There is something that I have witnessed time and again the last forty plus years.
Let me preface what I am going to ask by saying that I do not mean to ask my question in a disrespectful manner nor am I looking to start an argument.
Why is it that it seems to be that only things like this happen to religious orders that want to hold onto Tradition?
The first issue is that we - all of us - don’t know the facts of what was going on;; we only know what was reported in the press, and that has a reasonable chance of being not exactly right, and more than a reasonable chance of having only selected some of the facts at play.
The second issue is the statement of “orders that want to hold on to Tradition”. Short of a thorough examination of this order, the likes of which should be given by someone wanting to enter it, we again are subject only to what we read in the press, and occasionally hear on the grapevine. We cannot blanketly say that this was or is an order “that want(s) to hold on to Tradition” meaning that it is an order that wants the EF only, or to a significant majority of the community Masses said.
I have not even heard of this order until today; and I most certainly do not have enough facts to know if, when the order was founded, it was made clear that the EF was to be the primary form that Mass was celebrated in. Lacking that information, it is entirely possible that this was more of a drift, and one caused by those entering rather than by clear leadership.
Anyone who reads Bro. JR will know that the Franciscans run a top-down order , and first and foremost, in the mind of St Francis for directions.
It appears entirely possible this was becoming more of a bottom-up process, one that could appear to be shunting out those who joined the order because a) they were Franciscans, and b) had other charisms which may have included the occasional use of the EF.
But the bottom line is we don’t know the history of this issue; we just know the results. So we are going around making suppositions.
Why is it that an overly liberal superior who is doing harm to the community and/or running the religious order into the ground doesn’t suffer the same fate?
Because, in large part, the liberal orders are not specifically doing something for which there is or are some very specific rules. Much of what has gone on in liberal orders results in an effort similar to trying to drive a nail into water. That is, it can never be pinned down. SP was specific, that the EF was just that - Extraordinary; and the OF was the norm. And yes, there can be circumstances (e.g. FSSP) where the EF is the norm; but that appears in this case to not have been set out from the beginning. In fact, from the extremely few facts which have been given, it appears that what was driving SP - the care of the liturgical needs of people - was in reverse being ignored. SP was released to work to obtain the perceived needs of those who wished to have the EF celebrated. It was not released so that the EF was to replace the OF, and last time I looked around, the vast majority of people seem to prefer the OF. So, also, it would seem, there were those in this order who, when entering the order, knew that the OF was celebrated as well as the EF, and it appears - again, the facts are sketchy - that what was occurring was that the OF was appearing to being phased out.
I am well aware of the fact that there are those who earnestly desire that the OF be done away with (and I don’t consider you to be one of those, nor is it directed to others in this thread). That, however, is clearly not the mind of the Church.
