Does being unmarried mean you failed to find a vocation, and is every single person living consecrated life?

🔥The question: “Is an unmarried believer who isn't a religious some sort of loose end in the Church?”

🛡️The Church's answer: A person who is not married holds in full the dignity received in baptism and the call to holiness and mission. Every believer is to live chastity according to their state in life, and rich fruits of love can grow in friendship, in caring for family, in a job, and in service to the Church and to society. Being married or not does not settle how complete a person is or what rank they hold in the Church.

Consecrated life, meanwhile, is not simply the same thing as being unmarried at present. It is a life in which the evangelical counsels are publicly accepted through vows or other sacred bonds recognized by the Church, and a person is given over to God in a special way. There are people living the consecrated life among the clergy and among the laity, and while the consecrated life does not belong to the hierarchical structure of the Church, it does belong to her life and her holiness. Nobody should call every unmarried person a consecrated person automatically, or pin one single explanation on every unmarried life.

🧐If they press further: “If I stay single, is my life a failure?” — no. Tell apart being unmarried right now, a lifelong promise of celibacy, and the consecrated life the Church recognizes, and then discern your own real call and duties. You don't have to be isolated because you are on your own, and you don't have to rush into any relationship at all just to fill an empty space. Church communities, for their part, should welcome unmarried believers as full members rather than treat them as spare hands.

✨In one sentence: “Being single isn't a failure or a half-status, and not every single person is automatically living consecrated life. Anyone can live the vocation of baptism in full, and consecrated life is a particular road of self-offering that the Church recognizes.”