BCCCAP00000000000000000001718

CAPUCHIN GENERAL MINISTER PACIFICUS CARLETTI OF SEGGIANO 509 On 6 April, Prefect Vannutelli wrote to the general Minister asking him to steer clear of every pretext or cause for unpleasant disagreements, and to let the constitutions be again subject to discussion and judgment of the full general Definitory. The gen– eral Definitory was to appoint a new commission of four members, who were to reside in Rome and have continuous contacts with the general Definitory. On his part the general Minister now sent a long reply, justifying the whole procedure and laying the blame for the failure of the plan to renew the constitutions on those who stood in his way. He stressed the point that the draft had already been approved by the Chapter. Finally the Holy See sought the help of the Order's Cardinal Protector Antho– ny Agliardi to bring the two warring factions together. The cardinal presented to the Sacred Congregation ofBishops and Regulars on 26 July 1898 a comprehensive dossier on the entire question. Criscuolo sums it up as: ...the vast majority of the more knowledgeable persons in the Order (among whom Agliardi mentioned the two Capuchin bishops Francis Cenci and Maurus Nardi, the would-be cardinal Joseph Calasanz Vives y Tut6 and then prefect of the Congregation ofBishops and Regulars, Pius ofLangogne, the apostolic preacher and would-be bishop Paul Tei, Bruno ofVinay and others) was against the idea of revision proposed by the general, while in its favour there were only the two deflnitors Fulgentius ofGossensass and Louis Anthony ofPorrentruy; he underlined the excessively autonomous and arbi– trary action of the general, who in a matter ofsuch importance had not even consulted and informed the general Deflnitory; he indicated in the proposed text "the style with some very uninspiring and ungrammatical Latin and without that Franciscan unction which is in the first original Italian text': pointed out some serious omissions, espe– cially concerning the promotion of studies, and attached an extensive Reserved note, in which were listed "the true and real needs of the Order" and of which paternity, after a quick examination of the handwriting, can be assigned without a shadow of doubt to the future Cardinal Vives y Tut6. At the end ofhis report, Cardinal Agliardi recommended the rejection of the text of the new constitutions proposed by Bernard ofAndermatt, the appointment of a commission of six "of the most wise and prudent religious of the Order': who would draw up a new draft to be submitted in advance to the evaluation of the new general Chapter, and finally in everything to abide by the apostolic constitutions 12 • Predictably the Congregation ofBishops and Regulars made as its own Agliar– di's proposals and on 27 August 1898 it asked the general Minister to abide by its in– structions. Through his letter of 15 November 1898 to the entire Order Fr Bernard informed the friars in a matter-of-fact manner that the Sacred Congregation did not 12 Criscuolo, Bernardo Christen daAndermatt, 269.