Vatican City, Nov 30, 2014 / 03:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- At the opening of the Year for Consecrated Life, Pope Francis issued a challenge to consecrated men and women, inviting them to lives of courage, communion, and joy.

Nearly 50 years after Vatican II's decree on the Adaption and Renewal of Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, Pope Francis convoked the Year with the aim of expressing the “beauty and preciousness of this unique form” of Christian discipleship.