Thursday, May 7, 2009
Vatican City (Tuesday, 05-05-2009, Gaudium Press) Virgo Flos Carmeli and Regina Virginum. The two most recent societies of apostolic life approved by the Vatican. The confirmation came this past week, after the decree released by Cardinal Franc Rodé, Prefect for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. However, beforehand, on April 4, Pope Benedict XVI had already given pontifical approval to both societies during a special audience with Cardinal Rodé.Societies of Apostolic Life, according to the Code of Canon Law, are associations of men or women whose members live in community, residing in the same house – in “common fraternal” life – and seeking to “attain the perfection of charity”. The members of these societies have their own recognized way of life and do not make the traditional religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul are two well-known societies of apostolic life.Arising from within the Heralds of the Gospel, and sharing the same values, the two new societies of apostolic life, however, have distinct natures. Virgo Flos Carmeli – “Virgin Flower of Carmel”, in English – is characterized as a clerical society, in other words, consisting mainly of priests, while the society of apostolic life Regina Virginum – “Queen of Virgins” – is formed by women.According to the Vatican decree, Virgo Flos Carmeli “is born amidst a loving and pertinacious catechesis on the Church and the Roman Pontiff, as well as respect for the importance of sacralization, to the greatest extent possible, of the values of temporal life.”The decree goes on to state that the society is characterized by the defense of orthodoxy, purity of customs and the spirit of hierarchy, “as well as the desire to rekindle in humanity the distinction between good and evil (...).”Virgo Flos Carmeli was founded by Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, E.P., founder and president of the Heralds of the Gospel, and was erected by the then Bishop of Avezzano, Italy, the Most Rev. Lucio Angelo Maria Renna, on June 15, 2006. the development of the Heralds of the Gospel, presently active in about 70 countries, led to the formation of the priestly branch and the later constitution of the Clerical Society.Afterwards, the Most Rev. José Maria Pinheiro, Bishop of Bragança Paulista, where the Motherhouse of the Society is presently located, requested Pontifical approval of Virgo Flos Carmeli from the Pope.Regina Virginum, for its part, had its approval signed on April 26. According to the Vatican decree, the Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right, also founded by Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, “arose as an expression of the charism of the Heralds of the Gospel, applied to the specific conditions of feminine life, striving to manifest its own characteristics in a particular way within the secularised world.”
