Francis issued a new decree issued Wednesday requiring the Vatican to approve new bishops’ associations, often the first step in establishing a new apostolic society or institute of consecrated life. The decree follows a similar one issued in 2020 that required prior Vatican approval for ocean-level religious orders, suggesting that the Vatican is now pressing even harder to better regulate the origins of these new forms of religious life and make decisions. about them. by the hands of local bishops. Francis has taken a number of disciplinary and regulatory measures in recent years, after some founders and leaders of religious orders and new popular institutes turned out to be religious swindlers who sexually and spiritually abused their members. Some groups have been suppressed, others have been ousted by the Vatican for periods of reform, and all have been subject to greater Vatican oversight. In 2021, the Vatican also imposed term restrictions on the leaders of popular movements, which multiplied after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s as a new way of involving high-ranking Catholics in the church beyond formal parish life. The Vatican said the terms of the terms were necessary to prevent personality cults from appearing around charismatic leaders. One popular group targeted by the new reform was Communion and Liberation, an influential group in Italy that has a dedicated branch with few members helping to manage the household of Pope Benedict XVI. The term last year forced the Spanish head of Communion and Liberation, the Most Reverend Julian Carron, who has been in charge since 2005. Just this week, the head of the Vatican’s populist office, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, wrote to Carron’s successor complaining that Carron and his followers were still influencing Vatican reforms. According to a copy of the letter, Farrell violated what he said was the “false doctrine” promoted by Carron, claiming that the unique spirit of the group passed from the founder through leaders like himself. Farrell said the new Communion and Liberation leadership must accept the Vatican line and “recognize the problems and reconsider the teachings, practices, methods of government and forms of internal organization that have proved inadequate or even harmful.”
