Let’s review things in light of the blog.
Firs tof all, Brother Paul tells us that they are not part of a parish. Therefore, they do not have to inform the pastor. However, they did so. That was a kind gesture and this point should now be settles.
Second, he said that he and the other brother, whose name I can’t recall, thought about this and prayed over it. Again, they didn’t get up in the mornig and decide to do this. But I had said this before.
Third, he said that they asked for the permission of the Brother Guardian and it was given. I had mentioned before that the rule says that the brothers cannot do anything without permisison. Again, this was not a whim. It was thought out and the proper permission was requested.
Fourth, he says that he did not know that they had to get the bishop’s permission. That’s not his job to know that. That’s the Guardian’s job. That’s what it means to guard. It is his job to ensure that everything conforms to the laws of the Church, the local diocese and the order. However, he does not say that the bishop had any concerns or that he asked them to stop. My guess is that someone told them that they needed to check it out with the bishop. Not a big deal. You ask the bishop and you apologize for not having done so. The bishop tells you to continue or tells you that it’s not such a good idea. In either case, you obey. YOu keep it simple.
Fifth, there were implants in the crowd. Meaning, that there were people there to adore the Blessed Sacrament. That takes away the concern about poor or no planning.
Sixth, he explains why they did not use the veil, cope, censor, candles etc. I had offered a similar explanation before. You don’t carry all that stuff around You use it when you have them and if you don’t have them, you do without. That’s a good Franciscan custom. Nothing new there. He even cites something from the old constitutions before Vatican II. He makes a reference to the fact that all of those things would have looked like too much pageantry to the non-believer. In the constitutions written by St. Francis he discouraged too much pageantry so as not to offend the non-beleivers. Francis knew that if you offended them, they would run in the opposite direction. If you attracted their curiosity, they would linger. Nothing new there either. He built on what came before.
Seventh, he did not go alone. He went with another brother and they scouted out the place beforehand. They went to make sure that it was safe for them, the Blessed Sacrament and the people. His only regret was that they did not stop the flow of traffic (people traffic).
In essence, they went over and beyond what they are required to do in such cases.
The only complaint that American Catholics would have here is one that I saw on another thread, which was silly. Someoen wanted to know why the superior of the house is not a priest and the brothers beneath him, who are priests cannot be called Father. That’s simple. When Francis was alive, he was not a priest. He was the only one allowed to be called Father. The other friars were called Brother to blur the lines between the ordained and the non-ordianed. It’s not as novel a concept as people think. It goes back to St. Benedict and St.Albert. However, Br. Paul did wear a stole over his habit.
If people want to argue, “what’s the purpose?” He explained the purpose, to bring Christ to the non-believers. If we look at Franciscan history, this was done in the past for hundreds of years. It was never a weekly event. But it was not an unheard of event. That’s what I’m saying. Francis did it several times. Others did it too. When the friars went to Jerusalem, they were not allowed to try to convert the Muslims and Jews. They’re still not. The Holy See has never allowed it. It was a treaty that Francis made with one of the Sultans. I call him the nice one. The other sultans were not so nice. Anyway, Pope Gregory created the custody of the Holy Land and gave it to the Franciscans under his jurisdiction. They had a custom that they still have to this day. Every Thursday they walked through the streets with the Blessed Sacrament. It was not a beautiful procession like those that we have for Corpus Christi. It is a very simple procession. It strengthens the faith of the Christians and exposes the Muslims and Jews to the Blessed Sacrament without saying a word. This way they don’t break the treaty, but they still preach by their presence and their faith.
My point is that there are many precedents for this. We don’t even know if the brothers in the UK are still doing it or not. As to the question of bringing people to church to adore the Blessed Sacrament, this is not possible for those brothers. They don’t have a church. Once I read the blog, I realized where they live. They live in a hole in the wall. We cannot encourage people to go to adoration at a parish, if the parish does not have it, unless we run the parish. Then we can start it. We don’t know if this parish has a regular weekly adoration. If they do, the brothers would tell people about it. If they don’t, there is not much that the brothers can do about that. That’s the local pastor’s judgment call.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
