Are Passionists Traditional?

[jimcav]

I believe that much of this boils down to semantics. If we’re using “traditional” to mean similar to the FSSP, none of the older religious congregations and religious orders are in that league. The Church does not expect that of them.

If you use the word “traditional” as in keeping the traditions of the congregation and their founder, the Passionists have a long tradition to which they are very faithful. They are excellent retreat masters, spiritual directors and very much in touch with the passion of Christ and the embrace of the cross as was St. Paul of the Cross. In other words, they are faithful to the Passionist tradition.

We have to be careful to recall that religious communities have a mandate to be faithful to the charism of their founder. That is the tradition to which they have to be faithful. In the case of the Passionists, they must bring the Gospel to the faithful in the manner of St. Paul of the Cross, not as we believe that they should do so.

They did not promise obedience to us. They promised obedience to God and to St. Paul of the Cross as he speaks through their major superior and their chapter.

Fraternally,

JR

Nicely said!

It sounds as though you have had some very good experiences with the Passionists to…

 

[JReducation]

Nicely said!

It sounds as though you have had some very good experiences with the Passionists to…

Franciscans and Passionists have worked very closely since the Passionists were founded. St. Paul of the Cross had a deep devotion to St. Francis of Assisi. When he tried to found is community he wanted to found a religious order, but by that time the Church had closed the doors to new religious orders. Therefore, he founded a congregation of priests instead of a mendicant religious order of friars. But he preserved the devotion to the passion and the cross, which he takes from St. Paul and is again inspired by St. Francis.

The Passionists are one of the few non mendicants and non monastic and congregations that live in monasteries. The others are the Redemptorists. Observe that they too follow the spirituality of the cross.

These families have much in common with their older brothers and sisters the Franciscans and the Crossiers.

Fraternally,

JR