By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate (FFI) are the strongest they have ever been by giving themselves to Mary for her use without limits, its founder told The Record during a visit to Perth last week.
Between 1965 and 1975, the Franciscan Friars Minor, the main and original Franciscan Order, lost up to 480 friars a year – a process that continues today with many Orders haemorrhaging numbers and vocations drying up.
In the midst of all this, Conventual Franciscan Fr Stefano Maria Manelli submitted the Traccia Mariana (Marian way), the Marian plan for Franciscan life, to the Minister General of the Franciscan Conventuals, who approved it in the summer of 1970.
On 2 August that year, the FFI started and Fr Stefano, Fr Gabriel Maria Pellettieri, who visited Perth last week, and two others were sent by the Minister General to start a mission in the Philippines. With Religious life haemorrhaging not only among the Franciscans but across the board, Fr Gabriel and his confrere wanted to start a new community to live more radically the life of St Francis in the spirit of St Maximilian Kolbe.
St Maximilian – who was famously martyred in Auschwitz, giving his life for another man due to be starved to death – organised the Militia Immaculata (Army of Mary) to work for the conversion of sinners and the enemies of the Catholic Church through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.
They utilised the most modern printing and administrative techniques in publishing catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million.
Just as St Maximilian lived a more radical Marian way of life, so too did Fr Gabriel and his brother friars, especially with the Church crumbling around them.
In this way, they re-lived the calling of St Francis, who was famously called by God through a crucifix in an abandoned chapel to “rebuild my Church”.
“In 1970, there were plenty of problems in Religious Orders where values were not being followed any more, including within the Conventuals,” Fr Gabriel told The Record.
“We were forced to follow a new line, as the prayers were not followed any more, there was no more community life and poverty was not being followed, so it was time to go back to St Francis and St Maximilian.”
Fr Gabriel admitted that he and Fr Stefano believed that because they were living their Religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience – plus the extra vow of consecration to Mary – more faithfully, they would be blessed with thousands of vocations.
Today they have 400 – their highest ever, and they continue to grow, especially in the Philippines. Regardless, “it’s never enough”, he said.
Still, “while many others are going down, especially in Europe, we are going up. Even in Italy, where it is very hard to find vocations, we have several novices in training”.
St Maximilian’s concept of rebuilding the Franciscan Order through Our Lady and the Marian vow is lived by the FFI, through which they give their life, death and eternity, their merits and prayers to her.
“Through this vow, we give ourselves to Our Lady without any limits and she uses us for whatever purpose she wants. That vow is one of unlimited love,” Fr Gabriel said.
Is it hard? “It is. It is very, very radical. We are supposed to be the total property of Mary, in order to become the total property of Jesus. The best way, the shortest way, the easiest way to Jesus is to go through Mary,” Fr Gabriel said.
This vow to Mary is often called the ‘vow of martyrdom’.
When Pope John Paul II erected the approximately 30 Franciscan Friars who lived at Casa Mariana in Frigento, Italy as the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, the friars had a private thanksgiving Mass with the pontiff in Rome.
At that Mass, John Paul II told Fr Stefano that those who want to follow the path of Maximilian will suffer, as the path of St Maximilian was one of suffering.
But this did not scare Fr Gabriel. “Those who want to do their best for Mary will suffer for her, as St Maximilian did. Anyway, it’s a vocation. When we start loving Mary it becomes easier and easier to follow. Maximilian was a very young friar but he understood that following Mary was the only way of getting to Jesus, so he was so Marian to the point of giving his life for it. For those who love more, it is easier to understand,” Fr Gabriel said.
“Maximilian said that to reach anything you need to start with the knowledge and a decision to want to know more. To really understand who Mary is and her role in the Church, you can love her more through Scripture.”
Fr Gabriel agrees with the assertion made on 3 February by Cardinal Franc Rode, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, that Religious Orders today are in a “crisis” caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.
“The sign is that there are less vocations; Religious values are not taken seriously. In Religious life, we imitate Jesus and Mary’s life – humility, obedience, charity and prayer. When these go down, Religious life goes down,” Fr Gabriel said.
He admitted, however, that the temptation to adopt modern ways is significant for Religious Orders, but he said that the life of the Religious is “not human, it’s in accordance to the life of Jesus”. “So if we live it in a human way, sooner or later we lose our vocations,” he said.
Pope Benedict XVI gave the Franciscans a subtle reminder of this the day after 2,000 friars converged in Assisi on 15-18 April 2009 for the 800th anniversary of their order.
Referring to St Francis’ call by God to rebuild the Church which was in ruin – a call he originally interpreted literally – the Pope told an audience of Franciscan friars at Castel Gandolfo: “There is another ‘ruin’ that is far more serious: that of people and communities.
“Like Francis, always start with yourselves. We are the first house that God wants to restore. If you are always able to renew yourselves in the spirit of the Gospel, you will continue to assist the pastors of the Church to make more and more beautiful the Church’s face, that of the bride of Christ. The Pope, now the same as then, expects this of you.”