Lumen 2018

217 At the Crossroads accepted his patrimony without the knowledge or permission of his superiors and designated it for his own use. Kraus did not say, how- ever, that all of this happened when Papczynski was no longer sub- ordinate to his religious superiors, but was under the jurisdiction of the local bishop. Kraus sneers at Fr. Stanislaus as he writes: ”A mag- nificent reformer!” 258 and concludes with indignation that Papczynski is not so much asking for a chance to return to the congregation as he wants to write its laws as if the congregation needed him and was asking him to return. Naturally, not only did this last condition re- main unfulfilled, it was treated as unworthy to be dignified with a re- sponse. 259 Kraus’s ironic remarks may appear justified if we disregard Pa- pczynski’s motives for setting the aforementioned conditions. We may wonder what prompted Fr. Stanislaus to set those particular condi- tions rather than some other ones. He found himself in a difficult sit- uation at that time, besieged by doubts as to whether he should have left the Piarist Fathers after all. 260 His difficulties were compounded by a temporary loss of Bishop Oborski’s support, which he may have interpreted in such a way that perhaps he had misunderstood God’s will and that God did not want a new religious congregation. Perhaps He wanted him to stay at the Piarists after all. On the other hand he was strongly aware of the mission that he had received from God to spread the cult of the Immaculate Conception and to defend it from the attacks of its opponent, the so-called “maculists.” It was clear to him that he must not refuse this mission, so he thought that perhaps God wanted him to fulfill it as a member of the Congregation of the Piarist Fathers and not as the founder of a new religious order. In order to put this to a test, he named the spreading of the cult of the Immaculate Conception as his first and foremost condition (Kraus mixed up their order) and added other conditions hoping to force through at least some of the ideas which he had previously fought for in the spirit of the founder. He believed that if the Piarists should ac- cept his conditions and allow him to return to the congregation, it would mean that he had made a mistake when he left them and that he was to fulfill his mission in the Piarists. But should they refuse and