Luigi Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) Has anyone heard of the world meeting of mothers superior mentioned in these posts? This meeting would be just for Passionist mothers superiors, right, not for all mothers superior of all orders? (I lifted these posts from Facebook, so - as always - read from the bottom to the top if you want chronological order.) Passionist Nuns' Monastery in Ellisville, MO October 3 at 3:17pm · Thank you for all your prayers. The Vatican officials wanted the Passionist Reverend Mothers to revise SO MUCH, the biggest victory is they got them to SLOW DOWN (three cheers for our nuns from Spain!) Keep praying; there are many issues yet to be dealt with. May our Lord's will be done always! Like Comment Share Passionist Nuns' Monastery in Ellisville, MO September 26 at 9:12pm · Please pray for the world's Mother Surperiors as they currently meet in Rome. The Vatican is trying to decide whether or not to form all Passionist Monasteries into one entity. There are many, however, who are opposed to the proposal, and wish to remain autonomous. Please pray that Our Lord's will is done regarding these issues! Edited October 19, 2015 by Luigi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriela Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 (edited) I hadn't, but today is the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross (as observed outside the US). At least so says my phone. One thing I can say: Spanish nuns are bad@sh. Edited October 19, 2015 by Gabriela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NadaTeTurbe Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I hadn't, but today is the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross (as observed outside the US). At least so says my phone. One thing I can say: Spanish nuns are bad@sh. Spanish catholic are the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sr Mary Catharine OP Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 There is a lot going on with different charisms of cloistered nuns. I'm not surprised. There is a huge crisis world wide with cloistered monasteries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriela Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 There is a lot going on with different charisms of cloistered nuns. I'm not surprised. There is a huge crisis world wide with cloistered monasteries. Why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sr Mary Catharine OP Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 lack of vocations and huge old monasteries with 2-3 old nuns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponsa-Christi Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Speaking as a curious canon lawyer (and not being a cloistered nun myself), I'm wondering if centralizing the governance of monasteries might cause more problems than it would solve. If it's an issue of dwindling vocations, wouldn't it be better to combine just one or two monasteries as needed? Or might there be some particular benefit to centralizing the administration of monastic life within a particular Order that wouldn't be immediately obvious to an outside observer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sr Mary Catharine OP Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Well, it depends on the charism and form of government. Some are more autonomous than others. For example we are autonomous but not independent. We are connected not only by our constitutions but by our profession of obedience to the Master of the Order. So, there is "some" centralization. I'm not sure centralization is even the right word. This quote from the Passionists might have something to do with being Federated. It's not clear. We are supposed to be receiving updated enclosure norms and FINALLY a new apostolic constitution for cloistered nuns. The holy See sent us a very detailed questionnaire last year. It will be very interesting to see what will happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sponsa-Christi Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Well, it depends on the charism and form of government. Some are more autonomous than others. For example we are autonomous but not independent. We are connected not only by our constitutions but by our profession of obedience to the Master of the Order. So, there is "some" centralization. I'm not sure centralization is even the right word. Good point---it hadn't occurred to me at first that different charisms might be more amenable to different forms of government (though of course, this seems obvious now that you've pointed it out.) "Centralization" probably isn't the right word, but it's the best I could come up with on the spot! With the Passionists, my first thought after reading what Luigi wrote was that the proposal for them to become "a single entity" meant that they would be something like one congregation with one major superior, just spread out into different houses (sort of like the way that active congregations tend to be organized). But there isn't really enough shared here to know for sure whether or not that's what is actually being discussed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sr Mary Catharine OP Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Speaking as a curious canon lawyer (and not being a cloistered nun myself), I'm wondering if centralizing the governance of monasteries might cause more problems than it would solve. If it's an issue of dwindling vocations, wouldn't it be better to combine just one or two monasteries as needed? Or might there be some particular benefit to centralizing the administration of monastic life within a particular Order that wouldn't be immediately obvious to an outside observer? I think one concern is that monasteries fall "between the cracks" and/or there is no clear line of accountability. Often Bishops really don't have much of a knowledge of monastic/cloistered life and don't see the issues that might need to be addressed. There is no instrument of oversight in such a way that you don't have a monastery of old nuns unable to care for themselves or a monastery of internal problems that could be taken care of if they were addressed before it was too late.Merging monasteries is not necessarily the answer although it seems to be the most obvious. Perhaps what would be better is that the nuns choose to go to other monasteries. But first they have to see it is time to do this and agree to it. Perfectae Caritatis mentions this but doesn't say how it is to be done!And if a monastery needs to be suppressed who gets the ball rolling before things are in such a dire straight?Spain and Italy are full of huge, old monasteries with 2, 3, 4 old nuns and they are determined to stay! Or what sometimes happens is people take advantage of them.As for the Passionists, I don't know what is going on but it sounds like some sort of change to their constitutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabriela Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Good point---it hadn't occurred to me at first that different charisms might be more amenable to different forms of government (though of course, this seems obvious now that you've pointed it out.) "Centralization" probably isn't the right word, but it's the best I could come up with on the spot! There's a very good article about this by an academic researcher, actually. It goes through the history of three major orders (Jesuits, Franciscans, and I think Dominicans) and discusses how their organizational structure reflects their charism. It's a really outstanding article. PM me if you want it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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