Edit: contrary to what we've been told, (and found entirely credible) we have been alerted to the following letter in which Father Volpi, if it is he, has explained on the Franciscans of the Immaculate website that he was unjustly maligned and never lied about the Manelli's when he accused them of receiving property of the order being signed over to them by Father Manelli, basically accusing him of stealing. As far as we can tell he doesn't address that allegation and insists he has done nothing wrong.
So he's not going to apologize?
He claims that the sole source of the accusation is a "Don Camillo", but Rorate insists its seen the court order.
Moreover, Volpi, or whomever penned the letter is threatening to sue.
Here's the letter, as it appears on their website:
Letter of the Apostolic Commissioner of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate to All the Religious of the Institute
Object: Clarification concerning the civil lawsuit brought against the Apostolic Commissioner and some comments published on the subject
Dear Confreres
Pax et Bonum!
I wish to address you paternally, aware of the concerns that the dissemination of news concerning me may have aroused in your minds. This information has been spread with the clear purpose of harming fraternal communion in the Institute—a communion that distinguishes our common, united effort to restore among the Franciscans of the Immaculate the original charism that has characterised the service the Institute has rendered to the Church.
I ask you, therefore, to give your careful attention to the following account of events in which I have been involved, and in respect of which there is a malicious attempt to generate scandal.
The divine Master said: “Oportet ut eveniant scandala—It must needs be that scandals come”; this principle certainly applies to us all, so long as we are capable of discerning the truth from falsehood, and we know how to draw the correct lesson from the events we encounter.
On the occasion of the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception in 2013, celebrating our Heavenly Patroness, I wrote a circular letter to all of you, summarizing the events that had taken place since my appointment as Apostolic Commissioner.
In that letter I could not fail to address one of the more difficult trials that, together, we have tackled and overcome, in a Franciscan spirit and with the heavenly protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary: I refer to the subtraction from the Institute of the capacity to use the temporal goods conferred upon it that are necessary for the accomplishment of our mission.
Referring to changes made to the Statutes of the two Associations with legal personality under civil law which own the physical assets of the Institute, I stated that these goods had been placed under the control of persons that include some family members of Fr. Manelli. This statement was no lie, and could easily be verified.
However, the brothers and sisters of the Founder (I mean, brothers and sisters according to flesh and blood), together with a brother-in-law, considering themselves offended by what I asserted in my circular letter, took up a civil action against me to obtain compensation for the damage which they had allegedly suffered.
According to current civil procedural regulations, any action may give rise to a judgement only after mediation between the parties has been attempted.
In these circumstances, on February 12 this year, “pro bono pacis” and in the fraternal spirit of our Seraphic Father, I reached for a settlement agreement with the opposite party which did not involve any acknowledgment on my part except by way of a clarification, and which had the sole purpose of avoiding further civil proceedings before the Court of Rome, with consequent additional costs to the Institute.
On the basis of this agreement, I committed myself, among other things, to publish on the official website of the Institute a clarification, agreed with the counterparty.
I was about to do what had been agreed, when, on 15 February, an article appeared in an electronic publication, whose “sole source”—in the words of its editor—was a certain “don Camillo”, qualified as “close to the Manelli family”.
In this text, it was stated verbatim as follows:
“Padre Volpi, dopo avere ammesso il suo reato di calunnie e menzogne, il 12 febbraio è stato condannato… — Father Volpi, after having admitted his crime of slander and lies, was sentenced on the 12 February...”
The intention of the author, identified expressly as linked to the family of Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli, seems clear enough: to diminish my prestige and the authority conferred upon me in the sight of you all, dear Confreres.
I have not, in fact, been convicted of any offence, nor subjected to any criminal proceedings; nor have I ever—in court or outside—admitted committing a crime, or uttering slander or lies.
I have therefore instructed my lawyers to prepare a lawsuit for the crime of defamation through the press against those responsible, and I have made known to the members of Fr. Manelli’s family my intention to no longer comply with the terms of the agreement signed on February 12, 2015, which I consider no longer valid on account of a severe failure of compliance by the counterparty.
Dear Confreres,
I know I rely on your “sapientia cordis” in considering you partakers of the sentiment that makes me regard the campaign of defamation waged against me once again—taking advantage of the Franciscan spirit with which I had resolved to put an end to the dispute with certain relations of Fr. Manelli—as an attempt to undermine the harmony which, until now, has animated all of us in promoting the good of the Institute and the Church.
I invite you therefore to strengthen further the bond of solidarity that unites us with the Holy Father and with the whole Church militant, just as it unites us among ourselves, under the mantle of the Virgin, Mother and Patroness of the Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Let us raise to Her our united prayer for heavenly grace in a particularly difficult moment in our history.
I embrace you all, reminding you of the saying in the Gospel: “NON PREVALEBUNT!”—and I bless you.
Rome, February 18, 2015
Fr. Fidenzio Volpi, OFM Cap
Apostolic Commissioner
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-
http://immacolata.com/index.php/en/35-apostolato/ffi-news/317-lettera-circolare-del-commissario-apostolico-a-tutti-i-religiosi-dell-istituto-available-also-in-english
52 comments:
I stated that these goods had been placed under the control of persons that include some family members of Fr. Manelli. This statement was no lie, and could easily be verified.
I'm guessing that the Manelli family did not take offense to that part, but to this one: "Such maneuvers, gravely illicit from a moral and canonical point of view, with repercussions in the civil and penal sphere, occurred after the nomination of the Apostolic Commissioner, thus manifesting the will to subtract such funds from the control of the Holy See."
Slippery as an eel. Now HE'S the wounded party! Too much!!!
"I have therefore instructed my lawyers to prepare a lawsuit for the crime of defamation through the press against those responsible, and I have made known to the members of Fr. Manelli’s family my intention to no longer comply with the terms of the agreement signed on February 12, 2015, which I consider no longer valid on account of a severe failure of compliance by the counterparty."
Who's paying "his" lawyers? The poor?!
Hope God intervenes to behead these gluttonous wolves.
Liar! Certainly he has fostered NO unity but has overseen persecution and underhandedness from day one--and he has attacked Our Lady, doing reprehensible things on her feast days. Franciscans do not engage in lawsuits--oh, wait...didn't another of the new FFI want to sue a blogger?
The FI are paying for his defense. It is stated plainly in his letter as the reason he agreed to settle; that is, to avoid "further civil proceedings before the Court of Rome, with consequent additional costs to the Institute." How twisted is that? He persecutes the order, gets called on the carpet for concocting lies to justify his persecution, and now is apparently using funds from the order to pay for his defense. Truly disgusting.
Diabolical.
It seems law-suits against the faithful are now in vogue. Whatever you think of CMTV, Voris has just done a report about Fr Thomas Rosica threatening a blogger with legal action for criticizing his public words and actions.
Perhaps the snakes are getting rattled?
For those interested in the truth of the matter I suggest reading the following:
http://maryvictrix.com/2015/02/18/concerning-recent-reports-from-the-blogosphere-on-the-state-of-the-franciscan-friars-of-the-immaculate/#more-8129
Too bad the facts don't support your prejudice!
Corrispondenza Romana is nothing if not responsible, they've been very reliable, more reliable than the current administration of FFI and I can say the same for Rorate Caeli and the editor of Katholisches as well. Your comment that they don't have any hard information is also false. Corrispondenza Romana has the minutes of the court material.
What is a Friar doing suing people anyway? Is that yet another arbitrary innovation of Vatican II?
Except he hasn't been terribly factual.
Corrispondenza and Rorate are agenda driven when it comes to the FI. This is manifestly evident from any sober enquiry into the facts.
You mean like when Commissar Volpi luridly and maliciously told de la Cigoña that the Friars whipped themselves?
Don't waste your efforts appealing to an interest in truth. The truth does not fit here. Unfortunately finding the truth requires sifting through falsehood and calumny.
Calumny such as what?
Within the very constitutions of the FI is the daily practice of the discipline! (Self-whipping)
Naturally, but Volpi meant to disparage them to Cigoña who was visiting them at the time and happened upon the Commissar in the dining room of a restaurant nearby.
Best to avoid "Mary Victrix" and its blogging friar, one of the dissenters still on his high horse, but truth is coming forward and his horse may well stumble.
What exactly is he dissenting from?
If Volpi is so innocent of all the charges made against his conduct, can you tell me why members of the CDF are so concerned about the abuse he is meting out to the FFI?
Don't be so naive as to think that the only source of information is the internet. There will be no place for you to hide when the full light of day is shone upon you. The current darkness in Rome is only temporary.
How do you know what Rev. Fr. Volpi meant? What is so malicious about sharing one's surprise that the FI still use the discipline. I suppose though if it were malicious in the eyes of Christ, there might be a chance for mercy. Not here though. Better rename your blog Venus Fly Trap.
Anonymous 0627 because it was Cigoña's impression that Volpi was being lurid and offensive. It's one of the many reasons the church historian finds the Commissar so loathesome today.
Deacon may the Good Lord bless you! Men have always preferred the darkness over light except those who are willing to convert and enter the Church. Unfortunately the situation with the FI has very little to do with the Vetus Ordo, but rather with the FI themselves. Frankly it's none of your business.
Horse hockey.
He'd just says that he doesn't admit that he lied. He never says he didn't lie!
His was disobedience to his founders and the stirring up of division...he admitted to secret meetings behind superiors backs. He is a huge cause of the suffering.
Absolute nonsense! Misereatur nostri omnipotens Deus!
Perhaps, after his tireless efforts to unseat Fr. Manelli and his program have resulted in the destruction of his own order, Fr. Geiger can at least take satisfaction that he has made sure that the FFI will no longer be able to perpetrate the gravest of all imaginable horrors - the publication of books by Msgr Brunero Gherardini.
Perhaps, after your tireless effort to comment with such venom, you can take satisfaction, or rather make satisfaction, in confession before you face God!
Well. It seems that Fr. Fidenzio Volpi is not going to honor his agreement he made in court. I believe it has been said that officially he has until March 03 to comply. I hope the media will be there to film his arrest and his transfer to prison.
Lol!
Frankly I don't care whether the situation with the FFI has anything to do with the Mass or not. Whenever grave injustice is perpetrated in the name of the Church it is all of our business. It is revealing that you would have the mind of Cain to try to silence opposition.
Anonymous: Thank you for that reference to Maria Victrix. I have posted the following comment in reply to his post. It will be interesting to see what he replies:
Dear Father,
The letter of 8th December 2013 was addressed to ‘All the religious in their residences’. As you say it was an internal letter but if sent to all the religious of the Institute it had a fairly wide publication. Further it was not marked “Private and Confidential” nor was there any warning against further publication. In view of its contents it is not surprising that it did in fact get wider publication.
Now that letter had contained the following:
“In addition to all this, there is an extremely serious matter, which only now do I make officially
known to you.
It concerns the transfer of the control of movable and immovable goods of the Institute to members
of the laity, persons known to be spiritual children or relatives of the Founder, Fr. Stefano M.
Manelli, as well as to the parents of various sisters. These transfers were made after the
appointment of the Apostolic Commissioner, and thus manifest the intention to embezzle funds
away from the control of the Holy See and to deprive the Institute of the Franciscan Friars of the
Immaculate of the necessary means for the maintenance of religious and, especially, for the works of the apostolate, and in particular of the missions.
These acts are seriously illicit from both moral and canonical points of view, and entail consequences also in the areas of civil and criminal law. Whoever accomplished these deeds or allowed them to take place is guilty of serious fault, and, if he is a religious, is punishable by severe canonical penalties.”
Now that is an accusation of embezzlement which in most jurisdictions is a criminal offence – indeed the letter acknowledges such. Furthermore in many jurisdictions falsely accusing someone of a criminal offence can in itself constitute criminal libel – a criminal offence. However whatever the position is to say such a thing without justification or truth is seriously defamatory.
The question therefore arises as to whether what Father Volpi wrote was true i.e. somebody was guilty of embezzlement or whether there was reasonably justification for making the accusation. Are you able to clarify this for us?
There appears to have been an agreement between Father Volpi and the Manelli family. Why not publish this as it might well be decisive in clarifying the facts as presumably the agreement was an agreed statement satisfactory to both parties?
I agree there have been intemperate comments about this matter but I cannot help feeling you have added to the heat using words such as ‘leprous’. Let us discuss the facts without having ad hominem attacks from either side. Play the ball not the man.
Further I would ask you to understand that there is genuine concern amongst the laity at large about what is happening with the FFI. Here in England one of the most inspiring events of recent years have been the “Days with Mary” (attended incidentally largely by immigrant communities – the marginalized?) and I have had occasion to meet both male and female members of the Insititute who help run these days. I have found them truly inspiring in the midst of the pretty dreadful state of the Catholic Church in England. It is therefore that with great sorrow that I have seen them apparently under some kind of administration which seems to restrict their mission.
Please note that I am writing under my name!
Yours sincerely,
Nicolas Bellord
Volpi is SCUM....he won't get away with his crap in eternity. The wheels of God's justice run slow, but they run fine.
Perhaps you could answer these points without telling people to go to confession and accusing them of bad faith?
I also remember the venom when Msgr. Gherardini's book was published.
A thoughtful letter, Nicholas.
I will be interested to see if you gain a reply.
Everyone please calm down. As been done in the Oblates and Fr. Gino´s Community years ago there will be a split (Mericans and Italians). Wonder of wonders by just changing the name fulfill the Canonical requirements and throw a Hail Mary Pass over Volpi and especially Cardinal A. who never bothered to visit the Friaries and Sems. like he was suppose to do. It will start over under a new name. Fr. Volpi is just doing what he was told and Pope Francis is busy with other things your venom should be directed at the Congregation of Religious who licked their chops... there is hope.
Venom? How is being concerned about injustice venom? You'll have to do better than this.
francis is indeed busy with a lot of things, and seems to take great pains to control most everything behind the scenes (ex; the relatio insertion).
volpi was his hand-picked henchman, and don't imagine for one second that we're too stupid to not see the argentine fisherman's ring smack in the middle of the crap-sandwich. What he's done, and what he's trying to do cries out to Heaven, and the lick-spittle volpi, kasper, marx, maradiega, et. al. deserve nothing but vitriole from the faithful. They have played an open hand revealing themselves CLEARLY to be the enemies of Christ and His Church. In a saner day they'd have been dispatched long ago; most probably at the stake.
I am laughing at Anonyous here. Though laughing at such a sorry assed person is probably a sin. Mea culpa.
Here you go, Anonymous above. Here is EXACTLY what you defenders of Evil are doing and you are doing it at breakneck speed! http://thecrowhouse.com/images/372.gif?width=320
"Tired of 'praying'" - is this where you been 'praying' ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZExBSe015CM
YOU are the defender of evil -- get your ostrich head out of the sand and stop sheepily following the wolves over the cliff at 5 miles an hour.
" I have made known to the members of Fr. Manelli’s family my intention to no longer comply with the terms of the agreement signed on February 12, 2015"
So, Volpi acknowledges having signed this "agreement" which made him a liar and a slanderer and obliged him to pay a fine and make public apologiesto te Manelli family.
Why did he sign if this was not to avoid later a true trial before a civil tribunal where he could risk to be more harshly condemned?
I wonder which game this man is playing.
Volpi, the fox ...
Then why did he sign? In doing so he acknowledged being a liar and a slandereR.
Now in addition he doesn't respect his signature.
I am so sorry! I had no idea that your guilt would hit you so close to home. Just go pray to Martin Luther and all that guilt from your lust of evil will go away.
Don't forget to yell "Geronimooooooo!" when you jump.
So the man signs an agreement on one day and three days later changes his mind? Yeah, great choice to foster "unity and restoration:. He has been busy closing friaries and persecuting faithful and holy men.
Athelstane: He has replied in a measured and polite manner. I will be replying to him but people will need to go to his blog to find out how this develops.
Volpi says he was libeled, just after signing a paper in which he acknowledged himself having libeled the Manelli family...Not very consistent...
I am wondering whether this guy is sane.
Did he sign this, yes or no?
Yes, he signed. The reason why he recants his signature is unknown and obscure. Possibly the Vatican ordered him so because through Fr Volpi, the Pope is directly hit. Possibly the Vatican's counsels have succeeded in convincing the Pope it was possible to overturn the case in furher civil proceedings before the Court of Rome ?
Anyways, the harm is done and the judges of the civil Court will be quite easy in asking Volpi why he accepted to sign such an humiliating agreement with the Manelli family. I am skeptic Volpi might be exonerated in a second step.
Possibly this new development is intended to win time enough to complete destroying the FFI. Once the job is done, Volpi would be sacrificed on the “pro bono pacis” altars, thus becoming the first modernist martyr...
Follow his blog? I dare say he's part of the problem.
Tancred: I am not sure what you mean but if you do follow the blog Father Angelo says that Father Volpi is not retracting any of his accusations made in his letter of 8th December 2013; which makes the nature of the alleged agreement with the Manelli family something of a puzzle.
They're not credible and haven't been so since they began circulating that there were problems from the beginning and that a large number, and not the small minority, were upset about the immemorial Mass and the traditional shift Father Manelli was making within the order.
If you'll remember, there were a lot of untrue accusations that later turned out to be untrue.
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