81 Apostolate or Contemplation: 1677-1723 him.”76 Bishop Wierzbowski took numerous actions to support the Marian Order. He issued judgments, redefined the boundaries of the foundations, and sent his commissioners to settle disputes. However, even these measures proved insufficient. In a document addressed to the residents of Góra Kalwaria, he wrote with bitterness: “Certain contrary opinions surfaced concerning the boundaries of the Lord’s Cenacle and its heirloom between the townspeople of New Jerusalem and certain persons, and even between the Marian Clerics Recollect themselves. Wishing to remedy with love this evil, damage [and] confusion, almost bordering on desperation [...] we issued by Our authority certain written orders.”77 Another reason for the aversion towards the Marian Order was the lack of papal approval. This fact, as perceived by hostile citizens who argued that “such an order has no right to exist,” was considered a pretext for its dissolution. Moreover, based on a misinterpretation of the Church law, it was believed to provide an opportunity for easy dispensation from solemn vows by ordinary confessors. Fr. Papczyński particularly cautioned against these abuses in Norma Vitae: “The one who has embraced this [eremitical] status, especially in some Congregation of Hermits approved at least by a Bishop, and has made the profession [of the vows] in it, may not change this status, unless he has been dispensed by the Roman Pontiff.”78 Meanwhile, confessors too easily granted dispensations to Marians from their religious vows. Those who, alarmed by the strict rules of Marian life, asceticism, lengthy nocturnal prayers, and penitential practices, left the Order, often blackened its reputation by spreading false information to justify their own fickleness before the public. Father Papczyński, “to inform those who feel and speak unfavorably about the present Institute, partly because of ignorance, partly due to bad information,”79 cautioned against them. Bishop Wierzbowski, concerned about the future of the Order and alarmed by the departures, admonished confessors and warned Marians who wanted to leave the Order: “The Holy See may free them from these ordinary vows and the 76 Leporini, n. 74. “Ab infimae conditionis Civibus Gorensibus multas persecutiones, vexationes, verba contumeliosa, contemptus, sibillos perpessus, ab uno forum trusus.” 77 Positio, Papczyński, pp. 425-426. 78 S. Papczyński, Norma Vitae, Informative Preface, 2, in: St. Stanislaus Papczyński, Selected Writings, p. 54. 79 Ibid, 3.
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