A follow up to a post, go here to read it, on the actions taken against the Friars of the Immaculate.
From Vatican Insider:
Why did the Vatican decide to send an apostolic visitor to your Institute?
I think this has been handled in an incredibly ham-fisted manner, and I hope that Pope Francis will act to correct what appears to be a manifest injustice to one of the orders that is a light to the Church.
Once in a while, in times of trouble, one has the urge to Do Something. Right or wrong, left or right…just don’t sit there! DoSomething!
and maybe the heat is turned up by partisan advisors, or maybe all the background info isn’t take into account. (I am also thinking of how a sudden forceful statement from the bishop concerning political correctness and immigration last week left many of us slack-jawed)
I am not schooled in these matters, so i have this question: Not a matter of dogma- but just a rule the pope can make; could the pope also walk it back???
I wish I could edit out that question. Sorry Donald. I wrote that before I finished reading your post. I was too busy thinking about a different pronouncement that I considered ill advised.
Obviously, special questions arise over capitular and conventual masses. One recalls that Quo Primum, which introduced the Tridentine use made rather elaborate provisions for those cathedral chapters and religious orders that qualified for exemption under the 200 year rule, in some cases requiring unanimity for any change.
It is, perhaps, worth recollecting that, in France particularly, attachment to these “usus antiquiores,” legitimate as they were, became the badge of a faction unduly attached to the traditional liberties and immunities of the Gallican Church and suspicious of the actions of papal authority, which they readily ascribed to the pope’s “evil counsellors” This party is portrayed as notable for stiff reserve,
precise moral carriage, and a species of decorum amounting almost to moroseness – plus ça change…
I sure hate when at times we act like “protestants” on our own legal, liturgical matters. Yes, we should police abuses (but let them be true abuses). Not those dreamed up by rogue SSPXers that do not have concerns for the one, true, holy, apostolic church.
[…] Scene – M. Eversley, USA Today St. Dominic and the Friars Preachers – Jordan Aumann OP, Ignatius The Crackdown on Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate – D. McClarey What Did Jesus Mean When He Said Not to Judge Others? – Jimmy Akin Five […]
It is appalling that, of all the Catholic orders that exist, the ones who get the crackdown are the FFI.
I pray for (not often enough) Pope Francis. Yet, I see him overmatched for the job. His Italian is poor. He doesn’t speak English. His archdiocese was on the other side of the world from Rome and he has little use for traditional Latin Catholicism.
Penguins Fan
Bear in mind that this was not a spontaneous interference, but a response to an appeal. The Holy See first of all appointed an Apostolic Visitor to investigate and report. This would suggest that tensions existed that needed to be addressed.