See, it’s just a conspiracy to keep me confused! I found this history of name changes:
gcatholic.com/orders/002.htm
Wait! Aren’t we back where we started?!
What happened was that Pope Leo XIII brought together six or seven groups of Franciscans under one General Minister and on constitution. Each group had its own name. Once they came together, they could not agree on which name to keep. It was decided to simply go by Order of Friars Minor (OFM).
Since the largest of those groups were the Observants, we Franciscans refer to the OFMs as the Observant Friars Minor or as the Franciscans of the Leonine Union, because of Pope Leo.
The laity, since they can’t tell a one Franciscan apart from another simply refers to the OFMs as the Franciscans. They got stuck with the name, Franciscan, while the rest of us use different versions of the same name.
They and the Capuchins have taken a lot of flack from laity and even some clergy, because they are running short on priests. In an effort to get back to the 13th century, they no longer push the priesthood. Instead, they recruit men to be Franciscans. If the man expresses a call to the priesthood, it’s taken under consideration by the major superior and the council. But if you look at their vocation literature, they make little mention of the priesthood.
Some people feel that in this day and age when there is a shortage of priests, they should push more men to be ordained. They, on the other hand, take men like Brother Bill and Brother Daniel Sulmasy, send them out to get very high powered degrees in theology, such as doctorates, but do not ordain them. But they place them in positions of leadership and in preaching ministry. Well, you can imagine what Trads think of non ordained religious preaching.
People don’t understand that one only needs to be ordained to preach at mass, not outside of mass. One does not have to be ordained to be a superior, parish administrator, rector of school or dean of a theologate.
Be nice to the OFMs and to the OFM Caps. They’re really trying to get back to the 13th century. The last thing they need is complaints. There get enough resistance from the inside from the baby boomer generation that wants to maintain the status quo that Franciscans had until Vatican II, which was not good for Franciscanism.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
