Leonine Union of the Order of Friars Minor, 1897, The

Chapter Seven. The 1895 General Chapter and The Vote for Unification

Chapter Seven The 1895 General Chapter and The Vote for Unification The opening date for the General Chapter of the Order was set for May 16, 1895. Having consulted with Cardinal Verga, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and Regulars, on April 22 Leo XIII commissioned Cardinal Aegidio Mauri, Dominican theologian and Archbishop of Ferrara, to preside over the gathering. Mauri was a man whom Leo knew and trusted from the days when they were bishops together in the adjacent dioceses of Perugia and Rieti.1 The Holy Father announced that the main item on the agenda was to be the proposed unification of the four families. As we have already seen, both the Congregation for Bishops and Regulars and the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith greeted this announcement with relief and enthusiasm. For his part, Cardinal Mauri wanted to know whether or not he should tell the friars that the Pope was actually ordering them to unite. Cardinal Verga, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and Regulars, said no. It would be better to allow the members of the Chapter to examine the opinions of the Sacred Congregations and deduce for themselves that unification was the desired option. By allowing dissenters to openly express their opinions prior to a vote, it would be possible to deal with and answer them more easily. This way of proceeding would pave the way for a more ready acceptance of the goal. In keeping with this approach, Mauri was also told not to promote, unaltered, the plan of unification as put forward by Luigi da Parma. The 1 Mauri's appointment was made on the recommendation of Cardinal Isidoro Verga, Prefect of the S. Congregation for Bishops and Regulars. ACRIS, M64/4. Mauri was Bishop of Rieti from 1872 to 1888. Giocchino Pecci was Archbishop of Perugia from 1846 until his election as Pope Leo XIII in 1878. 128 / The Leonine Union Cardinal could, however, make use of the ideas according to his own judgement. Luigi had composed this plan of union in response to a request for information on the part of several Cardinals. The recommendations were substantially the same as those which Filippo Giustini had presented to Propaganda as his own solution to the Order's problems.2 It was Luigi's plan that each of the four families should renounce their individual names and be known henceforth as Friars Minor; that there should be a common code of law for the whole Order; that local statutes, while still a possibility, would be in keeping with this legislation and approved by the Minister General; that all rights, privileges and claims to precedence not included in the general legislation of the Order nor in approved statutes should be suppressed; that provision should be made for those religious who desired a more austere style of life; that the holy desire of such religious be satisfied by the construction or designation of as many hermitages as necessary; that the Holy See provide for those religious who did not wish to subject themselves to the union by granting them either permission to join a Religious Institute approved by itself, or permission to leave religious life altogether; that this permission should include the express and irrevocable condition that such religious forego any right which they possessed in the Order, either by virtue of where they lived, or by virtue of privileges or precedence, etc.; that the Holy See command the friars to prepare a set of general constitutions for the whole Order within twelve months; that in the meantime the Cismontane provinces continue to observe the Capistran Constitutions and the Ultramontane provinces the Barcelona Constitutions. By advising Mauri not to present these seven points as a ready-made plan, the Holy See was attempting to preclude any suggestion that it was favoring the Observants. Luigi da Parma, however, was not beyond lobbying for his own cause. On May 3 he visited the Cardinal in Ferrara. He was determined that Mauri should be fully acquainted with the disturbed state of the Order as he, the Minister General, experienced it. Two weeks later, Mauri met with the members of the General Administration at St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi. As mentioned in 2 See: chapter 3. The 1895 Chapter and Unification / 129 chapter 6, both political and domestic factors were responsible for the choice of the Order's Mother House as the place...