(Rome) A group of Catholic lay associations and websites have started a petition: They demand the dismissal of Father Fidenzio Volpi from his post as authorized Apostolic Commissioner for the Franciscans of the Immaculate. Anyone who wants to support this appeal to the Congregation of Religious and for informing Pope Francis, this website by well-known, traditional historian Roberto de Mattei is available here do Corrispondenza Romana (first name, last name, e-mail app) . Below is the text for signature collection.
Petition to Demand Resignation
by Roberto de Mattei
We demand the resignation of Father Fidenzio Volpi from his job as political Commissioner of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. In the short period of just five months, Father Volpi has shattered the Order, resulting in internal chaos and suffering, externally causing scandal among the faithful, criticism in the media, and discomfort caused astonishment in the ecclesiastical world. It does not matter to know whether Father Volpi is the author or only the exporter of the destruction plan. One thing is certain though, if the plan is not stopped, the consequences will be devastating, and to prevent the calamity yet added to new disaster, Father Volpi must be dismissed.
According to the decree of last 11 July, the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate was placed under provisional administration, and Father Volpi began with the help of a small band of subcommisars, among them Father Alfonso Bruno and Prof. Mario Castellano, to lay with his ax to the Order. He forbade the celebration of the Holy Mass and the Divine Office in the manner provided in the Motu proprio for the Extraordinary Form, he dismissed the whole Order leadership, starting with Father Stefano Maria Manelli, who since then is under house arrest, without then having been given to him the reasons why he dissmissed one by one the most loyal collaborators of Father Manelli and sent them every which way, personalities of intellectual and moral greatness, he transferred their duties to dissident brothers who lack preparation and experience, he threattened and punished the brothers, who petitioned to the Holy See and refused to withdraw them; and finally he closed the Order's own seminary on 8 December 2013, during the Solemnity of the Order, and suspended all priests and deaconal ordinations; he imposed an interdict against all publications of religious publishing house Editrice Casa Mariana and forbade their distribution in the Order churches and chapels supervised by the order; he expanded his personal war to the SFO [Tertiaries] and the laity, who are connected to the Order, by forbidding all the activities of MIM (Mission Immaculate Mediatrix) and TOFI (Third Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception); he threatened the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, who adhere to the traditional ERte to also have them put under provisional administration and withdrew the two female religious branches, the missionary branch of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception and the contemplative branch of the Poor Clares of the Immaculate Conception from the spiritual care of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Conception, and now finally, he has demanded of all Franciscans of the Immaculate a "Modernist Oath" to the Novus Ordo Missae and the Second Vatican Council (see the letter of Father Fidenzio Volpi from December 8, 2013 ). 1
Father Volpi has accused every critic of being against the pope. who has challenged him. But is his rather tyrannical rule, which in its hardness is unprecedented in the history of the Church and directly contradicts the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, is it in itself not an open contradiction to Pope Francis as well, who admonished to avoid any authoritarianism towards friend and enemy, to practice mercy and gentleness?
Even the Vatican expert Marco Tosatti has noticed it and wrote on 4 December, "What these poor religious men supposed to have done? Have they speculated money, sexually abused minors or maintained an immoral lifestyle? None of that. "Truth is that Father Volpi, of his own accord or on behalf of third parties, wants to "normalize" the Franciscans of the Immaculate" in which he wants to make them equal to other declining Orders. To achieve this, it is necessary to convert their spiritual and moral charism, to destroy their internal discipline, stifling the recovery of the traditional rite, to open the Order of corruption by the world as it is - with disastrous results - which is what he and his Capuchin Order have done.
Paul VI. recalled religious with the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelica testificatio of 29 June 1971, that they are committed to their superiors against obedience, except in that "something is ordered, which is contrary to God's laws or the constitutions of the institute clearly or certainly lead to a major disadvantage - in such cases the duty of obedience is void." Should Father Volpi not be dismissed, a crisis of conscience for religious men and women will inevitably open up, who want to preserve the charism of the Franciscans of the Immaculate and fidelity to the tradition of the Church.
Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Corrispondenza Romana
image: Corrispondenza Romana
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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