“The richness of charismatic gifts - underlines the letter Iuvenescit Ecclesia of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - requires a specific recognition so that the richness it contains may be adequately articulated within the ecclesial communion and faithfully transmitted over time”.

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The path to ecclesial recognition of the Congregation founded by Mother Frances Streitel is marked, as for every other Institute of Consecrated Life, by the paternal mediation of the "vicars of Him who is the Good Shepherd, whose solicitous love never ceases to accompany His flock”.

 

Pope Leo XIII, through his vicar, Cardinal Lucido Maria Parocchi, benevolently accompanied the first steps of the new community. First of all, he resolved some legal issues related to the dispensation from the vows professed by Mother Frances in the Congregation of Mary Stern. He then arranged for a regular procedure so that Mother Frances, after her novitiate, could make her vows according to the current norms. And finally, recognising her charismatic gift as Foundress, he appointed her as Superior General of the emerging community.
 

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"AN INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE"

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However, amidst the rapid succession of dispositions and indications, the path of the new community was especially marked, at least in reference to ecclesiastical authority, by Cardinal Vicar Parocchi's insight into the future of the foundation.  He understood that it would have been in both Fr. Jordan's and Mother Frances' best interests for the sisters to become an autonomous Congregation.​

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And so, it happened. On September 17, 1885, on his own initiative, he gave the small community the name 'Sisters of Charity of the Sorrowful Mother', later called the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. He appointed a spiritual director, Msgr. Jacquemin, and on October 12, 1885, Pope Leo XIII declared the community 'an autonomous religious institute', as stated in the Acts of the Roman Vicariate. On January 20, 1886, Mother Frances was finally appointed Superior General of the Congregation. She was surrounded, in new-found joy after the tribulations, by 18 Sisters of Charity of the Sorrowful Mother and 20 novices and postulants, embarking on a future filled of hope.