The aim of this article is to analyse the organizational innovations which monastic communities established after Vatican Council II (“new monastic communities”) introduced with the aim of renewing monastic life. The article will also consider the problems in the relationship between these communities and the Catholic Church, which arise as the result of such innovations. The first section reports the main results of empirical research carried out on new monastic communities in Italy, looking in particular at how such innovations were introduced. The second section begins with the question of canonical recognition of these new communities by the Catholic Church, and discusses the relationships between innovation, recognition and legitimation