Docility of the Magisterium of the Church

Because the Institute was born in the Catholic Church and is of the Catholic Church and for the Catholic Church, we members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word are formed for the Church.

From this it follows that a religious of the Incarnate Word “recognizes the primary and supreme authority of the Supreme Pontiff, and professes not only obedience to him, but also fidelity, filial submission, adherence, and disposition for the service of the universal Church.”[1] He makes himself nothing at the feet of the Church[2] and does not want anyone to surpass him “in faithful obedience, obsequiousness, and love of the Holy Father and the Bishops, to whom the Holy Spirit has given the governance of the Church of God.”[3]

In this sense our Constitutions determine—as it could not be any other way—that our specific end of the evangelization of the culture must be achieved “in accordance with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church.”[4] And from here emanates this non-negotiable element adjoined to the charism, which is “docility to the Church’s living Magisterium of all times.”[5] For we seek in the treasure of the Church’s Magisterium the solidity, the purity, and the proximate norm of faith that the sublime task of evangelizing requires.

Accordingly, we consider it to be fundamental that our religious be nourished on the words of the faith and of the good doctrine,[6] principally by “loving knowledge and prayerful familiarity with the Word of God,”[7] by means of which they will acquire holy “familiarity with the Word made flesh,”[8] and that they be formed in the “strictest fidelity to the Church’s supreme Magisterium of all times,”[9] solidly instructed in a sound theology—which “comes from faith and tries to lead to faith”[10]—built on “a profound knowledge of the philosophy of being.”[11]

We are convinced that a true evangelization of the culture cannot be attained—and not even conceived of—without fidelity to the Magisterium of Peter and to the bishops united to him, all of which is demonstrated in the innumerable quotes from magisterial texts in our proper law. For the “function of the Magisterium is not, then, something extrinsic to Christian truth nor is it set above the faith. It arises directly from the economy of the faith itself, inasmuch as the Magisterium is, in its service to the Word of God, an institution positively willed by Christ as a constitutive element of His Church.”[12]

Indeed, in order to attain our specific end in the Church, that is, in order to permeate cultures with the Gospel, our Constitutions prescribe as fundamental elements not only the teachings of the Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes, but also the Apostolic Exhortations Evangelii nuntiandi and Catechesi tradendae, Pope Saint John Paul II’s speech to UNESCO and others on the same subject, the Puebla Document, the Encyclical Letter Slavorum Apostoli, the Encyclical Letter Redemptoris missio, the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dabo vobis, n. 55, c, and any forthcoming directives, orientations, and teachings of the ordinary Magisterium of the Church that may be issued regarding the specific purpose of our small Religious Family.[13]

Therefore, out of love for Christ and for His Mystical Body, we religious of the Institute consecrate our “spiritual life for the benefit of the whole Church”[14] and dedicate ourselves to “working according to our strength and according to the form of our own vocation, whether with prayer or with apostolic ministry, in order for Christ’s kingdom to be established and strengthened in souls and in order to expand it throughout the whole world.”[15] And, thus, we feel and act “always with [the Church], in accord with the teachings and the norms of the Magisterium of Peter and of the Shepherds in communion with him,”[16] because we know that we are called to be witnesses to ecclesial communion (sentire cum Ecclesia) through “the adherence of mind and heart to the Magisterium of the Bishops, and to live it with loyalty and testify to it with clarity before the People of God.”[17]

Dedicated to living in its fullness the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, our intellectual formation has as its object the study of truth, and the living Magisterium of the Church is precisely one of the sources where we quench that thirst for the truth since—as stated in our proper law—“the Magisterium can speak about ‘that truth which is Christ Himself.’”[18] Indeed, our formation is done with full ecclesial awareness and solicitude, in full obedience to the successor of Peter, with sincere respect for his magisterium, and in fidelity to the Holy See. In this sense, we have always tried to send the members of the Institute to do their studies in the Eternal City, precisely in order to be “witnesses, day after day, to the living tradition of the faith as it is proclaimed in the See of Peter.”[19] All of this has always been a distinctive sign of our Religious Family.

Ultimately, our formation, which is directed to the sublime knowledge of the Incarnate Word, cannot be done except “with faith and ‘in the Church,’ in strict fidelity to her Magisterium.”[20]

To act otherwise would be to go not only against our own charism but also against our very reason for being religious.

[1] Constitutions, 271.

[2] Ibid., 76.

[3] Ibid., quoting Saint Louis Orione, Letter of the Epiphany of 1935.

[4] Constitutions, 5.

[5] “Notes from the V General Chapter,” 4.

[6] 1 Tim 4:6.

[7] Directorio de Formación Intelectual, 41; our translation.

[8] Constitutions, 231.

[9] Ibid., 222.

[10] Directorio de Formación Intelectual, 44; our translation.

[11] Constitutions, 227.

[12] Directorio de Formación Intelectual, 43, quoting Donum veritatis, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, 14.

[13] Constitutions, 27.

[14] Directorio de Vida Consagrada, 24; our translation.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid., 25.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Directorio de Formación Intelectual, 2; our translation; quoting the Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis Humanae, 14.

[19] Constitutions, 265, quoting Saint John Paul II, “Address to the Community of the Pontifical North American College,” October 15, 1984, 2.

[20] Directorio de Seminarios Mayores, 340; our translation; quoting Saint John Paul II, “Address to the International Council of the Teams of Our Lady,” September 17, 1979.