Rome, June 5, 2023 – On May 2, 2023, His Most Reverend Eminence Card. Renato Raffaele Martino, by virtue of the Office of the Grand Prior, sent a request to the Holy Father Francis in the Apostolic Penitentiary to His Most Reverend Eminence Card. Mauro Piacenza Major Penitentiary through His Exc. Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, Regent of the Penitentiary, for the reiteration of the special Plenary Indulgence granted to the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in the Holy Year of Mercy 2016 (Prot. No. 325/16/I) on the occasion of the pilgrimage of the Order itself, led by the Grand Master H.R.H. Prince Charles of Bourbon Two Sicilies, Duke of Castro, to Rome in St. Peter’s Basilica.
On May 11, 2023, Msgr. Arnaldo Morandi, Secretary General of the Office of the Grand Prior, accompanied by Father Ettore Capra, Prior Vicar of Rome, was welcomed at the Palace of the Chancellery by the Regent His Excellency Msgr. Nykiel, who, on behalf of Card. Mauro Piacenza, delivered the venerable rescript of reiteration of the Plenary Indulgence that the Holy Father benevolently bestowed. His Excellency Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel, while receiving the Ecclesiastical Knights Priests, engaged in cordial conversations, thoroughly inquiring about the life and religious and charitable activities of the Constantinian Order. Moreover, he expressed profound interest, satisfaction as well as the hope that the Holy Father shall acknowledge the proper value and adequate application to the gift of the Plenary Indulgence.
With this reiterated indulgence His Holiness Francis, by Divine Providence Pope, who was informed by His Eminence and Most Reverend Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino of the title of St. Francis of Paola ai Monti, Protodeacon of Holy Roman Church, Grand Prior of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order, under the title of St. George and the rule of St. Basil the Great, to Knights and Dames of the same Order, grants and confers, under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer according to the Supreme Pontiff’s intentions), the Plenary Indulgence, to be gained by the Knights and Dames and to be applied by way of suffrage also to the souls in Purgatory, had they issued or renewed at least in private the promise to faithfully observe the Statutes of the Order:
I – on the day of their admission into the Order; on April 23, the Solemnity of St. George Martyr, the main patron saint; and on September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
II – in case they will have devoutly participated in the exequial Mass for the piously deceased Knights and Dames on the same day of the death or burial of the deceased (Indulgence applicable exclusively for the souls in Purgatory). In articulo mortis applies the extensive concession No. XII of the Manual of Indulgences in which case the Church compensates for the three conditions which are generally required for a Plenary Indulgence; the Knights and Dames, nonetheless, commendably, in acquiring this Plenary Indulgence may use the Order’s own insignia.
Furthermore, the Knights and Dames, at least with a contrite heart, may obtain a Partial Indulgence : a) whenever they have openly borne witness to their faith before others, at public religious feasts or meetings, such as processions, pious exercises, holy preaching of the Word, Eucharistic congresses, meetings of the Order, at which they have participated as confreres of the Order; b) whenever they have piously devoted themselves to any work either of mercy, or of penance, or of evangelization specified in the Statutes.
Thus the Knights and Dames will be stimulated to concretely acquire in their lives the supernatural virtues, notably faith, hope and charity, and will consolidate their communion with the Roman Pontiff, the visible basis of the unity of the entire Catholic Church.
Consequently, in order to ensure an easier access to divine forgiveness, to be attained through the power of the Church, through pastoral charity, this Penitentiary earnestly invites priests who are accepted into the Order and possess the appropriate faculties to receive confessions to devote themselves with a prepared and generous spirit to the celebration of Penance and to administer Holy Communion frequently to the sick Knights and Dames.
The following is the translation by the indulgence from Latin:
BLESSED FATHER,
THE CARDINAL RENATO RAFFAELE MARTINO, PROTODIACON OF SAN FRANCESCO DI PAOLA AI MONTI, GRAND PRIEST of the Constantinian Aurata Militia of St. George, Sutto the rule of St. Basil the Great, motivated by gratitude to the Good Lord, humbly expounds that the gift of indulgences granted by this Apostolic Penitentiary by mandate of Your Holiness by rescript of (no. 325/16/1 of May 20, 2016) for a seven-year period, has produced many spiritual fruits and graces in favor of the Knights and Dames of the Order itself.
Therefore, in order that so many spiritual goods may also endure in the future, the Most Eminent Orator begs Your Holiness, that the already granted grace be extended. And God etc.
THE APOSTOLIC PENITENCY, by virtue of the faculties granted to it by His Holiness Pope Francis, extends all that was then granted for a further seven year period.
Rome, May 23, 2023
Mauro Card. Piacenza
Major Penitentiary
Krzysztof Józef Nykiel
Regent