Canon 298. §1 In the Church there are associations which are distinct from institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life. In these associations, Christ’s faithful, whether clerics or laity, or clerics and laity together, strive with a common effort to foster a more perfect life, or to promote public worship or christian teaching. They may also devote themselves to other works of the apostolate, such as initiatives for evangelisation, works of piety or charity, and those which animate the temporal order with the christian spirit.

§2 Christ’s faithful are to join especially those associations which have been established, praised or recommended by the competent ecclesiastical authority.

§1. In Ecclesia habentur consociationes distinctae ab institutis vitae consecratae et societatibus vitae apostolicae, in quibus christifideles, sive clerici sive laici sive clerici et laici simul, communi opera contendunt ad perfectiorem vitam fovendam, aut ad cultum publicum vel doctrinam christianum promovendam, aut ad alia apostolatus opera, scilicet ad evangelizationis incepta, ad pietatis vel caritatis opera exercenda et ad ordinem temporalem christiano spiritu animandum.

§2. Christifideles sua nomina dent iis praesertim consociationibus, quae a competenti auctoritate ecclesiastica aut erectae aut laudatae vel commendatae sint.