If a person was sexually active in the past, can he or she enter into consecrated religious life?

The short answer to this question is “yes, but with conditions.”

In general, the faithful are free to pursue whatever vocation to which they feel the Lord has called them, provided they are not barred from it by some impediment. For instance, a woman cannot enter marriage with a man who is already married. A man cannot be ordained a priest if he has helped procure an abortion. These are just some examples–there are certainly other restrictions as well. Canon Law is the place which details these restrictions. The reason that these restrictions are in place is because all vocations are at the service of communion (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1533-1535, which speaks of this in terms of marriage and priesthood). One’s vocation is a calling which is not just for your own salvation, but the salvation of others.

The general laws of the Church do not explicitly prohibit a man or woman from entering consecrated life if he/she was sexually active in the past. This has a precedent in the history of the Church! Many great saints were not always saintly, and some had very dramatic conversions from former lives of sin. Take, for example, St. Augustine, who fathered a child out of wedlock, but after his conversion went on to become a bishop and theologian! His example might be rather extreme, but there are certainly other cases as well. St. Mary of Egypt was a prostitute who seduced men, sometimes not even for money. She even tempted pilgrims on their travels to the Holy Land; she had a conversion experience at the Holy Sepulchre and became a hermit. St. Pelagia was an actress and a woman of ill repute; she converted and became a nun. Bd. Bartolo Longo is another extreme–yet beautiful–example of the mercy of God: he was raised in a Catholic household, but when he went away to university he fell in with a very bad crowd. He participated in orgies and the occult, and became a satanic priest. He had an incredible conversion experience, being saved through the power of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Rosary. Although he often struggled with the trauma of his prior life, he dedicated the rest of his life to serving the poor and spreading devotion to the Rosary, and became a Third Order (that is, lay) Dominican. St. John Paul II beatified him and named him the “Apostle of the Rosary.”

What all these examples (which are only a few of countless thousands) hopefully show us is that God loves to call sinners to his glory. What a great and merciful God we have! The burdens of our past sins should never hold us back from holiness and even sainthood.

All that being said, the proper authority in a religious community (or in the case of priesthood, the diocese) have the right and duty to properly evaluate the character of a candidate. I know of many people who have entered seminaries and religious communities having turned from a life of sin and gone on to become incredible and holy priests and religious. I also know of others who were rejected as candidates. Why does the Church choose some and not others…? I don’t know. It could involve the particular circumstances of that candidate’s life, or perhaps some other private reason. Religious houses and dioceses have the responsibility to make sure that the candidate is someone who will really help lead the faithful to holiness.

This is why at the beginning, I said “yes, but with conditions.” It is absolutely true that the Church trusts in the mercy of God and the transforming power of grace, and from the very beginning the Church has been led by sinners who have received a new life in Jesus Christ. Still, prudence and careful examination may lead the Church to reject a particular candidate from entering religious life, because entering a religious vocation is for the good of not only the candidate, but the whole community.

If you or someone you know is considering a religious vocation, my advice to you would be to not be afraid of the person you may have been before. Do not let your sins accuse you and hold you back from living a life for God!