With the recent commissioning of the “Memores Domini” of the Communion and Liberation movement, the issue of the extraordinary amount of interventions by the Holy See in numerous communities has come back to the fore.  

Newsroom (26/11/2021 17:30, Gaudium Press) With the recent commissariat of the “Memores Domini” of the Communion and Liberation movement, as well as the successive resignation of the movement’s general president, Julian Carron, a very popular theme has come back to the fore in recent years: the extraordinary number of interventions by the Holy See in congregations, movements and even private associations of the faithful, as the conclusion of a previous apostolic visit. Perhaps the most famous, a few years ago, was the commissioning of the Legionaries of Christ by the late Cardinal De Paolis, while still under the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

However, since the ascension of Pope Francis to the pontifical throne, such commissariats have snowballed.  To delve deeper into this issue, the following question must be answered: what does the commissariat consist of? Why is a Commissariat appointed?

What is a commissary?

In ecclesiastical language, the expression “pontifical commissary” has been used in various senses over the centuries. In the current Code of Canon Law one does not find this expression, and it can be said that its use is similar to that used by the Italian government, meaning some temporary function with certain powers granted “ad hoc”. It is an administrative measure and cannot be considered a punishment inflicted by judicial sentence.

The commissioner is therefore instituted for particular purposes and functions, to meet contingent and extraordinary requirements. In general, the office of commissioner in the Church is of limited duration and its powers are defined in the decree of appointment.

One question remains, however: why this multiplication of commissars during the current pontificate? It is a difficult question to answer. But before putting forward some hypotheses, let’s go to the facts.

The interventions of the Holy See

The data coming from the offices of the Congregation for Religious (CIVCSVA) are frightening. Never in the history of the Church has there been such an intervention of the Holy See in religious congregations, movements and associations. And we are speaking only of commissioners, leaving aside the avalanche of closures – many of them painful or dramatic – of institutes of consecrated life, associations and cloistered monasteries.

During the first conference of the XXVIII Days of Theology, Bishop José Rodríguez Carballo, Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, addressed the “prophetic dimensions in Consecrated Life” on March 2, 2015. At the time, the prelate said there were 39 institutes commissariats, 132 apostolic visits to congregations and more than 37 monasteries being visited. In those years, much was said about the Franciscans of the Immaculate, who are still commissariats, although they have obtained favourable judgements in the civil sphere against slanders promoted by the first commissioner, Fr Volpe, who died during his term.

Four years later, on 7 June 2019, Cardinal Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Religious, at the conference for CONFER in Paraná, Brazil, stated that there are about seventy commissariate institutes. This means that in four years about thirty institutes have been commissariats (a number almost equivalent to the total presented in 2015) and it is not reported that since then the number has decreased.

Commission also … the Vatican itself

However, Vatican interventionism, much more invasive and intensive than usual, does not stop at the entities under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for Religious or the Congregation for the Laity, headed by Cardinal Farrell, a former Legionnaire of Christ and a close collaborator for several years of the ousted Cardinal McCarrick, famous for his crimes against the sixth commandment. Impressive, but it must be believed, the Vatican intervention fell on himself!

In fact, two Roman Dicasteries, after the replacement of their respective Prefects, whose resignation was accepted for reasons of age, have received the apostolic visit. They are the Congregation for Divine Worship and that of the Clergy. But not only. The “Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina” in 2019 and the St Peter’s Factory in 2020, both Vatican entities, were also commissioned.

To these can be added other extramural interventions, that is, the measures taken in relation to some ecclesiastical circumscriptions. The shrine of Medjugorje was commissified in 2017; that of Lourdes, without apparent cause, was also commissified in 2019; the diocese of Cologne followed them in 2021.

However, perhaps the most controversial case has been the intervention of the Secretary of State to the Order of Malta, which besides being a religious institute is a sovereign state. There seem to be no limits of jurisdiction for the smallest country in the world: the Vatican.

Are there ideological reasons?

And all this, why? Are there ideological reasons underlying the Vatican’s authoritarian procedure? Many support this thesis, although in certain cases, as in the commissariat of Bose, a monastery of notorious ecumenical and progressive orientation, it does not seem to be confirmed.

We are, without doubt, facing a style of interventionist government such as has never been seen before in the Church, which has affected, in the majority of cases, flourishing congregations and movements approved and supported by previous pontificates.