Francis And The Rise Of The Religious Orders

Bergoglio is the first Pope to come from a religious Order in over a century and half of Church history.

During the mass for the inauguration of his pontificate, the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires called the superiors of two orders (the Franciscans and Jesuits) to co-celebrate with him in St. Peter’s Basilica and even during the consultations that have been taking place in the Holy See, there is a clear emphasis on the religious Orders.

Today, Francis appointed Fr. José Rodriguez Carballo, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor (O.F.M.) as secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. This is the Vatican dicastery that is responsible for everything which concerns consecrated life. Francis has also elevated Carballo to the dignity of Archbishop of Belcastro.

Jesuits (like Franciscans) are “religious”, meaning they are individuals who have been consecrated, swearing vows of love and service to God, the Church and mankind. Except that on top of the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that are common to all religious, “professed” Jesuits take a fourth vow, of special obedience to the Pope. This means he can send them to any part of the world and entrust them with any “mission” he deems necessary and useful for the good of the Church.

As religious, the Jesuits form part of a special religious order, called the Company of Jesus (Societas Iesu, in Latin; acronym: S.I.). The Franciscan, Carballo, who co-celebrated the inaugural mass for Francis’ pontificate with the Pope, the cardinals and the Superior General of the Jesuits, Adolfo Nicolas, is to fill the position left vacant by Joseph Tobin, the American former General of the Redemptorists. Tobin was nominated Archbishop of Indianapolis on 18 October 2012.

So just as one Pope entered a convent, it was a religious Order that gave the Church a new successor. The last religious to be elected Pope before the Jesuit, Bergoglio, was Camaldolese monk, Fr. Alberto Cappellari, also known by his papal name, Gregory XVI. Cappellari led the Church through some stormy times, from 1831 to 1846, when earthly power was crumbling.

167 years later it was the turn of another religious to inherit the Chair of St. Peter from Benedict XVI, who left his pontificate to retire to a cloistered convent and whose sober style was already similar to that of a monk. Eight years ago, Ratzinger chose the papal name Benedict, devoting himself to the order of the Patron saint of Europe, Benedict of Nursia and now to a life of “prayer and privacy.”

In the last conclave, 19 of the 115 cardinal electors were religious: 4 Salesians (the Italians Amato, Bertone and Farina and the Honduran Rodriguez Madariaga), 4 Franciscans (O’Malley, Vallejo, Hummes e Napier), 1 Jesuit (the Argentinean Bergoglio) and 2 Dominicans (the Austrian Schönborn and Duka from the Czech Republic).

A part from the Jesuit, Bergoglio, other papabili hailing from religious Orders included the Canadian Sulpician, Marc Ouellet, the Bishops’ prefect and a hard-line Ratzingerian, the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Schönborn, a Dominican pupil of Joseph Ratzinger’s and YouCat (catechism for young people) promoter, the South African Franciscan, Wilfrid Fox Napier, the Archbishop of Chicago, Francis Georg, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate who led the U.S. Bishops’ Conference for a long time and Sean O’Malley, a Capuchin friar who was a missionary on Easter Island and the Latinos’ chaplain in Washington (whilst teaching Hispanic and Portuguese literature at the Catholic University of America). As Archbishop of Boston, O’Malley also restored credibility to a Church left devastated by the paedophilia scandal.

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