1. The practice of Saint Eugene de Mazenod
  2. The first beginnings
  3. Initiatives of the Superiors General
  4. In the Constitutions and Rules

The practice of Saint Eugene de Mazenod

One could say that the remote beginnings of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate (M.A.M.I.) emerge even before the Congregation it was meant to help.

The first appeal for financial aid with the assurance of prayers and spiritual benefits in recognition of help given antedates the actual founding of the Congregation. In making plans to open the mission house of Aix, Eugene de Mazenod, a practical man, realized that it was up to him to find the money to meet all the necessary expenses of the community of missionaries. Since the allowance he received from his mother and help from the diocese would not be adequate, he composed a Prospectus for the Missions in which he outlined his plans for the Missionaries of Provence:

“But an institution, which ought to produce such great fruit, an institution, which can be said to be so necessary, cannot be formed without the help of the faithful who assist with their charity. There is no doubt that those who have in their hearts a sincere love of religion, will consider it a pleasant duty to sow material goods in order to reap spiritual benefits.

Would they want to deprive themselves of the graces which God will grant to those cooperating with this holy enterprise? …

An easy way of contributing is that of donations or pledges for several years, according to the means of each person. Daily prayers will be said at the Church of the Mission at Aix for the benefactors, and during the missions the people will be asked to do the same.

Pledge Form: I promise to donate every year for years […] as long as my means permit me to do so, the sum of […] as a contribution to the cost of ‘establishing of the house of the Missions of Provence, founded at Aix in the former convent of the Carmelites.” [1]

In response to the direct-mail appeal made between October 1815 and January 1816, one benefactor was willing to loan de Mazenod 12,000 francs without interest for one year and his cousin Roze-Joannis promised a gift of 300 francs. The members of the Aix youth organization each contributed from one to six francs.

Even before the first Oblates were sent to the foreign missions, as vicar general and later as Bishop of Marseilles, de Mazenod was an ardent supporter of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith founded by Pauline Jaricot in Lyons in 1822. In responding to his appeals the faithful of the diocese of Marseilles were among the most generous in France [2].On the other hand he later showed no hesitation in seeking funds from the Society in Lyons as well as in Paris [3].

In September 1842 he granted spiritual participation in all the good works of the Congregation to Mr. and Mrs. Olivier Berthelet, in recognition for the gift of a house and property in Montreal, to Mrs. Jules Quesnel for several gifts of money, and to Miss T. Berthelet for prevailing on her brother to donate the house [4].

In 1848 he granted participation in the spiritual benefits of the Congregation to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Hôtel-Dieu of Montreal for their temporal and spiritual assistance to the Oblates [5], and in 1861 he did the same for the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux [6].

There can be no doubt that the Founder admitted the principle of lay people and other religious participating in the spiritual life of the Congregation and sharing in its good works in recognition for help afforded by prayer and almsgiving. In his 1848 Lenten pastoral de Mazenod urged the faithful of his diocese to follow the example of Jesus in working for the salvation of others:

“My dear Brethren, it is this divine Master, who was imitated by the Apostles, that we propose as the example of your zeal, within the limits of your means and of the obligations of your state of life. We urge you to sanctify Lent by spiritual works that are useful to the salvation of your brothers and sisters. Those who have in their hearts zeal for the truth are obliged to use all their means to bring about the victory of truth in minds closed to the light… Do not be surprised that we in this way associate you in a certain manner in our ministry, and have you share in the crown of apostolic men, glorious instruments of the eternal salvation of souls created in the image of God and redeemed by his blood. [7]

By asserting that at times the faithful were bound to proclaim with charity the truth in a way to avoid hurting others in order to bring about their conversion, de Mazenod showed that the laity are also called to be evangelizers [8]. Here he clearly announced a principle on which the apostolate of the laity is founded – another element in associating the laity to the Congregation.

During the 1850 General Chapter de Mazenod opposed a motion for a sort of third order of laity associated to the Congregation. The same motion was again proposed at the following General Chapter in 1856 and he acknowledged its opportuneness and stated that he would apply to the Holy See for the privilege of the scapular of the Immaculate Conception as granted to the Theatines. Although this privilege was granted on September 21, 1856, it seems that nothing further was done in establishing the confraternity. The Founder’s lack of enthusiasm for a special Oblate society for lay supporters can be explained by his wholehearted support for the Society of the Propagation of the Faith [9].

The First Beginnings

Three different kinds of initiatives lead to the establishment of the Missionary Association. The first consisted in the resolutions of General Chapters. As was seen above, motions were made in the 1850 and 1856 General Chapters for the founding of an organization that would be a sort of third order.

The 1879 Chapter approved in principle the idea of a confraternity or third order for the purpose of affiliating laity to the Congregation for their benefit and in view of aiding the works of the Congregation.

The General Chapter of 1893, inspired by steps taken by the Oblates in France and England, approved the two resolutions: the first for the foundation of an association or third order; the other for an association to seek financial help for the juniorates. The 1898 Chapter admitted the Marianischer Missionsverein (Marian Mission Society) of the German Province to share in the prayers, suffrages and good works of the Congregation.

These various resolutions, however, had little effect on the Congregation as a whole. The General Administration did, in fact, ask the Holy See for various spiritual favors for the benefactors and associations founded in the provinces.

If there was little united effort in the Congregation as a whole, concrete steps were taken in various provinces. Two different approaches were used: the one for the support of the juniorates, the other in the direction of a confraternity or kind of third order.

In 1896 a brochure with the title “Association of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate” (Association des Oblats de Marie Immaculée) was printed in Paris with the imprimatur of Archbishop Balain, O.M.I., of Auch. This Association was organized as a real third order – novitiate, oblation, meetings, etc. Was it ever in fact founded?

Until 1906 all scholasticates and their personnel were subject to the Superior General and he was financially responsible for their support; the juniorates were the financial burden of the provinces. It is precisely those provinces that had juniorates that founded societies for their financial support.

The province of Southern France established a scholarship fund (Caisse des bourses) for formation expenses of novices and juniors, and money was raised for this purpose by pledges or subions to the “Work of the Young Missionaries” (l’Œuvre des Jeunes Missionnaires). The Northern French province followed the same pattern. Later the project was called the “Work of Vocations” (Oeuvre des vocations). In 1907 Petites Annales for the first time called it the “Association of Mary Immaculate, Work of Vocations”, (Association de Marie Immaculée, Œuvre des vocations). In 1912 it was spoken of as the work of religious and apostolic vocations under the patronage of Mary Immaculate, or “Association of Mary Immaculate to promote religious and apostolic vocations”.

A juniorate was also opened in England and a scholarship fund was established to support it. In 1877, the Provincial with his council decided that the juniorate of Kilburn should remain open because of the bursaries given by benefactors.

Not long after, we see the same thing happen in Canada. The Sacred Heart Juniorate was opened in 1891 in Ottawa. Two years later La Bannière, its official organ, was launched. At the end of the volume of the issues 1900-1906 is a list of subscribers (souions) who are called “associates” (associés). The Denier du Sacré-Cœur was also founded in connection with the juniorate for its financial support.

In 1876 a society under the title of the Immaculate Conception was founded at Inchicore, which was parallel to the fund raising activity for vocations. In 1883 William Ring, Provincial in Ireland, organized the first pilgrimage from England and Ireland to Lourdes and as a follow-up he founded the “Association of the Month of May”. Upon leaving office as Provincial in 1888, he devoted all his efforts to the May Association with the cash surplus going to support the novitiate, juniorate and missions. It was given the name “Association of Mary Immaculate”.

In 1891 the “Missionary Record” was founded and published in London. In addition to this, in the province there were “Apostolic Circles” founded by M. Gaughren, later Vicar Apostolic of Kimberley. These groups of twelve contributors prayed and made donations for the Oblate missions.

In 1893 the first issue of Maria Immaculata was edited at the German province’s juniorate of St. Charles at Valkenburg in Holland and printed in Germany. The following year Max Kassiepe, a scholastic, founded the Marianischer Missionsverein, at St. Charles to support by prayer and alms the Oblate Missions and the juniorate. The office was transferred to Hünfeld in 1897.

The Initiatives of the Superiors General

1. FATHER LOUIS SOULLIER

In 1893 Louis Soullier, Superior General, requested and received from Leo XIII a number of indulgences for the members of the “Association (Consociatio) of Mary Immaculate for the Promotion of Religious and Apostolic Vocations”. In his petition Father Soullier stated that the primary purpose of the association was the promotion by alms and daily prayers of priestly and religious vocations among poor boys who, once ordained, could dedicate themselves to the missions.

2. FATHER CASSIEN AUGIER

Because of the difference of title and slight difference of purpose, Cassien Augier as Superior General requested that the indulgences be extended to the Marianischer Missionsverein, whose purpose was the support of the houses and missions which the Congregation had in Germany and its colonies. The request was granted by Pius X.

3. BISHOP AUGUSTIN DONTENWILL

In his report to the Congregation following the General Chapter of 1920, Archbishop Augustin Dontenwill said that the objective of the Association of Mary Immaculate had been only juniorate vocations, and that it must be enlarged to include all apostolic efforts of the Congregation. The center of the Association was henceforth to be at the General House, but all provinces and vicariates could ask the Superior General for the establishment of their own center. All Provincials were invited to spread the Association. With the authority to found a center was included approval for a magazine, newsletter, etc., as a means of union between the directors and associates.

The 1928 General Chapter requested that the notion of “missionary” be included in the title of the Association.

In 1929 Dontenwill addressed the circular “The Association of Mary Immaculate” to the whole Congregation in which he asked all Provincials to name a provincial director of the Association and presented an outline of his duties. He also named John Pietsch first Secretary General of the Association.

“The Association of Mary Immaculate is like an extension of our Congregation into the ranks of the faithful. It wants to bring together with us all who befriend our undertakings, our missions especially. Its members intend to work, with the means at their disposal, to support us and to help us in our missionary apostolate. Under the protection of Mary Immaculate, the Mother of Mercy, they become apostolic auxiliaries to the Missionary Oblates; they are, to some degree, part of our religious family, sharing its joys and sorrows, its battles and struggles, rejoicing in our successes, making our Congregation ever more known, winning new friends for it, propagating its publications, recruiting vocations for it and supporting its apostolate with their alms. In return, we grant them a share in our prayers and good works, in the sacrifices and merits of our missionaries; we pray in a special way for them and make our juniorists as well as the faithful of our old and new Christian territories pray for them through the Association, we group together across the world people who are devoted to us, look upon our religious family as their own, take to heart its interests and lead more and more vocations to it. [10]

Bishop Dontenwill showed no hesitation in stating the purpose of the Association:

“It is especially necessary to see to it that our houses of formation prosper in order to obtain for our religious family the workers required by our Provinces and by the missions entrusted to us.

To obtain this result, we are faced with the real necessity of perfecting our means of communication…

The 1926 General Chapter spent a lot of time on this question. It studied different methods apt to spread knowledge of our Congregation, it strongly recommended our various publications and again directed attention to an organization that we have had for a long time, and which has produced excellent results, and which we need to improve.

It is our Association of Mary Immaculate. [11]

While strongly promoting the Association, the circular did not demand uniformity or seek to promote one model for its organization and development rather it recognized the necessity of adaptation according to the local situation:

“In each province the organization can be adapted to the situation and the spirit of the country. One should profit from the experiences that we and others have had, either within the Congregation or outside it, to give the Association the form that is most apt for the milieu where one works and for the public which one addresses. [12]

This left great freedom to the provincial directors to respond to the needs of their provinces. Perhaps it would be best to say that there was not one Association throughout the Oblate world, but a federation of many Associations with the same goals, but using the means best fitting their own people and situation.

Following the circular there was a real expansion of the Association throughout the Congregation as can be seen from the reports of many provinces to the 1947 General Chapter. The Chapter requested the Superior General to publish a detailed circular concerning condition of enrollment, spiritual benefits accorded to the members, Masses to be said, etc.

4. FATHER LEO DESCHATELETS

The newly elected Superior General Léo Deschâtelets fulfilled this mandate on January 25, 1948 with the circular, “The Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate”. After sketching its history and correcting the error that had been often repeated since the time of Joseph Fabre that the Association was founded by de Mazenod in 1840, he set forth his desires for the Association:

“…we would like to see an immense army of lay people lined up about us on the great battle field of the missions where we are striving to carry aloft the banner of Christian Faith and Charity. There are the relatives and other young folk, truly Christian, and taking special interest in our Juniorists, Novices and Scholastics as if they were their own children or brothers. Let the battle cry of this giant army of Christian Charity be the challenging phrase of the great Pope of the Missions: ‘All believers in behalf of all the unbelievers’. And to this we add that other phrase, taken from our Holy Rule: ‘We must spare no effort to extend the Savior’s empire’ (Preface) …

The training of the Associates to a truly Christian way of life, is what we consider to be the first and most important purpose of the Association… When we consider that our Associates are, in some manner, a part of our religious family, then we realize that it is our duty to work seriously at their sanctification and to develop in them a real missionary spirit…

It is altogether foreign to our mind to consider the material aid that we receive from the Association as its main purpose. The greatest help that our Associates can ever give is and always will be that of prayer. Their prayers will be all the more fruitful if animated by an earnest and deep piety, and accompanied by a filial devotion to the Blessed Virgin. We should urge our Associates to an interior life, but, always in conformity with the duties of their state in life… Our Immaculate Mother, Queen of the Missions, exemplar of all Oblates, will be the model that we will hold before the eyes of those who are cooperating with us in the work of saving souls…

Our ideal as Oblates of Mary Immaculate is so beautiful that we do well to allow the faithful to draw inspiration from it. It is a treasure that is meant to be shared. [13]

The most positive element of this circular was the insistence upon the spiritual formation of the members. The precise title to be used for the Association in French, German, Flemish, Polish, Italian, Spanish, and English was specified. The inclusion of the missionary was mandatory and the Secretary General became the Director General. It was also inaccurately stated that the Association was a pious union as defined by canon 707 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law.

An impetus was given toward a uniformity in the Association that had not existed up to that time, and even toward structures that were unknown in many parts of the Congregation. The mission magazine of the province was to be considered as the official organ of the Association. After initial efforts in some provinces, the Association in most places continued to exist and function as it had before the circular. In fact the Missionary Association remained a federation of Associations, each functioning its own way, as it had been up to that time. The centre and heart of the activities of the Missionary Association is not at the General House in Rome, but in the provinces, where the local history and needs are respected.

A new feature was a tax of fifteen percent on the entire income of the Association that was to be sent twice a year to the Superior General for the foreign missions. This provision was changed into a voluntary contribution by the 1953 General Chapter, and even that was soon forgotten.

In the Constitutions and Rules

1. THE 1972 AND 1980 GENERAL CHAPTERS

The Director General presented the request from some provincial directors that the Constitutions include an article mentioning the M.A.M.I. The 1972 General Chapter responded by adding:

“Rule 89 bis: The Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate is strongly recommended as a most important association, and a valid help from the laity in favor of our missionary thrust and outlook” [14].

The 1980 General Chapter in separate articles (Rules 27 and 28) clearly distinguished the involvement of the laity “in the Oblate mission, ministry, and community” from the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate. In this way the historical origins and particular nature of the Association were respected. There was no attempt to reform the Missionary Association into something else; at the same time the door was left open for other initiatives for the laity to share in the mission of the Congregation.

2. THE CONSTITUTIONS AND RULES OF 1982

The 1980 Chapter view is now part of the 1982 Constitutions and Rules in which Rule 28 [R 41b in CCRR 2000] concerning the M.A.M.I. reads as follows:

“Communities are invited to cooperate with the provincial director of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate in organizing and animating lay groups which seek to share in Oblate spirituality and apostolate.”

An excellent statement on the nature and purpose of the M.A.M.I. today is that made in Rome, on February 12, 1978, to the M.A.M.I. provincial directors, by the then Superior General, Father Fernand Jetté. He quoted Archbishop Dontenwill (cf. above) and commented:

“Let us take note of the expressions: “an extension of our Congregation into the ranks of the faithful”; its members become “the apostolic auxiliaries of the Missionary Oblate”; “they are, to some degree, part of our religious family as their own”.

They are laity, fully remain laity; at the same time, however, they have the heart of an Oblate and are, to some degree, part of the Oblate family. [15]

In addressing the role of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate, Superior General Fernand Jetté pointed out the mutual giving and receiving on the part of the Oblates and the members of the Missionary Association:

“What the M.A.M.I. brings to us.

The Association’s members bring to us, first of all, a definite interest in our works, our missionary activity, our vocation apostolate, the growth of our religious family. This they do through prayer, enlightened promotion, devotedness to our works, financial support.

All of these benefits are easy to understand; they are especially external in nature. There is however, another type of support they offer us: it is more important and much more interior, more spiritual in nature. I deeply experienced it at the time of the beatification of Bishop de Mazenod. It is their faith in the Congregation and the way they see the Congregation. Their faith in the Congregation is a support for many Oblates and in a certain way strengthens our own faith. Their outlook on the Congregation is often a more objective view, one that is more detached from the details and pettiness of our daily internal existence, and it purifies our own outlook and makes us more capable to marvel and properly admire the wonderful things that exist in our Congregation. We need these laity for our own good health!

What we ought to give the M.A.M.I. members:

For our part, as Oblates, we can and ought to give much to the M.A.M.I. members. As Circular no. 182 explicitly says: in becoming members, they have a right to our special prayers and “share in the merits of the prayers, suffrages and good works of all the Oblates”. (p. 7). This is already an important contribution, but our duty is not fully accomplished thereby. When we accept these men and women as Missionary Associates, we undertake to help them grow in the interior life and in Oblate spirituality. [16]

WILLIAM H. WOESTMAN