Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

43 congregations and associations of diocesan law and precisely defined the practices to follow both in the founding of a congregation by the strength of a formal decree, and at the issuance of the approval (riconscimento) for long-established congregations that did not have a formal decree. As a re- sult, information from around the world started coming to the Congregation about old institutes, physically existing in many dioceses without the formal approval by the bishop, let alone by the Holy See . 18 The fact of many world- wide institutes quietly existing for many years without any installation de- cree and formal ratification by Church authorities is very meaningful and puzzling. This fact glaringly undermines the above assumption that only Church authoritieds could found new institutes of consecrated life. As it turns out, life proved to be much deeper than legal regulations. It should be probably accepted that at least in the pre-Code era, i.e. 1917, certain religious institutes were raised to life without the bishops’ participation but through the cooperation of their founders with their first companions and other faithful people. It may be assumed that bishops knew such com- munities and possibly supported them either silently or openly, but not formally, as good works; their formal approval by Church authorities came after many years, during which they were functioning de facto . This prac- tice was sustained, to an extent, by the then terminology: strictly speak- ing, only communities with solemn vows were defined as religious orders, while religious congregations were not separated from the associations of the faithful by any strict and clear-cut boundaries, therefore, they could be established through a less formal procedure. 19 The belief in the necessity of the involvement of the Church author- ities’ in the emergence of a religious institute was generally accepted by the 20 th -Century authors of the Marian community, starting with Bless- ed George Matulaitis-Matulewicz, 20 as well as our contemporaries. This conviction greatly influenced the timing of the date of the Congregation’s origin because – for its supporters – the question about the date of or- igin habitually meant, as it were, a question of the time of the issuance of the appropriate decree by the Church authorities calling the Marians 18 J. Torres, Norme comuni a tutti gli istituti di vita consacrata, Roma 2002, 39-40, foot- note 119. 19 Ibid. 20 Odrodzenie Zgromadzenia Księży Marianów w lata ch 1909-1910 (Dokumenty), Ed. Bukowicz, T. Gorski, Warszawa 1995, 101. Cf. F. Smagorowicz, Data powstania Zgroma- dzenia Księży Marianów ... , 21 nn.