The Papal Visitation and the Interconfessional "Cloister" of Bose

Enzo Bianchi and Pope Francis

(Rome) Pope Francis has appointed Enzo Bianchi, the "Almighty" (Sandro Magister) founder and "Prior" the progressive ecumenical "monastery" from Bose, the Consultant of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Bianchi is one of the "favorites" of Pope Francis. He is undogmatic, anarchic about rules and autocratic.

The compulsory control of Rome is perceived as idiosyncratically complex under Pope Francis. The faithful Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, a positive anomaly in the religious world, is enslaved under provisional administration.The visitation of the declining progressive US women religious of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), who are in heresy and under suspicion of serious violations of church order were "peacefully archived" by the Pope, said the Vatican expert Sandro Magister.

The fact is that the male and female religious experience are not exactly enjoying a heyday in the West. The secretary of the Congregation of Religious, Curial Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo Fra spoke recently of several dozen Apostolic Visitations that are currently taking place. 39 orders are finding themselves for various reasons under provisional administration. 3000 religious  give up their vows  each year.

In addition to the Roman Congregation of Religious    diocesan bishops can also carry out visitations in their jurisdictions and initiate investigations. The Order itself can ask for a Visitor.

A visitation in Bose?

The latter is the case with the amazing "ecumenical monastery" from Bose. How so?

From a legal perspective, the church community of Bose is neither an Order nor is it a monastery, but a "private association of the faithful". In other words, a lay organization. It was not until 2001,  that it was ever canonically recognized and that is through the small diocese of Biella, in Bose.

There are major obstacles in the way of recognition as religious order. Two are of particular importance. There is the fact that there is a  mixed community of undistinguished women and men. Such a mixed community has never been known in the long history of monasticism.

Secondly, the Community is interdenominational. The Lutheran Swiss pastor Daniel Attinger belonga to ir, as well as other Protestants, women and men. The Orthodox Metropolitan Emilianos Timiadis spent his last years in Bose. The former Greek Catholic Ukrianian Sophia Senyk is also included in the community. She was in the Ukrainian section of the faculty at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, but then converted to Orthodoxy.

Interconfessionality   and Intercommunion

Bose has practiced intercommunion for a long time. The Eucharist is given to Catholics and non-Catholics alike which  the Catholic Church as well as the Orthodox churches strictly prohibits. For some time, the liturgies are celebrated separately by Catholics and Orthodox  in Bose, which means that the Protestants receive Communion among Catholics. The violation of the ban has simply discontinued out of consideration for the Orthodox.

Nobody really seems worried about the interconfessionality in the papal entourage today is really worried. Finally, Pope Francis has  "highly valued" him (Sandro Magister) idiosyncratically as a Catholic "Prior", appointing Enzo Bianchi as Consultant for a Roman Congregation specifically calculated in terms interconfessionality.

Current Rome doesn't seem to have any doctrinal problems with Bose and seems have been both eyes pressed shut on the Tiber. The problems seem to concern the Community's internal relationship among the "brothers" and "sisters" from Bose. Enzo Bianchi indicated there had  been such problems three years ago  in an sibylline interview with the Jesuit magazine Jesus.

"Experience with Falsehood"

"In recent years I have  internally checked  our experience with falsehood, not directly against me, but regarding the whole community. I did not have to experience such an internal destabilization, which is why sometimes I'm quite confused.  I never had such an experience. Malignancy yes, you can understand, but the falsity is not on my horizon. That was the hardest test of my life in the Church and in the life of a monk."

Bianchi meant monastic life, of course,  what  he means by monasticism. It is less clear what he means by "falsehood". It can only be imagined that his authority was challenged.

In another interview on the history of Bose, Bianchi spoke of the common coexistence of women and men is a "very stressful" knot. Not so much because of the natural attraction between the sexes, but because of the indomitable "hostility" that - has ruled since the origin of the world between man and woman - according to Bianchi.

In addition to new items and quite a few outlets, Bianchi experienced some storms. In particular, the departure of three leading members, two "brothers" and a "sister" was carried out with the fierce criticism of the "Prior".

Bianchi asked for a  Visitation and Chose the Visitors Himself

Thus, the conversation turns to the way Enzo Bianchi exerts his leadership. Several members speak of an "authoritarian" style, says Sandro Magister. In order to prevent the situation getting out of control, Bianchi decided to  take the bull by the horns. He applied for the implementation of a canonical visitation. Advantageously, he chose the visitor himself. 

It was Father Michel Van Parys, former abbot of the "ecumenical" Benedictine monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium and today Hegumen in the monastery of the Byzantine rite of Grottaferrata in Italy. For the female side, he commissioned Mother Anne-Emmanuelle Deveche, Abbess of the Trappist Cloister of Blauvac in France. Both are long-time friends of Bianchi, especially Van Parys, who is one of the most enthusiastic visitors and speakers at Bose meetings.

The Visitation took place from last January to May. At the end,  the two visitors submitted a signed declaration, Charter Visitationis ago that made ​​Bianchi, in turn, send it to the competent authorities in Rome and Bishop of Biella. Shortly afterwards Bianchi became appointed as the Consultant.

In the current Advent letter to the "Friends of Bose" Bianch writes that he is allowing  'the Community to undergo two financial checks of its financial situation."  The visitation he reasoned, "is so that the community never falls into complacency, becoming self-referential, or worse, narcissistic and sectarian". The language is strikingly similar to that of Pope Francis.

"Workshop of Unity Between the Separated Churches"

In their visitation report written by Father Parys  and Mother Deveche, the "quality" especially of Bose is appreciated as the "workshop of unity between the separated churches today."

However, they also expressed the wish that the various line offices in the community should not be authoritarian, but exercised  "transparently and synodally."

"Obviously,  Bianchi finds synodality  so precious that when he calls for reforms in the Church and the papacy, Bose in itself is not as high a priority, because it required a canonical visitation  in order to remind  the Prior about it," said Sandro Magister ,

Finally, it should also be noted that Sophia Senyk is not the only one from the faculty of the prestigious Pontifical Oriental Institute who gave up the Catholic faith and converted to Orthodoxy. The Oriental Institute is connected to the Pontifical Gregorian University. Both institutions are led by the Jesuit Order.

More sensational than the conversion of Senyk in recent months was the crossing of Father Constantin Simon to Orthodoxy.The American Jesuit of Ukrainian-Hungarian descent was  Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in 2013 and is considered an expert on Russian Christianity.

The former Jesuit was solemnly received on June 7th  as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church. The   liturgy was presided over by Archimandrite Amwrosi (Ambrose Yermakov) of Peterhof, the Auxiliary Bishop of St. Petersburg, and rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.

Text: Settimo Cielo / Giuseppe Nardi
image: Settimo Cielo
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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