BCCCAP00000000000000000001718

532 BENEDICT VADAKKEKARA stitutions as something "happily achieved" in the very centenary year ofthe founding of the Minorite Order 79 • The apostolic letter "Vicarium Pastoris aeterni munus of Pius X dated 8 Sep– tember 1909 is significant inasmuch as it not only approves the Capuchin constitu– tions but also represents an endorsement of the manner in which the revision had been carried out. In fact, the revision had been done in a systematic manner that was in line with the time-honoured traditions of the Order. The revised constitutions also openly responded to some of the Order's environmental realities 80 • The pope quoted his predecessors while expressing his appreciation for the Order and plain– ly acknowledged the special role of the general Minister who had the revision of the constitutions done according to the mandate of the Holy See communicated to the Order's general Chapter. Pius X congratulated the Order because "in this work they have adopted the surest precaution so that the members may maintain integral the spirit of the Patriarch ofAssisi...". The Capuchins are referred to as "heirs" and "legitimate sons of St Francis of Assisi by right of succession and other tides, true Franciscans and Friars Minor in the strictest and genuine sense of the word: we call them so and hold them as such and we want all to hold them so because the Roman Pontiffs have not regarded them in another way" 81 • And the Pontiff goes on to say: ''.And there is nothing that puts in doubt that the Order of the Capuchins has been 79 AGC, FGl, Fr Pacificus of Seggiano to the Provincials, Guardians and Superiors of Places and Missions, 29 November 1909. 80 See AGC, EB 1908-1909, Scritture peparatorie alle Lettere Apostoliche di S.S. Pio P.P. X, che confermano le Costituzioni "Vicarium Pastoria aeterni" 8 Sept. 1909. 81 Pius X, Vicarium Pastoris aeterni munus, in Constitutiones Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum II: Constitutiones recentiores (1909-1925), 199-200. APCapTusc, G. Carlin~ La morte di mons. Pacifico Carletti, l, briefly gives a rough idea of the wider significance of Pius X's direct involvement in the centennial of the Franciscan movement: "Nelle feste centenarie della Regola francescana (1909), Pio X mise fine alle poco fraterne e poco edificanti polemiche circa la primogenitura dei tre Ordini (Conventuali, Osservanti, Cappuccini) con un apposito documento prima, poi con la condanna di un 'Memoriale' ribelle ed infine con una drammatica udienza co– munitaria ai Definitori degli stessi (10.11.1910). Quell'udienza, in seguito, dagli scrittori di parte (non dai veri storici) fu attribuita alla presenza nella curia romana del card. Cappuccino Giuseppe Calansazio Vives y Tut6 (1854-1913) e dip. Pacifico da Seggiano". Pius X, Ad Ministros gene– rales triplicis Fratrum Minorum Familiae Dionysio Schuler, Dominico Reuter, Pacifico Seiano, in ActaApostolicae Sedis 2 (1910) 705-713, declares in the last paragraph (No. 20) a blanket ban on continuing the squabble: "Postremo universis et singulis Fratribus Minoribus trium Familiarum de quaestionibus huiusmodi perpetuum silentium imponimus; volumusque ut ex omnibus iis, utpote filiis gemellis unius Patris Sancti santissimi, cor unum fiat et anima una''. See also Analecta OFMCap 26 (1910) 351-356.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDA3MTIz