Lumen 2018

One can imagine what Fr. Papczynski’s reaction to the news of the pope’s death was. After all, he was going to ask that pope for ap- probation of the Marian Order on the basis of their own constitu- tions. Father Stanislaus did not give up and decided to take care of the matter in a different manner. First, he went to confession to a papal confessor, Fr. Thomas Ignatius Dunin Szpot, SJ, at the Basilica of St. Peter, and received an official confirmation of his confession. 5 After confession, Fr. Papczynski obtained information that papal approbation for his new religious order as an order with solemn vows on the basis of a new rule was not possible because such approbations were forbidden by the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council. He was familiar with this decree and knew that exceptions from it were possible. Some popes, even after 1215, approved new religious or- ders and institutes on the basis of these institutes’ own rules. But the said decree was not formally annulled and had many supporters in the Roman Curia at that time. There was another way to obtain approbation of the Holy See for his order, but it required a certain sacrifice on the part of the Founder. He had to agree to accept a rule that had already been ap- proved by the Holy See, which required various changes and an adaptation of his own statutes, thus leaving him less freedom to re- alize his own charism. Father Papczynski decided to look for a reli- gious order whose rule would be most appropriate for the Marian institute. He made his choice in March or April of 1691. In his opin- ion, the Order of Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the so-called “conceptionists” was most suitable. 6 Undoubtedly, a deciding factor for Fr. Stanislaus was the very title of the order. He expected that the Holy See would easily grant its permission for the legal incorporation of the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception, i.e., the Marians, into the Order of Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that the Marian statutes could be easily adapted to that rule. S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 364