SOME CLARIFICATIONS
to restore the truth about the situation
of the Monastery “Maria Tempio dello Spirito Santo” of Pienza
PART ONE
The Sequence of Events
After the disclosure of conflicting and contradictory news relating to the recent events that have involved the cloistered community of the Benedictine Monastery of Pienza [see here for the community’s website — CFN ed.], I consider it my duty as a Pastor to intervene to re-establish the truth of the facts, as they are verifiable to those who are not prejudiced and care both about the fate of these religious women as well as highlighting the attitude of open hostility towards them on the part of ecclesiastical Authority. This first contribution of mine comes from my direct and personal knowledge of the Abbess and the Nuns, on whose behalf I intend to speak. In this first part I will analyze the sequence of events. A second essay will consider the content of the Holy See’s measures, framing them in the broader context of Bergoglio’s demolishing action. A third essay will propose some initiatives to be undertaken.
I. Origins
First of all, it is necessary to start from the birth of the Monastery. Twelve of the thirteen
religious who compose it come from the Benedictine community “Santa Maria
delle Rose” of Sant’Angelo in Pontano, belonging to the Piceno Federation.
This monastery in the Italian region of Marche experienced a moment of rebirth
when it began to welcome female vocations from the so-called “Neocatechumenal
Way” [the Cammino] of Kiko Argüello. It was in fact from the Cammino that our young women entered
religion, only to be sent in 2013 by the same leaders of the Way to establish a new Benedictine foundation in Holland, in the diocese of
Haarlem-Amsterdam, with the agreement of the Bishop, Msgr. Josef Marianus Punt.
The new monastery was approved by the Holy See the following year.
As has already happened in Santa Maria delle Rose and in practically
all the communities under Kiko’s control, so too in Holland the autonomy of
government of the Monastery was put to the test by the serious and undue
interference of the leaders of the Cammino. This parallel
Neocatechumenal hierarchy established by Argüello and his “catechists” led the Sisters
to the decision — taken collegially in Chapter — to distance themselves from the Cammino.
After four years, Bishop Punt was forced to remove the Nuns
under pressure from Kiko, who threatened to withdraw his Neocatechumenal
priests from the diocese, because these
priests were actually the only
ones on whom the Bishop could rely and they constitute a considerable part of his
diocesan presbytery. This demonstrates the capacity for interference in the life and governance of the Church on the part of a
lay association that has planned its infiltration into the ecclesial body in
such a way as to make itself indispensable, so that once it has been accepted in
the Dioceses it would be able to impose its pastoral line. At this point the Sisters
wanted to return to Italy, to the Monastery of Pontano, but the earthquake of
2016 seriously damaged it and so it was impossible to return.
Obviously, this decision of the Nuns, constituting yet
another proof of the manipulative action of the leaders of the movement, has created a vacuum around our
Benedictines, abandoned to themselves and deprived of any sustenance and
support from the leaders of the Cammino. The Nuns seek hospitality in Italy, but the diocesan
bishops and monasteries whom they have asked have given them a diffident
refusal once they learn of the origin of the community from the ranks of the
Neocatechumenal movement. Because of the problems caused in the Dioceses and parishes by the Cammino, the Neocatechumenals no longer enjoy the enthusiastic welcome
they received in the past, and this mistrust also affects the Nuns, who are
rejected precisely because of their origin.
II. Arrival in Italy
This then is the situation of the Nuns, who arrive in Italy with the mark
of infamy of having escaped the manipulations and heretical indoctrination of
the powerful Spanish guru. Their modernist approach, however, allowed
the Sisters to find hospitality in Pienza, where, in August 2017, Bishop Msgr.
Stefano Manetti welcomed them, in consideration of the fact that for years the
Diocese had witnessed the inexorable extinction of contemplative religious
life. Very happy to be able to have a female Benedictine monastery, Bishop
Manetti temporarily gave them space to live in the summer seminary that was no longer
in operation, took care of paying their utilities, and promised the Sisters
that he would find a suitable structure to become their definitive home, which
was necessary for them to be able to canonically erect a monastery sui juris,
that is, directly dependent on the Holy See.
Although Bishop Manetti did not keep his promise to find a suitable home
for the Sisters, in February 2019 he still managed to obtain permission from
the Holy See for the erection of the Monastery sui juris. This appeared
to be a real forcing of Canon Law, which provides as a condition for the
erection of a Monastery sui juris that the community must own the
building in which it is located.
Bishop Manetti promised the Sisters that he would personally guarantee their
stability.
All this took place with the approval of the Chapter of the Nuns’ Monastery
of origin. The process ended in 2019 with the election of the Abbess, Sister
Maria Diletta of the Holy Spirit, who received the abbatial Blessing from Bishop
Manetti.
After a few months, Bishop Manetti offered them a nine-year loan contract,
revocable without any reason, on the condition that the Sisters provide for their
ordinary and extraordinary expenses, as well as bearing the costs of the
renovation and upgrading of the building. The religious were therefore faced
with an inadmissible proposal, both because they lacked economic means and also
because they were not actually protected for the future. It is evident that the
contradictory and wavering behavior of Bishop Manetti was used to force the Nuns
to leave, without officially expelling them. Why the Curia was so interested in
reclaiming the summer seminary would soon become clear.
At this point it is appropriate to recall that a
Benedictine monastery sui juris, depending exclusively on the Holy See,
is not required to join a “Federation,” that is, a group of monasteries that
share a specific spiritual and governmental approach.
The Apostolic Constitution Vultum Dei Quærere, promulgated
by Bergoglio on June 29, 2016, intervened to modify the practice established by
Venerable Pius XII with the Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi Ecclesia of
1950. This was the basis for the Cor Orans Instruction of May 15,
2018, which constituted the application of the new provisions on the
suppression and federation of Monasteries. Needless to say, these two documents
have as their purpose the demolition of the contemplative life and the
progressive re-education of religious sisters, precisely by means of the
Federations. Using the inexorable decimation of vocations as an excuse, Cor
Orans makes it possible to unite
the religious of several monasteries, ensuring that the assets of these
monasteries — often consisting of prestigious historic buildings located in
magnificent places — are confiscated by the Holy See. The Nuns thus find
themselves torn from their spiritual family and sent to new communities, with
the obligation of taking “refresher courses,” that is, indoctrination and “reprogramming,”
outside the cloister. The more traditional communities are obviously the ones
that are the most persecuted.
This clarification is necessary in order to understand
how, once they arrived in Italy and were established in a Monastery with their
own Abbess, the Nuns of Pienza showed extreme “flexibility” by making
themselves available — although not having the obligation, since they were
established in a Monastery sui iuris — to make contact with the existing
Federations so as to evaluate which of them was most suited to their charism.
The advent of the pandemic interrupted this process, especially after the
lockdowns. But the work of devastation of Cor Orans continues inexorably, as evidenced by the undue pressure
of the Holy See on the Monastery of Pienza, which, as has been mentioned, is
not in the least obliged to join a federation since it is sui juris.
The problem, in fact, was created when Bishop Manetti
chose this canonical form, but without guaranteeing its ownership of its own
property, which is a condition for a Monastery sui juris. The transfer
of Manetti and the appointment of Cardinal Lojudice — a friend of the Vicar
General and former Rector of the Seminary — must have led the Bishop to try to
settle a situation of irregularity before the arrival of his successor. In the
Decree of erection, Manetti declared: “In accordance with the canonical
legislation in force, I erect in the diocese of
Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza the Monastery of Benedictine Nuns […] in Pienza
with all the privileges and spiritual graces that the other monasteries of the
aforementioned Order legitimately enjoy, having provided for all the requests of
the universal laws of the Church, especially with regard to the cloister, the
sustenance of the nuns and their spiritual assistance.” But we know that this was not the
case: the property of the Monastery was still owned by the diocese, and
the sustenance of the Nuns by the diocese was limited to the payment of
utilities. For this reason, the Bishop cannot formalize their removal and
limits himself to verbally exerting pressure on the Sisters to leave.
III. The Discovery of the Ancient Rite
In 2020, thanks to a priest friend of the Monastery and
to some providential meetings with figures linked to the world of Tradition,
the Sisters “discovered” the
Tridentine Liturgy, and Bishop Manetti applied the Motu Proprio Summorum
Pontificum in their favor, believing that the occasional celebration of the
Mass in the ancient rite could help the Community to definitively free itself
from its Neocatechumenal formation. The following year he contacted the
Benedictine monks of Norcia to help the Nuns on this journey. When Traditionis
Custodes was promulgated, the Bishop instructed some priests of Rome to
ensure the Sunday celebration of Mass in the Tridentine rite, provided that it
did not become their only liturgical form.
In the meantime, the Sisters continued to look throughout Italy for a Monastery
to which they could transfer, without success. Historical monasteries that are
presently uninhabited are too expensive to live in, or need large amounts of
restoration that a small group of nuns would not even remotely be capable of
addressing. On the other hand, the Benedictine communities with few nuns
consider it problematic to welcome thirteen Sisters, who would represent a sort
of revolution for their quiet and regular life. The Nuns then asked the Bishop
to leave them where they are, offering to take care of the payment of the utilities,
until then only partially paid by the Diocese since it was receiving a
substantial reimbursement from the Nuns.
IV. The Arrival of the New Bishop
In April 2022 the news came of the transfer of Bishop Manetti to the
Episcopal Chair of Fiesole. This decision of the Holy See led the Bishop — perhaps
in order to remedy a situation of grave canonical irregularity before the
arrival of his successor — to verbally revoke the permission granted to the Nuns to be able to
avail themselves of the Tridentine
Mass. From this moment on, Bishop Manetti did not even provide for their
spiritual assistance, depriving them of Holy Mass — including Mass in the “ordinary
form” — even on Sundays and Holy Days. And that’s not all: in front of the Sisters he declared that he never intended to expel them, but warned them that Don
Antonio Canestri — who was still Rector of the Seminary even though it had been
abandoned and converted into a Monastery, and who is also an old friend of the
new Bishop, Cardinal Lojudice — had every intention of getting them out of the
way. Don Antonio then presented himself at the Monastery, with arrogance and
intimidating tones, even to the point of violating the Cloister by entering the
cells of the Nuns and claiming ownership of the property. Don Canestri’s
intention to make a profit is obvious.
Here is therefore explained, with all the evidence, that the disciplinary
actions against the Nuns were merely a pretext aimed purely at a financial
operation, along the lines of the Monastery of Ravello on the Amalfi Coast. On the other hand, a structure located on a hill overlooking the
enchanting Val d’Orcia represents a succulent profit opportunity for the
coffers of the Diocese and the Holy See.
Let me be clear: the economic and real estate question is
the element that pushes many ecclesiastics to execute Cor Orans for the
sole purpose of making money or ingratiating themselves with the Bergoglian
court. But the true and deepest goal, the one that animates the entire action of
this “pontificate,” is of an ideological bent: to normalize religious life to
the new pauperist, migrationist, environmentalist, ecumenical, and synodal
paradigm imposed by the junta of the Argentinian. It is behaving no differently
towards the faithful and traditional communities, which have seen the rights
that the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of Benedict XVI granted them
in 2007 canceled or drastically reduced with Traditionis Custodes. In
essence, it is as if a government incentivized companies to invest in certain
sectors, and then as soon as they started to do so it forced them into
bankruptcy by canceling or cutting incentives. Needless to say, such an
operation, as well as being cowardly and morally reprehensible, is not the
result of inexperience or inability, but of a targeted desire to create as much
damage as possible. If we then combine Cor Orans and Traditionis
Custodes, the fate is inexorably sealed.
The aversion of Cardinal Lojudice towards the inconvenient Sisters was not
long in manifesting itself. On the occasion of his taking possession of the
Chair of Pienza, the new Bishop refused to allow them to receive Communion
kneeling, humiliating them before the whole city by making them stand up and receive
Communion in the hand, and in the sacristy he rebuked them, telling them that
in their Monastery they could do as they wished, but that in public they had to
conform to common practice (moreover in violation of liturgical norms, which
allow the faithful to kneel and receive the Sacred Host on the tongue).
V. The Events Preceding the Apostolic Visitation
In September 2022 His Eminence informed the Nuns that he wanted to come and
visit them, coincidentally precisely in conjunction with their absence from the
Monastery. When his Secretary was informed that the Sisters would not be present since they were going away
for a spiritual retreat, he replied that their presence would be necessary
because the Cardinal’s visit was mainly aimed at making a real estate valuation
estimate of the building. I believe the order of priorities that animates the “pastoral”
action of the Bergoglian Bishops is evident: first business, then propaganda and photos posing with Roma and immigrants (which alone will have been enough to tickle
Bergoglio), and then only if there is time
remaining is attention given to the only contemplative community of the
Diocese. The Dicastery for Religious acts no differently, engaged as it is in
lucrative speculative operations with the sale of real estate, which it does
not hesitate to make available by mowing down the few communities that survived
the post-conciliar crisis of vocations.
The Nuns of Pienza manage to postpone the visit of Cardinal Lojudice to
November 8th. But on October 11, without any warning, Mother Roberta (who would
later turn out to be the Visitatress) showed up without warning at the door of
the Monastery along with the Abbot of Pontida and a third person. They found no
one there, since the Nuns were all on retreat in another region, and so this
raid also failed. But on November 1 the Abbot of Pontida renewed the offensive,
announcing an Apostolic Visit to the Abbess and confirming that the Sisters
would be present on the following November 3rd.
The Abbess then called Cardinal Lojudice to find out if he was aware of the
Apostolic Visitation. His Eminence denied knowing anything, but then contradicted
himself by admitting that on October 11 he had accompanied the visitors who had
presented themselves at the Monastery without announcing themselves. On that
occasion, the Bishop pointed out that he had learned that the Nuns had Mass
celebrated in the ancient rite and that they had not yet entered any
Federation.
There are two things to keep in mind. First: the “traditional” conversion of the Nuns. Second: their failure to join a Benedictine federation. As already mentioned above, the Federations, after Bergoglio’s Cor Orans Instruction, are being used as institutions of re-education and indoctrination to the new course of action. The fact that the Monastery of Pienza is sui juris, and therefore not required to federate, unleashed the fury of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, at the head of which is Cardinal Braz de Aviz, the one who, to be clear, on the occasion of a meeting with cloistered nuns to present to them the wonders of Cor Orans told them: “Treat your life as adults, not as adulterers!” (here). The Brazilian Cardinal is assisted by the Secretary Mons. José Rodriguez Carballo, who is none other than the main person responsible for the financial collapse of the Order of Friars Minor Franciscans — in whose events the “mysterious” death of two characters appears — of which Carballo had been Minister General before being promoted by Bergoglio as Secretary of the entire constellation of Orders and Religious Congregations of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, what better task for a person who has proven corrupt and unable to manage the administration of his Order? And what had the Order of Friars Minor invested in, if not in drugs and weapons? (here) Let’s not forget that Carballo is involved both in this scandal and in the persecution, among others, of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, not only because of their conservative position but also for the sake of their conspicuous real estate, which the Holy See has not been able to appropriate only because it was registered to a civil association. Just in the past few days it has been learned that Bergoglio has decided to expropriate — literally — the assets of ecclesiastical bodies, declaring them “the property of the Holy See as a whole and therefore belonging to its unitary, non-divisible and sovereign patrimony” (here). As we can see, the fate of the Nuns has slightly anticipated the fate of all the communities. Which means, in simple terms, that from now on — since the pope is now the legal owner of all the goods of the Church — he can dispose of them independently, not only in order to sell them and make money, but even more importantly so as to have a juridical lever with which to blackmail convents, monasteries, dioceses, seminaries, and other institutes, which previously remained autonomous and free to make their own choices without fear of suffering extortion.
The practice of the Church has always protected the
property of the goods of ecclesiastical entities, precisely to guarantee with
it that necessary independence of means which is the premise of a free and
conscious choice of fidelity to the Apostolic See. Bergoglio’s recent Motu
Proprio — which seems to have been written by Klaus Schwab — reverses this situation,
blackmailing religious orders and dioceses, with those modalities of transfer of sovereignty that in temporal issues characterize the coup d’état of the European Union, the WHO, and the World Economic Forum against
governments. I do not know if my Brothers in the Episcopate and the Superiors
of the Religious Congregations realize what this decision of Bergoglio
represents for them and for their independence, since they are now de facto deprived of all authority and reduced to mere officials at the mercy of the
diktats of the Vatican.
VI. The Apostolic
Visitation
On November 2, 2022, one day before the date of the scheduled meeting, the
Abbess of Pienza discovered that the Abbot of Pontida would be arriving shortly
— that is, by surprise and with clear intimidating intentions. Any ecclesiastic
knows that an Apostolic Visitation is a delicate event to be managed with great
charity and by trying to make it the least traumatic as possible, since it is
still an inspection of Superiors and is implicitly motivated by serious
reasons. For this reason, it is to be judged, to say the least, imprudent to increase
the pressure, with a community of young, cloistered nuns who have already been
tried by the vicissitudes they have been exposed to so far, even to the point
of presenting himself one day before, as if to take the Nuns “by surprise.”
The two visitors, according to well-tested methods, acted
with unscrupulousness, making use of duplicity and lies. The interrogations of
the Sisters were real torture sessions: they tried with every possible method
to wear down the Sisters psychologically, foment divisions, and take advantage of
them to destroy the fabric of the Community as well as the psychophysical
balance and serenity of the Nuns.
Next the Abbot of Pontida, Dom Giordano Rota, arrived at the Monastery. He
is also — what a strange coincidence — consultor of the Vatican Dicastery for
Religious, and therefore employed by Braz de Aviz and Carballo, who are notoriously
corrupt and ultraprogressive. So then, we have: the Visitor chosen by Rome, who
is a progressive; the Visitatress, who is a progressive; and the Bishop, Cardinal
Lojudice, who is a progressive. All three, ça va sans dire, are strictly
pro-Bergoglian and aligned with the new course of action. The same goes for the
Sisters who would accompanied them in the inquisitorial action against the poor
Nuns.
The Visitators questioned all the religious, keeping them under pressure
for up to an hour and a half. The questions speak for themselves: What would
you do if you were Abbess? What would you change about the Community and the
Abbess? How do you see the future of the Community? Why do you have the altar
facing the wall? What is behind the recitation of the Pater Noster in Latin?
What are those things on the altar [referring to the relics]? Do you
know how much money you have? Didn’t you ask yourself why no Federation or
monastery wanted you? How did you choose who would go to Holland? Don’t you see
that the building is not suitable for having the Enclosure? Intimidating
questions, in which we understand not only the preventive measures of the
Visitors, but also their aversion to the traditional charism as well as their
ultimate goal: to have a pretext to close the Monastery and regain possession
of the property, a goal that, as we have seen, had long been in the sights of
the Vicar General and of Cardinal Lojudice.
The Apostolic Visit — which had nothing “apostolic” about it whatsoever — ended
on November 5, among other things catching the Visitators red-handed while
secretly taking photos of the altar of the Chapel — which faces the tabernacle
and the cross — and of the products of the Nuns offered in the entrance parlor
as is done in many religious houses. Obviously, to keep pressure on the poor religious,
the Visitators refused to specify either why they were sent by the Dicastery — since
there was no serious fact that justified their presence — or to divulge any
details of their final evaluation. These are both things that the Visitators
should have said, if only in the name of the much-vaunted Bergoglian parrhesia.
VII. New Intimidation and Incursions
Once this inspection was concluded, the Cardinal’s visit scheduled for
November 8 was postponed. On November 15, His Eminence presented himself with
the Vicar General, Don Antonio Canestri. As soon as he entered, he inquired if
the Nuns themselves prepared the jams offered for sale, saying that the Mayor
of Pienza had received rumors that they bought those jams at the supermarket and
then resold them with the label of the Monastery. To the indignant response of
the religious, offended by this gratuitous and unjustified insinuation, the Cardinal realized that he
was discovered and accused them of being uncooperative and hostile. At this
point the Nuns asked him if he needed the building, and they were told: “Not
for me personally, no.”
It should be emphasized that this insistence on asking
questions about the products of the Nuns has nothing to do with the Apostolic
Visitation, and that it appears as a specious argument in the absence of valid
canonical reasons. Moreover, resorting to material issues involving the Mayor
exacerbated the situation by extending it to the civil sphere that until then
had no right to intervene. In any case, the Religious have not committed any
irregularity by offering for sale jams, rosaries, candles, and other products
made by them, in order to receive the liberality of their few benefactors and
friends, which is necessary for their subsistence.
At noon on February 13, 2023,
Don Raffaele Mennitti, the Vicar for Consecrated Life of the Diocese of
Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza and Don Paolo, Cardinal Lojudice’s personal
secretary, came to the Monastery and delivered a letter in a sealed envelope for each religious,
stating that they did not know what the contents of the letter were. In my
subsequent intervention, I will examine the content of these letters sent by
the Holy See to the Monastery.
That same afternoon, at 4 pm, the two priests returned
together with the President of the Piceno Federation, Mother Vacca, and the
Vicar of the Federation, Mother Di Marzio, who claimed that they needed to
enter so that Mother Vacca could speak with every Nun. At this point the
Abbess, Mother Diletta, and all the Sisters went out
and declared that they did not consent to their intimidating and unannounced break-in.
Mother Diletta was then ordered by Don Raffaele to “obey the Church.” She replied
that they should be ashamed to abuse their power in this way and that the Nuns
were not required to obey iniquitous orders. Not satisfied with the
improvisation, the messengers of the Curia and the Dicastery constrained some
relatives of the Sisters, trying to frighten them and induce them to convince
the Nuns to submit. Don Raffaele even took Mother Diletta by the arm, pulling
her so that she would listen to him, claiming that their fears were unfounded.
The next day Mother Diletta found that she could not obtain money from the
ATM, and she discovered from the bank that her delegation to operate the
account of the Monastery has been revoked and replaced with a new one in the
name of Mother Vacca. The account with the miserable resources of the Nuns — a
mere six thousand euros — was therefore in fact seized by authority, depriving
the Sisters of their very means of subsistence. And thank goodness that the
solicitudes of the Visitators were of a spiritual nature… Probably informed
of the facts, Bishop Manetti called Mother Diletta to put pressure on her,
trying to understand if the visit the next day of Cardinal Lojudice had any
hope of success.
On February 16, Mother Vacca sent Mother Diletta a letter on WhatsApp in
which she warned her to let her take possession of the Monastery, as ordered in the Dicastery’s
communication, which in the meantime has been challenged by the Sisters and
therefore is considered suspended in its effects. Mother Vacca threatened serious canonical and civil consequences in
case of disobedience.
VIII. The Recourse to the “Secular Arm”
On
the morning of February 17, Don Raffaele, the Vicar for Consecrated Life of the
Diocese of Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza, came to the monastery, along with Don
Paolo, the personal secretary of Cardinal Lojudice, Mother Vacca, the President
of the Picena Federation, Mother Di Marzio, the Vicaress of the Federation,
Paolo Arcangioli, the Marshal of the Pienza Carabinieri, and two other armed
officers. The quick-thinking Sisters took video footage of this surreal
incursion, which even involved the help of the “secular arm.” The Sisters canon
lawyer has rightly noted, among other things, that such a recourse to the
Carabinieri constitutes a violation of the norms of the concordat and is
unheard of that — for a question that the Curia insists on
defining as the result of a misunderstanding — there was no
hesitation to terrorize the Sisters by bringing in the presence of the Police.
On February 19, the Diocese published its infamous press release, which was picked up and reprinted by Toscana Oggi (here) and La Nazione (here). This statement, which is full of inaccuracies and omissions, ends with a directive that people should not give any financial support to the Monastery. Aqua et igni interdictæ, that is, deprived of any support and help from other citizens as a consequence of the revocation of their citizenship, just as was done in ancient Rome. This is Bergoglio’s “church of mercy.”
And that’s not all: a few days later, the Carabinieri of Pienza called
the relatives of the Sisters to tell them that they would be summoned in order
to gather statements about the Monastery, without making any formal
notification. I don’t want to imagine who gave the order, or how the
Carabinieri could have lent themselves to this grotesque inquisitory soap
opera, even to the point of asking people not to tell anyone that they had
called, precisely so as to further frighten the besieged Nuns.
From the website of the ANSA news agency (here) one further learns that a formal warning has been given to the Nuns by the Diocese of Montepulciano-Chiusi-Pienza, signed by Attorney Alessandro Pasquazi. One wonders under what title this communication was sent to the news agency, since no notification of this warning has to date been presented to the Sisters.
This is the latest act, at least for now, of a pièce that is
halfway between a grotesque farce and a tragedy, whose actors are divided into
victims and perpetrators.
The victims are the thirteen Nuns. Victims because of their troubled
past, in which they were able to grow spiritually and escape the pressures and
obsessive interference of the establishment of the Neocatechumenal Way, thus
arriving in Pienza; victims of the bureaucratic mess of Bishop Manetti, who
established them as a Monastery sui juris even though they did not own
their own property; victims of the desires of unscrupulous ecclesiastics,
“guilty” of being a bothersome presence that impeded the economic exploitation
of the building that hosted them; victims of the ideological fury of the
Bergoglians due to their drawing closer to the Tradition and their desire not
to bow down to modernist indoctrination by denying fidelity to Our Lord and
their own charism.
The facts that I have set forth can be verified; they are corroborated
by incontestable proofs and confirmed by numerous testimonies. Their
concatenation shows the premeditated nature of the attack on the Sisters and
allows us to guess what were the true purposes of those who attacked them, as
well as what the specious excuses are with which they have attempted to draw
attention away from the principal element of this entire affair: the absence of
any true or justified reasons for proceeding against them. Inventing new and
unfounded accusations along the way will not be able to hide the fact that the
Apostolic Visit is merely the umpteenth attempt — cloaked in an apparent respect for the canonical norms
—
to strike communities of contemplative life — and even more so if they are of a traditional bent.
In the second part of this essay, we will see how these Vatican
provisions are completely illegitimate and have no value under canon law.
+
Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
26 February 2023
Dominica I in Quadragesima
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