Prof. Sampel was kind enough to send us the following article, published on his initiative on the website of the Brazilian Society of Canonists (SBC) and in Missões Magazine, where he writes weekly. Indeed, he said he was "following stupefied" to the media lynching of which the Heralds of the Gospel have been a systematic object. We are very happy to reproduce here the article of prof. Sampel, while we thank him for his support and friendship.
The Heralds of the Gospel, a Catholic institution loyal to the Magisterium of the Church, have been suffering relentless persecution. The envious of all varnishes against that institution is divided against that institution. They want it in ruins because they do not tolerate the exuberant vocational growth in the ranks of the Heralds. Disdain of the wonderful liturgy that the Heralds perform. In addition, the detractors adhered to the wave of Protestantizing the Catholic Church and, consequently, bore homilies and teachings in which it is discussed on heaven, hell, purgatory, intercession of the saints, virgin Mary, sacrosanct host, petrine succession, uniqueness of the Catholic Church etc.
Years ago, the victim of the tormentors of Catholicism was opus dei, also strictly observant prelature of the Magisterium of the Church. The Heralds of the Gospel constitute a lipid reserve of Catholicism. Nowadays, unfortunately, in many Catholic churches, doctrine is preached so politically correct, to the point that the priest's discourse is well received in any evangelical community. Unfortunate!
The charges really seem like Kafkian flavor. Total madness! There is no robust evidence; only the ramerrão of the dead! Too much, the recently published reports disregarded the code of ethics of journalism, which always has heard the accused or, else, listened to him insufficiently.
The Vatican intervened, perhaps urged by misplaced complaints. In any case, the decree that determined the commissioner of Don Raymundo Damasceno is eivado of nullity, because the Heralds of the Gospel make up a private association of the faithful, not public, with the absolute incompetence of the intervening dicastery, the position of Don João Braz de Aviz, as the canon 318, §1 of the canonical code, prays. A different situation concerns the two entities, male and female, spiritually linked to the Heralds of the Gospel. However, the decree, it seems, suffers from clarity and does not decline any serious concrete facts.
We hope that our very dawnpope Francis, always so sensitive to the cries of God's people, will give this legal imbroglio a sufficient, ordering the cessation of tumultuous, devoid of factual basis, which overpossession distress an immense number of Christians, who harvest the most seasonal fruits of Catholicism from the helpless work of the Heralds of the Gospel.
(*) Edson Luiz Sampel is Professor at the Faculty of Canon Law São Paulo Apostle, Archdiocese of São Paulo