Tag Archives: Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate

Internet False Prophet

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Over the last year or so I have been receiving regular emails from adjuncts of thewarningsecondcoming.com, the front for the self-styled seer, Maria Divine Mercy. I assume the messages I am receiving are from robots, since I never get a response to my pleas to stop sending me emails.

I believe the phenomenon of the virtual visionary is another symptom of the sickness of the Catholic Internet. There are always those who will be easily duped by scams. All an unscrupulous chiseler has to do is promise something too good to be true, or propose an arch-villain to explain every woe, or fix a doomsday on the calendar, and those who suffer will empty their pockets to have their empty cup filled with snake oil.

But this. This is almost too much to believe except that I have learned not to be surprised by anything. We are largely blind to the fact the increase in the amount of information we have access to only requires us to have new much larger sewers and leach fields installed to process all the discharge. Continue reading →

The Nameless Darkness and the FI

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From the usual suspect:

If, as Tosatti clearly implies it is, this information is true (which would not be shocking considering the evolution of current events), the situation of the former Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate is even more suffocating than before, on a level never before seen in the Church in recent centuries (for instance, there certainly was no blacklist of dioceses incardinating as secular priests the former Jesuits after the suppression of the order in the 18th century, and in similar cases). These poor priest-friars will simply remain with no way out, other than completely abandoning the priesthood, if even the bishops willing to welcome those who want to leave the modified order are blacklisted by the highest levels in the Vatican. (Of course, if true, the bishops can still incardinate them, but are aware that they may suffer consequences) [emphasis mine].

Continue reading →

The Paternal Solicitude of Pope Francis for the FI

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Francis-FI

Vatican City, Jun 26, 2014 / 05:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has revealed that a house is being sought for members of the Friars of the Immaculate who study in Rome, and assured that Pope Francis is well-informed on the order’s temporary receivership.

In a statement released June 24, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. published the answer of Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo addressing several questions regarding the Franciscans of the Immaculate following a June 10 meeting with Pope Francis.

“The Holy Father is punctually informed of all the steps as they are taken,” he observed, explaining that currently “a house in Rome is being sought to accommodate the Friars…who attend a Pontifical university in Rome to pursue their studies.”

Archbishop Caraballo is the secretary for the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, and assists the congregation’s prefect, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, in overseeing the order.

“Both the commissioner, Fr. Volpi, and all the seminarians of the Franciscans of the Immaculate were received by the Holy Father on June 10 at the Domus Sanctae Marthae,” Archbishop Caraballo said.

This is “a gesture that demonstrates the interest with which Pope Francis follows the situation of the Franciscans of the Immaculate and his closeness to the work that the commissioner is carrying out in the name of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.”

Founded by Fr. Stefano Manelli in 1970 with strong Marian charism, the Franciscans of the Immaculate were placed under temporary receivership last year in order to resolve internal differences involving the government and administration of the order, their relationship with their female branch, the use of the exclusive old missal and the interpretations of the Second Vatican Council.

During the hour and a half long meeting between the Pope and members of the religious order, all of the Friars present sang the Ave Maria di Fatima and renewed their vows of total consecration to the Immaculate.

Afterward the friars had the opportunity to ask Pope Francis questions on the most highly debated topics regarding their internal operations.

From the publication…

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From the publication—authorized—of data from the questionnaire it becomes clear that there are serious internal problems in the Institute. It also becomes clear how pretentious is the campaign organized by those who have cried foul on account of the Vatican’s appointment of a Commissioner to the Institute and on account of the decision made at that time by the Pope to limit their faculty to celebrate the old Mass, submitting it to the authorization of the Superior, that is, of the Commissioner. This campaign culminated in public appeals to the friars encouraging them to disobey the directives of the Holy See, and in verbally violent attacks against the presumed small group of “traitors” within the Institute. Finally, one must not forget that the old Mass continues to be authorized in churches under the care of the Franciscans of the Immaculate where there are stable groups of faithful that desire to attend that form of the Mass, as per the provisions of Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum.

—Andrea Tornielli

The decree of the Commissioner…

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“The decree of the Commissioner, dated 11 July, 2013 indicates the purpose of the measure taken which is: ‘the goal of preserving and promoting the internal unity of the Institute as well as the fraternal communion, adequate formation to religious and consecrated life, the organization of apostolic activities, and the correct management of temporal goods.’ Five brothers who in the past had occupied positions of high responsibility in the Institute, at the beginning of 2012 sought out dialogue with the Founder and his Council in order to express what in their view were irregularities, beginning with liturgical choices that did not however, exhaust the list of their concerns. Unsatisfied, they then approached the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Doctrine of the Faith. Those who manifest their conscience to an authority, which in this case is the Church headed by the Pope, by this very action itself, prove that they recognize this authority as such, and which therefore excludes any attitude of ‘rebellion’ on their part towards those in power. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life recognized extremes and therefore an apostolic visitation began in the second half of that year. Each friar in perpetual vows, as agreed by the General Council then in office, was provided with a questionnaire protected under the secret of one’s conscience.”

—Fr. Alfonso Bruno, General Secretary, FI

Declaration about Some Recent Facts

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Having learned of the online petition organized by the website of the Association “Corrispondenza Romana” in order to gather signatures to be presented to the Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life against the Decree of 11 July 2013 (Prot. 52741/2012), after having already expressed its position several times and after having released the official communication of its Father Founder, the Religious Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate REAFFIRMS its obedience to the dispositions of the Holy Father, DECLARES that it will have NOTHING TO DO with the initiative of the aforesaid website or any like initiative, past or future, REJECTS any attempt to use a matter internal to the Institute to attack the Pope and the Catholic Hierarchy, and APPEALS TO ALL to maintain SILENCE, RESPECT AND PRAYER regarding the matter, in order to allow the competent authorities to carry out their task in peace for the good of the Church and of the Institute.

In Corde Matris
Fr. Rosario M. Sammarco, fi
Encharged of the Institutional Website of the Franciscans Friars of the Immaculate

Official Statement of Our Founder, Fr. Stefano M. Manelli

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With reference to the Decree of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life of July 11, 2013 (Prot. N. 52741/2012), Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, with the entire Institute of the Franciscans of the Immaculate united with him, obeys the Holy Father and trusts that with this obedience there may come even greater graces.

Vatican Insider Interview with FI Spokesman

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Unofficial translation of the Italian original follows:

Vatican City
In an order whose predominant attention is to the traditional liturgy. A decree of the Pope appoints an apostolic commissioner

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

The Congregation for Religious, with the approval of Pope Francis, decided last July 11 to appoint a commissioner to the Congregation of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, a religious order in which the spirituality of Saint Francis of Assisi had, in recent years, been combined with a predominant attention given to the traditional liturgy.

The appointing of a commissioner, one reads in the decree of the vatican ‘ministry’ for religious orders, aims to “protect and promote the internal unity of religious institutes and their fraternal communion, their adequate formation in religious and consecrated life, the organization of apostolic activities “and” the proper management of temporal goods. ” Continue reading →