More Carmelite Monasteries closing

[Graciela]

It seems that the effects of Cor Orans are being seen more frequently.  I had recently posted about the Barrington RI Carmel and the San Rafael, CA Carmels closing. Now 2 more in the USA and 1 in Ireland have announced closure.

The closure of three more monasteries of Discalced Carmelite nuns have recently been announced:

Erie, PA Carmel  https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/diocese-of-erie-confirms-the-closure-of-the-erie-based-holy-family-monastery/

Concord, NH Carmel https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/diocese-of-erie-confirms-the-closure-of-the-erie-based-holy-family-monastery/  

Loughrea, Galway, Ireland Carmel (closing after 340 years!)  https://www.irishcatholic.com/deep-sorrow-as-carmelite-convent-closes-after-340-years/ 

May God be praised for all the nuns who served the church through lives of prayer in these monasteries.

 

[Anastasia]

Graciela

Thank you for the update. It is very sad and seems to be a logical outcome of Cor Orans (I read the discourse of a Carmelite Sister about the document some months ago and the events confirm she was correct).

Two links in your message are identical. Also, unfortunately I could not read about the Carmel that was around for 340 years though because it is by subscription but I will try to find the info online. If you have some other links about that monastery please share them.

I found another article about the closure of 340 y.o. monastery 
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40084055.html

Edited November 26, 2020 by Anastasia

[Graciela]

So sorry that I floofed the links.  Here's another attempt:

Concord NH https://www.pressherald.com/2020/11/18/carmelite-monastery-in-new-hampshire-closing-after-74-years/

Loughrea, Ireland https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40084055.html  

The latter is a different link and does not require subscriber access (at least for me it did not).

[Lilllabettt]

2 hours ago, Graciela said:

It seems that the effects of Cor Orans are being seen more frequently.  I had recently posted about the Barrington RI Carmel and the San Rafael, CA Carmels closing. Now 2 more in the USA and 1 in Ireland have announced closure.

The closure of three more monasteries of Discalced Carmelite nuns have recently been announced:

Erie, PA Carmel  https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/diocese-of-erie-confirms-the-closure-of-the-erie-based-holy-family-monastery/

Concord, NH Carmel https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/diocese-of-erie-confirms-the-closure-of-the-erie-based-holy-family-monastery/  

Loughrea, Galway, Ireland Carmel (closing after 340 years!)  https://www.irishcatholic.com/deep-sorrow-as-carmelite-convent-closes-after-340-years/ 

May God be praised for all the nuns who served the church through lives of prayer in these monasteries.

 

Could you give a thumbnail sketch of Cor Orans? How it is having this effect? 

[truthfinder]

1 hour ago, Lilllabettt said:

Could you give a thumbnail sketch of Cor Orans? How it is having this effect? 

It has a lot of rules that changed things (which was covered pretty extensively in a thread when it first came out), but the most pertinent thing here is that a monastery must have 6 finally professed nuns to continue as a community.  IIRC, if it has 5 then it is up to the bishop, and 4 or less they have to dissolve the monastery.

[Anastasia]

58 minutes ago, truthfinder said:

but the most pertinent thing here is that a monastery must have 6 finally professed nuns to continue as a community

I thought five. The new rule says that if a monastery has less than five nuns with perpetual vows they lose the right to elect their prioress.

Another change is that formation time increased to nine years now. That may be responsible for the lack of vocations; it is harder to commit to such a lengthy period of "preliminary" time when one can be sent back.

Here is more info, with references
https://voicesoffaith.org/conversations-1/2019/10/13/why-isnt-there-an-extinction-rebellion-of-female-contemplative-monasteries-against-the-vaticans-instruction-cor-orans

And also here, for a balance, from the National Catholic Register
https://www.ncregister.com/news/wave-of-female-monastery-closures-hits-italy

[SicutColumba]

What was the point of instating Cor Orans? Did they not see this coming? I just don't see the point of instituting this in the first place. 

[GraceUk]

It is sad when those monasteries close but I can see the thinking behind it. How can a handful of nuns keep going as they get older and maintain these old buildings not to mention the gardens. We need to pray for vocations.  Some of the great Abbeys in Europe have closed in recent years.  It must be very  difficult and sad  for the nuns to leave a much loved home. 

[Lea]

On 11/26/2020 at 6:07 AM, Anastasia said:

That may be responsible for the lack of vocations; it is harder to commit to such a lengthy period of "preliminary" time when one can be sent back.

 

I don't think so. If once big monasteries of dozens of professed are left with <6 elderly, the last final profession must have been quite some time ago. So I wouldn't blame Cor Orans. 

[Anastasia]

39 minutes ago, Lea said:

If once big monasteries of dozens of professed are left with <6 elderly, the last final profession must have been quite some time ago.

I see your point; indeed monasteries have been shrinking over last fifty years. Yet if monasteries have been shrinking when a formation took five years it is reasonable to expect more shrinkage with nine years of formation and a speedier decline of monasticism. 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Anastasia

[Antigonos]

It's my understanding that individual Carmels cannot have more than 21 professed sisters.  Is that correct?  Even if there were a lot of vocations, a convent could not accept more than a few at a time.  Life expectancies are longer; so one can easily get to a situation where there are mostly aged sisters who can't really keep the physical infrastructure going but they can't add postulants either.

[Anastasia]

19 hours ago, Antigonos said:

Even if there were a lot of vocations, a convent could not accept more than a few at a time. 

When there is a lot of vocations monasteries behave like families - they produce new shoots i.e. the new foundations. The older, experienced nuns go with the novices to start a new Carmel. (In the Orthodox Church the old monastics  are called "a treasure of the Church" because they have been through many spiritual battles and can advice young from their own experience. Their advices are often sought after by high ranked clergy.)

When a new Carmel is being established in that organic way it ensures that the spirit of the mother house is being preserved. 

[Antigonos]

4 hours ago, Anastasia said:

When a new Carmel is being established in that organic way it ensures that the spirit of the mother house is being preserved. 

True.  But that leaves a nucleus of increasingly elderly nuns at the mother house.  Often a large structure, in need of upkeep, with the sisters also needing increasing medical care, and budgets can’t cope with two such major expenses.  Amalgamation of two or more declining Carmels would seem to be a solution, instead of outright closure, but that’s not easy to do.

[Anastasia]

1 hour ago, Antigonos said:

But that leaves a nucleus of increasingly elderly nuns at the mother house.

Why? With plentiful vocations (and that was the context of your initial question, about how to "fit" many vocations into a tiny Carmel) some old nuns remain in the mother house, some go to make a new foundation. The mother house accepts novices, the new foundation - as well so there is a mix of different ages in both places.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Anastasia

[Antigonos]

Except that some Carmels don't seem to be experiencing a large influx of vocations.

But I'm no expert on why the Carmelites seem to be having difficulties.

[Sister Leticia]

On 11/26/2020 at 5:07 AM, Anastasia said:

Another change is that formation time increased to nine years now. That may be responsible for the lack of vocations; it is harder to commit to such a lengthy period of "preliminary" time when one can be sent back

Nine years is quite common in non-monastic orders, what with 3 years pre-vows (maybe longer, if there's a pre-postulancy stage), and usually at least 5-6 years in temporary vows, sometimes longer. Certainly, I prepared for and made my perpetual vows after 6 years of temporary ones.

I've heard lots of reasons for people being reluctant to enter religious life, but the length of formation isn't one of them! On the contrary, candidates are often relieved that it'll be a long time before any binding commitment. Even though you desire to give your whole self, you'll still enter with doubts and fears, and what ifs, even if you aren't conscious of them. 

I also haven't met anyone who worried about being "sent away": rather, the worry might be more about what if I discover this isn't what God wants for me...? - in which case, again, the prospect of several years of formation and discernment, and not being rushed to final vows, is helpful.

So, whatever else has been holding women back from entering monasteries in droves, it isn't the formation specified in Cor Orans - which, don't forget, has only been around for two years. Even if women were being put off, and seeking to join orders with a shorter formation, this will only have started happening in the past year or two. If a monastery is down to only a few ageing nuns or monks, then the lack of vocations/people actually staying will have been an issue for the past 20 or more years. 

[Antigonos]

I sometimes wonder whether anyone 18-25 years old can really understand what a "lifetime committment" is.  And not just in relation to religious life!   It amazes me that until the middle of the last century it was common for young women to be accepted into postulancy with no more than an introductory interview, and were taking permanent vows within 5 years.

[For a number of years I was active on an internet forum which gave practical advice to those wishing to move to Israel.  Over and over again, I'd read about the aspirations of young couples who had yet to begin families, and I'd ask them if they'd thought down the line, to the fact that their children would serve in the Israeli army, etc. and I'd always get an answer on the lines of "we won't have to think of that for a long time!"   That "long time" arrives much faster than one anticipates!  I arrived here at 28, and I'm 74 now --- and still adjusting to new realities.]

[Anastasia]

7 hours ago, Antigonos said:

Except that some Carmels don't seem to be experiencing a large influx of vocations.

That's right and this is why I was a bit surprised why you were asking about a purely hypothetical situation but answered anyway.

4 hours ago, Sister Leticia said:

So, whatever else has been holding women back from entering monasteries in droves, it isn't the formation specified in Cor Orans - which, don't forget, has only been around for two years.

I agree that there is a certain process in the world that makes entering monastery less attractive. That is an objective reality. At the same time, I see Cor Orans as an outcome of a corresponding process which has been going within the Church - the loss of understanding of contemplation/contemplative Orders as something that has an immense value in their own. However, it is a too waste topic to peruse. I think the nuns themselves speak about it quite clearly (including in the links I gave earlier). 

[Antigonos]

I think there may be a kind of "Catch 22" for the enclosed contemplative orders as their goal is to be "hidden" and they do not advertise themselves, and possibly are overlooked by many who might be drawn to them.  The internet is largely a product of the 21st century, and not all orders, even now, have good websites.  If an order does not want interaction with the outside world, how else does one find them?

[SicutColumba]

8 hours ago, Antigonos said:

I think there may be a kind of "Catch 22" for the enclosed contemplative orders as their goal is to be "hidden" and they do not advertise themselves, and possibly are overlooked by many who might be drawn to them.  The internet is largely a product of the 21st century, and not all orders, even now, have good websites.  If an order does not want interaction with the outside world, how else does one find them?

Don’t most parishes have some kind of monastery directory for the area? Maybe the diocese could take it upon itself to promote the community to interested women instead of the community itself having to do it. 

But evidently not enough advertising isn’t the crux of the problem. There were more vocations before the dawn of the internet. But since we’re here we might as well work with what we have.