We've been doing our best to bring you, our readers, everything we can on the tragic and chilling situation of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FI) under intervention -- ordered by Pope Francis.
There are so many unexplainable moves -- and naked attempts to stomp out tradition and orthodoxy within one of the few flourishing orders -- by the Vatican in this matter you'd think you were reading a fiction novel by Malachi Martin.
There are so many unexplainable moves -- and naked attempts to stomp out tradition and orthodoxy within one of the few flourishing orders -- by the Vatican in this matter you'd think you were reading a fiction novel by Malachi Martin.
Yet, unlike the villains in Martin's stories, those attacking the Church from the inside aren't the sly, skillful enemies playing expert Machiavellian politics -- they're ham-handed amateurs who just don't care that anyone knows their true motives because there's seemingly so little anyone can actually do to stop them.
Cue the latest news, concerning the beloved Sisters of the Immaculate:
By Mauro Faverzani, Corrispondenza Romana
Translated by Rorate reader, Seamus O'Halloran
The Wind of Beijing is Blowing on the Franciscan Sisters of
the Immaculate
Well, by order of His Eminence João Cardinal Braz de Aviz,
Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of the Consecrated Life, Sister
Fernanda Barbiero, from the Institute of the Sisters of St. Dorothy, has become
the new “Visitor” or “Wrecker” of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate.
It is a rather bizarre choice, because the new Commissar has
absolutely nothing in common with their charisma. Certainly nothing with the
male branch of the religious Family founded by Father Manelli, where at least
they sent a Capuchin (Fr. Fidenzio Volpi) [Rorate note: that gives us no comfort whatsoever, for all the evident reasons]. The task given to Sr. Fernanda is
rather like forcing a healthy patient to take medicine: there is no reason for
it. Leaving aside any harm it might cause, because medicines also have
side-effects, especially when they are taken for no reason.
Who exactly is this Sister Fernanda Barbiero? One may begin
to get an idea by reading what she said in an article entitled “Religious
Sisters in the Church,” published on 28 January 2012 by the Italian LCWR. What
immediately strikes the reader is the reference she makes to the Fourth World
Conference on Women by the United Nations at Beijing in 1995. Sr. Fernanda goes
overboard in stressing the “great importance” of the Conference on Women,
saying that it is the first stage on the path towards “women’s power,” which
will give women a new sort of “citizenship” in “society, politics, economics,
the Church, and academia.”
Actually, Beijing turned out to be something completely
different: it was the first stage on the path towards promoting “gender
equality” at world level, a concept which has been ideologically, speciously,
and falsely understood as a synonym for freedom and “orientation.” Beijing in
1995 was the starting point for many current evils: the second edition of the
preparatory document uses the term “gender equality” in almost every paragraph.
Notable on the other hand is the complete absence of any
reference to maternity and to the roles of husbands and wives. They only ever
speak about the concepts of “man” and “woman,” and thus try to impose gender
equality upon every aspect of the UN policy. A disaster.
Indeed, immediately after the Conference the Holy See
statements and corrections in a document entitled “Reserves and Declarations
concerning Interpretation,” although it is still only available in Spanish on
the Vatican website. It heavily criticises the “platform of action” at Beijing
as an attack on marriage and the family, as a promotion of abortion,
homosexuality, and contraception when using the false language of “reproductive
health,” “sexual health,” “reproductive rights,” “family planning,” and
“regulating fertility,” all of which are defined by the Holy See as “morally
unacceptable.”
The Vatican document repeats the firm and total opposition
of the Holy See to any sort of law giving legal rights to abortion, and asks
for these “reserves” to be included in the final report of the Beijing Summit.
Now, the fact that Sister Fernanda has nothing better to do than see in this
devastating Conference a “starting point” is seriously worrying.
Sister Fernanda Barbiero absolutely loves the new “Church of
Mercy,” as can be seen in an editorial she wrote on 26 January this year about
“Consecration and Service,” taking her cue from a book on the same subject by
Cardinal Kasper, where he talked about the upcoming Consistory on the Family.
Sr. Fernanda just cannot hold herself back: “The symphony of God’s mercy is
music you can hear throughout the Bible,” and then she goes on to define it as
the “defining principle of God” and the “key to understanding all the Gospel”
before coming to her final apotheosis,
“Let us all live a life of mercy!”
She doesn’t stake out her territory, doesn’t feel the need
to make any distinctions, doesn’t hold back, doesn’t express any whys or
wherefores; the danger – a very real danger – is that the whole order of things
will be changed, and cheap sociology will take the place of transcendent faith.
According to the Italian news agency Adnkronos, Sr. Barbiero, President in 1998
of the Pontifical Institute Regina Mundi, was asking for some very loose and
ill-defined “overall reform” in the life of Nuns, and was asking the Nuns
themselves to “set out on a path of liberation,” using a language more commonly
found in feminist tracts than in convents.
In that article in 2012 she more or less preached the same
mantra, shining the light of sociology on the life of Nuns and bringing out
“women’s questions” with references to an ongoing “difficult period of
transition.” The life she spoke of was one of alienation, frustration, and
unsatisfied desires so far away from the spiritual fullness and internal calm
of the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate. They do not need any sort of
ideological “emancipation,” nor have they ever asked for it. If only people
would leave them alone. Then they could get on with their life of prayer.
LET US PRAY that the Sisters hold strong through their passion -- as they did in December of last year, when they issued an official statement courageously attacking Fr. Volpi's accusations against them as totally unfounded.
