Rome's Conduct With Traditional Communities -- Society of St. Peter and Franciscans of the Immaculata

(Rome)  The conduct of Rome with traditional communities is completely varied.   A significant aspect of this whether one  is under an Order or the Institute. What difference does it matter whether it's an Old Ritual community of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei established in 1988, or religious congregation, depends on a comparison of the visitations of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Conception and the Fraternity of St. Peter. In the North American District of the Fraternity of St. Peter, a proper Apostolic Visitation will be held. The routine operation has been arranged by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, to which the Society belongs. As Rorate Caeli reported, a three-member visitor delegation  was appointed. The main visitor is Bishop Vitus Huonder of Chur, co-visitators are Abbot Hervé Courau from the Benedictine Abbey of Notre-Dame de Triors in France and the Bishop Emeritus Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln in the United States.

Huonder Bishop, Bishop Bruskewitz and Abbot Courau as Visitors

Both Bishop Huonder  and Bishop Bruskewitz are  closely linked to the FSSP. They  have already presided over ordinations of the Society more than once and have celebrated in the old rite.  Bishop Huonder established the first traditional parish in the German-speaking world the and appointed a  Society of St. Peter priest as  the pastor. In the diocese of Lincoln, the Society erected their seminary in 1994 during the episcopate of Bishop Bruskewitz (1992-2012) in North America. Abott Courau heads  a traditional  Benedictine abbey in France. Notre-Dame de Triors is a subsidiary foundation Fontgombault. Abbot Courau visited the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz near Vienna in the Autumn of 2013, where he celebrated in the traditional rite with the monks of the monastery who served at the altar.

In the case of the Fraternity of St. Peter it is an ordinary visitation. When the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception extraordinary visitation was arranged in 2012 by the Congregation of Religious, is where the differences in treatment begin. The Fraternity of St. Peter is under the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei for Orders and Communities of the Old Rite. The appointed visitators are connected to the traditional rite. The starting point of the visit is supported by brotherly love and basically benevolent, as expected by the canon law.

Hostile Attitude of the Congregation of Religious Against Franciscans of the Immaculate

The situation was quite different with the Franciscans of the Immaculate. They are under the Congregation for Religious  because they were established in 1990 as  new rite Order. Following a gradual development under Pope Benedict XVI they had returned to the Immemorial Rite. The Congregation of Religious appointed a Visitor with Monsignor Vito Angelo Todisco   who was openly hostile to  the Order. He himself had briefly belonged to the Order at a young age, but  had left and since repeatedly remarked disparagingly upon the Franciscan community of Father Stefano Maria Manelli. The basic intention of the Congregation of Religious was obviously directed from a bias in the very beginning  against the Order.  They culminated after July 2013, since with  the abdication of Benedict XVI,  the biggest obstacle had been removed to a radical intervention and the provisional administration of the Order. The Apostolic Commissioner, the Capuchin Fidenzio Volpi has since been working systematically towards the eradication of the traditional charism of the Order, to beat it back into a new ritual Order and thus to be "normalized".

The Franciscans of the Immaculate sought contact with the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, but they were not under it. The request, in the fall of last year, the request to establish a new old ritual Order under the supervision of Ecclesia Dei after the establishment of the provisional administration and the banning of the old rite was not previously considered by the Congregation of Religious. The open revelation of these brothers  was followed instead by the Commissar making more purges. 

"Keep all  institutes  and communities of Ecclesia Dei in your prayers"  this call ends Rorate Caeli the report on the appointment of the Visitors of the Fraternity of St. Peter.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Picture: Rorate Caeli

Link to Katholisches...

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Franciscans of the Immaculata: An Order of Angels and a Few Demons

Katholisches.info is continuing the publication of contributions about the restrictive measures against the Franciscans of the Immaculate. The first was the well-known historian Roberto de Mattei with his contribution , the "Causa" of the Franciscans of the Immaculate ( see article ). It followed the Traditionalist blog Cordialter: Since 2 +2 still 4 and not 5 Is the Serious Attack Against Tradition ( see article ). Meanwhile, also reporting is the Catholic art and culture critic, Francesco Colafemmina, who also knows the Franciscans of the Immaculate, as well as a meeting with the Apostolic Visitor, with whom he had a personally recollected conversation.

Angel Dressed in the Mantle of Mary, Casts out Demons

by Francesco Colafemmina

I am indebted. In debt to the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. I will not repay this, because then I would have to stop, yes, being grateful to them. But I want to testify. I want to bear witness to the closeness and devotion for this order of angels, who must live among some demons.

Florence, Church of All Saints. It is the first day of the year, a few years ago ... My future wife at that time and I entered this great church for Holy Mass. At the end of the church, the last church pews, a mild-mannered brother is in the blue habit. I ask him to hear my confession. What kind of inner peace, such purity, such strengthening in this confession. A few years later I would learn that this mild-mannered brother was none other than Father Serafino Lanzetta, who is opposed by the bloated demons because of his honest analysis and interpretation of the Council.

Florence, Church of All Saints. An indeterminate day in 2011. A delicious conversation with a black sister who gave Miraculous Medals at the monastery gate. I will never forget the peace of mind and the joy that could be heard in her voice. And they told me that it is important to pray for our priests. Today I'm aware that it would also have been useful to pray that some demon leaves the Order.

Avellino. An indefinite day several years ago. I am eating pizza with friends. At the table across from me sits Monsignor Vito Angelo Todisco, the Apostolic Visitor of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. I can still hear him talking about the Franciscans of the Immaculate playing the sly one, "Yes, if you're going to Frigento, then you will hear them scream from one room to another, those who flagellate themselves ... yes ... because then you have to go away ..." At that time, to be honest, when I heard from one dressed with cap and civilian clothes as was this priest, I had not understood if he was laughing or whether it was a very special form of admiration, an admiration for what "we mortals" never do, would never be able to do ... Now I know that it was only a mockery of the brothers and for their spiritual destruction.

Battipaglia, 2009. Invitation to an exhibition by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. We, Manuel Grillo, my publisher and friend, and I went out with the intention, to pass to the Cardinal an appeal to the Pope for religious art, that he would send him to the Holy Father (as it then also happened). The altar service at this Pontifical Mass was celebrated by the Franciscans of the Immaculate. After completion of the Mass, I was moved to greet these industrious brothers, these really humble brethren, and not a rehearsed, false, intellectual humility. No, they are humble because they quietly do their job, all in the same way with the same dedication, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Suddenly, just before they again set off towards Frigento by bus, one of them turned, a bit bald and the beard of a Capuchin, towards me and said, "You are Francesco Colafemmina!" It was Father Paolo Siano, the Mason Hunter ...

And who knows if this it is not just these Freemasons who are behind the whole affair ... But I would not appear to be a conspiracy theorist or a simpleton.

The whole thing is in any case based on a question of style. I have met no Franciscans of the Immaculate that would have put themselves in any way in a picture with the Pope or a scene that have been published more than once or many times in various institutional Facebook profiles, their photos with the Pope - the new Pope of course - before this or that background, the WYD hat, with young people of WYD, etc., etc. Well and good, but if this is the case for any of them yet, he is one of the authors of this dark intrigue, which led to the overthrow of the Order. Then I ask: Why? Why did you go then, instead of protecting and blessing the Order in silence and devotion? Why did you leave, while your founding father is forced from his creation of love and devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary, laughing through the streets? [He evidently has someone in mind]

. Spiritual worldliness. This is evil. The evil of which Pope Francis speaks!

"We mean with this that which constitutes virtually a flow of otherworldliness, whose moral ideal, however, is meant the spiritual, rather than the glorification of the Lord, but those of man and his perfection. A radically anthropocentric attitude, which is the spirit of worldliness." said De Lubac. So I want to thank the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception for the spiritual gifts they have given me. I want to thank them for their simplicity, their unselfishness, their devotion, I want to thank them, because they have shown that it is possible, even in the bewildered and seductive world of today, to live a life completely given to Our Lord in freedom. It is no coincidence that I was able to see a clean alternative to the corruption of other brothers in them, such as some of the Capuchin Friars of St. Pio, who have become the best example of secularism, a secularism tout cour. [...]

At this point I would like the many brothers who read me, saying, obey, yes, but do not give up. Envy, arrogance and pride destroy in a few minutes the works of many years. You have the power to rebuild everything, and more, a force that belongs to you from the Lord. Therefore give evidence, give wise testimony, looking for new ways for witness. Show also those who want to see you today in chains, that is no fault in you. Fighting a brilliant fight, which is not ideological, concerns not the Old or the New Rite, the Council or the post-Conciliar period, but the Faith in our Lord and to follow Christ. May God bless you, dear sisters and brothers. Angels dressed in the mantle of Mary, cast out demons who have mingled with you! [...]

Text: Fides et Forma
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Fides et Forma
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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NB: Colafemmina is not a Traditionalist.