Prof. Dr. José Manuel Jiménez Aleixandre was born in Ceuta on January 26, 1952. Collaborator of the Sociedad Cultural Covadonga since 1973 and member of the Brazilian TFP since the 1980s, he also formed part of the Heraldos del Evangelio, as a member, from its foundation in 1999 and of the chapter brothers of the Clerical Society of Apostolic Life Virgo Flos Carmeli, from its establishment in 2005. Of his own free and spontaneous will, he requested the indult to leave this last institution in 2021, perplexed by the constant and arbitrary violations of rights caused by the commissariat. He obtained his doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas (Angelicum, Rome), and is a tenured professor of Canon Law at the Instituto Teológico Santo Tomás de Aquino.
Read also: Heralds of the Gospel: eight years of accusations without proof
As a witness to the behind-the-scenes of the Vatican intervention regarding the Heralds of the Gospel, he is the main member of the commission of this association who has written the exposé book “The Commissariat of the Heralds of the Gospel. Chronicle of the Facts. 2017-2025. Sanctioned, without dialogue, without proof, without defense”. Infovaticana interviews him exclusively.
From your experience as a canonist, to what extent do the measures taken against the Heralds of the Gospel deviate from the practice and theory of canon law?
The most surprising thing about the «Heralds case»—and what precisely motivated me and other colleagues to form the working commission that has written the book The Commissariat of the Heralds of the Gospel—is to realize that, from the very first moment of the intervention by the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life against the Heralds of the Gospel, which was the apostolic visitation, the most basic principles of canon law have been trampled without scruple. This situation has worsened over the six years of the commissariat, during which, I regret to say, all kinds of abuses have been committed. Thank God, during that time we collected all the information and documentation, which has allowed us to reconstruct the chronicle of events objectively. For brevity, I will limit myself to enumerating only some of these abuses, inviting readers to delve deeper into the subject by reading the book.
The apostolic visitation, which, according to the law, has the character of a motivated preliminary investigation based on the verisimilar news of some crime, in the case of the Heralds of the Gospel was preceded by a decree so broad and undefined that, in practice, it accused each and every member of the institution as suspects. An aggravating factor in all this is that the visitation began amid a great international media uproar against the institution, with strong indications of having been promoted directly by agents of the Dicastery, who, by leaking the news, compromised the good reputation of the institution and its members, causing incalculable damage.
The most surprising thing is that the visitors themselves claimed not to know what the «disturbing information» was that, according to the Dicastery, motivated this visitation. Even more serious was the totally partial way in which it was conducted, offering privileged spaces for listening to the detractors of the institution, but turning a deaf ear to former members who were sympathizers, thus configuring a clear affront to the principle audiatur et altera pars. To summarize this part greatly, it is worth mentioning that one of the visitors received a reprimand from the Dicastery by letter because he had not found negative information… Well, this and other indications point to the fact that the apostolic visitation was a mere formality to give a veneer of legality to a future intervention decided in advance and which, indeed, would begin a year later with the commissariat.
As for the commissariat, from the first day it was a succession of canonical blunders that I will limit myself to enumerating so as not to make this response too tedious: with total indifference toward the positive results of the apostolic visitation, the commissariat begins with the unofficial delivery of its decree to justify the dissemination of new news about the intervention in Vatican News—totally unnecessary—and to promote a new media campaign. That same decree was invalid in itself, as it pretended to commissar a non-existent institution, that is, a public association, which is not our case.
However, instead of preparing a new document, they had the audacity to modify the first one, which constitutes, from the outset, an alteration of a public document. Shortly afterward, the Supreme Pontiff was urged to ratify it with a specific approval. Pressured by threats, the Heralds were coerced into accepting such a situation. Next, the commissioners tried to act beyond the attributions of the decree, making it necessary to always resort to canon law to avoid greater outrages. Then came a string of absurdities: an attempt was made to force a series of subversions without any dialogue and overlooking the law, there was irregular permutation of positions, pressure on people in a state of invalidity, unilateral cancellation of priestly and diaconal ordinations totally arbitrary and contrary to the canons, attempts to strangle the growth of the institution by preventing the reception and formation of young vocations, denial of the charismatic roots of the institution, unilateral and furtive modification of the project of new constitutions and statutes already approved by consensus, draconian blockade of the final process to close the commissariat… even threats and physical assaults! Does all this seem exaggerated? I assure you that I am being very sparing in recounting everything that has happened.
The gravity of these processes is such that, in our work, we wanted to include an extensive juridical-canonical appendix, in which there are twelve reports with the detailed record of the facts that could have canonical legal implications and their assessment in the light of the law. The list of possible canonical crimes, which only a competent authority can resolve, is extensive and includes: falsification or alteration of a public document, inducement to error of the Supreme Pontiff, repeated abuses of authority, usurpation of office, conduct tending to interfere with or evade canonical investigations contra sextum, restriction of the right of defense, procedural fraud, violation of secrecy, calumny and defamation, complicity, partiality, etc. The reading of this sequence may seem exaggerated, but, unfortunately, it does not say it all. In practice, only the summary dissolution of the institution was missing…
What do you expect after the publication of this book?
Before answering, I want to emphasize that, although this book may seem controversial, it only contains an objective narration of the facts, often analyzed in the light of canon law. Therefore, it is not a matter of presenting opinions or preferences, but only carefully documented realities. As stated in the introduction, all the statements in the work are backed by documents, many of which we do not reveal out of decorum or brevity.
Therefore, after eight long years of intervention, the authors of this book intend to open the eyes of those who read it to the flagrant injustice that our institution has been suffering. The Heralds, accused in the accounts of alleged victims, have become the true victims during all this time. In fact, the inexplicable prolongation of the commissariat has generated many suspicions among the people who follow us and trust in the institution. It was necessary and a moral obligation to offer the due and necessary clarifications. For years we have maintained a respectful silence, but we have reached a point where, to preserve the good name of the institution and its members—and, why not say it, to protect the good reputation and image of the Catholic Church itself—we have been forced to speak out.
Let it be clear that this work is not an act of disobedience nor, much less, a rebellion against ecclesiastical authority. One cannot call «obedience» the acceptance of false and gravely defamatory accusations, especially when individual interests are not at stake, but an institution dedicated exclusively to the service of the Church, particularly in this difficult historical moment. After all, the right to defense is inherent to the natural order of things.
It should also be taken into account that this enormous injustice has already caused serious harm, such as the case of the nearly thirty deacons who, arbitrarily, cannot be ordained, which prevents them from providing greater services to the Church where it itself demands it from us. There are seven groups of seminarians whose formation has concluded and who have not been able to be ordained deacons; members of both Societies, prevented from making perpetual or temporary vows, relegated to a juridical limbo; students whose academic life has been harmed by arbitrary decisions; adolescents, and their respective families, whose aspirations have been truncated with the suspension of the Heralds' educational project; more than two hundred aspirants who have been waiting five years to be admitted to the Heralds of the Gospel as associates, when the maximum period is two years; young vocations without direction who oscillate between entering and remaining in the world, due to the instability of the institution's canonical status; hundreds of Heralds collaborators who could not be admitted. To this is added the good reputation damaged by the succession of slanderous and defamatory denunciations, as well as the innumerable judicial processes artificially forged and the dishonest and biased publicity given to them, although all of them concluded with a ruling favorable to the Heralds. There is also the economic damage which, if we include lawyers' fees, amounts to several million euros. All limits have been exceeded! If there were any formal error, whether doctrinal, moral or canonical, we would be the first to desire amendment, but this correction must be based on concrete facts and objective truths, and this has never been revealed to us. Why is that?
Thus, our hopes are summed up in that justice be done and the damages suffered be fairly repaired. May the Most Holy Virgin enlighten those who can make them effective.
Other links of interest:
- Cardinal Damasceno: Pressures, silences and maneuvers in the case of the Heralds of the Gospel
- Simona Brambilla: key figure behind the blockage of the commissariat of the Heralds of the Gospel
- Cardinal João Braz de Aviz: the man who directed and shaped the commissariat against the Heralds of the Gospel