As the Catholic world grapples with the suppression of the Latin Mass and maligning of families and young people associated with it, a priest in Argentina has penned a letter asking Pope Francis why their seminary was targeted.
The Holy Mother of God seminary was closed in the pope’s native Argentina in 2020.
Father Ramiro Sáenz wrote to the pope and asked him as to why they had been sidelined, given their hardwork and devotion to their flock. Saenz wrote:
As you know, we have lived through very hard times and with many misunderstandings. We are a part of the Church of Christ that has been entrusted to you. We love Christ, we love the Blessed Virgin, we love the Church that you preside over.
We confess, we do missions, we preach retreats, we have several chapels for perpetual adoration (in almost all parishes they used to worship all night on Holy Thursday), we pray the Divine Office and the Rosary daily, we meditate, we read the great masters of spiritual life, we care for the sick and those most in need, almost all of us have risked our lives caring for COVID patients.
We are not perfect but we want to work for Christ and his Church. Your Holiness, please believe in our good will.
Almost all of us have been formed without breaking fractures with the Second Vatican (Council). We have taken the Decree on Priestly Training and the Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests [which relate to priestly formation] literally. Is this rigidity bad? Is it ideology? Don't we have a place in the Church today?
Isn't there a little face for us in the polyhedron?
We had a diocese fruitful in priests and apostolic works. Don't let it stagnate. Today the world needs us more than ever. Through the wounds of Christ, I commend our Diocese, its priests, and its faithful to you.
You can read Pope Francis’s full response, dated July 9th 2022, below.
Dear Brother,
Thank you for the letter you sent me through Bishop Carlos. I thank you for your confidence and your sincerity.
I know you are going through a difficult time, believe me it is difficult for me too. I am sure that there are many who do not stop working with abnegation for the People of God, bringing counsel and peace through the Sacraments and the Word.
In your letter you tell me that you have taken the Second Vatican Council literally and then you ask me if rigidity is a bad thing. I must tell you that it is one thing to walk in the law of the Lord, as the psalm invites us to reason (happy is the man who walks in the law of the Lord) and quite another thing to be rigid. Dear son, rigidity is not a gift of God, meekness yes, kindness yes, benevolence yes, forgiveness yes, but rigidity no! Because as you yourself intuit, rigidity is the prelude to the ideology that does so much harm and that led the rigid of Jesus' time to condemn him for putting mercy above the law.
Of course, in the Church of Jesus, which is the same yesterday, today and forever, we all have a place, ALL of us! That is why rigidity is not possible, because it closes the doors to all and only keeps them ajar for the 'perfect'. I am sure that in your heart of a good shepherd there is also room for everyone. I take your words: "Today the world needs us more than ever". I count on you.
I assure you of my prayers. Don't stop praying for me. May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin watch over you.
Fraternally,
Franciscus