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| San Rafael: Priestly Seminary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word in Argentina |
(Buenos Aires) Some have hardly any vocations, others have it in abundance. "It will not have a reason," writes the Spanish Catholic Church historian and blogger Francisco de la Cigoña and reports on the flourishing seminary of San Rafael Instituto del Verbo Encarnado (IVE) in Argentina.
In Argentina, the homeland of Pope Francis, the Catholic Order of the Institute of the Incarnate Word was born in 1984 in San Rafael (Mendoza). Some years later, in addition to the apostolic, a contemplative branch of the order was also established. In 1988, with the servants of the Lord and the interior of the Virgin of Matará (SSVM), a female branch, which is also divided into an apostolic and a contemplative branch.
The founder of the flourishing religious family was the Argentine priest, Carlos Miguel Buela. In 2004, the it became a canonical establishment as a congregation in episcopal law by the Bishop of Velletri-Segni in Italy. In Segni there is also the Generalate of the religious family, which in addition to the male and female branch, also includes a Third Order. The monks and nuns take the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience including a fourth Marian vow.
Parish in Berlin, Contemplative Monastery in Luxembourg
Sisters of female religious branch
The Order is now almost a thousand priests and is active world-wide with 14 Provinces in 40 states and nearly 80 dioceses. In Europe, the provinces of Italy exist (with Malta, Greece and Albania), the Netherlands and Ukraine. In Germany, the Order serves a parish in the German capital of Berlin. In Luxembourg there is a nunnery in Peppange. It is one of ten contemplative monasteries of the nuns of the Order.
The Order operates to care for the persecuted Christians and evangelization in a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Syria and Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, Egypt and Tunisia.
Order Leadership and Spirituality
The Superior General since 2010 is the Argentine Father, Carlos Walker. Born in Buenos Aires in 1959, he was ordained a priest in 1983. After various pastoral activities in Argentina and the USA, he joined the Order. From 1993-2001 he became Provincial in Argentina, and in 2001-2010 Vicar General. During this time he received his doctorate at the Angelicum in Rome.
In Buenos Aires there is also the Founder, Carlos Miguel Buela who was born in 1941 and ordained a priest in 1971. These priests inculcated by Mary, have taught dogmatic theology at various Catholic universities in Argentina. The foundation of the religious family took place on March 25, 1984. On that day, Pope John Paul II. consecrated the world to the Blessed Virgin of Fatima. Father Buela was Superior General from 1984-1994 and from 2001-2010.
The spirituality of the monastic family is based on the Incarnation of the Son of God as the Incarnate Savior and God as a child. It leans heavily on the spirituality of St. Louis Marie de Montfort. Priorities for the Order are the worship of God, the salvation of souls and reparation for the de-Christianization of culture. The Spiritual Exercises are based on the model of St. Ignatius of Loyola, who hold popular missions as St. Alphonsus Liguori.
Not Just Friends
In 2000 the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, undertook the attempt to close the religious seminary of San Rafael. He found support from the then Apostolic Nuncio for Argentina, who since then became his friend, today's Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló. The closure of the convent's Seminary of San Rafael at that time did not succeed.
Priests and Deaconal Ordinations on December 6, 2014
Bergoglio and Abril had recently attempted again to close a blossoming seminary: Pope Francis sent the Cardinal last summer as an apostolic visitor in the Paraguayan Diocese of Ciudad del Este. The brief was to inspect the seminary under Bishop Rogelio Livieres, which had experienced extraordinary flowering (see Vocation Boom by Old Mass - Pope Francis arranged visitation to ). In the seminary of the small diocese (12 percent of Catholics Paraguay) had more seminarians studying than in all the other seminaries of the other dioceses Paraguay together.
The seminary was not closed, but priestly ordinations were suspended and Bishop Livieres removed because he would disturb the "harmony" in the Episcopal Conference. The future of the seminary, where the seminarians were trained in both forms of the Roman Rite, has since been suspended. There are efforts to integrate the seminary again with all the other Paraguayan seminaries in Asuncion.
The Instituto Verbo Encarnado also works in Paraguay and this amazing little in the Diocese of Ciudad del Este.
This past December 6 was a day of rejoicing for the Congregation. Diocesan Bishop Eduardo Taussig consecrated in the cathedral of San Rafael six new priests of the Order and a number of seminarians as deacons who have been trained in the seminary of San Rafael. Other of the order's seminaries have been established: since 1998 in Washington DC (USA), since 2001 an international seminary in Segni (Italy) and since 2002 in Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: IVE / Accion Liturgica
image: IVE / Accion Liturgica
Trans: Tancred vekron@hotmail.com
AMDG
