MARIAN CONGREGATION. - A religious association, established and promoted by the Society of Jesus, whose purpose is to form chosen individuals of any state or condition, so that they may attend to their own sanctification, to the apostolate and to the defense of the Church, especially by means of a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Common Rules, art. 1). It differs from the confraternity, whose purpose is the increase of public worship and which requires a special habit (CIC, can. 707); from the Pious Union, whose purpose is the exercise of determined works of piety or charity; from the Third Order, necessarily dependent on a religious Order, whereas the M. C. has no such dependencies (can. 702). It differs further from the "Center" of social works and from the associations of Catholic Action both in purpose and in organic and hierarchical form, although there is lacking in them none of the notes that belong to Catholic Action, so that it can be called, according to the constitution Bis saeculari of Pius XII (27 Sept. 1948, AAS, 40 [1948], pp. 393-402) "Catholic Action under the auspices and inspiration of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (ibid., p. 398).
I. HISTORY
To free himself from anything that could slow down his strictly priestly ministry was a principle dear to St. Ignatius; but not wishing to sacrifice any good initiative, he entrusted its care to others. Therefore in 1547 he gathered at the Gesù a nucleus of twelve gentlemen whom he trained in the spiritual life, in the practice of zeal and charity. On his advice and on this model his principal disciples had promoted, throughout Italy and especially in Sicily, congregations or companies or societies that multiplied rapidly. The young Belgian Jesuit Jean Leunis in 1563 founded one in the class in which he taught, at the Roman College. The following year the group, extended to the whole college, numbered 73 young men, and was called the Congregation of the Annunciation, the title of the college church at that time.
From the Roman College it spread to the other colleges of the Society of Jesus, and in 20 years such sodalities multiplied everywhere. With the bull Omnipotentis Dei (5 Dec. 1584) Gregory XIII, noting that it had become a worldwide center of attraction, canonically erected the C. M. of the Roman College, establishing it as the Primaria, to which the others were to be aggregated. The Primaria was subdivided into various branches, so that the first sodality was given the name of Prima Primaria. From the very beginning, the C. M. played a notable part in the reaction against heresy, schism and Islam which were attacking Europe, in the propagation of the faith among unbelievers and in the spiritual improvement of the secular and regular clergy. Benedict XIV, with the bull Gloriosae Dominae (1748), praised the C. M. for the great good they worked in the world and enriched them with new indulgences and privileges. Such apostolic success aroused the hatred of the Church's adversaries. Even before the suppression of the Society of Jesus, the C. M. had been dissolved in various nations. Clement XIV, whose brief Dominus ac Redemptor (1773) seemed bound to overwhelm them, hastened to save them from shipwreck. They flourished again as soon as Pius VII re-established the Society of Jesus. While the essential characteristics remained unchanged, something was modified. Previously the C. M. existed only in houses dependent on the Jesuits and only for men and young men: this double limitation disappeared and made the C. M. grow in number, if not always in value.
From as early as 1717 various female Marian associations had asked to be aggregated to the Prima Primaria of the Roman College. The Holy See gave the general Father Muzio Vitelleschi the faculty to aggregate some of them. Benedict XIV, with the brief Quo tibi (1751), extended the faculty to all female C. M. erected in the churches of the Jesuits; Leo XII extended it to all the others (1825).
Each year a thousand new C. M. have themselves aggregated to the Prima Primaria, from every nation, of every rite, of every condition, in great majority (95%) erected outside the houses of the Society. The aggregations made amount today to ca. 75,000.
II. SPIRIT AND RULES
At first glance, the purpose of the C. M. seems very vague: the cult and service of Mary, personal sanctification, the salvation of one's neighbor, the defense of the Church. In reality, however, the end is a single one: as a son of the Mother of God, the member, led by her to Jesus, lives through Mary the life of Christ with such intensity that, by an irresistible inner impulse, it overflows outwardly in works of zeal and charity. He becomes "the minister of Mary and, so to speak, her visible hands on earth" (Pius XII on the fiftieth anniversary of his consecration in the C. M., 21 Jan. 1945).
Such a purpose presupposes first of all a rigorous selection, not by the mere elimination of the unworthy, but through the choice and co-optation of those judged suitable and willing to pursue it effectively. Nor is this first screening enough. The candidates, after being instructed, formed, and tested, commit themselves for life by a consecration to the Madonna which, while not being a vow, binds them under penalty of sanctions that can extend as far as exclusion from the C.
Its watchword is: "to form the chosen element for the mass, and to reach the mass by means of the chosen element." Everything in it is oriented toward conquest in extension and in depth. In extension, through the unlimited variety of religious, apostolic, charitable, and social works. In depth, through personal action in domestic, civil, and professional life, which may be called "apostolate in one's own environment." To facilitate this action, the C. M. have been constituted, from their origin, by categories, according to age, condition, and profession, so as to favor, through such homogeneity, both the formation of the member and his influence on his environment.
Distinct from one another, the C. M. are linked and collaborate through periodicals, congresses, federations or unions (since 1948 also in Italy: v. below), through national or regional secretariats, and principally through the central secretariat of Rome which, without exercising jurisdiction, has the task of responding to the needs, desires, and questions of each one, whether directly or through its organ Acies ordinata, begun in 1924.
The C. M. depend neither on the Primaria, to which they are aggregated only in order to share in its spiritual favors (can. 722), nor on the General of the Jesuits, whose intervention, outside the houses of the Society, is limited to aggregating them at the request of the Ordinary, after the latter has carried out or authorized their canonical erection.
The aggregation to the Prima Primaria with participation in the privileges and indulgences belongs to the General of the Jesuits, to whom it also belongs to establish the rules of the C. M. that have their seat in the houses and churches of the Jesuits (the others depend on the Ordinary also for the formulation of their rules). The first rules were promulgated by Fr. Claudio Acquaviva in 1587; others were promulgated by Fr. P. Beckx in 1855; the last, under the title Regole comuni, by Fr. F. S. Wernz (8 Dec. 1910), who conformed them to the new decrees of the Holy See and to the changed conditions of the times. Conformity to the spirit of these rules is a condition for aggregation to the Prima Primaria.
III. CONFEDERAZIONE ITALIANA C. M. (C.I.C.M.). -
It is the union of the C. M. brought about in Italy on 27 Sept. 1948.
This, called for by the Common Rules (Reg. 68), was preceded
by numerous federations and unions outside Italy.
Its purpose is the internal strengthening of the member associations, and
collaboration with the other organizations of the lay
apostolate, especially with the organizations of Italian
Catholic Action. Its consultative and executive bodies
are the councils, regional and national, composed of
congregants: its deliberative bodies are the councils, regional
and national, composed of directors. The national
direction is in Rome; the regional ones in Rome, Naples, Palermo,
Turin, Milan.