Oh yeah……..this had to die (FFI persecution video)

Rorate has posted an amazing video apparently captured on the very day the Apostolic Commisioner installed by Pope Francis, Fidenzio Volpi, had the seminary of the Franciscans of the Immaculate closed in December of 2013.  As Rorate notes, and I have had directly relayed to me by suffering members of the FIs, the ongoing persecution has been terrible in its severity and has resulted in, if not the outright destruction of the order, at least it being gravely wounded.  Prospects for the future of this once flourishing order are now decidedly dim.

What is incredible in the Rorate report below, and which I have gleaned from a few brief contacts of my own with FIs, is the scope of the persecution, its invasiveness in the daily lives of these religious, and the totalitarian regime that has been set up in place of the former leadership. As such, the video below had to be literally “smuggled out” and hidden for the past year-plus, until it could finally be shared below.  It’s like a communist regime persecuting the Church, but this situation is doubly-heartbreaking (and troubling) in that the persecution comes from within.  The message is certainly being sent: if you ever examine Vatican II in a critical light, and show that diabolical “drift,” you’ll be crushed, and mercilessly.  We can only imagine the chilling effect this will have on honest theological and even pastoral discussion in the Church going forward under this pontificate.  Matters like the insulting demotion of Cardinal Burke (for that was the intent) indicate this effect is intended for the entire Church, and not just one sadly hounded order.  Comments from Rorate below:

With all the problems and scandals in the religious life in our times, which seem to be deemed praiseworthy by the highest authorities, what you’ll see in this video is what they find so unacceptable, so horrific, so dangerous that it had to be stomped out and crushed as “specifically ordered by the Vicar of Christ,” Pope Francis.

Punishment and suppression — and with no trial. [And there was really no investigation, either.  As described to me, a survey was sent out, but that was it.  Whatever the survey results said really doesn’t matter, the fix was in from the start and the order was going to be “reformed” and the original leadership removed.  That is the very essence of a totalitarian environment.  Of course, the Church is not a democracy nor should we want it to be, but justice must always be observed, and in this case, it certainly does not seem to have been.  In fact, the treatment of the FIs makes a mockery of justice in the eyes of many]

But perhaps our Lady, on her feastday, is offering a vision very different to that which seems to dominate presently in the Church — a vision of the consecrated life which is, as Simeon says of Christ, a sign of contradiction.

A great number of the friars seen in this film have had to flee after the closing of the seminary, having found themselves in a new atmosphere of doctrinal corruption and moral relaxation, of the disintegration of the religious observance they had avowed themselves to maintain on pain of grave sin. [I cannot imagine how painful that process of disintegration must be for those who feel called to serve God in such a total and intimate capacity.  There really aren’t words to adequately describe their suffering]

We say “flee” because it’s true. We hear from numerous FI saying how they are in danger, how another Friar they know will speak with us “once they’re safe” meaning in a new diocese with a friendly bishop. You’d think they were fleeing 16th Century England and the Tower — but this form of priest hunting is so much more dangerous as it comes from within.

The video:

Damnable promethean neo-pelagian rabbits!  Yeah, that needed to die.

You know, it is said, and generally holds true, that there are two sides to every story.  But in this case, the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence has constantly shown that this “intervention” is an ideological witch-hunt against an order that had the temerity to be drawn towards the traditional practice of the Faith, and which felt bold enough under the prior pontificate to critically examine some aspects of Vatican II. I really think the latter aspect brought down the heavy hand of authority in this case, but the persecution has gone well beyond what was needed to block further examination and protect the “super-dogma” of Vatican II, but has had a much broader impact against many aspects of the traditional practice of the Faith generally.  And that latter part appears to be driven by an ideological animus against that timeless practice of religious life.

I also side very heavily with the “persecution interpretation” of events surrounding the FIs due to the reaction of those who are arguing in favor of it. You know who I mean, I don’t mean to name names, there is only a handful in favor and they have all stood to benefit directly from the intervention.  That small group has been waging a jihad against a simplistic, straw man construction of “traditionalists” for years, going back well before the intervention.  I also reject the argument that the investigation began under the previous pontificate and was thus somehow justifiable……..nothing of any substance occurred under the previous pontificate. But literally within a few scant months of the new pontificate, we’ve seen an order crushed in a manner more severe and draconian than anything seen in the post-conciliar period, while other orders, dying in a sea of heresy and error, continue along their merry path of destruction. I am nearly totally convinced had Pope Benedict XVI not abdicated, this investigation cum witch hunt would have gone nowhere.

The ideological viewpoint of those in favor of the intervention aligns too closely with both the focus points of the investigation – and the heavy-handed steps taken to insure the order as it existed prior to the intervention will never be able to resurrect itself – to be mere accident. This includes suspending, a divinis, Franciscan Friars who attempted to find shelter and re-establish the order on its old footing under friendly bishops, and the threats and reprisals meted out against those same bishops.  We haven’t seen anything remotely like this in the Church in decades.  And it all comes down to the decades old struggle regarding Vatican II as all-trumping super-dogma (demanding, it seems, endless novelty) and its compatability with the 2000 year practice of the Faith.  That struggle has taken a decisive turn in the past 22 months, and the Franciscans of the Immaculate (and the Sisters) are suffering for it.