Andrea Tornielli publishes yet another article on the intervention in the Franciscans of the Immaculate (August is slow news month in Europe), but this time he mentions Rorate Caeli, by name and link, so we would like to clear two things up:
-First, he says we published the Decree of the Congregation for Religious first; that is not the case, as made clear in the text itself, we merely pasted it from the original source, Messa in Latino;
-Second, he says we are close to the Franciscans of the Immaculate, as if we had some sources there; unfortunately, that is not the case, we have no special access to any source inside that Order. [Update: this point was removed from the text following a strong denial by us on Twitter.]
On the other hand, Tornielli apparently confirms what has been circulating since the beginning of this ordeal: that a tiny minority of friars who complained to Rome got the intervention of the Order. Tornielli identifies Frs. Antonio Santoro, Michele Iorio, Pierdamiano [Peter Damien] Fehlner, Massimiliano Zangheratti, Angelo Geiger, and implies the special position of the latter in this affair by quoting from a letter sent by him to Rome. Congratulations to those involved for their successful endeavor!
We would just emphasize that our interest in this matter is not so much related to the internal workings and troubles of a particular order (we know the Order will survive just fine, and grow stronger, as the FSSP did after their own intervention), but to the extremely grave precedent the Braz de Aviz Decree sets for the rights recognized (not created!) in Summorum Pontificum, and to the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" (and the Apostolic Signatura, by the probable limitation of appeal) were short-circuited in a matter of their competence.
