More Proof: Only Catholic Monasteries Showing Growth

There's a blog out there from a Monastery which has traded in its Romanesque and Gothic medievalism for the brutalist architecture, conjuring up distopic miseries and visions of Hiroshima, or the post-modern world in which most of these Monastics spend their time. Actually, the blog is a lot like a women's fashion magazine about overly simplified religious subjects; a kind of writer's workshop at a vanity press. It's the way the author of the article goes on about the Monk's possession of cell phone and keys that's so disturbing, wistfully embarking upon an article which really ignores the ugly truth as to why Heiligenkreuz is so successful at winning vocations, nearly doubling its numbers to 88, despite its presence in one of the most anti-clerical countries in Europe with one of the worst Primate Cardinals. So, the whys and wherefores should be obvious, even to those who reside in the confusion of modernism and indifferentism which reigns supreme at Collegeville.

What they're doing now, in lieu of making an authentic monastic witness, is attempting to explain away the success of other monasteries in attracting vocations by appeals to beautiful music and simplicity. Could it be the order and purity of this Cistercian community's monastic witness that we see, clearly, why young people are willing to sacrifice their lives? One of the posters tries to explain it this way, and it's the typical response:

Sociologically speaking, there is the issue of “critical mass” – both the Heiligenkreuz and Nashville religious have it. It allows them to attract members easily and isn’t necessarily tied to their ecclesial vision. Critical mass isn’t something American parishes or religious have figured out I think in terms of applying it to institutional management and planning.

Critical mass, no, it's authenticity. These men have a mission. As the following video shows, that's why anywhere you go in the world, from France, to Germanyand the United States that Religious Communities which have either restored or maintained authentic Monasticism are prospering and conversely while those who do not, are dying.

Just to illustrate this point, there are two videos. The one for one for Heilegenkreuz in the Vienna Wood in Austria, above the ancient battlefield where the Turks who were then menacing Europe were driven back in 1683, the monks are young, orderly, simple. The vestments worn are baroque and at least one of the liturgies depicted in the video is being celebrated ad orientem (Mass facing God in the Tabernacle) with a reverence never seen at the Monastery from which 'Pray, Tell' originates. The video has more than a half-a-million hits on youtube. Is it any wonder they've got so many new vocations, leaving the old liberals at Collegeville to remark with scorn that they don't believe they'll make it...





Now, it was hard to find videos about Collegeville, but there is this one which shows a Monk who is supposedly on restriction for molesting among others, a 9 year old child, stalking a victim.




Here they are, burying a credibly accused homosexual predator, Father Bruce Wolmering:



We'll just leave you with more scenes from Heilegenkreuz. A truly beautiful and Catholic place in the heart of old Europe. They've even got black, baroque vestments