreement of human wills in accordance with the will of God. Only the Holy Spirit can have in it.
Docility to God, loving service to those who are part of superiors: they must give an account to God of those who are entrusted to them; so the spirit of service, respect for people, foster collaboration, listening through a real exchange of thought, recognizing the possibility to think differently. By religious spirit of faith and love (God-centered or  theological religious obedience), to provide all human forces, constructive attitude of ecclesial horizon. Obedience loses too vertical forms and requires change of mind, a sense of collegiality, fraternal cooperation of all.

Authentic concept of authority: Christ not only refused to be served but exercised His authority without creating distance between Him and His followers. "Near Him the authority is in a horizontal line, descending from God's plan to the human plan" (J. Galot, Rinnovamento della vita consacrata, 1967, 92). This results in growth of the human person, expansion of inner freedom, filial submission to God, continuation of redemptive obedience of Christ. Chapters and Councils will manifest the participation of all to the good of the community.

Fraternal Life
Perfectae caritatis speaks of "fraternal life in common" (PC15) by modifying the usual terminology 'common life'; a change of no small extent, because it describes the tone of the relationship between people who are in the same wavelength of an ideal. The unity of several brothers in the name of Christ involves the presence of Him: the community form a true family, united in the name of the Lord, enjoying His presence. This style of life presents itself to the world as a call to faith and calls for a path of unification among the members.

The doctrinal and biblical reference framework is the first Christian community. The Decree has a life together (lived as brothers / sisters) of a supernatural level that maintains and builds by supernatural means: assimilation of the Gospel, liturgy with special reference to the Eucharist, perseverance in prayer, forgiveness. The unity of all with the Holy Spirit makes the unity of the religious communities, where love is not virtual, and it gives rise to a fraternal life, actually genuine, inspired by 'true brotherly love' where the supernatural glue, the Spirit, generates and maintains frank and sincere relationships of mature people to work in the vineyard of the Lord.
What may seem like a utopia is accompanied by Scriptural expressions relating to compliance and help: "Religious, as members of Christ, in fraternal communion of life, prevent one another in mutual respect (Rom 12:10), carrying one another's burdens” (Gal 6:2). Charity expresses its mystical, moral, apostolic value, shows and prevents the coming of Christ. It becomes a sign of the present coming of Christ, so he transforms men and tells them the divine unity of the Trinity.

Training
The Council is aware that this upgrade program depends largely on the training of members, which must be pursued in the novitiate and beyond.

It takes training time after the novitiate, where the religious and apostolic, doctrinal and technical formation, and a corresponding instruction on the social life today are doing. All this will allow members of religious life to be properly educated about the theological and ecclesial world, no regrets and closures, no insane advances, and to be effectively present in life and those who live it. Human beings -women and men- live, conquered by the person and message of Jesus, able to use the fullness of their being to live in love and in love, with no guile, without pretense and appearances.

A hope
We are used by the media to a meeting with the other immediate and continuous, in real-time. It, virtual, is performed using news, things become words or signs of any kind. It's the climate in which the society, all people without exception, are now living. From this arise impulse/request in living Perfectae caritatis: Jesus met with immediacy and continuity, but in the research and implementation of a real, not virtual encounter. It continued to roll over the little things, gestures of everyday life, by living and looks to the living.

This line conductor of the Decree and the synthesis of new features: the center, Jesus fully God and man; in the historical life of the people, daily operational decisions expressing presence and extension of human existence of Jesus. The environment is fraught with lights and shadows. But "the whole history of salvation is a progressive revelation of God's faithfulness, despite our infidelities and our denials" (Benedict XVI, May 30, 2012).

Takes us through the intercession of the sweet Virgin Mary, whose life is a model for all (PC 25).

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