Five words, delivered during a homily on Ash Wednesday, have never entirely left me: “You all have to change,” the priest declared rather prophetically on March 6, 2019. He did not know that four women in our Falls Road congregation had been told the previous night that their vocation as Sisters of Adoration was over. I was one of them. How odd that Pancake Tuesday was the day our lives flipped. Indeed my life has been one of upheaval ever since.
The catalyst, you might say, was Pope Francis, who once declared: “We are not living in an era of change, but a change of era.”
He presided over changes that sealed the fate of my own congregation. The new rules were rooted in two documents designed for religious women: Vultum Dei Quaerere (2016) and Cor Orans (2018). Significantly, convents with fewer than five professed sisters would have to close or merge with another. There was some logic in this. Small numbers, top heavy with elderly sisters, struggled with governance issues. And in some cases a handful of sisters occupied massive properties, worth tens of millions.
I still have many questions – some answered by the Holy Spirit – and I read with interest a few days ago, a story from Spain where Poor Clares are facing the same issues we did.
However, the Abbess of the Monastery of Santo Cristo de Balaguer has taken a different attitude from the lamb-like response of my own congregation (which had convents in Paris, Belfast and Wexford).
Merging
In the magazine Catalunya Cristiana, the Abbess cited the recent closure of a 700-year-old monastery in Barcelona – an event which left people “hurt and perplexed”. “It affects women’s monasteries, not men’s,” she said of Vultum Dei Quaerere.
The Abbess also hinted that the new rule may be opportune in “normal circumstances” rather than a time of crisis in vocations and values. She gently noted that these rules affected the confiscation of church property – and felt it should be up to the nuns themselves whether they wanted to close their doors. “The men get off lightly,” a male religious remarked to me.
To be honest I did not realise this double standard even existed until a few days ago. And frankly it opened wounds that I hoped had healed.Why the difference? Surely the rules of governance affect men as well as women?
Frankly, it hurts deeply that these rules are applied only to religious sisters. For now anyway. Perhaps Sr Simona Brambilla, the newly appointed prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life, will change that – though I am not advocating that the men in monasteries should automatically face the same fate.
In those circumstances we would likely have to start again as postulants”
I was quite oblivious to all of these machinations when I was invited by my congregation to take vows at St Peter’s Cathedral on the Feast of St Pio in 2017, with the late Bishop Noel Treanor presiding. It was an unusual first profession and Sr Elaine Kelly, a former barrister, was also making her first vows.
Nine months later, we were informed, along with two others in temporary vows, that we might not be able to make our final profession as Sisters of Adoration, as the congregation may have to merge with another order. In those circumstances we would likely have to start again as postulants. It was like a bad game of ‘Snakes and Ladders’, but, after around five years, we were all four committed and prepared to begin again, come what may. In the meantime it was a wait by the cross for a further nine months.
Decision
To be honest, I initially dismissed the issue as Vatican bureaucracy, as I had no doubt about my own vocation, and Elaine Kelly had received her call in our chapel. Before the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday March 9, 2014, she had felt a strong touch on her heart and heard the words: “You will be a sister of adoration.” She left everything for Christ.
Elaine was wiser than I was. She understood this was more than bureaucracy, and that there was a poverty of governance. But trusting in God’s will, she was hoping for help from the men in power in Mother Church, not legalism, closure and the painful death of the congregation.
Many Catholics still share how desperately they miss this little oasis of peace”
In the end, the decision was out of our hands. The congregation was not going to defy the Vatican; none of us were. Having failed to find a suitable partner to merge with, the fully professed congregation members, many of them elderly, felt they had little choice and decided to release us and not receive the newcomers waiting to come and see. I was shocked. More so when someone actually suggested to Elaine and I that we might sue. Sue God? I don’t think so. Instead I meditated on Mary’s words to the Angel Gabriel: “How can this be?”
Our departure was effectively the beginning of the end of the congregation, even though one Vatican official at the time agreed “there was authentic life” in Belfast.
The Congregation of Adoration Reparatrice had come to the Falls Road during the Hunger Strike of 1980/1. It had a rich and fruitful history. Even today I’m asked: “What happened?” Many Catholics still share how desperately they miss this little oasis of peace.
Adoration
Elaine and I – mindful that the Lord sent them out in pairs – have found new life in Christ, who is always faithful to his covenant. We strive to share the gifts of adoration and evangelisation which we received along with the gift of the Holy Face of Christ, painted by our Foundress, Ven Marie-Thérèse in 1848.
This pious woman, born Théodelinde Bourcin-Dubouché, was an accomplished portrait artist in post-revolutionary France, but grew tired of painting the rich and famous. In adoration, she was given a divine mission; she saw a vision of Jesus enthroned on the altar and a golden stream went from his heart to hers, and she heard the words: “I want souls before me always to receive my life and communicate my life to others.”
I too have come to see: by his wounds, we are healed”
Perpetual Adoration was still a novelty when her congregation, Adoration Réparatrice, was founded on the Feast of the Transfiguration, 1848, in the poorest part of Paris. She is buried in the large convent she designed on Rue Guy Lussac, situated in the now affluent and fashionable Latin Quarter.
Ven Marie-Thérèse was also blessed with a vision of Christ’s Holy Face in his passion. She painted the image over and over again, and more and more I too have come to see: by his wounds, we are healed.
The Congregation’s motto – Fortis est ut mors dilectio – is still a steadfast source of strength: ‘Love is strong as death’, in a mission, not ended, but changed utterly.
******
I was sorry to hear of the deaths of Hollywood actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy. This fine actor was very private about his own religious views. I watched one of his films, Hoosiers, at the weekend. A heart-warming story of redemption in a small Indiana town. One inspiring scene has Hackman, a basketball coach, waiting patiently while one young player prays before a big match. “God wants you on the court,” he finally says.
************
Billionaire Elon Musk has just welcomed his fourteenth child. He is not married to the child’s mother. What is astonishing is that the same people, who are condemning his rather complicated relationships, would have no problem with him paying for an abortion.
A CHANGE OF ERA ONLY FOR THE WOMEN?
Five words, delivered during a homily on Ash Wednesday, have never entirely left me: “You all have to change,” the priest declared rather prophetically on March 6, 2019. He did not know that four women in our Falls Road congregation had been told the previous night that their vocation as Sisters of Adoration was over. I was one of them. How odd that Pancake Tuesday was the day our lives flipped. Indeed my life has been one of upheaval ever since.
The catalyst, you might say, was Pope Francis, who once declared: “We are not living in an era of change, but a change of era.”
He presided over changes that sealed the fate of my own congregation. The new rules were rooted in two documents designed for religious women: Vultum Dei Quaerere (2016) and Cor Orans (2018). Significantly, convents with fewer than five professed sisters would have to close or merge with another. There was some logic in this. Small numbers, top heavy with elderly sisters, struggled with governance issues. And in some cases a handful of sisters occupied massive properties, worth tens of millions.
I still have many questions – some answered by the Holy Spirit – and I read with interest a few days ago, a story from Spain where Poor Clares are facing the same issues we did.
However, the Abbess of the Monastery of Santo Cristo de Balaguer has taken a different attitude from the lamb-like response of my own congregation (which had convents in Paris, Belfast and Wexford).
Merging
In the magazine Catalunya Cristiana, the Abbess cited the recent closure of a 700-year-old monastery in Barcelona – an event which left people “hurt and perplexed”. “It affects women’s monasteries, not men’s,” she said of Vultum Dei Quaerere.
The Abbess also hinted that the new rule may be opportune in “normal circumstances” rather than a time of crisis in vocations and values. She gently noted that these rules affected the confiscation of church property – and felt it should be up to the nuns themselves whether they wanted to close their doors. “The men get off lightly,” a male religious remarked to me.
To be honest I did not realise this double standard even existed until a few days ago. And frankly it opened wounds that I hoped had healed.Why the difference? Surely the rules of governance affect men as well as women?
Frankly, it hurts deeply that these rules are applied only to religious sisters. For now anyway. Perhaps Sr Simona Brambilla, the newly appointed prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life, will change that – though I am not advocating that the men in monasteries should automatically face the same fate.
I was quite oblivious to all of these machinations when I was invited by my congregation to take vows at St Peter’s Cathedral on the Feast of St Pio in 2017, with the late Bishop Noel Treanor presiding. It was an unusual first profession and Sr Elaine Kelly, a former barrister, was also making her first vows.
Nine months later, we were informed, along with two others in temporary vows, that we might not be able to make our final profession as Sisters of Adoration, as the congregation may have to merge with another order. In those circumstances we would likely have to start again as postulants. It was like a bad game of ‘Snakes and Ladders’, but, after around five years, we were all four committed and prepared to begin again, come what may. In the meantime it was a wait by the cross for a further nine months.
Decision
To be honest, I initially dismissed the issue as Vatican bureaucracy, as I had no doubt about my own vocation, and Elaine Kelly had received her call in our chapel. Before the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday March 9, 2014, she had felt a strong touch on her heart and heard the words: “You will be a sister of adoration.” She left everything for Christ.
Elaine was wiser than I was. She understood this was more than bureaucracy, and that there was a poverty of governance. But trusting in God’s will, she was hoping for help from the men in power in Mother Church, not legalism, closure and the painful death of the congregation.
In the end, the decision was out of our hands. The congregation was not going to defy the Vatican; none of us were. Having failed to find a suitable partner to merge with, the fully professed congregation members, many of them elderly, felt they had little choice and decided to release us and not receive the newcomers waiting to come and see. I was shocked. More so when someone actually suggested to Elaine and I that we might sue. Sue God? I don’t think so. Instead I meditated on Mary’s words to the Angel Gabriel: “How can this be?”
Our departure was effectively the beginning of the end of the congregation, even though one Vatican official at the time agreed “there was authentic life” in Belfast.
The Congregation of Adoration Reparatrice had come to the Falls Road during the Hunger Strike of 1980/1. It had a rich and fruitful history. Even today I’m asked: “What happened?” Many Catholics still share how desperately they miss this little oasis of peace.
Adoration
Elaine and I – mindful that the Lord sent them out in pairs – have found new life in Christ, who is always faithful to his covenant. We strive to share the gifts of adoration and evangelisation which we received along with the gift of the Holy Face of Christ, painted by our Foundress, Ven Marie-Thérèse in 1848.
This pious woman, born Théodelinde Bourcin-Dubouché, was an accomplished portrait artist in post-revolutionary France, but grew tired of painting the rich and famous. In adoration, she was given a divine mission; she saw a vision of Jesus enthroned on the altar and a golden stream went from his heart to hers, and she heard the words: “I want souls before me always to receive my life and communicate my life to others.”
Perpetual Adoration was still a novelty when her congregation, Adoration Réparatrice, was founded on the Feast of the Transfiguration, 1848, in the poorest part of Paris. She is buried in the large convent she designed on Rue Guy Lussac, situated in the now affluent and fashionable Latin Quarter.
Ven Marie-Thérèse was also blessed with a vision of Christ’s Holy Face in his passion. She painted the image over and over again, and more and more I too have come to see: by his wounds, we are healed.
The Congregation’s motto – Fortis est ut mors dilectio – is still a steadfast source of strength: ‘Love is strong as death’, in a mission, not ended, but changed utterly.
******
I was sorry to hear of the deaths of Hollywood actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy. This fine actor was very private about his own religious views. I watched one of his films, Hoosiers, at the weekend. A heart-warming story of redemption in a small Indiana town. One inspiring scene has Hackman, a basketball coach, waiting patiently while one young player prays before a big match. “God wants you on the court,” he finally says.
************
Billionaire Elon Musk has just welcomed his fourteenth child. He is not married to the child’s mother. What is astonishing is that the same people, who are condemning his rather complicated relationships, would have no problem with him paying for an abortion.
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