Vatican comments on recent reports on Franciscans of the Immaculate, Legion of Christ
June 25, 2014
Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, has issued a statement in response to questions related to recent media reports on the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate and the Legionaries of Christ.
Andrea Tornielli has reported that Pope Francis met on June 10 with members of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Father Lombardi confirmed that Pope Francis met on that day with Father Fidenzio Volpi, the community’s commissioner, and all of the community’s seminarians, and stated that the community is searching for a house in Rome so that the seminarians could study at a pontifical university.
In response to reports on the Legionaries of Christ, Father Lombardi said that with the drafting of a new constitution for the community, the work of the pontifical delegate (Cardinal Velasio de Paolis) has concluded and the Legionaries again fall under the purview of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
The congregation’s prefect and secretary, Father Lombardi continued, will meet with the Legionaries’ leadership on July 3 and offer “very few” corrections to the draft of the new constitution. They will also communicate the name of a newly appointed assistant who will not be a commissioner (such as Father Volpi) or a delegate (such as Cardinal de Paolis), but instead serve in an advisory role.
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Further information:
- Risposta del Direttore della Sala Stampa a domande su Francescani dell’Immacolata e Legionari di Cristo (Holy See Press Office)
- The Pope speaks with the young Franciscans of the Immaculate (Vatican Insider)
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Posted by: Jason C. -
Jun. 25, 2014 12:36 PM ET USA
"...Franciscans of the Immaculate, Legion of Christ..." Uh, one of these things is not like the other. One is the subject of a witch-hunt owing to some members' traditional liturgical sensibilities and rapid growth (a slap in the face to global Franciscans); the other was founded on and enabled by a lie. The former is being effectively suppressed while the other is being reconstituted as if nothing happened so as to preserve its assets. Shameful times we live in....
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Posted by: 1Jn416 -
Jun. 25, 2014 11:20 AM ET USA
That the Holy Father desires to close the FI's seminary and have them study at pontifical universities is a wonderful reform. A religious community in which exist some extreme tendencies can poison itself without outside input, and by having the seminarians study at secular and pontifical schools, the community receives outside ideas and sanity which will spread throughout the membership. God bless the Holy Father for his paternal solicitude.
