Commentary on the second key document(1) The central idea of the document shows Colin’s deep desire that all of God’s people may come together at the end of time. Lay people who become members of the Third Order of Mary will help to put this into effect throughout the world. This is the “new Church” which Colin dreams of: the global, eschatological vision of a “Marian Church” has not been lost, although much has happened since his first visit to Rome in 1833.
(2) The good-natured and simple tone of Colin’s voice comes alive for us as he relates the way he acted in Rome in 1833, when he began the initial approaches to get his project approved. Here we see what Mayet inserted when he refined his notes, assisted by Dupuy, in 1840. The words appeared in the Summarium of 1833, but not in any of the petitions presented to Gregory XVI. Again we note the broad scope, from the beginning to the end of time, when all faithful people would like the early Christian community, be “one heart and one soul”. In our day, “the last days”, with ecumenism reaching out through Christianity to other world religions and to unbelievers, Colin’s words remind us of the great goal of unity — “that all may be one” — of Christ’s priestly prayer in Chapter 17 of St John’s Gospel. Castracane’s reaction is laughter, and his words — “the whole world will be Marist”9 — are spoken half in jest, but perhaps also in awe at such a bold, impossible and “outlandish” idea. However, Colin’s good-humoured reply, that his plan will take in even the Pope, who would be at the head, has a deep, underlying seriousness. In the next sentence, he glosses over the complex matter of how the issuing of the Briefs for the Third Order at Belley was not according to the procedure intended by the Roman Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. (OM 1. p. 723, note 5). We know Castracane opposed Colin’s idea of the world confraternity.10 In his report on the Society of Mary project, he uses such words as “outlandish” and “irregular” for a worldwide confraternity under a single superior, stating that approval is given for “specific confraternities or societies” in specific places, formed with the approval and under the direction of diocesan bishops and priests, to revive faith and devotion in their members. He also mentions political reasons (suspicion and fear being aroused among rulers and governments because of the widespread power of such a body). Colin himself also admitted it was a “monstrosity” and said he would simplify the plan by giving up the idea of a Society of Brothers, Sisters and a Lay Confraternity and ask only for permission to establish the Priests’ Branch. Castracane explained to him that approbation of a religious congregation takes time and advised him to rewrite a complete body of rules and present it to the Holy See for further consideration. The Cardinal also asked that only the priests’ branch should receive indulgences 11 but, by mistake, owing to the way the Marist dossier was transferred from the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars to that of Indulgences, Colin received the three Briefs in August 1834 for the Third Order in Belley. Of course, he saw this inexplicable turn of events as a real morale-booster and a “psychological victory”. 12 In his letter of 4 September 1834 to Champagnat, he says: “…the receipt of three Briefs has filled us with joy and confidence in God”.13 Still in laughing vein, Colin continues revealing how dynamic his apostolic outlook is. He fully realises the daring and risk of the enterprise. He uses the word “invade”, which has a fighting — even military connotation — but also a sense of inner penetration, a grasp of the inner and outer aspects of the project, a holistic approach. He longed for it to happen: “When will the time come?” Colin is now in the second stage of his enterprise; the busy Superior General (1836-1854) is getting the project “off the ground”. He has never lost the vision of Mary’s work, his God-given mission. Now it has taken deeper root in his inner consciousness, but is being tempered and pruned by its practical applications in the everyday activity of dealing with people, with unforeseen events, with the joys, the sorrows, the advances and setbacks of any human endeavour. All through his life, Colin loved to recall this meeting and conversation with Castracane – it is recorded no less than ten times in Girard’s Anthology. (3) Here Colin speaks of the recently approved Archconfraternity of the Holy Heart of Mary at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires in Paris, which was founded for the conversion of sinners and was already very successful. He refers to its small rule book, which had been sent to him. In Mayet’s letter to Colin of May 6th 1874, regarding the “mother ideas” of the Lay Branch, he recalls that this Archconfraternity came closest to the idea of the Founder regarding the Marist Confraternity and that Colin had often taken it as a point of comparison.14 Later on, in the 1860s, the widow Marie-Elizabeth Blot, a Marist tertiary well known to Mayet and other Marist Fathers in Paris who were confessors at Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, often prayed in that church and was very devoted to the Archconfraternity. She was a kind of “visionary prophet”, who prayed and suffered much for the Society at the time when Colin was working on the Fathers’ Constitutions, and she also compared the Archconfraternity to the Marist one. “…I imagine the Society of Mary,” she said, “with its Third Order, as having something like an Archconfraternity extending very far into the distance”. 15 Her words coincide with Colin’s broad vision, and it was she who used “the bridge” as a metaphor for the Lay Branch, a term Colin employed in his speech to the 1872 General Chapter about the Third Order: “…the Blessed Virgin has given it to you to be like a bridge, to go to souls, to sinners”.16 This brings Colin to the point of the Briefs still in his briefcase after three years. He has shown them to Bishop Devie, who viewed them unfavourably, fearing that the spread of the Third Order in Belley would draw people away from the cathedral parish. However, the Bishop’s final words at their interview show he was not completely averse to the idea, but thought that patient waiting for a more opportune time was required. Here we see Colin’s humble fidelity to the Church and its representatives, but also his discerning wisdom and detachment from this part of his project, which was so obviously dear to his heart. He always has a Founder’s sense of God’s time: “God will accomplish everything in time, when the hour has come”.17 This detachment continues when Colin comments on choosing (4) between the Archconfraternity and the Marist Third Order: he only wants to see “good being accomplished” and, in typical Colinian fashion, would choose the former. When he spoke of the Third Order at the time of his resignation (General Chapter, 7 May 1854), the same outlook is evident: “…He spoke at length of the modesty with which we should work for this Third Order, how we must always favour other Third Orders and, further, that when someone was wavering between ours and others, we should always urge that person to enter another Third Order. Marists were for promoting the interests of all the Orders….”18 And Colin said this after Eymard, as director of the existing Third Order in Lyons, had obtained a canonical institution from the apostolic administrator of Lyon, Archbishop de Bonald, acting with powers delegated by Rome! (5) Then, despite his comments on preferring the Paris Archconfraternity, Colin begins to speak of the advantages and differences of the Marist Third Order. It is not only for “the conversion of sinners”, but also for “the perseverance of the just”. So this brings all Christians into it, repeating the scope of the 1833 Summarium. Only those who freely put themselves outside the Church – those condemned for holding and teaching doctrine contrary to the Church (heretics) and those who create a breach in the Church’s unity and break away from it (schismatics) — were to be excluded. In Colin’s day, a good example of a great schism was found in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Today we remember that at the end of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI, joining with the Patriarch of Constantinople, made a solemn Declaration that “removed from memory and from the midst of the Church the excommunications of the past”. 19 The continuing dialogue and communion with other Eastern Orthodox Patriarchies and the leaders of the Western Churches cut off at the Reformation have broken down many barriers, as the different Churches strive to move slowly towards that “full communion” that is the goal of the whole Ecumenical Movement. Next, Colin deals with a simple but quite ingenious way of including all alienated people — “sinners” — who may not be able to pray and intercede through Mary. He does not want them to be cut off from the prayers and works of charity of the Confraternity. Their names can be inserted in its register, and this can be done discreetly and secretly by their relatives and friends. They can be recommended to the prayers of all, and so they will not have to do anything themselves to be included. In his Constitutions of the Confraternity, Colin designates these people as “participants”: “any sinner, even the most incorrigible — as well as children who have not yet reached the age of reason, and even those still in their mother’s womb… For someone to be accepted among the Participants, it is enough that the name be inscribed in some special register.”20 It is interesting that Colin puts these alienated ones alongside the most innocent — young children and babies in the womb! 6) For those who wish to be members of the Confraternity, the practices — note that they are “recommended”, not obligatory — are to be “very short and very simple”. Colin respects the freedom of people; he does not want to bind them with onerous prescriptions, rules and regulations. Again we see his openness, his flexibility, his understanding of the lifestyle of lay people, the many affairs they have to deal with in the world. Then he speaks simply of giving them a medal of Our Lady when they are received as members, not their own scapular, as he had thought, or even to adopt the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel! Next he speaks of rules for those who want to live in a more “retired” way, in a more deeply contemplative spirituality. Finally, he talks about the various branches as being “more or less broad or more or less strict”. At this stage, in his desire that the branch of secular Marists should be all-inclusive, Colin is saying that both those who follow a stricter rule of life and more active people who follow a simpler rule could belong to it. Heis here presenting his ideas about the lay branch to an audience being formed in the Marist way; some are young, others older, and some are ordained diocesan priests striving to understand the Marist project and its spirit. When we look carefully at the “Constitutions of the Confraternity”, we see that his mature thought fulfils all these very general comments. Let us look at Article II, “On the different kinds of people who may be admitted to the Confraternity”:
(7) Colin moves again into an even wider vision, which would characterise the Confraternity: it could create greater “harmony” between faithful Christians and the Society. Here he implies the inclusion of those who might not be actual members, but would be united to and in sympathy with the spirit and ideals of the Society in some way. Then he expands this to include “Marist missionaries”; it is the global vision again, a way to spread Mary’s spirit. This is so general that I don’t feel it refers only to the Fathers; it includes the whole Marist family, lay and religious, and even anyone linked somehow with Mary’s unifying spirit. At this time, Marist Priests and Brothers were already in Western Oceania, pioneering a very difficult mission, and the Marist Sisters were only waiting for the day when they could join them and bring Christ to the women. However, it was Francoise Perroton, a matureaged laywoman of Lyons, a lay Marist – along with the Pioneers, the other Marist laywomen who followed her — who eventually began the mission for the women of the Western Pacific. In 1931, these women became a religious congregation of pontifical right under the name of “Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary” (SMSM). When someone asks Colin about establishing the Third Order in Lyon (8) rather than in Belley, where the opportune time has not yet come, he again broadens the vision: everywhere. There is an underlying sense that he is aware his ideas are not being carried out by the burgeoning groups of “Tertiary Brothers of Mary” and “Christian Maidens”, already meeting in Lyon. The actual Briefs of 1834 only authorise the Confraternity in Belley and do not extend to Lyon. Colin’s reply is prudent, considering the direction the groups are taking at this time. 9) This part introduces a very important element in Colin’s thinking: how not to alienate the parish priests and their role in the Confraternity. Already we have seen in Section 3 the objections of Devie to its spread in Belley, so if it is to be set up in Lyon, Colin does not want to draw people away from parishes. He says the parish priests should direct it in their parishes and keep the membership registers. He also sees the need for a central register kept by the Society of Mary in order to give unity, stability and credibility, as I said in the Context; Colin does not want it to be seen in any way as a weak body. Next, in a very general sentence, he speaks of the many affairs pastors have to deal with which prevent them from giving too much importance and care to any one project. He comes back to this idea in 1872 in the “brief overview”22 addressed to the General Chapter. In these documents, we see him giving much more precise and clear comment on the role of parish priests. He says strongly:
(10) Finally, Colin comes back to the unpromulgated three Briefs “hidden and unknown” except to himself and Bishop Devie, kept in his briefcase for three years. His final words are understandable, knowing Devie’s reactions, and they reiterate his obedience and fidelity to legitimate authority in the Church. Indeed, this was one of the main aims of the Society in the 1872 Constitutions and a strong element in the Marist charism, characteristic of the whole Marist family to this very day. To sum up, in this Document, Colin shows the wisdom and qualities of a true Founder, who knows it is too soon to start setting up definite structures and rules. He understands that generally the Holy Spirit only gradually reveals ways to implement an initial vision. Time must elapse before one writes a definitive rule; everything has to be tested first by the train of events, the practicalities of everyday living, the changes of circumstances, the needs of people. He knows that moving too quickly can alienate people and their settled structures, can “freeze” the creative impulse and stifle it, destroying its dynamism and force. Colin senses that at this stage, when so much is happening in the Society, that he has to have “room to manoeuvre”, to see what will happen, to allow the Holy Spirit to act. So his rather general statements at this time are perfectly understandable and prudent. When he eventually placed Eymard in charge of the Lyon groups in the mid- 1840s and saw the shaping of the Lay Branch moving very quickly, gaining approbation from the Holy See in 1850 without his prior knowledge,24 and being known as “The Third Order of the Interior Life”, he viewed these movements with dismay and distrust. No doubt, Eymard was forming excellent groups of the “just”, persevering in prayer and praying for “sinners”, but it was with a certain inward “elitism” that failed to recognise the all-embracing, merciful outreach to all God’s people that was Colin’s vision. By the time Colin wrote the 1872 Constitutions for the Lay Branch, Eymard had left the Society to found the Blessed Sacrament Congregation, but his model lived on. Well-meaning Marists retained the “status quo” despite efforts, chiefly by Cozon, to keep alive the real ideas of the Lay Branch as embodied in Colin’s Constitutions. 1 LM doc. 94. Philippe Dupuy, supposedly the first member of the Third Order of Mary for priests of the Lyons Diocese (Mayet Memoirs 7:703), was a fellow student of Mayet at St Irénée seminary and later his spiritual director; he put some order into Mayet’s notes and recopied them in 1840. 2 J. Coste, A Marian Vision of Church, Appendix C, Valpré lectures, “The Whole World Marist”, p.320. 3 LM, doc. 460,§1. 4 LM, doc. 6. 5 LM, doc. 10. 6 OM, 1, p.657, n.3. 46 7 LM, doc. 26. 8 LM, doc. 34. 9 LM, doc. 44. 10 LM, doc. 16,§9. 11 LM, doc.17,§3. 12 LM, doc. 47, note 2, a translation of OM 2, p. 141. n.2. (The note in LM simply reproduces in the English translation the note in OM.) 13 LM, doc. 22, §4. 14 LM, doc. 376, §5. 15 LM, doc. 376, §10 (at end). 16 LM, doc. 334, §36. 17 LM, doc. 248, §12. 18 LM, doc. 249, §2 (also in Founder Speaks, doc. 189). 19 Ut Unum Sint, no. 17 (encyclical on ecumenism by John Paul II). 20 LM, doc.395, §13 for description of “participants”. 21 LM, doc. 395, §10,11,12,13. 22 LM, doc. 332, §11,12,13,14. 23 LM, doc. 334, §38. 24 See LM, section 3, “Canonical Confirmation, Introductory Comments”, for background to the approbation (canonical confirmation) of December, 1850, and also LM, docs. 159, 164 and 170, for a clearer understanding of Colin’s reactions to this approbation instigated by Eymard without Colin’s knowledge or approval. |
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