LOL, when we say that the pope is not religious, we don’t mean that he’s a heathen. We mean that he’s not a consecrated man. He’s a secular priest. Big difference between being secular and being a heathen.
People often ask this whenever one says, “Father so and so is not religious.” Immediately, they ask, “What do you mean? He’s a very holy man.”
Many people don’t realize that the last religious pope was a Franciscan over 150 years ago, give or take a decade. Someone like Bl. John Paul, who did a lot of pastoral work in a diocese was much better acquainted with religious men and better acquainted with the language of religious life than someone like Pope Benedict who spent most of his life in the classroom. That’s a very different world. I know, because I was there. There are religious and secular, but it makes little difference, because you’re all there as teachers. If you’re a religious, your particular charism gets lost in the shuffle of the academic world. When you’re in a diocese, it’s a different story. Religious take on many ministries at the diocesan level. These ministries showcase their charism, if they make good use of them.
No one expects the pope to think of terms like “Student-Friars”, notice the hyphen. They’re not studying to be friars, they are students who are friars. I wouldn’t expect the pope to remember the difference between: religious brother, lay brother, coadjutor brother, cooperator brother. I’m sure that he’s come across those terms in his reading, but they’re not part of his daily vocabulary. These kinds of things you expect his staff to stay on top of when planning an even that involved diverse men. This was the complaint that the Sacred Congregation had. It was not against the pope. No one expects him to know all of this off the top of his head. But you do expect that the planners would have people on their team who know these things or would ask the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic life, who’s who and whom should they invite. Apparently, this did not happen and there were some broken hearts.
The mass was for all students for the priesthood, young and old. Those who signed up to go to Madrid, with plenty of time, were hoping for an invitation that never came. It was on a first come first serve basis. They could only accommodate so many in the church. It was hard to believe that the diocesan seminarians and the clerks regular all got their registrations in before the friars and the monks. At least some of the monks and friars must have gotten their registration in on time.
I believe that the Holy Father is trying to rectify this. During the ad limina visits by the bishops this year he reminded them not to be selfish and to promote vocations to the religious life, especially to the non-ordained religious men. He spoke very strongly about the duty of every Catholic diocese to promote vocations to religious life apart from the priesthood.
He’s not saying that he does not want religious to be ordained. He’s simply saying that the bishops need to work with the religious superiors to promote this way of life. Whether the religious is ordained or not is not up to the pope. He can’t command an ordination. That would make it invalid. It’s up to the individual and the major superior to decide which religious is ordained and which goes on to medical school, law school, education, mechanics etc. It all depends of the gifts of the individual and the identity of the community.
Personally, I had not heard this pope express concern for the male religious until after this incident in Madrid. Either he realized or someone on his staff pointed out that there was an oversight that caused feelings to be hurt and people to be disappointed. If there is one thing that I know about Pope Benedict, since he was Cardinal Ratzinger, he’s very humble. Once he’s made away that either he or his staff made a mistake, he acknowledges it by correcting the problem. He doesn’t simply say, “I’m sorry” and moves on.
As we can see by his concern and deep sense of justice, he is A religious man, just not a religious.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
