{"id":25489,"date":"2010-04-15T06:16:57","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T10:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/04\/the-secular-franciscan-order-a\/"},"modified":"2010-04-15T06:16:57","modified_gmt":"2010-04-15T10:16:57","slug":"the-secular-franciscan-order-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/04\/the-secular-franciscan-order-a\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secular Franciscan Order: A pope’s recommendation to join"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pope<\/a>Pope Leo XIII begins Humanum Genus<\/i> (the 1884 encyclical
\non Freemasonry) by acknowledging the divided heart of humanity since the Fall
\nman and woman: there are “separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of
\nwhich the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those
\nthings which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God
\non earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ; and those who desire from
\ntheir heart to be united with it, so as to gain salvation, must of necessity
\nserve God and His only-begotten Son with their whole mind and with an entire
\nwill. The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are
\nall whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first
\nparents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law, and who have many
\naims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also against God.”<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
One his
\nrecommendations was to advocate the faithful’s vital membership in the Third
\nOrder of St Francis, today called the Secular Franciscan Order<\/a>. Himself a Third
\nOrder Franciscan, Pope Leo’s recommendation didn’t fall on deaf ears because
\ndiocesan seminarians, priests and bishops joined the Third Order and millions
\nof the laity followed suit. Here is what Pope Leo XIII said:<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

\"St<\/a><\/p>\n

Wherefore, not
\nwithout cause do We use this occasion to state again what We have stated
\nelsewhere, namely, that the Third Order of St. Francis<\/b>, whose discipline We a
\nlittle while ago prudently mitigated,* s<\/span>hould be studiously promoted and
\nsustained; for the whole object of this Order, as constituted by its founder,
\nis to invite men to an imitation of Jesus Christ, to a love of the Church, and
\nto the observance of all Christian virtues; and therefore it ought to be of
\ngreat influence in suppressing the contagion of wicked societies<\/span>. Let,
\ntherefore, this holy sodality be strengthened by a daily increase. Amongst the
\nmany benefits to be expected from it will be the great benefit of drawing the
\nminds of men to liberty, fraternity, and equality of right; not such as the
\nFreemasons absurdly imagine, but such as Jesus Christ obtained for the human
\nrace and St. Francis aspired to: the liberty, We mean, of sons of God, through
\nwhich we may be free from slavery to Satan or to our passions, both of them
\nmost wicked masters; the fraternity whose origin is in God, the common Creator
\nand Father of all; the equality which, founded on justice and charity, does not
\ntake away all distinctions among men, but, out of the varieties of life, of duties,
\nand of pursuits, forms that union and that harmony which naturally tend to the benefit
\nand dignity of society. (34)<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
*The text here refers to the encyclical letter Auspicato
\nConcessum<\/i> (Sept. 17, 1882), in which Pope Leo XIII had recently glorified St.
\nFrancis of Assisi on the occasion of the seventh centenary of his birch. In
\nthis encyclical, the Pope had presented the Third Order of St. Francis as a
\nChristian answer to the social problems of the times. The constitution Misericors
\nDei Filius<\/i> (June 23, 1883) expressly recalled that the neglect in which
\nChristian virtues are held is the main cause of the evils that threaten
\nsocieties. In confirming the rule of the Third Order and adapting it to the
\nneeds of modern times, Pope Leo XIII had intended to bring back the largest
\npossible number of souls to the practice of these virtues.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Perhaps there ought
\nto be a new appraisal of the vocation to the Secular Franciscans with the encouragement to join!<\/i><\/b><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIII begins Humanum Genus (the 1884 encyclical on Freemasonry) by acknowledging the divided heart of humanity since the Fall man and woman: there are “separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to … Continue reading The Secular Franciscan Order: A pope’s recommendation to join<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1773,2383,2384,2065,2385,2386],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}