Letter from Ex-SSVM Superior

NOTE: The Vatican will be intervening in the IVE General Chapter, meaning the Vatican will be taking over and reforming the IVE like it did the Legion of Christ and the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate.  This is likely due to the issues and high attrition rate we highlighted here.  See here and here for more info (use Google to translate.)  We will have a post on this soon. 

The letter below came to us from a woman who was a member of the SSVM (Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara - the IVE's female branch) for 8 years.  She left before taking final vows.  She was a superior over professed sisters (those under permanent vows) for four years and vocations director for the SSVM in the US/Canada for two - all while under temporary vows. 

If you are discerning with the SSVM, please consider the concerns expressed in her letter.  If you would like to contact her please email us here at the blog and we will forward your contact info to her.  If you are an ex-SSVM looking to reconnect with other former ssvm from this province, she has a private Facebook group here.

~~~~

Dear Readers,

While my preface here is a post in itself, it is actually the letter below that I intended to share with readers.  I write this  preface to provide some background to the letter, which was directed specifically to the superiors and sisters who I knew personally and who knew the details of my time in religious life with the SSVM.

I was a sister of the SSVM known as Maria Lumen Christi for almost 8 years (2004-2011) in the Province of the Immaculate Conception (ie. North America.)  I went through the novitiate and juniorate in Maryland and Washington DC respectively.  Post-juniorate I was assigned as the Local Superior at St. Paul’s Church in East Harlem, NYC. 

At that point,  I was just turning 26 and had been under temporary vows for nearly two years. I was asked to be the superior of a convent of sisters who were all older than me both in age and religious life. Three of them had been Perpetually Professed sisters for many years. In addition to being superior of that house, during the next four years  I was also  Vocations Directress, Provincial Liturgist, and for one full year held the position of parish Director of Religious Education when a fellow sister returned home to take care of her mother. I was hosting many young girls in our convent, talking discernment, interviewing them and encouraging them to live our lifestyle. I am sure some readers are family or friends of girls who entered the Institute under my supervision.. 

In short, I was a young woman, with zero experience in the missions, with an unfair and insane amount of work and responsibilities (including other sisters and their religious life,) placed in a position to lead others while I was technically still (or should have been) in formation. I attended daily Mass and adoration, but was always in charge of the music and liturgy, so even my prayer time was never fully without “work.” Granted, while inside, I did all of this with an innocent intention, trusting that “God would give me the grace” and doing my best to spin all the plates with a smile on my face. However, the end result was my ultimate breakdown, mentally and emotionally. 

"In true servidora fashion, I had “lost myself” and yet there was no “joy” in that. Like many fellow SSVM, who in the name of generosity, try to die to self, I was depressed, exhausted and unhappy, yet tried for a long time to remain cheerful on the outside. Eventually I could put up the act no longer. As everyone who lived with me in the Avondale Community during the summer of 2011 knows, I stopped eating and going to meals, cried daily, could not smile. Thankfully, through graces of bravery and fortitude, I asked to leave only months before my final vows were scheduled and after years as a superior, encouraging other young girls into the fold I so desperately needed to walk away from.

Since then, I have peacefully transitioned back to being myself, in this beautiful world. I have held various jobs, made friends, and most importantly, found things I love to do in life. I had kept in decent touch with various SSVM/ & IVE friends over the years and yet the urge to write the following letter continued to speak to me. So I wrote it and sent it to all the superiors I knew (including General, Vicar, Provincial and formators) as well as to as many sisters who I knew and could contact. I also sent it to a small handful of IVE who I also knew personally. 

Since sending in October, I have not received a single response from any of the higher superiors or priests, nor from the vast majority of sisters in general. Now, remember that I lived, worked, played and prayed with all of these religious for almost 8 years. I was beloved and respected within the Institute. And yet, having written a sincere, grounded, poignant letter about my concerns from outside the Institute, I was met with absolute silence by most. About 6 or 7 responded, the majority of those warmly and graciously receiving my concerns.  Two local superiors (and former friends, sadly) responded harshly, defending their way of life.

With the recent post on the blog about the diminishing number of priests and parishes, among other recent IVE news, I feel it’s time to just post my letter here as well. It’s out in the open anyway, as I have sent it to many friends and family, so they are informed about my experiences. So here it is, in it’s entirety. My intention is to shed light into the darkness, but with a sincere and understanding heart, having been very much on the other side for many years. I am happy to dialogue about this with any concerned person, friend, family member or current member of the Institute. 

~~~~

Dearest Sisters, October 12, 2015

I hope this letter finds each of you well, healthy and happy in your mission, wherever you are. Please know that I have sent this to you personally, as you are someone with whom I shared my almost 8 years of religious life and thus you are very important to me.

First and foremost, I wish to make clear that I am grateful for my time in religious life and would not change my decision to enter for anything. I grew in many wonderful ways during my time in the convent and formed many amazing relationships during my years there. To this day, I know that certain habits of humility, community living, organization, and openness to new cultures stem from my time in the Religious Family. Not to mention some amazing trips to Argentina, the Grand Canyon and fun summers in upstate NY and NH. Lastly, a special piece of my heart will forever live in the streets of East Harlem. The barrio beats with a beautiful, raw intensity and that place & those people held me as I grew, suffered, loved and lost during my last four intense years. For all of these pieces of my story & person, I am grateful to our Religious Family. 

Secondly, I want to reassure you that I write this from a full, bright, happy life I now lead as a lay woman. I have a wonderfully full and creative life at home, a balanced blend of social life, solitude, hobbies and fulfilling work. Sending this letter is two-fold for me: to voice my thoughts to you, an obligation I feel towards those I consider my ‘religious family,’ and secondly, to simply get this off my chest and share the thoughts that have been on my conscience for so long.

I write because not all of my 8 years was lovely, good and beautiful. Many customs and decisions during my religious life were, I believe, misguided, harmful and unhealthy. This is not any one person’s fault and I am not here to blame any superior, council or person. On the contrary, having been a superior myself for 4 years and vocation director for 2, I know very well that we all (superiors and sisters) were simply doing what we were taught and believed to be good and in line with what God wanted. The problem is that even sometimes the most well-intended choices and practices can be harmful to a human person. It is for this reason that I write. And, just to clarify, this letter is truly a last resort of sorts. Over my years home, I have spoken face to face with superiors, one or two concerns at a time, in a familial way, but I don’t feel that those talks were effective and I did not feel much engagement from the side of the Institute. So, I write this now, with all my concerns explained briefly, because this is how my discernment has led me.

Having the clarity of hindsight, I have come to realize that the Institute as a whole perpetuates various practices (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) that are either unhealthy or untrue. These practices have affected me in many negative ways, from which I have needed time, space and support to heal from over the years. This is noteworthy considering that I came from (and returned to) a very loving supportive family system, had a healthy self-esteem, stable mind and heart  - and even I was broken and taken advantage of inside the system of the Religious Family. Many who enter are not as fortunate as I am, when it comes to family, support and healthy identity (having been vocations directress – heard many a girl’s personal story - and having lived with plenty of fellow religious, I can say this with confidence.) This is why I am concerned to the point of needing to write this. I believe that the lifestyle the Institute carries on, while some of it is truly good and of service to humanity, includes some majorly harmful and manipulative ways of thinking and behaving, which may have negative consequences on its members. 

The intention of this letter is to concisely point those out, simply out of concern for you all who are still inside. I do not intend to persuade anyone to leave religious life, but simply to be aware of these things & their consequences, to use your heart and mind to be aware of your lifestyle. Honestly, to give you permission to use your mind and heart as God intended, in union with Him, to discern your life. I write to speak my truth to you all because it has continually been on my heart to do so and to not follow through would feel as some sort of betrayal of Inspiration. It is an urging that has not left me and that is based in genuine concern for each of you, as fellow human persons and specifically as my brothers and sisters in religious life, which as we all know, is a unique bond. It is not an urge to “tell my story,” but rather to share my concern, from my personal experience of being in the Institute. I write also for superiors, who have the power to shift things towards a healthier way of life for all. I hope you take to heart some of these concerns, knowing me to be a grounded person, that this letter only comes from a place of love and honesty, with the hope of goodness and greater truth to be found. I was hurt and broken by many things in religious life; or rather, I allowed myself to be, believing this was the path to holiness, to God’s will for my life. However, I ended up miserable, broken, burnt out and sad. These are things that concern me:  

→Free Time/True Rest – Looking back, I find the schedule of the convent to be unhealthy and over burdened, not allowing for sufficient rest and recovery from such a demanding lifestyle and not taking into account the various ways different personality types prefer to rest and recover. “Free time” never felt truly free because I always had something to catch up on – liturgy, catechism, cooking, etc. “Days off” were really only a few hours on Sunday afternoon or two Mondays a month in Apostolic life, neither of which justly balance the hectic and stressful weekly schedule. As religious, we worked, studied, prayed and played hard, not to mention we are merely human beings – so we deserve plenty, sufficient time to rest and recover from the demanding lifestyle, and in the ways we prefer. Looking back, I wish we had more time to sleep or sleep in (without feeling guilty or selfish,) a better balanced schedule of responsibilities, so we were not so overburdened with work-stuff that we had to complete things in the “free time,” real days off when we could freely do whatever we enjoyed. That leads into the next topic. 

→What Do You Love to Do?  - Upon returning to the world and actually having free time, I realized that I had no idea what I enjoyed doing with my newly found free time. After 8 years of intensely scheduled life, having been too tired to foster anything extra-curricular during “days off,” I came home at age 30, without any idea as to what I enjoyed in life. I only knew liturgy, CCD, to-do-lists, meetings and emails. I find this concerning that after 8 years in the Institute, a grown woman does not know what she enjoys in life, has not had time or energy to foster things that delight her. I was all too thrilled to experiment with painting, dancing, pilates, reading (non-saint books!) among other things, all of which expanded my soul, delighted me and helped me feel relaxed and refreshed to begin a new work week. This only happened because I finally had sufficient time, not only to sleep and rest my body, but even more time that was truly free and unhurried, so I could enjoy new things. I believe having plentiful time to foster hobbies is will produce happier, more well-rounded, healthy religious, ready to take on the next week refreshed!

→The Paradox of a Name – Being the Institute of the Incarnate Word, I find it ironic that we do such a poor job at taking care of our very own Incarnation, namely our own bodies, which are just as magnificent and worthy of care and honor as every other human who we serve and tend to. We honor Jesus, who upon taking Flesh, touched our humanity with divinity, and we teach that we are wonderfully made in great, complex detail and yet it seems that in the Institute we are continually formed to ignore our own bodies, to chastise them, to work them without heeding their requests for rest or nutrition and generally not to think much on them at all. Is not the human person, body and soul, the very Temple of the Holy Spirit? Why, as ssvm, are we not given the space to listen to our bodies, to connect with them, so as to care for the vessel God has given us in a more complete way, so that in turn, we can serve others better? Why is it so taboo to connect with our own Incarnation in a balanced way?

→Vocation – Long story short, I understood the teachings of the Institute to be that if I was called & entered, then clearly God desired me to take Final Vows and stay for life. This understanding of vocation however is simply not true and an honest study of Church teaching can show that time in formation (for men or women) is clearly for continued discernment as to whether religious life is your path or not. The Institute does not present formation years this way and I came to believe that I was intended by God to be a sister forever and this thought eventually made me very miserable & sad. However, I hung on by a thread for a few difficult years only because I desperately believed this understanding of vocation and did not want to betray God by leaving. Only in a moment of light and grace was I able to shred through all the muck and listen to the voice of God in my own heart that said, “I am your good Father and only want your true happiness. I would never want you to be in a life in which you were continually miserable, sad and not yourself.” From that moment on, I have listened to Him in my heart, followed His peace and have felt free. 

→Leaving the Convent – As mentioned before, years in formation are for continued discernment and so if someone chooses to leave the convent, that is a perfectly fine and good decision and should be treated as such by the community. Guys leave seminaries and girls leave convents all year long, everywhere! It’s admirable and good to leave if you know it’s not right for you. During my years inside, it always felt as if there was secrecy, scandal and stigma attached to girls who left. No one would ask or tell, they would suddenly just not be at the table, and we would very rarely see or hear from them again. Due to so much exaggerated pressure and expectation put on vocation, perseverance, Final Vows and Ordination, there is shame attached to leaving, as if you failed in fidelity to God and your calling. This is simply not true and I think the Institute does a disservice to its members when they stress vocation and perseverance so much, because most likely, the majority of those who enter are not intended by God to stay, yet they do because of false teachings and a stigma attached to leaving. At least this is how I felt for many years and the atmosphere I recall surrounding those who left. While I would not change my time in the convent, at the same time, leaving religious life was the single best decision of my life thus far and I have not been happier or freer since. 

→Girls Who’ve Left – This is mainly for Superiors, but is relevant to anyone discerning leaving religious life. Upon leaving the convent and re-entering the world, a girl rarely has the contact info of other former ssvm girls, nor is she provided with it. Upon leaving, we rarely remember last names of girls we lived with, don’t know how to navigate social media and therefore have no way of getting in touch with other people who have gone through religious life as we have.  Thankfully, I had friends already who had left and their companionship has been invaluable to me. It is crucial to have the support of fellow former ssvm when you leave. It perplexes me as to why the superiors do not reach out to some of us who have left in recent years, who have transitioned smoothly and still remain in touch, attempting to build a little support bridge between inside and outside the convent. A girl who leaves needs lay women friends, and who better than those who have gone before her on the journey back into the world? Both in Argentina and here, there are private Facebook groups started by us, just for girls who have left ssvm as a way to connect. It is a need, it is healthy and it is helpful. Why aren’t the superiors of the Institute fostering this when a girl leaves? Why not take advantage of myself and others who have openly offered our companionship to girls who are leaving? Let’s build this bridge, instead of letting the pieces lay there stagnant. We have the materials; we just need to connect them all! ☺ Why not?

→“Generosity” – I believe the concept of generosity is overused in the convent and falsely understood. The idea of generosity is perpetuated as a way of selflessly serving God at all moments, in all ways, interior and exterior. This buzzword is wielded when encouraging discerners to respond to their vocation, urging members to offer for jobs or tasks, praising members for sacrifices like getting up early, missing siesta, using free time to do something for the community, etc. I recall the dogma of generosity being so imbedded in my mind that at one point I decided to just offer for everything, so that I was never saying no to something God asked of me, or feeling guilty for being selfish. While there is obvious goodness in this virtue, there also needs to be a balance, just like in everything. God does not want me to offer for everything to the point of exhaustion, headaches, lack of sleep, irritation. This goes along with the idea of taking care of our Incarnation. If we are honestly tired and our body is asking for a rest, then we should not offer to drive sister to the doctor’s during siesta. Furthermore, not offering for things because we are listening to our bodies in an honest, balanced way should not be looked upon as ‘lacking in generosity.’ I feel the concept of generosity is used in the Institute in an unfair and unbalanced manner, to the point of obsession. It is authentically generous to take care of yourself & to create healthy boundaries, so that you can more happily and efficiently serve others and God. 

→The Priests - I must preface this section by saying that I have a deep gratitude for a handful of IVE priests who guided me during my years in the convent. I know that their intentions were and are good, that at heart they are good men, seeking to love God & others. This chapter is not directed at any priest in particular, but speaks of a larger issue.

The Institute places an exaggerated degree of attention on the priesthood, to the point that the sisters are formed to basically do whatever Father wants, however and whenever he wants it, subtly learning to not have a voice before him and to defer always to him. This sounds exaggerated, but we all know it’s not. The tricky part is that this learned, submissive behavior of the sisters is hidden behind their culture that reveres the priesthood, upholding everything they do as if they were Jesus Christ Himself. So serving Father becomes equivalent to serving Jesus. In return for everything the priests ‘heroically’ do for us (sacraments, spiritual direction, classes, etc) we owe them our attentive service in gratitude. However, this service ends up looking and feeling like simply being a servant of the priests, catering to all their personal and apostolic needs. Even as a superior, I still felt this way most of the time. Quick examples would be: driving the priests, cleaning their chapels, cooking for them. The ssvm quite literally are (in addition to their other duties) the chaufers, cleaning ladies and cooks for the priests. I do not believe this is what women religious are called to do. Quite frankly, I don’t think this type of relationship is good for either side. I saw that the skills, intelligence and ideas of the sisters are often ignored in preference for “whatever Father wants.” When I returned home and began working in a parish, it took me a long time to find my voice and feel comfortable speaking with Father as a fellow peer and adult. 

I also have issue with the exaggerated way the relationships between the men and women religious are monitored, especially during formation. It feels scandalous for a seminarian and a sister to speak or interact with each other. It is so exaggerated that I believe it has the opposite effect, putting more attention on the chastity issue than if the relations were allowed to be natural.

→Young Superiors – Maybe by now this issue has been addressed or is slowing trending out, but I still believe it necessary to say a word on placing young women (in age and religious life) as superiors. For the record also, the answer “we are a young Institute” holds no water anymore, after now being in existence for 30+ years. So, I have two main concerns in this area:

Firstly – that putting a young woman in such a consuming role can hinder in many ways her human development. I was made superior straight from the Juniorate, at age 26, which is actually older than some others who I remember suffered the same fate. My main concern with appointing young women superiors is that, due to the increased responsibilities, stress and time constraints placed on them in their new role, they result in having zero time to develop their human person, their passions, their identity outside of “Madre.” A regular sister’s life is super packed and busy with very little free time as we know, and a superior’s life is twice times that, so a girl at age 26 has no life or time to herself, no room to in a sense “grow up,” outside of transforming herself into a “Madre,” assuming all responsibilities cheerfully. When I was first asked to be superior, I recall simply feeling that I was “sacrificing” or “dying to self” and that is what God wanted. However, I came home at age 30 and had no idea who I was, what I liked or thought, outside of my persona as ‘Mother Lumen.’ I graduated 6th in my high school class, with a 3.8 summa cum laude from college and passed years full of various sports and recreational activities before the convent and yet, at age 30, felt like I had no idea who I was outside of a habit and veil. My role as superior was so work-driven, that 4 crucial years of young-adulthood passed without me growing into my adult self, knowing myself and learning to trust myself. I find this to be sad. Since the convent, I have had the time of my life getting to know myself and enjoying the freedom of creating my own life. It simply concerns me how this custom can hinder one’s self-development.                                                               

                                               

Second – I feel the Institute chooses superiors who, like myself, have a personality that is responsible, cheerful and feels uncomfortable rocking the boat. They are the type to believe everything, behave obediently and cheerfully and feel safest keeping everyone in line, in a kind manner. This practice seems to serve to keep the Institute going as is, without stopping to question things that might seriously need questioning! Conversely, sisters who are a bit more outspoken & independent are often ostracized and never given much in the way of responsibility, a fact worth noting. I can name a dozen or more superiors during my time that had personalities similar to my own and were also very young. It feels good at first to be a part of such a wonderful group, but looking back, it seems that we were chosen because we just keep steering the boat straight ahead, with a smile as if everything going on inside is perfectly fine and acceptable. We even believe it is!

→Health: I believe in the Institute, we do not get enough sleep. Seeing as though the daily, regular life of a member is jam packed and stressful, sufficient sleep is a must for the body and brain to recover and rejuvenate. Skipping siesta, staying up late and getting up ‘heroically’ early are terrible, especially within the context of an already stressful life and also if sustained long term. All of this can lead to adrenal fatigue, which means that your body, having remained in a state of high stress without relief, will eventually break down, feeling constantly exhausted, getting sick, not being able to sleep or function well, etc. 

Secondly, we are human and have an emotional life that needs care and attention. The Institute fails miserably at allowing its members to attune to and process their emotions regularly and in an acceptable way. Some go to therapy, but only those with dramatic life histories. As anyone can research, when emotions are ignored, avoided or when one feels ashamed at their own feelings, this all has health consequences. If you wonder why certain priests or sisters are always sick, have so many allergies, cannot recover from a cold, always get migraines, have stomach problems, it most definitely could be due to the suppressing or ignoring of emotions, coupled with the Institute’s general sense of ridicule around showing emotion. Everyone deserves space to process their hearts and to know it’s healthy to do so, outside of spiritual or superior direction, which is often the default. There is fostered a general sense of mistrust of self and emotions in deference to superiors and SD’s, which is concerning. It was a new and rebellious moment for me when I listened to my heart and followed God’s voice there, to leave religious life. I hadn’t done that in ages because of religious life and yet it was one of the best, freest choices of my life. This topic (emotional life and health in general) leaves a lot to be discussed, but in the effort to keep this letter succinct, I will leave it at that.

Perhaps by now, some of these concerns have already been addressed, in which case, great. However, if not, I allow my words to be whatever they are meant to be, now that they are out of my heart and mind, and in your hands.                                                           

IVE Formation Problems Part II - The Spiritual

This is part two of a four part series.  Part 1 is here.  Parts three and four will follow in the coming months.  

We have warned you that it is probably not a good idea to enter the IVE - at least not until its institutional problems are resolved - assuming they can be.  

At the center of these problems is the process of formation cultivated by Fr Buela and now institutionalized into the IVE culture and all its houses of formation.   It's from this dysfunction in formation that we see the two main fruits of the IVE - the recruitment without proper discernment or concern for the candidate and the diaspora of young IVE priests leaving soon after ordination.

This is the second in a series of posts where we'll highlight the many issues you'll encounter during formation with the IVE (issues, that of course, the IVE doesn't tell you about.)  We are focusing one post each on the 4 pillars of formation laid out by John Paul II in his exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis:  the Intellectual, Spiritual, Pastoral, and Human pillars of formation.

In the first post we covered deficiencies in Intellectual pillar of formation at IVE seminaries - a formation which, judging by their website, the IVE are very proud of.  In this subsequent post we'll cover the second pillar of formation, that of the Spiritual - an area they are equally boastful of:

Self-sacrifice?  Yes, in more ways than you probably can imagine.  Intense prayer life?  Well, as we covered in part I of this series - and in many other posts on this site - the IVE like to say one thing and do another.  Whether this is purposeful or out of ignorance is not our place to say, but it is our place to make you aware of it so you can make an informed decision and give informed consent when entering the IVE and submitting to its superiors. 

No Spiritual Charism

There are several problems in this area. The first and most apparent is that this is a religious community without any true charism.  If one looks at the Orders who have stood the test of time, the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Salesians etc., they all had a charism given to them by God.  They each had a clear mission.  Jesuits are to be educators.  Dominicans are to be Preachers.  Franciscans are to preach the cross of Christ through poverty, penance, and preaching.  Carmelites are to live lives of penance and be contemplatives.  Salesians evangelize the poor and abandoned - especially the youth.  The success of all of these religious orders, and the struggles and failures many have had as of late, are relative to how faithful they are to their charism.

When an order strays from the mission it was given by God, one shouldn't be surprised when problems begin to arise. This is why these Orders were strongest while their founders were still alive or after a reformer came along.  The founder would have kept them true to their mission and the reformer working to return them to it.  One has only to look at the history of Religious Orders to see the importance of a charism and the necessity of sticking to it.

In practice, the IVE does not have a defined charism.  They do not have a particular mission.  They did not start with a charism.  Their current "Evangelization of the Culture" is so broad it's effectively meaningless in word and deed.  If they are asked what their charism is they'll give various answers ranging from, “We are orthodox and joyful,” to “We are about the New Evangelization,” or “We embrace love of the Cross.”  None of these are true charisms.  They are only broad generalizations without any true path for accomplishment.  "Orthodox and Joyful" is not distinct to a group.  The New Evangelization - what does that mean to them?  Everyone claims to be about the new evangelization.  Love of the Cross - that is not particular to them either.

A Grab-Bag Spirituality

Because they have no charism they have no guiding principle or direction.  They simply take what they like from many other Saints and Orders.  This can be a good idea when done prudently and it is what diocesan priests do.  Unfortunately, the IVE do not do this prudently.  Their founder pieced together many disparate, often conflicting practices with no framework to make sense of them and no way to integrate them.  

Some practices do not work with others and certain practices isolated from their original structure are not efficacious.  Practices of certain saints and religious orders often work very well in their system, but if removed from that environment and placed in another - in combination with things they were not intended for - they are ineffective at best and potentially harmful.  To use an example from nature, a shark is the one of the top predators in the ocean.  It moves quickly and has little to fear.  Yet if you put that same shark in a lake or on land it will die.  Not all things can be isolated from their intended environments without problems.

For example, in the IVE, during their Spiritual Exercises, which they consider a staple of  their spiritual formation and discernment, they have people following Ignatian Rules while simultaneously reading St. John of the Cross.  Each of these is great on its own but they are not intended to be mixed.  They teach contrary approaches to prayer.  The exercises are based on imaginative prayer, using your sensory imagination, while St. John of the Cross states one should never do this.  They both have spiritualities that work but they are based on different forms of prayer.

Using one form of prayer with another spirituality will not allow one to accomplish what  the saint originally intended.  The Institute is trying to build a spirituality by isolating practices and combining them with others they weren't intended for and do not work with.  Imagine if someone tried to build a car using an engine from a jet ski, a tractor tire, a tire from a bicycle and the steering mechanism from an airplane.  All of these things are good if used in the way there were intended in the environment intended.  Yet trying to use each of them without their supporting structures - and then combining them with equally isolated practices - leads to disaster.

A Search For Justifications?

In some cases this mish-mash appears the result of innocent, if misplaced zeal - yet in other cases the Institute seems to have searched quite extensively, often relying on obscure texts from (sometimes very obscure) religious figures to justify some of their practices.  

Take their approach to obedience, for example.  Like the Legion of Christ before them, the IVE claim that their religious vow of obedience is modeled after obedience as St Ignatius prescribed it for the Jesuits - especially their "obedience of judgment", also referred to as "obedience of the intellect."  They would tell you as much if the subject was brought up in conversation.  

Yet they don't quote St Ignatius in the relevant section of their constitution at all - probably because he would not support their view.  Instead they string together various quotes with zero context.  Quotes from religious figures - sometimes very obscure religious figures - all from different orders, with different charisms, thus with different intentions in their words.  Then from this they preach and practice what is essentially a blind obedience to superiors - much like the Legion of Christ did.  This is but one example.  There are many others.

We cannot know their motives for creating such a chaotic, disorganized spirituality, but we can think of a few explanations that make sense.  Either it is born out of ignorance and misplaced zeal or it comes from attempting to justify pre-determined courses of action - though we imagine it could also be a combination of the two.

These aspects of the IVE call to mind the words of Pope Francis when he said:

They tell young people: “Do this, do that.” So a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy or girl gets excited and they push them forward with rigid directives [...]  This type of rigid religiosity is disguised with doctrines that claim to give justifications, but in reality deprive people of their freedom and do not allow them to grow as persons.

Problems from Formators to Forums

There are other practical problems with their spiritual formation.  One is that they do not teach correct priestly spirituality.  For instance, there is a clericalism there which, prior to our experience with them, we could not have believed.  They act and demand that they are to be served rather than to serve.  They quite literally treat men in formation and all the sisters as servants, waiters, gophers, personal drivers, etc. - to the extent that even special food and drink is reserved exclusively for the priests at every meal.  

Division of labor and fostering a spirit of humility and service is one thing - instead they foster the idea that with ordination comes graduation into a realm of entitlement.  They  hypocritically, yet openly flaunt their vow of poverty which states they should "choose the worst."  Rather than provide an example to those in their care, the IVE priests lord it over those in formation.  This is a huge problem.

From the clericalism it's a logical extension to their blurring and disappearing of the line between internal & external forum - so much so that - even though it's a basic tenant of formation and is covered by canon law - the concept of "internal & external forum" is never even discussed by the IVE with those in formation.  You'll only learn about it if you have experience with another order or seminary.  We've written in detail on how the IVE disregard internal/external forum and the relevant sections of canon law under "Sign #13" here. 

Danger in Spiritual Direction

These violations of canon law and internal/external forum are just the beginning of the problems you face with IVE spiritual direction.  By being limited to IVE spiritual directors, you are effectively limited to deficient directors.  The saints saw great danger in this.  To quote Garrigou-Lagrange, one of the greatest Catholic Thomists of the 20th Century and academic advisor to a Karol Wojtyl:  

St. Francis de Sales says on the subject of a director: "He must be a man of charity, learning, and prudence; if any one of these three qualities be wanting in him, there is danger." St. Teresa expresses the same opinion.

The clericalism, the lack of concern for candidates, and your own eventual experience will make it clear the IVE is institutionally deficient in charity and prudence.  We've also clearly outlined in the first part of this series how anyone formed by the IVE will be deficient in learning.  Spiritual direction from an IVE priest - as we could personally testify - is dangerous. 

Further, while St Francis de Sales could only imagine one out of ten thousand as a capable spiritual director, nearly every IVE priest is saddled by his superiors with this grave responsibility.  The number of older, learned, and qualified spiritual directors in the area is quite plentiful given the many orders and seminaries in the DC / Catholic University area.  Yet you won't have the option of choosing one of these experienced directors.  IVE seminarians are stuck choosing from the few local IVE priests, many who are less than a few years removed from ordination and - lacking in all three key characteristics outlined as necessary by Garrigou-Lagrange, St Francis de Sales and St Teresa of Avila above - this is dangerous. 

To make matters worse, your IVE director will likely only be interested in you in so far as your vocation to the Institute.  Even if you leave on good terms (which is not always easy to do) and want to continue with your spiritual direction you'll find your spiritual director will quickly be too busy for you - cutting you off from spiritual direction in a time of great spiritual need.  

A Check the Box Off Approach to Prayer

Like their "spirituality" and "charism", even prayer follows a check the box off approach at the institute.  On an individual level, there is very little time available for personal prayer because of the crowded, arbitrary schedule.  In fact, even the most liberal seminaries give more time for quiet, personal prayer than one will receive with the IVE. 

Scheduled prayer is offered with no time for preparation before and no peace after.  Interior silence is further made difficult since you don't have ANY time alone.  Carving out time for individual prayer is impacted since each day is fully scheduled (and though schedules aren't followed, you are subject to the whim of the superior and need to ask permission for any exception - "keep the schedule and the schedule will keep you" is not the rule with the IVE.)  

They often boast that they are so quiet in prayer and so loud elsewhere - well, that's true:

For about 45 minutes of the adoration there will be silence and usually that's the only silence you'll get all day.  

In the US seminary your Holy Hour is crammed between the excessive business of the day on one side and the noisiness of the dinner table on the other.  This is contrary to the instruction of the Spiritual Doctors of the Church.  St Francis de Sales explicitly cautions about going from Holy Hour to a lot of noise - yet the IVE brag about this very practice on their website.

At the seminary in Segni, Italy it's even worse.  Adoration is frequently reduced in duration or cut altogether in favor of work or travel - even though the constitutions and spirituality clearly call for a minimum of one hour mental prayer a day (Though we really shouldn't be surprised when the IVE violate their constitutions.)

For many, the time in adoration is little more than a chance to catch up on sleep or to cry in silence (crying will be a daily occurrence among the sisters and quite frequent among the men as well - tears of joy or contrition we are sure.)  Only one priest will show up for adoration at the seminary.  All of the others are off relaxing or doing work.  The Novice master and parish priests where the novitiate adoration is held almost never show up either.  The same could be said for evening and night prayer.

Busy-Work Trumps Prayer-Life

When in conflict, work takes priority over one's spiritual life.  Your prayer life can therefore be severely restricted based on your "office" or work responsibilities.  If you are on cooking or service duty this greatly affects your prayer life on that day.  If you are cooking you have to leave Mass right after receiving Holy Communion to go and get everyone's breakfast ready and in the evening, while everyone else is in adoration, you are stuck in the kitchen preparing dinner.  (To make it worse, you have to prepare two meals, one for priests and another for seminarians.)  In theory you could get one hour before the Blessed Sacrament at some other time during the day, but in practice this is very difficult to manage due to the overloaded schedule, the lack of personal freedom, and the general disorganization (one could say an almost institutional distaste for applying organization or prudence to any undertaking.)  And there are many offices worse than being a cook.

Regardless of your individual responsibilities, you'll still find yourself working quite often on Sundays and Holy Days - we are not talking about pastoral work, but unnecessary manual labor which could be done any other day.  This is a direct violation of the 3rd Commandment.  If that seems harsh, imagine washing floors or scrubbing toilets on Christmas or Easter Sunday - your superiors telling you it's not really work if you remain joyful while doing it.  

They do this because they want to keep those in formation busy at all times - can't give you too much time to think, after all - even going so far as to order their seminarians to violate God's law.  This sense of busy-ness and activism is harmful to the spiritual life and is warned against by all Spiritual Doctors.

And Much More

Even though a 4th vow of slavery to Our Lady is taken there is no clear sign of extra devotion to Our Lady.  Daily rosary is on the schedule in the USA, but in Italy it's left up to the seminarian's discretion and prior to making the total act of consecration to Our Lady there is no structured preparation.

Though the Institute claims to be orthodox it is frowned on for anyone to receive Holy Communion keeling or for anyone to wear a roman collar. 

And if you entered you'd find many more examples where prayer and spiritual life take a back-seat to the arbitrary practices at the Institute.  

Just So You Know

We don't write this to question the spiritual devotion of the Institute's current seminarians or priests.  We write this so you can be sufficiently forewarned and informed where they were not.  

If you already have a solid foundation for your spiritual and prayer life and are hoping for it to grow then you may be best served looking elsewhere.

IVE Formation Problems Part 1 - The Intellectual

This is part one of a four part series.  Part 2 is here.  Parts three and four will follow in the coming months.  

There are many of issues with Catholic seminaries in the USA post Vatican-II.  They've gotten better of late, but there is still a long way to go.  Americans sometimes think they can avoid these issues by joining the IVE.  Unfortunately, formation at the Institute has its own set of problems.   

In this series of posts we'll highlight issues you'll encounter during formation with the IVE.  It is necessary to publish them here because the IVE won't tell you about them beforehand and you wouldn't otherwise know about them until after you've already joined.  

We'll focus one post on each of the 4 pillars of formation laid out by John Paul II in his exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis:  the Intellectual, Spiritual, Pastoral, and Human pillars of formation.

Because the IVE like to think of and advertise themselves as an intellectual - even academic - congregation, we thought we'd address that pillar first. 

Intellectuals?  Academics?

We are a bit flummoxed that this is actually part of their FAQ because this in no way describes the Institute.  Despite trumpeting their size and growth, only one or two of their priests have ever published anything at all and only with their own IVE Press.  Some priests get 2 year licentiates in philosophy or theology (the bare minimum required to teach at a normal seminary) but we aren't aware of any IVE priest that has a doctorate.  We aren't even sure that half of the US seminarians enter with high-school diplomas.  This doesn't make them bad priests or bad people, but it does make this FAQ a bit haughty and disingenuous... though that is certainly not out of character for the IVE.  

We can see from Jack Toller's account of the IVE in Argentina that there has never been a strong academic foundation or intellectual bent - and that this characteristic goes back to the founder, Fr. Carlos Buela:

He did not, however, put much emphasis on the quality of his professors, and most of the better endowed ones soon left the Institute for one reason or another (I’m thinking here of Fathers Carlos Biestro and Ramiro Sáenz, but there were many more that left as well.).  I had visited their premises in 1992 and had seen things for myself.  To begin with, there was no proper library, no proper classrooms, no proper teachers - the whole system of studies amounted to not much more than a hodge-podge of a bit of philosophy here, and a bit of theology there.  This was explained away, of course, with reference to the difficulties that go with all new institutions when at the early stage of their foundation, etc.  Anyway, this never changed much, for Father Buela never had a high regard for scholarly studies - that is, an appetite and quest for truth. Quite different was his approach - as with everything else - if high grades and scholarly distinctions were considered only as a means to other ends

As you will see below, this account is consistent with the current state of IVE academic formation in both the USA and Europe (we can't speak to the current state in Argentina.)  The very idea that you will be in an academic program that is in any way rigorous or an environment that could be described as studious is just bizarre.   

The Thomism is really just Advertising

Thomism is another aspect of their formation that the IVE have become very vocal about  and it attracts more than a few Americans seeking to avoid strains of modernism.  Unfortunately, like so many aspects of their congregation, this is more an instrument for self-promotion than an actual guiding principle.  Their claim to be faithful to St Thomas  lacks any academic foundation.  

A Lord of the Flies Approach to Teaching

While some philosophy classes are taught by the local IVE parish priests who will at best have the equivalent of a Master's degree in philosophy or theology, the majority of non-theology classes are taught by fellow seminarians.  These seminarians are obviously not credentialed.  Most have no degrees in the subjects they are teaching nor any real degree at all.  They are just favored seminarians who took the class a year or two earlier, then with no teaching experience, turn around and conduct class from pre-assembled hand-me-down class notes.

Classes are short and, given the IVE's chaotic schedule-keeping, frequently cancelled.  There are no papers assigned.  Your "study time" outside of class is generally silent so you are not able to discuss or ask questions from fellow classmates as you would at a normal institution.  When you do ask questions from your "professor" you aren't likely to get any depth past what's on the notes he was given. 

So their much-trumpeted intellectual foundation in Thomist philosophy will have faux-professors, rushed classes, limited discussion, no papers...  It's all rote memorization and regurgitation - a surface level understanding of philosophical terms from a perspective that the Institute controls.

That's why, as much as they belittle other seminaries, when they get a seminarian who has actually studied at a diocesan seminary or with a different order he is immediately given teaching responsibilities - because his academic background and rigor will be so much deeper than those that have only studied with the IVE.  If you enter with even a secular undergrad degree you'll probably end up teaching something very early on, simply because you'll be that much further ahead than your classmates.  

No Foundation in Theology Either

Dogmatic theology courses at any other seminary would be taught over the course of a semester by a real professor, with time for reading, discussing, and digesting these important concepts.  Yet at the IVE the majority of these courses are taught over the course of only 1 or 2 weeks.  Why?  Because they don't have real professors.  They have a few priests at the seminary, but they don't have the background or the time to teach all the classes - especially since they are given many other responsibilities (eg. their seminary rector was also the pastor at the seminary's parish.)  So their solution is to fly in IVE priests from US parishes who are able to travel in for only a week or two at a time.  

Usually these are IVE priests who have spent their whole adult life with the IVE, going to the IVE minor-seminary for high-school, then the IVE seminary in Argentina for their philosophy and theology.  At best they will have 2 years at real academic institutions getting licentiates in theology or philosophy.  None of them have published.  None of them have real experience teaching.  None of them will teach full semester classes. 

And when you think it couldn't get worse they will even have some of the more senior, educated seminarians (who fit that description because they had time at non-IVE seminaries) teaching theology classes.

Their Italian seminary in Montefiascone is apparently even worse.  Many seminarians don't even have teachers, but study modules on their own.  English speakers have self-study classes using class notes from the U.S. seminary and non-English, non-Italian speakers spend all their study time translating Italian notes into their own native language.

None of it is Accredited

Not only are the teachers not actual professors, but neither are any of the IVE courses accredited.  What's that mean?  It means if you study with the IVE and then (like most) decide to leave, none of the classes you have taken with the IVE will count for anything.  You'll have to take all the courses over.  There's no real college credit and no real degree.  Nobody else inside or outside of the Church recognizes their coursework.  It also means that if you discern that you don't have a vocation, you leave the IVE with nothing, regardless of how long you studied with them.  They are only able to ordain priests because of their relationships with Cardinals McCarrick and Sodano.

A few seminarians in the US that qualify (ie. are here legally & have  legitimate undergrad degree prior to joining the IVE) will have the opportunity to attend philosophy courses at a real academic institution.  They will study in the 2-year Licentiate in Philosophy Program at the Catholic University of America (CUA.)  The irony is that other orders with local seminarians shy away from CUA (which has some heterodox professors), instead encouraging their seminarians to take as many classes as possible at the more rigorous and more orthodox Dominican House of Studies (DHS) right across the street.  (The likely reason the IVE don't do this is that DHS requirements are too stringent for any IVE candidates to be admitted and, without Cardinal McCarrick to pull strings like he does at CUA, they can't get in.)  

The IVE has Trouble Telling the Truth (Again) about This Too

If you look at the DHS requirements, they include Latin and Greek, which brings us to this:

Notice that they claim three years of both Greek and Latin.  We honestly can't fathom how they put this on their site. While you will get at least some Latin "classes" (often taught by other seminarians) there is not even the pretense of studying that much Greek.  Maybe you'll get a semester of Greek at best in the US and maybe a few candidates in Rome will get it in individual study, but this just isn't true.  Unfortunately, this doesn't surprise us.  As we've mentioned before the IVE doesn't let the truth interfere with their marketing.

What about time to study?

Bright candidates might overlook the lack of structured classes and qualified teachers with the hope of being able to study on their own.  Unfortunately, the schedule is filled with so many mandatory activities that this isn't realistic.  

Even during finals week, instead of having more time to study, more unrelated activities are just added to the schedule.  "Sports" will be scheduled every day during exam week and, as you'll learn when you join, this isn't optional.  Work also continues as normal during the exam period and is, in fact, often increased to fill in the schedule since there are only exams and no regular classes.  Eutrapaelia will also be added to the schedule every single night during the exam week - keeping you up even later than usual.  So even though you'll be mentally exhausted from studying and be physically exhausted from having sports every day, you'll have to attend Eutrapaelia and play games late into the night.  This is very unlike any other seminary - or any normal academic institute for that matter - where students are given additional time pior to and during exams to study and adequately prepare. 

This is the truth

Our purpose here isn't to pick on the IVE, their priests, or their seminarians.  Our purpose is to give prospective seminarians access to the truth.  If the IVE were more humble and more honest in how they portray their formation, this wouldn't be necessary. 

Has the Institute been lying to you?

We've beat around this bush before, but in this post we want to just come out and say it:  The IVE doesn't just practice "discretion", they out and out lie to you, and when those falsehoods are exposed they do whatever they can to cover it up.   

Three Levels of Lying

There are three levels to lying.  The first starts with not telling the whole truth.  The second is out and out lying.  The third is when you get caught doing the first or second and you attempt to cover it up.  

Not Telling the Whole Truth

In some cases this is just discretion: holding back information unless one really needs to know.  In other situations not telling the whole truth is just as bad as outright lying:  purposely withholding information even though a person has a right or need to know.   While the IVE certainly doesn't take an open-kimono approach to their recruitment, the question is whether their actions simply constitute discretion or whether they are actually being deceitful.  

Maybe you can explain away things like their formerly-airbrushed Wikipedia page (this link compares their old Wikipedia page here to the new, more objective one here) as the result of discretion or, at worst, an overzealous seminarian proud of his congregation (although when a Legionairre is criticizing you for lack of transparency, you really have to wonder.)   The same goes for their web-page, although as we have touched on briefly and will outline further in the future, their websites have lots of problems with the truth.

Maybe not everyone who stumbles onto their webpage needs to know everything, but how about someone that is thinking about joining them?  Should they be told the founder has had to resign twice and that the superior general in between those resignations has entirely left the congregation?  Should they be told that a tremendous number of the IVE priests have left as well?  Certainly this might give discerners reason to pause when considering the IVE, but isn't this information they still deserve to know?  

Those are rhetorical questions, of course.  Absolutely a discerner has a right to know these things, but the IVE would never volunteer this information in the past.  In fact, before we started this website the IVE (at least in the USA) never even had to lie about these things because no one would ever even think to ask these questions.  After all, these are the last things you would expect from such a "young and joyful order" as the IVE, right?

Do you think this kind of information is relevant to discerners?  Do you think the IVE was lying by hiding its past in order to help it's recruiting and fundraising?  From this perspective, a cleverly white-washed wikipedia page and the general reticence about their past seem more than a little self-serving.  

Discerners Need to Know

If you are discerning with the IVE then obviously you have a right to know this information.  The IVE's policy in the past has been never to disclose their less savory elements, ensuring they were never brought up - their own twist on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy: "Don't tell and you don't know to ask."  

While we can and should question the morality of the IVE hiding this information in the past, more pressing is how they will answer these questions now that you know to ask them:    

• If I am unsure about my vocation and you say you will help me discern, what is the discernment process I will follow after I enter?
• Will I have financial obligations after entering?  Who will pay for my trips home to see my family? 
• If I give money to the Institute and later decide to leave, will the institute give me any of it back?
• If I decide to leave, will the Institute provide me with money for transportation and food to get home?
• Why would no Bishops ordain even your transitionary deacons for the three years before you moved from Argentina to Italy? 
• Why do so many of your priests leave?  Can you put me in touch with some ex-IVE priests so I can get their perspective as well?
• Will you be running background checks and psychological exams before anyone enters the novitiate house or seminary so we can feel safe?
• Do you have a syllabus of the classes you give?  Do you have a list of the professors who taught at your seminary this year?  
• Why do priests eat different food than the seminarians and novices?  Why don't the priests ever serve themselves?
• Why does the Rector (and the rest of the seminary staff) hear the novices' confessions?  Is that blurring the lines between internal and external forum (and violating Canon Law)?
• Will I have access to outside (ie. non-IVE) spiritual directors and confessors as is my right by Canon Law?

These might seem like tough questions, but when you consider that the IVE is asking for your blind obedience for the rest of your life, these questions are actually very reasonable.  And you better ask these questions before you enter, because you aren't going to get any answers from them after you've joined.

Should you even trust their answers

Let's be honest, if you are reading this we doubt you'll actually ask the IVE these questions.  More than likely you'll wash your hands from them and move on to a group with less baggage.  If, however, you do want to continue with the IVE then you are obligated by the virtue of prudence to ask these questions and, when you do, please let us know what they have to say.  We'll be very upfront that we don't expect them to tell you the truth.

After all, especially according to their own constitution, superiors deserve not only the truth, but obedience as well.  Yet they stonewalled, lied to, and disobeyed Pope Francis in Argentina.  They stonewalled and lied to a Bishop in Ireland and got kicked out of that diocese as a result - it was their only parish in Ireland and is interestingly still on their website, certainly just an oversight on their part.

If they won't even tell their superiors the truth, it's worth asking why they'd bother to share the truth with you or why you should even trust any of the answers they give.  

Even if they wanted to tell you the truth, its fair to wonder if they are qualified or even have access to the truth themselves since they can't even get basic information about their own formation right (more examples of "oversights" like these to come in the future.)

There is no excuse for covering up the Truth

If it's not clear to you yet that the Institute has a problem with the truth, we don't need to look any further than the IVE's reaction to our recent post.  

We showed, using information and videos publicly posted by some of their priests, how the Argentine IVE priests were taking expensive "Pasquetta" vacations to exclusive resort hot-spots like the Dominican Republic and Vail, Colorado.  You should read the post to see the many ways these trips were both problematic and hypocritical. 

What was the Institute's reaction when they saw that post? (Yes they read this site.)   If they had done nothing wrong, they would have left their videos and accounts up.  Instead, they took the videos down and deleted their account. 

They knew they were doing something wrong.  They know they lie to you about their vow of poverty and they lie about their finances when they ask you to contribute.  Rather than come clean, they not only continue to lie, but they took steps to hide their behavior from you.  

Where Are Virtue and Holiness?

This kind of behavior would be scandalous even if it were a political party we were talking about, but this is supposed to be a religious group!  A religious group that proudly sends its sisters and seminarians out to beg, then feeds them rotting food, all while its priests vacation at posh resorts.  Where is any virtue in this behavior?  Where is there any holiness?  Not even "pagans" would see this as ok, yet this behavior and obfuscation is standard for the Institute.

To close, lets reflect on some thoughts on the Eighth commandment from the CCC:

2464 The eighth commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. This moral prescription flows from the vocation of the holy people to bear witness to their God who is the truth and wills the truth. Offenses against the truth express by word or deed a refusal to commit oneself to moral uprightness: they are fundamental infidelities to God and, in this sense, they undermine the foundations of the covenant. 

2469 "Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another."  The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, "as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth." 

2489 Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication. The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not be known or for making use of a discreet language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it.

Through their reticence and concealing of their behavior do the IVE look out for the common good, the good of those in their care, or only for the "good" of the superiors by bringing in more people to serve them and pay for expensive trips?