Mother Mary of the Seven Dolors announces to the Community in France that the Sisters in Indiana have separated from the French mother house. The letter is reprinted here from Priceless Spirit by Sister M. Georgia Costin, CSC.
Letter of Separation: Sisters of the Holy Cross, August 1, 1869
Mother Mary of the Seven Dolors announces to the Community in France that the Sisters in Indiana have separated from the French mother house. The letter is reprinted here from Priceless Spirit by Sister M. Georgia Costin, CSC. |
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August 1, 1869
I hasten to make known to you the supreme decision by which the Holy See has designed to put an end to the discord so long stirred up in our Congregation by our Sisters of the Indiana Province.
We had hoped that our beloved Pontiff would be spard the sorrow of this extreme measure, he to whom our Community owes the honor, so little merited, and already discarded by those who had wearied the Holy See with their petitions and their protestations of obedience to the new Constitutions, whose delay served as a pretext for an anticipated separation.
Nevertheless, hardly had the General Chapter...been convoked in New York for June 15, 1867, when already the Sisters of the Indiana Province had addressed to Rome complaints and new petitions against these holy Constitutions with which they were not yet familiar, and against the Acts of a General Chapter which had not yet assembled...
...His Holiness...deigning to take into paternal consideation the long sufferance of our Congregation which was exhaustiong itself in an unequal struggle with a Province determined to become independent, ordered the execution of the resolution...to separate the Sisters of the Indiana Province...
We must grieve over the Sisters who have neither considered nor desired the final consequence of that which may have been done in their name but unknown to them and contrary to the vow of obedience. But the practical lesson for us as the act of God's justice on an entire branceh of our religious family...is one of humility...
"The Congregation is not in need of a multitude of subjects, but it is in need of subjects who want to become saints..." [St. Philip Neri]. It is preferable to have a few good subjects, rather than a great many who are proud and turbulent...God does not reign in hearts devoid of Christian humility, fraternal charity and peace...I fear more when we fial to respond to God's grace, than when we are harassed by persecution from men and demons...If we do not act according to God's will, we may expect chastisements instead of protection.
The Most eminent Fathers granted the petition...to maintain our Mother House in France...where it is now organized despite the powers of darkness.
Mother Mary of the Seven Dolors
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The tomb of Mother Mary of the Seven Dolors in Le Mans, France. |
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