Adorers Of The Sacred Heart Of Montmartre / Tyburn Nuns

[Gabriela]

Eligibility: The Tyburn Nuns consider vocations of all ages. If God calls, who are we to say He is wrong?

 

Amen.

[Egeria]

I have a good friend who was at Tyburn a couple of decades ago and left under very distressing circumstances. Her perspective is obviously only presents one side of the story, but I do know through her that there have been numerous ex-sisters who have had serious issues with Tyburn and particularly with the Mother General that led to a Vatican (I think) investigation a number of years ago. That investigation cleared the Mother General, but was regarded by some as a whitewash and a cover up. This is all second-hand and rather vague knowledge on my part, but I do know of a very reputable priest (with extensive contacts with contemplative communities in Britain) warning people to avoid it. And when I asked about them at other British Benedictine monasteries (again, a number of years ago) I got the distinct impression that, while they did not want to speak ill of them, they were decidedly cautious about recommending that people go there.

[Lil'Nun]

Thank you all for taking the time to answer.

I have to say this is all a bit distressing. Tyburn seems to tick all of my boxes - and is open to older enquirers.

Not sure what to think or do at the moment.

 

:(

 

[Kateri89]

Thank you all for taking the time to answer.
I have to say this is all a bit distressing. Tyburn seems to tick all of my boxes - and is open to older enquirers.
Not sure what to think or do at the moment.

:(

Ya never know...you could be the Teresa of Avila and reform the order. It could happen :)

[Lil'Nun]

Hi all,

 

It is with sadness that I tell you I am no longer seriously considering Tyburn.

Thank you to everyone who answered here, pm'd me or emailed me.

 

I'm feeling a bit heavy-hearted and sad about this so if you could remember me a little in your prayers tonight I would be very grateful. I am now wondering if I have a vocation at all so am going to take a bit of time to lick my wounds and let the dust settle a bit.

 

I felt so attracted to Tyburn. Their Charism seemed to fit me so well, but from what I have heard today it sounds as if it would be totally wrong for me, and for a lot of people.

It's very sad to hear.

 

A slightly glum Lil' Nun

[reminiscere]

Lil'Nun why don't you do yourself a favour and actually visit the community and even ask tough questions of the Nuns there if necessary before ruling Tyburn out? The devil often pulls whatever he can to discourage souls - from vocations, from conversions... 

 

I met wonderful religious when I visited the monastery last autumn. 

 

Hi all,

 

It is with sadness that I tell you I am no longer seriously considering Tyburn.

Thank you to everyone who answered here, pm'd me or emailed me.

 

I'm feeling a bit heavy-hearted and sad about this so if you could remember me a little in your prayers tonight I would be very grateful. I am now wondering if I have a vocation at all so am going to take a bit of time to lick my wounds and let the dust settle a bit.

 

I felt so attracted to Tyburn. Their Charism seemed to fit me so well, but from what I have heard today it sounds as if it would be totally wrong for me, and for a lot of people.

It's very sad to hear.

 

A slightly glum Lil' Nun

 

[Maggyie]

Indeed, it's disturbing to me that this community is being run down on phatmass when they have no way of "defending" themselves here

so to speak. It may very well be that there are problems, but these posts will remain on the internet forever. Over the years positive changes may be made, but new discerners googling the name of this monastery will happen upon this thread full of possibly out-of-date criticism and innuendo and perhaps be put off.

[BarbTherese]

I very much agree.  A particular person or even persons' concepts related to something experienced can widely differ - even when that experience was in content exactly the same.  In sharing experiences, it is very important I think that one underscores that it is only one's own particular concepts or experiences.

 Best, I agree, to contact a particular religious order and ask the 'hard questions' - including related to what one may have heard or read. (In charity without mentioning the actual names of sources of what one heard or read e.g. "I read on a Catholic discussion site ............" or "Someone told me................."). 

 

Nowadays, discerners are most blest indeed to be able to make quite extensive enquiries of a religious order, even visit and with opportunities to live-in, prior to making any sort of commitment.  In the main, this did not exist at all pre V2.  Most of us went into religious life pre V2 almost entirely 'blind' as it were, not really knowing what to expect in any way - and we went immediately into postulancy.  There might have been exceptions, It's just that I don't know of any - and personal experience is always without exception limited experience most often.

[Lil'Nun]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I am hoping that the problems I have heard about at Tyburn will resolve themselves, in time. 

However, I have to say I have had contact with several, different, unrelated people. 

I am not going to say who has contacted me, nor am I going to repeat what I have been told. I will say that I am sure there are some wonderful Sisters at Tyburn but I think that it would be a very good idea for me to take a serious look at some of the other enclosed Benedictine communities here in the UK. 

It may well be, that after doing this I still feel strongly attracted to Tyburn - time will tell.

Thanks for your concern

LN

[darcy15]

http://www.benedictinenuns.org.uk/

Holy Trinity Monastery have no age limit 😊

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

Indeed, it's disturbing to me that this community is being run down on phatmass when they have no way of "defending" themselves here

so to speak. It may very well be that there are problems, but these posts will remain on the internet forever. Over the years positive changes may be made, but new discerners googling the name of this monastery will happen upon this thread full of possibly out-of-date criticism and innuendo and perhaps be put off.

 

OK, then I'll clarify. I was in Tyburn from 2002 - 2007. While I was there, several perpetually professed sisters left under very distressing circumstances. Since I left, many more have left, under equally distressing circumstances.

 

I am not running down the Congregation, or the charism, both of which I think have a lot going for them. They are beautiful things, and well worth saving and reforming and fighting for. That's partly why I'm saying these things.  

 

I have always, always encouraged people to TRY their vocation - to visit a place and really give it a go. I was 'warned off' Tyburn as early as 2001, but decided that because God was genuinely calling me - and He was - that I should go there. I have never regretted it. But I'm also glad I'm not there any more.

 

I can also be very clear about what my objections were, so that there are no 'hints' or 'innuendos'.

 

I spent four very happy years, and one and a half very unhappy years, at Tyburn in London. I know the names of around 15 perpetually professed sisters who have left since 2000, all for various reasons. Many of these departures were, I know for a fact, connected with the current Superior General and her increasing mismanagement of the congregation. I know this because I am still in contact with some of these sisters, and some of them are in contact with other ex-sisters.

 

The most recent of these departures have been two sisters who left, separately, in the last year. Both were young professed; one was in fact in my novitiate when I was there and I was at her perpetual profession. I find this tragic.

 

However, the current Superior General is now at least 80 and can't live forever, although she seems to be arranging things so that she will be superior general until she dies! This is another reason for taking your call seriously and going to see the place for yourself - it won't always be under her rule.

 

I think people outside have to be very cautious of the glamour of 'new foundations and young vocations'. The new foundations have actually led to the considerable disruption and deterioration of religious life in Tyburn worldwide. The central charism of the Congregation is adoration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the exposed Blessed Sacrament. The Foundress - to whom I suggest you pray; she's a great friend in heaven ! - wanted this done perpetually, by the sisters, and for the sisters to allow the laity to join them in this adoration.

 

What's happening now is that the Mother House is the only place where Adoration is perpetual, and while the other communities have been told to 'build it up', this means using lay people to do some of the adoration in those communities. This is not, I believe, what the Foundress intended. Even at the Mother House, lay people now do the Adoration on at least three nights of the week because there aren't enough sisters. And the reason there aren't enough sisters is because of ... new foundations ...!

 

The new foundations are 'sold' to the world as signs that the congregation has more vocations than it knows what to do with. This is untrue. Most postulants and novices leave - which is normal - but in the last 10 years there has also been a dramatic loss of perpetually professed sisters who have asked to be dispensed, and by the deaths of others. Worldwide the Congregation was close to 100 when I left; it's now down around the high seventies. And yet the superior general wants 11 monasteries up and running. That's around 7 sisters per community, and you can't do much Adoration with that.

 

The reason sisters have been leaving is because of the Superior General's apparent vicelike grip on the role, which she has also substantially remoulded to suit her own personality and interests. She is a highly charismatic and forceful woman, and the General Chapter of the Congregation have been partly responsible for this also by not calling her to account and keeping her honest. So I'm not just blaming her!

 

But because of this, the burden of the daily running of the communities has fallen too heavily on too few perpetually professed, who have become overworked, exhausted, burnt out and demoralised. And then they just walk out, like I did (except I was temporary professed).

 

There were other things going on at the Mother House that disturbed me - for example, the large numbers of people coming in and out of the enclosure at the least pretext, notably visitors and journalists. The Superior General thinks the modern media will bring vocations; it doesn't. The vocations always came in response to a small ad in the Catholic Herald, and to the monthly Monastic Afternoons we used to hold. I think the website might help too, but that's all. Most of the media articles about us were inaccurate and painfully, wince-inducingly embarrassing.

 

But the Superior General wants to be a mover and shaker, so they also developed that utterly absurd 'Tyburn Lecture', where the sisters - enclosed nuns - had to welcome a whole lot of people into a reception afterwards, and where I had to serve drinks as a postulant. I must admit that this was the first point at which I began to wonder if I was actually in the right place.

 

So to sum up - the Adoration is being watered down, and the enclosure isn't what it used to be, and the General Chapter is totally under the thumb of the Superior General to the point of changing the Congregation's rules to allow her to remain in office pretty much indefinitely. And I was at the Mother House during the visitation from Rome, and it was a joke.

 

I am very happy to answer any questions from anyone on this topic.

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

 Best, I agree, to contact a particular religious order and ask the 'hard questions' - including related to what one may have heard or read. (In charity without mentioning the actual names of sources of what one heard or read e.g. "I read on a Catholic discussion site ............" or "Someone told me................."). 

 

ABSOLUTELY. And this is what I did when I entered Tyburn. I told them what I'd been told, and the response was for me to be cross-examined by the Superior General in an attempt to find out which ex-sisters I might have been in contact with.

 

As it turned out, none of them - I'd gotten the information about third-hand - but she was very, very interested for all the wrong reasons.

 

A healthy laugh and a frank admission of past problems would have been more reassuring, as well as some evidence that these problems were now behind the Congregation. But they weren't. In fact, I'd entered slap-bang in the middle of the problems, and into an atmosphere of secrets, long meetings behind closed doors, lawyers coming and going, plot and counter-plot against the Archdiocese of Westminster and CICLSAL ... and all this while I was trying to be an enclosed nun and an Adorer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ...

 

It was not exactly fun, I can assure you!

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

I have a good friend who was at Tyburn a couple of decades ago and left under very distressing circumstances. Her perspective is obviously only presents one side of the story, but I do know through her that there have been numerous ex-sisters who have had serious issues with Tyburn and particularly with the Mother General that led to a Vatican (I think) investigation a number of years ago. That investigation cleared the Mother General, but was regarded by some as a whitewash and a cover up. This is all second-hand and rather vague knowledge on my part, but I do know of a very reputable priest (with extensive contacts with contemplative communities in Britain) warning people to avoid it. And when I asked about them at other British Benedictine monasteries (again, a number of years ago) I got the distinct impression that, while they did not want to speak ill of them, they were decidedly cautious about recommending that people go there.

 

The investigation never reported on anything, so it didn't 'clear' the Superior General. The Congregation simply kept the General Chapter open from 2002 to 2008 so that they wouldn't have to have an election of the Superior General while they were at war with Rome, and so she couldn't be dismissed from the office.

 

However, eventually through a lot of persistent pushing, CICLSAL approved some changes to the Congregation's Norms that would allow the current Superior General to be re-elected until she turned 75.

 

So the Superior General arranged for the next General Chapter to be held a month or so before her 75th birthday in 2008, a few months after I left, so that they could re-elect her, which they did. And then when the next election came around in 2012, the General Chapter voted to 'postpone' the election of the Superior General, because they could no longer re-elect her lawfully or postulate her as a candidate.

 

There is nothing in the Congregation's rule or norms or customs to allow such a thing, and this precipitated the departure of the young professed sister who had been in my novitiate. She told the Superior General that she was going against Rome and the Holy Father, and she left.

 

I was deeply ashamed of these actions both when I was there and after I left, and I pray that the Foundress Marie Adele Garnier will intercede for them in heaven and forgive them all for what they are doing to her Congregation.

[Ex Tyburn Junior]

And finally - because I have to do other things now! - I am also happy to consider that I and all the other sisters who left are totally in the wrong, and that the Superior General is acting directly according to God's orders in His mysterious Will and plan for salvation.

 

But when I look at the deterioration in perpetual Adoration, in lectio divina, in the horarium, and in the enclosure, I start to doubt that hypothesis a little.

 

Either way, it's a win-win situation, because I'm out here, and healthy and happy again, and sure of His mercy.

 

Some of my ex-sisters have married; others haven't, and are still working out where to go from here. I pray for them all, and support them in any way I can.

 

We'll know all the answers one day. In the meantime, I still encourage people to go and discern there. They desperately need a Teresa of Avila to come and put them back on track.

[BarbTherese]

ABSOLUTELY. And this is what I did when I entered Tyburn. I told them what I'd been told, and the response was for me to be cross-examined by the Superior General in an attempt to find out which ex-sisters I might have been in contact with.

 

As it turned out, none of them - I'd gotten the information about third-hand - but she was very, very interested for all the wrong reasons.

 

A healthy laugh and a frank admission of past problems would have been more reassuring, as well as some evidence that these problems were now behind the Congregation. But they weren't. In fact, I'd entered slap-bang in the middle of the problems, and into an atmosphere of secrets, long meetings behind closed doors, lawyers coming and going, plot and counter-plot against the Archdiocese of Westminster and CICLSAL ... and all this while I was trying to be an enclosed nun and an Adorer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus ...

 

It was not exactly fun, I can assure you!

 

While I cannot quite agree with your manner of posting, you have clarified some perplexities for me with your posts nonetheless.  And my initial information came from a diocesan priest, not ex sisters etc.  Apparently what I was told by Father was general knowledge insofar as his level in The Church was concerned.  I am in Australia incidentally.

 

 Adele Garnier (Mother Mary Peter) was a most unusual person.

 

Leaving a religious order (and one usually has good reasons) is never fun, for sure! :)