Some dozen Oblates have commented on our Constitutions and Rules [1]. Among them some referred only briefly to the Preface, offering comments which were historical or spiritual in nature. It is not my intent to fill this gap; my intention is simply to take a reading on the state of the question: what has been written on the historical question, the sources, the import of the Preface of our Constitutions and Rules?

Origins

In its present form, the Preface was drawn up in 1825, not long before the Rule was presented in Rome for approval [2]. In the original manu of the 1818 Rule, it was found in quite another form. Indeed, it is the outcome of the fusion of the Nota bene which came immediately after chapter one of the first part with the foreword of the 1818 text [3].

With a few modifications, this foreword gave us the content of paragraphs 8, 9, and 10 of the present Preface, whereas we find a good portion of the Nota bene in the seven first paragraphs.

1818 Rule Preface of 1826

Foreword Paragraphs 8-10

Nota bene Paragraphs 1-7

The foreword states that certain rules of life were required to ensure the unity of spirit and action among priests whom the Lord inspired to "to come together in community to work more effectively for the salvation of souls and for their own sanctification".

The Nota bene followed the chapter which laid out the ends of the Institute. It explained the third end of the Institute by giving an analysis of the critical situation of the Church and of its causes namely, the "main", "root" cause of the others being "the laziness, indifference and corruption of the priests". Consequently, in order to respond to the most urgent needs there was a requirement to find genuinely apostolic men who, among other things, would work to reform the clergy.

In the process of transforming the Nota bene into the Preface [4], the Founder dropped the first paragraph, even though it was very important. He removed "certain expressions, too stern or rhetorical in character" [5] and everything that was too negative and directed against bad priests in order to give the Preface a broader, more positive perspective.

During his stay in Rome, some sentences of the text were also changed by the Founder and Bishop Marchetti as a result of the observations made by Cardinal Pedicini [6]. Thus, the first paragraph sentence, "the Church [...] bears him almost nothing other than monsters" was changed into, "This beloved Spouse, weeping over the shameful defection of the children she brought forth", since the Church does not bring forth monsters. In the same paragraph, the Latin expression absent from the French text: criminum suorum mensuram implevere was transformed into irritavere justitiam divinam sceleribus suis since one cannot put any limits on God's justice. The beginning of paragraph two was badly translated by the phrase: Divinis rebus ita flebiliter compositis; they made a literal translation of it from the French: in hoc miserrimo rerum statu.

In all successive editions of the Rules, this text subsequently remained identical with a few minor corrections. Originally written in French, the Preface was published in Latin in all editions from 1827 to 1966. From 1966 on, it was published in the various languages of the different editions of the Constitutions and Rules.

Contrary to contemporary Roman jurisprudence, in 1826 the Preface was accepted as forming an integral part of the Rule; it is still such today [7].

[1] See the bibliography.
[2] In the General House archives (Mazenod Collection DM XI) we possess four French manus of the Rule: the first is that of 1818, manus 2 and 3 bear no date and the fourth is the definitive French text of 1825 from which the Latin translation was made. In manus 2 and 3, reappear the Foreword and the Nota bene more or less as they appear in the 1818 manu. Only a few words have been changed. The 1825 text which fuses together what was the Foreword and the Nota bene, maintains the title Foreword. At the end of this study, there is a comparison of the 1818, 1825 and 1826 texts (French translation of the Latin text approved by Rome).
[3] The 1818 manu will always be quoted according the edition prepared by Paul-Emil Duval which appeared in Missions, 78 (1951): Foreword and Nota bene, printed separately, p. 11-12 and 15-19.
[4] In manu II, drawn up and corrected by successive retouching between 1821 and 1825, the Founder wrote: "This Nota bene must be placed at the beginning and it must be fused with the foreword". He did this in his 1825 edition. See COSENTINO, George, Histoire de nos Règles, II. Perfectionnement et approbation... 1819-1827, Ottawa, Oblate Studies Edition, 1955, p. 26 and 36.
[5] Letter to Hippolyte Courtès, January 18, 1825 in Letters to the Oblates of France, 1814-1825, Oblate Writings I, vol. 6, p. 161.
[6] "Osservazioni del cardinale Pedicini" January 10, 1826 in Missions, 79 (1952), printed separately, p. 90-91. See also COSENTINO, George, Histoire de nos Règles, II. Perfectionnement ..., p. 103-104. Cardinal Pallotta would have liked to have changed this expression from paragraph 2: "But alas! Few there are who respond to this invitation..". He based his reasoning on the text from Saint Paul: "Nolite tangere Christos meos". The Founder ignored as well another of Cardinal Pallotta's remarks which, in paragraph 7, would have liked to drop the expression "angustam vitae viam deducere". In the present Preface, this Latin text remained untranslated. What is simply said is: "indicate to them the road to heaven". See Missions, 79 (1952), p. 109.
[7] RESLÉ, Joseph, Commentarium privatum Constitutionum et Regularum..., prima pars, Ottawa, Oblate Studies Edition, 1958, p. 11, typewritten. SCRIS, March 25, 1982.