The situation surrounding the Servants of the Lord and of Our Lady of Matará (SSVM) continues to generate deep concern due to recent revelations about their practices in relation to the admission of new vocations.
According to recent testimonies, the SSVM continue to accept applicants under the pretext of “volunteering”, encouraging them to start studies, although only short careers, and promising them that in a few years everything will return to normal. This procedure is particularly serious, since there is no certainty about the immediate future of the religious institute, which is going through a deep institutional crisis.
This practice seems to reflect the typical “creole vivacity” of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), a congregation to which the SSVM are linked, characterized by always finding ways to circumvent or manipulate regulations: one more manifestation of the well-known saying “made the law, made the trap”, an attitude that has been recurrent in its almost 40 years of existence.
The seriousness of the situation has reached the point that the Pontifical Delegate, Sr. Clara Echarte, with the express support of the prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and even with the approval and signature of Pope Francis himself, has recently asked the members of the former general government (former Mother Co-redemptrix, etc.) residing in the Generalate to return to their countries of origin and leave the Pontifical Delegate alone to do her work. Under penalty of excommunication if they refused to leave. This move clearly reflects that the ecclesiastical authorities are seriously considering deeper interventions or even the dissolution of the institute.
All this weeks after the pathetic show of Co-Redemptrix and other sisters praying the Rosary under the Pope’s window when he was in the Gemelli Hospital seriously ill, with the purpose of “twisting the arm” of Francis.
This context makes the aforementioned practices a serious violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of the young aspirants. It is a spiritual and psychological abuse that must be made visible and denounced, demanding full transparency and responsibility on the part of the authorities of the institute and the Vatican itself.
Given these facts, it is essential to alert those young women who are considering joining this religious community about the uncertainty that currently surrounds their future. It is equally important that church authorities act quickly and clearly to put an end to these abusive practices.
Transparency and respect for personal and vocational decisions must prevail in any religious institute, especially in such critical moments as those that SSVM are currently experiencing.
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