Well, there are some of us who can do this correctly and who have done this correctly, probably more than people know.
It’s not a matter of dumbing down, it’s a matter of using language that conveys the concept without changing it. If you go back to my example of the Franciscan renewal, you’ll see what I mean. Perfectae Caritatis said “go back to the origina charism and the vision of the founders”. That’s what we did. We studied the original charism over and over and read everything that was available in our archives on the vision that Christ had revealed to Francis.
Then we began to rewrite our constitutions so that it conveyed the charism and the revelation in a way that today’s friar can understand and apply it and at the same time, we buitl in safeguard to make sure that the mistakes that were made between 1850 and 1960 are not repeated. Without realizing it we have made mistakes that cost a great deal of pain to the friars and steared the community away from its roots.
We had clericalized the order. In the original charism, there were priests who joined the order. They had no special place, special privileges, or even an identifiable title or habit. There was Brother Elias, Brother Anthony, Brother Bonaventure, Father Francis, Brother Juniper, Brother Giles and so forth. Elias, Anthony and Bonaventure were priests. The others were not. The vision of Francis was not a priestly community, as are the Dominicans, but a brotherhood of equals committed to living the Gospel in obedience and wihtout property as equals.
We had institutionalized the order. We took on schools, parishes, hospitals, colleges and other institutions. The early friars worked where ever there was work, each according to his talent. They did not own or operate any of the above. Many were scholars who taught at the great universities, some were priests who assisted in mission parishes and parishes among the poor, others cared for the sick, the hungry, the orphan, the homeless, and many were laborers who farmed and did other work with their hands.; That’s how you get the Franciscans of the Renewal, who walk the streets wherever they are, instead of running parishes. The Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word serve as spiritual directors, communicators and spend a large part of their day in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, The Franciscans of the Primitive Observance live in neighborhoods, but do not engage in any ministry. They evangelize by their presence as did many of the early brothers. The larger branches no longer require that only the ordained friars be superiors, theologians, spiritual directors, retreat masters or parish adminstrators. But any friar who has the gift and is elected by the brothers serves in any of these capcities. It’s going back to Francis’ original vision, you take your gifts and you give them away along with all of your material posessions.
We had shifted from not owinging property to “spiritual poverty”. The friars could own large buildings as long as no individual claimed ownership, then they were poor. This was not the vision. The vision was that the friars lived in very sall communities of 3 or 5, in very simple dwellings among the poorest people. The did not buy buildings. They either rented, houses were lent to them, gifted to them or they built the from their labors. But they left them when the bishops asked them to surrender the property to the diocese. Now, we are moving in that direction again. Friars do not remain in communities where the people are middle class or higher. They move toward the poor communities and toward the immigrants. The friars serve the Gospel of Life ministry, be it among rich or poor, by working in pro-life projects, because the unborn, sick and elderly are the poorest of the poor. They have nothing and no one to defend them.
This is what is meant by going back into tradition, bringing it forward and restating what needs to be restated in a way that it preserves the original and is comprehensible to the modern man.
What had happened, among us, was that the friars accommodated to the needs of the Church as they went along. Often, thoese accommodations were in conflict with the original charism. The friars were a blend beween the monk and the canons regular. They lived the monastic life outside of the enclosure. Like the monks, they were not involved in the local work of the diocese. However, like the Canons of the time, they helped where ever they could without a commitment to stay or to take over. It was understood that they were there as long as the fraternity felt it was necessary. Usually, when another community came along, whose vocation it was to run these ministries, the friars surrendered them. By going with the flow, we tipped the balance so far that we had too many priests and we began to assign them to parishes. There was no place for the friar who was not a ordained. Francis would not have had a place in his own community. Gradually, many friars became diocesan priests, who ran parishes, while wearing a habit. But there was little of the original charism of brotherhood, poverty, prayer, and equality left.
To recover this has taken a long time, a lot of work and a lot of pain. Just as this is being done very well and very meticulously, other things also have to be recovered, explained and applied in a way that fits modern man. That’s what Pope Benedict keeps saying that the Council wanted.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
