Please be assured that I have no obsession with your identity, nor do I think that my post would incline you to think that is the case. You may feel the need to remain anonymous, but the idea that you face “retribution” of some kind for speaking badly of the IVE is pretty far-fetched. About refuting all your claims: maybe I (or someone else) will do it one of these days, but it’s rather a time-consuming proposition, since you seem to have put a lot of time and effort into coming up with various allegations. And honestly, most of the accusations (e.g., “the IVE’s superiors are too young”) are not really worth responding to. Sigh.
You say that you make “every effort” to back up your posts with objective evidence. Yet I see really no objective evidence for any of the claims you make, except a few links to sketchy internet sites in Spanish (incidentally, carefully examine the ideological bias of those sites, and see who/what else they criticize). With regards to our founder and photographs, I presume that you mean that you have unearthed several photos of Fr. Buela wearing (gasp!) a clerical suit and not a cassock. But you have provided no information (nor, I suspect, do you know) about why a priest might wear a clerical suit and not his cassock. For example: when relaxing among his religious brothers, potentially under certain difficult travel circumstances (including when it might be dangerous), if his health was poor and he was in a very hot place, etc.
And most importantly: believe it or not, sometimes priests are told (or asked) by bishops or others in authority not to wear the cassock—this is rarely a legitimate request, but sometimes one has to pick one’s battles, and it is always better to err on the side of obedience. (Incidentally, this has even happened to me: I elected to obey the regulation of the bishop in question and not make a big issue out of it, even though according to canon law no doubt I could have.) In our case this is particularly tricky, since the cassock is primarily used by diocesan clergy, and many (even most) diocesan clergy think of the cassock as a quasi-liturgical garment, fit only to be worn on parish property. I also recall that several of our priests, when they first arrived in the U.S., were told by diocesan priests that the cassock was prohibited to be worn (something with some precedent in other countries), or that it was not a legitimate Catholic tradition in the US (again, obviously false). However, I will speak for myself: except when playing sports, hunting, or things like that, I wear my cassock all day and everywhere—including when I go grocery shopping, when I travel, etc.—and that has been encouraged.
I want you to know that I do not find your words “hurtful.” (Although I do confess an intense dislike for that word.) Furthermore, I do not know what “recruiting” has to do with someone discerning his vocation, and it simply untrue to say that we want to recruit men into our religious family who do not have a true religious vocation. Indeed, why on earth would we want to? We will spend the rest of our lives living in small communities, and if (as St. John Berchmans says) life in community can in itself be a great penance, life in community with men who do not have authentic religious vocations would be absolutely unendurable!
That does not mean that as soon as someone has some temptation to leave the religious state everyone will say: “Okay, you aren’t called to the priesthood or religious life, go ahead and leave.” After all, these temptations happen to absolutely everyone at some point (especially in the novitiate), and the devil is very crafty in knowing how to push our buttons. Spiritual directors especially feel the need to encourage perseverance. Nonetheless, the temptation is very often to second-guess or even disregard our spiritual director–this is why the saints so universally encourage obedience to one’s director (even when he says something you don’t want to hear) as the surest path to holiness.
In any case, I am sorry that you found your time in my religious family so unpleasant—for me it has been nothing but a great joy. I wish you nothing but happiness, and I pray that you will discern where He wants you and persevere in that vocation. God bless you.
) that I have thought about discerning with the IVE and am still open to it, if it is the Lord’s will. And if either/both of you end up with the IVE, will you please let me know? I know quite a few of them (went to WYD in Australia with them) and would love to add a few more to the list! Oh, and their Sisters (“Servants of the Lord” - full name "Sisters Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara) are awesome too.