Pope Francis has recently come under criticism from a growing number of traditionalist Catholics for cracking down on a religious order that celebrates the old Latin Mass.
The Associated Press reported that the case has become a flashpoint in the “ideological tug-of-war” in the Catholic Church over the pontiff’s agenda.
The matter concerns the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, a small but growing order of several hundred priests, seminarians and nuns that was founded in Italy in 1990 as an offshoot of the larger Franciscan order.
The previous pontiff, Benedict XVI, launched an investigation into the congregation when five of its priests complained that the order was taking on an overly traditionalist bent.
The dispute goes back to differing interpretations of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which include the use of local languages in Mass that some considered a break with the church’s tradition.
Benedict relaxed restrictions on using Latin for the service in 2007.
The Vatican in July named the Rev. Fidenzio Volpi, a Franciscan Capuchin friar, as a special commissioner to run the order with a mandate to quell the dissent within its ranks and get a handle on its finances. In the same decree appointing Volpi, Francis forbade the friars from celebrating the Mass in Latin without special permission.
Four tradition-minded Italian intellectuals wrote to the Vatican accusing it of violating Benedict’s 2007 edict, saying the Holy See was imposing “unjust discrimination” against those who celebrate the ancient rite.
Volpi though was undeterred, and on Dec. 8 took action, issuing a series of sanctions in the name of the pope that have stunned observers, the AP report said.
Volpi closed the friars’ seminary and sent its students to other religious universities in Rome. He suspended the activities of the friars’ lay movement. He suspended ordinations of priests for a year and required those who wish to be ordinated to formally accept the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and its new liturgy or be kicked out. And he decreed that current priests must commit themselves in writing to following the existing mission of the order.
Pope Francis has called Benedict’s 2007 decree allowing wider use of the Latin Mass “prudent,” but has warned that it risks being exploited on ideological grounds by factions in the church.
A group of tradition-minded lay Catholics has started an online petition asking for Volpi’s ouster.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi defended Volpi as a sage administrator and dismissed calls for his ouster.
Sources
Associated Press/Trib Live
AP/The Globe and Mail
Image: Reuters/Trib Live
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News category: World.
