Word: mercedarian
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...Politics? Last week, at the rocky island prison of Procida in the Bay of Naples, a young (33) Franciscan priest, violin-playing Blandino Della Croce, urged the revival of the Mercedarian tradition-with a mid-20th Century twist. Blandino announced that he would substitute himself for one of the 13 Italian war criminals serving terms on Procida...
...This," he said, "is the beginning of a religious crusade to relieve the suffering of innocent people . . . In the Middle Ages, when people were imprisoned for political reasons, it was necessary for the Mercedarians to undertake their mission of liberation. These prisoners are just as deserving of the Mercedarian spirit as the crusaders enslaved by the Turks...
...after a year. He went to Switzerland and this year returned to Italy. He re-established contacts with ex-servicemen and chaplains of Mussolini's Republican Army and with the neo-Fascist Movimento Italiano Femminile (Italian Women's Movement), to whom he propounded his idea: revive the Mercedarian tradition for liberation of Italy's 20 war criminals convicted by Allied tribunals, and 1,600 sentenced by Italian courts. Embittered ex-servicemen, theological students, relatives of prisoners gave him support-offers of money and of substitution for prisoners. Blandino and some of his sympathizers sent a letter...
...Mercedarian. Blandino said he intended to remain on Procida until the government recognized the principle of voluntary substitutions. His movement, he predicted, would spread until all war prisoners had been liberated. But his Franciscan superiors gave him no encouragement. "The custom of voluntary substitution,""said one of them, "was never in our code." A Vatican aide brushed off Blandino as "an esaltato [fanatic] who defied discipline. To preserve the peace of Saint Francis it is best to ignore a mistaken effort to bring the peace of Saint Francis to others...
...particularly strong cry of indignation rose from Mercedarian headquarters, disturbed from a century of obscurity. Snapped a Mercedarian father: "Blandino isn't of us. The Mercedarians never volunteered to substitute for political prisoners. They were only interested in religious prisoners whose faith might waver under persecution and imprisonment. We want no part of politics...