Carmel JMJ and Anne Phila- nuns left?

[Graciela]

This statement appeared in the past 2 days on the Philadelphia Carmel webpage:

It has been with shock and sadness that the Carmelite nuns left Philadelphia and returned to Valparaiso Nebraska, leaving Mother Pia alone. The future of the monastery is in jeopardy and there is a real chance that there will not be a Carmel of nuns in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Ten nuns from the JMJ Carmels of Elysburg and Valpariaso had come to Philadelphia in 2017 in a sort of "re-founding" since the Carmel had dwindled in numbers.  So it seems really strange to me that now they have left Philly, leaving (the word abandoning may be appropriate) one lone nun behind.  

Or did someone hack their site with false info?  

[PaxCordisJesu]

I don't know about this Carmel, but I do know that the Elysburg Carmel, which helped found this one with Valparaiso, also closed and the nuns all moved into their daughter house at Fairfield. One of their reasons was that it was too difficult to form their young nuns in two separate locations. Maybe, if this info is indeed true, that could also be the case here? They didn't have enough senior nuns needed to start a new foundation and so decided to return to Valparaiso? 

[truthfinder]

This has been running rampant on Trad sites that last few weeks.  It does appear accurate. 

[JHFamily]

Yep. According to other websites, the nuns were under a lot of pressure to move from the TLM to the Novus Ordo, and they just weren't having it. 

[NadaTeTurbe]

Let's be careful about any speculation. These kind of things happen all the time in new communities. I can think of two communities in France (including a carmel) who claimed persecution (or people claimd persecution for them, without being asked... !) based on being traditionalist and having the EF, when in fact there was very legitimate concerns.

[pe polichetti]

This is heartbreaking.  There are nuns buried behind that Philadelphia Carmel, and when the nuns moved in from Nebraska, they made drastic, and I mean DRASTIC changes to the 100 something year old building.  They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the changes to the sacristy, the nun's enclosure, their kitchen, and had heat and air conditioning installed.  Now, after all this, they leave one 80something year old sister ALONE there?  With a couple of caretakers?  This is just unbelievable.  

I attended Mass there frequently and was in choir for almost 19 years.  I am shocked, saddened, and amazed at the sinful WASTE of money in the potential abandonment of this gorgeous building.

UNBELIEVABLE and just awful.

[underatree]

39 minutes ago, pe polichetti said:

This is heartbreaking.  There are nuns buried behind that Philadelphia Carmel, and when the nuns moved in from Nebraska, they made drastic, and I mean DRASTIC changes to the 100 something year old building.  They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the changes to the sacristy, the nun's enclosure, their kitchen, and had heat and air conditioning installed.  Now, after all this, they leave one 80something year old sister ALONE there?  With a couple of caretakers?  This is just unbelievable.  

I attended Mass there frequently and was in choir for almost 19 years.  I am shocked, saddened, and amazed at the sinful WASTE of money in the potential abandonment of this gorgeous building.

UNBELIEVABLE and just awful.

Wow what a terrible take. Going to deal with the issues here one by one.

First off, there are nuns (and monks, and priests, and laypersons etc) buried all over the planet. We respect the bodies of the dead but we don’t engage in ancestor worship — respect for the dead should not be used to control the living.

Second, how dare the sisters have heating/AC. Are you reading what you’ve written here? A convent where three nuns have been managing for years on a shoestring is not going to be suitable for another ten women to show up and live there without significant work, especially with an older building that probably never had much in the way of modernization. And if you’ve never been part of renovation planning for a historic building, well I envy you, and also the fact that they got it done for less than half a million is probably a miracle. 

I agree with you that it’s sad to hear that one elderly nun has been left in the convent, and all the others have gone to a different community. Like many of us, I’m curious as to why. The explanation given on trad websites (“persecution because of the Latin mass” essentially) seems far less likely than simply conflicts within the community, which would make sense given the backgrounds and varying ages/life experiences of the sisters. Also there are good reasons congregations often get suppressed / dissolved when they reach a certain threshold of members (typically three or fewer) — it’s very easy for the lifestyle to become unhealthy, both for the person in leadership and the people subordinate. Small communities especially can be a pressure cooker, and mentally/physically/spiritually unhealthy patterns of community life can become the norm. Speaking from experience here! 

Finally, you express concern about a “sinful waste of money” involved in abandoning a building. Reality check: it is not anyone’s vocation to keep a particular building occupied. You don’t have to agree with the decision of the majority of the nuns in that community, but the charge of “sin” seems pretty out of line. I understand that the building is beautiful, and hopefully the diocese will find a way to make use of it. However I really question this sense that you seem to have of a claim on the nuns. They are adult human persons with free will and individual souls. They can do what they choose to do with their lives, just like yourself. All people have a fundamental duty to care for themselves, physically / mentally / spiritually, and if the nuns discovered they were unable to do that in the Philadelphia community, it seems reasonable for them to leave. The idea that human persons should ever be subordinate to buildings is just deeply un-Catholic. Nuns are not diocesan decorations.

I sincerely hope you, and all others connected to the community, are able to make peace with the decision of the community, to mourn this loss and to gain empathy and understanding for all involved. 

[JHFamily]

On 5/7/2021 at 7:24 PM, pe polichetti said:

Now, after all this, they leave one 80something year old sister ALONE there? 

You may need to remember she was one of the sisters from Philadelphia that invited the new sisters to come and "refound" the community. The choice to stay may have been hers alone.