PAPAL APPROBATION: RECOGNIZING OUR NAME AS THE EXPRESSION OF OUR IDENTITY

We have seen how Eugene was inspired to change our name and the importance of this for our understanding of our identity. With this Papal Brief, the change was officially recognized and we can say thatthe Church gave us the name of Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

POPE LEO XII

FOR FUTURE REMEMBRANCE OF THE MATTER

This being the situation, Our dear son Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod, Vicar General of the Bishop of Marseilles, Provost of the Chapter of the Canons of the Cathedral, and Founder of the said Society, has presented to Us a petition, humbly requesting Us, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, to approve by Our Apostolic Authority, both this family and its Rules, and to honour it with the title of Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, so that it may not be confused with those other Societies which also bear the name of Oblates of St. Charles.

Therefore, having taken into consideration that this Society was enriched with indulgences by Pius VII, Our Predecessor, and by Ourselves, that its great usefulness has been recognised by many Bishops, and that it will prove of considerable aid and enrichment to the Church in her afflicted condition … We hereby with a ready and willing mind, establish it, and wish it to be known by the name of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, conceived without sin.

…Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty first day of March, 1826, in the third year of Our Pontificate.

Pope Leo XII

Apostolic Letter of Approbation, 21 March 1826, Missions O.M.I., n° 280 (1952), pp. 568 ff.

In biblical thought, the concept of a “name” is so much more significant than phonetics. To know the “name” is to know the essence, character, or nature of a person. If a person has different names, they represent different aspects of his nature. When there is a substantial change in a person’s identity, there is also a change of name. (stpaulcenter.com/posts/the-power-and-purpose-of-names-in-scripture)