Part 12: Ever Faithful-Ever True | Porziuncola Project

CHAPTER THE TWELFTH

Ever Faithful – Ever True

I don’t want to scandalize you and I certainly don’t want you thinking ill of any group or anyone. However, we can no longer hide from the fact that religious life is a mess. We have the unfortunate, or fortunate, situation of living during a time where religious life has fallen apart, lost it’s understanding of itself and is in great, or should I say “grave”, need of renewal. In many corners of the Church certain religious congregations are dying and are almost dead. The shame of it is that most of these have been in existence for less than two centuries.

Normally I would never read a certain “Catholic newspaper” that pretends to be Catholic while all the while attacking the Church. One day I happened to pick it up and read about a number of religious orders of sisters who have resolved themselves to death. Their great hope is that the laity would carry on their charism and their work. It reminded me of a cancer patient who had lost his will to live and resigned himself to death. To the cancer patient who had tried everything and all medical hope was lost, resignation is a great thing. For religious communities who have been given the remedy for their illness, to refuse it, and resign themselves to death is sinful.

The good Lord did not bring religious orders into existence just so they could die out in two or maybe three generations. The Church still needs, now more than ever, teaching orders, nursing orders and contemplative nuns. The Church has need for missionary orders and congregations dedicated to the service of the poor.

God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. So why are they dying? Before I answer that, I also want to express the fact that it is not just women’s communities. Many, if not most long standing religious orders are either losing men or not gaining any. Some of these congregations will soon see the closing down of some of their provinces and some will live to see the very end of their congregations. So what’s going on?

If we asked these orders and congregations, they would tell us that it’s the sign of the times. They’ll blame it on the culture or anything other than themselves. I have even heard some say that God and the Church no longer have a need of the religious state. Nonsense! Is the Gospel not the Gospel? Has the Lord changed His mind on calling us to live the evangelical counsels? Does the Lord no longer desire that men and women should consecrate themselves to Him so that they may be living witnesses to the love of God in our world? Of course He desires it!

Some outside religious life would like to blame the Second Vatican Council. They’ll foolishly say that it was the Council’s fault for loosening things up too much. While all this mayhem did begin to occur after the Council, it was certainly not the Council’s fault. There were problems in religious life before the Council (no need to get into that now) and the Council called upon religious to fix these problems by returning to the primitive inspirations of their founders. Some, although few, did. Others began to institutionalize a secular mentality toward religious life and embraced the culture in the most self-destructive ways imaginable.

One of the saddest and most destructive stances that orders, congregations and seminaries took was a rejection of authority. Many communities embraced the 1960’s radical position of an anti-authority attitude. The main problem being that this was not a rejection of civil authority, but far worse, of Church authority. This rebellion was not only against the Pope, Bishops and the hierarchy, but also against the Church’s very responsibility to teach, govern and sanctify. Entire bodies of religious became like adolescents who were going to do whatever they wanted, think whatever they wanted and teach whatever they wanted to teach. We could say that darkness had truly descended upon these communities as they stood against the Bride of Christ, their Mother, the Church.

Let me take a moment to say that not everyone went crazy. There were pockets of religious and strong individuals who would not follow in the path of resistance. These faithful ones stayed true to the Church and became lone voices crying out for the true implementation of the Second Vatican Council. May these devout souls be honored for the great sufferings they endured to stay faithful to truth. Priests who spoke boldly even though their communities would not hear them and sisters who refused to remove the veil despite the scorn they received are to be honored and applauded. Some of them have died and were spared having to see the community they loved so much in its ending days. Others are still alive, and although they are saddened over what they see in their own community, they are overjoyed to see the springtime for so many new congregations.

The rejection of authority comes in so many various forms. The most common form is simply “infidelity”. Please don’t mistake this to mean infidelity to their vows. Oddly enough, those who haven’t left their orders have remained true to their vows. What I speak of is an infidelity to truth. The truth taught and held by the Church. More specifically, the truths of religious life, the truths of dogma, the truths of moral theology and the truths of ascetical Theology. Nothing has given more evidence of this than in recent days, when the Vatican opened an investigation into U.S. religious congregations, many of the sisters refused to cooperate. Now, when Rome says “investigate”, it doesn’t mean the Swiss Guard are showing up to haul off all the heretics. An investigation is started to help

communities to find out what the problem is, diagnose it and help remedy it. Knowing this, various communities took an adolescent stance toward Rome and re-affirmed their infidelity.

Yes! I am being quite frank. I believe it to be only fair to you that I am frank. It would be unfair of me not to be out in the open about these communities. The last thing I would have you do is discern with a community that is going to lead you astray and de-form you by infidelity to Rome. Most of you reading this would normally not even consider these communities as possibilities. Most people don’t. You have a right to the truth and your discernment must be done in truth. These things that I write come from my own personal experience of seeing it for myself and having been witness to so many outrages in religious life.

A faithful community can, usually, be spotted out because, in fidelity to the Second Vatican Council, they wear the full habit. They’ll also live, pray and recreate together. You can get a good feel for their fidelity to the Church by their fidelity to their founder. Any community worth discerning must pledge unswerving loyalty to the Magisterium and not tolerate any dissent from Church teaching. Allow me to reaffirm this point. Not only should they have a stance of fidelity to Rome, but they MUST hold all members accountable and not tolerate, allow or permit a member to hold any opinion contrary to the Catholic Church. Even if the congregation takes a public stance that is not in support of a societal public sin, if any member dissents from that truth, and the congregation tolerates it, then there is a poison that will slowly eat away the very fabric of the community. Back before the Second Vatican Council they called dissenters from Church teaching “heretics”. I assume that we’re all too politically correct to call a spade “a spade”. I’m not!

To be more specific we are talking about things like denying an all-male priesthood instituted by Christ. Other agendas of modern dissenters are those who replace approved liturgical texts, including the Divine Office, with inclusive language, radical feminism. Among the dissenters in liturgy, you’ll find them ignoring liturgical law and making up the Mass as they go along. On the moral scale, you’ll find dissenters who are pro-abortion, they’ll permit gay marriage, contraception and embryonic stem cell research. These religious will have all the best and most heart wrenching arguments as to why they hold these positions. Some will seem well thought out and reasonable. But, in the end, to quote the late great St. John Paul II, “There is no love without truth”.

On the spiritual level, you’ll find some weird and wild stuff going on. As they refuse communal Marian devotion and Eucharistic adoration, there is an embracement, and toleration, of members practicing false and pagan practices. Rekei and transcendental meditation, labyrinths and an over emphasis on creation spirituality. They’ll often speak of mother Earth and refer to the Church, not as Mother Church, but simply “Church”. They’ll speak much about the people as the Body of Christ and little about the true presence of Our Lord, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. A feminine spirituality is promoted while, at the same time, refusal to turn to Our Lady as the model of femininity. As it was said earlier, these things are true for both men and women’s communities.

These congregations, orders and communities that have either embraced one or all of these positions, or tolerate any one of their members being involved in these dissenting and destructive positions, is not worth your time. My counsel, advice and strong recommendation is simple, run away from them! I could not be strong enough on this point. These orders have chosen to die, and as long as they remain dissenting, will die. The Holy Spirit cannot give life where Christ, the life of the world, is not welcome. He will not send people to where they will be deformed, malformed or formed into anything but a religious who is faithful to Christ and His Church.

Allow me to also look at the other extreme, lest I be accused of being biased. Although the dominant trend in religious life is this crazy dissent from truth, there is also a radical right wing of dissent. As I often say, “They are so far right that they’re left”. These communities also reject the Second Vatican Council and seek to re-implement 1950, as if it was the height of religious observance. From my reading of religious life history, especially of Franciscan History, the 19th and 20th century living of religious life was itself an aberration from the founders’ original ideals. Reform was as necessary then as it is now. These communities make an issue out of the Novus Ordo (new Mass) and uphold the Tridentine Mass as the only valid Mass. As a disclaimer, I celebrate the “old” Mass and our community loves it. But, I am not making an issue of it, as if our community exists only to restore it to the Church. If the Church goes back to the old Mass I would be all for it, and I want people to appreciate and love the old Mass, but it can’t be the reason to exist as a community.

Certain trends of these communities can be a rigidity that is unhealthy and destructive to the individual. While fidelity, penance and sincere devotion are hallmarks of a healthy community, it must be done with true joy and deep love. Thank God, the dissenters on this side of the spectrum are few.

By now you’re probably trying to figure out if I’m liberal or conservative. I’m neither! I am where the Church is. There is no better place to be and there is nowhere else to be. The key is not to get caught up in those labels. We simply need to have undying, unswerving, non-negotiable, fidelity to the Church on all levels: Dogmatically, morally, ascetically, liturgically and in our understanding of our religious vocation and call.

Finding out where a community stands on these most incredibly important topics means knowing the right questions to ask and having the courage to ask them. You should ask them! After all we’re talking about your vocation and finding the community that will fulfill the plan of God for you. Here are some questions.

1. Have you responded to the Second Vatican Council and returned to the original inspiration of your founder?

2. Do you live your life as the early founders did? Why or why not?

3. Do you wear the habit?

4. Do you pray in community as your founder did?

5. Do you have Eucharistic devotion?

6. Do you have Marian devotion as a community?

7. How do you understand obedience to the Magisterium?

8. Does your community use “inclusive language”?

9. Does your community take a public pro-life stance?

10. Are members of your community permitted to dissent from Church teaching?

11. What do you do if a member dissents from Church teaching?

12. Where does your community stand and individuals in your community stand on such issues as: Gay marriage, contraception, abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research?

13. Does anyone in your community stand against the Church’s clear teaching that only men can be an ordained priest? If so how does the community handle a dissenter?

14.Do members of your community practice Reiki, transcendental meditation and do your formators use the Enneagram with those in formation?

15. Does the community pray regularly together? If so, do you use the approved Divine Office or do you use some type of inclusive language compendium that refuses to call God Father,

Lord, King and refuses to use the personal pronoun of he or him?

16. How does your community feel about the Pope and the authority of the Bishops?

You may feel a bit odd and intrusive about asking these questions. However, too often these dissenting communities will hide what they really believe. Some will also shrug off the fact that there are members of their community who are clearly out of line with the Church. They’ll do nothing about them and call everyone else to be “tolerant” of that person’s opinions and ideas, even though they are fundamentally heretical.

Once again, I mean this for both men and women communities. These communities are not worth your time and effort in discernment. Move on to communities that have remained loyal to Christ and His Church in all things. Don’t be afraid to go against the American false virtue of “tolerance”. As my spiritual director once told me, “some things should never be tolerated”. Dissent from Church teachings is one of those “things”. Stay close to the Church and you will stay close to Christ.

On a final note, in some of my recent discussions with young people looking at long standing religious orders that had strayed from the Church, I’ve noticed in them a real desire to live the life of their founder. The odd part being that no one in the community was following that charism. However, the young person felt drawn by the charism and its original beauty. Some of these young people began the course of admittance to these orders. As they did so, they became more and more aware of the manifold problems that did not allow this community the freedom to live the life of their founder.

Seeing these things, the young people entered the order hoping to change it and bring it back. Well, it didn’t work out so well. The one’s who did not leave the order despairing of hope stayed and became part of the system. Never join an order hoping to change it. That’s like getting married to an alcoholic hoping that marriage will change them. You must enter an order with the full resolve to be part of the full life of the community. The life is supposed to form you, not the other way around.

The Church, especially in the document “Essential Documents of Religious Life” (1984) has continually pointed out the union that religious orders and communities have with the wider Church. It’s clear that union is not only on the level of ministry within the church, but also in thinking, believing, acting and loving with the Church. Unity must begin on the level of faith, morals, spiritual theology (asceticism) and true understanding of the gift of religious life. Thanks be to God there are more and more communities of religious that God is raising up that have this union. And, by His grace, there are some that are now renewing this union. In our personal discernment we ourselves need to know our faith and we need to search and seek out communities that are living in full and complete union with the Church.

Lectio for Chapter the Thirteenth

Matthew 10:5-15

These twelve Jesus sent out, charging them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And preach as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying, give without pay. Take no gold, nor silver, nor copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff; for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it, and stay with him until you depart. As you enter the house, salute it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if any one will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomor′rah than for that town.

Lectio for Chapter the Thirteenth

Matthew 10:5-15