Siebenburg Abbey to Close After 947 Years

Edit: what was uncertain before is now looking more certain, and these Abbeys are being sold for a song.

"No one can understand this pain who isn't involved."

That the thousand year old Benedictine Abbey on the Michealsberg in Siegburg can not last any longer has been known for a year. Since then there has been increasing speculation about the future use of the buildings. Rumours have been heating up, from the tasteless April Fool's joke in the local press, which proposed to turn it into a shopping center, to the sad development that the former Redemptorist Cloister 5 kilometers distant, will be turned into an "event center".

The withdrawal of the Benedictine presence has been entrusted to the last Monk on the Michealsberg, Brother Linus OSB, who has put his opinion on the current situation into words, which could only move:

"There is no correspondence to fact that the Abbey will be used for a commercial purpose. In the last two weeks I've only clearly told the daily "General-Anzeiger", that a purely spiritual use in the future is improbable. From that it was said that the Abbey will have a commercial use, which I consider a distortion of my words.

These are rumors sent into the world, which have no basis.

Neither 'kreuz.net' nor the Cologne 'Stade-Anzeiger" -- or any one else -- can describe the pain which we Siegburger Monks have experienced in the last Months. We must give up our home, the place of our monastic stabilitas. Decadence has been ascribed to us. But here there are Monks -- for example Father Mauritius -- who've seen sixty long years of dedicated service.

I know entire back ground. And on this I have to say: things have also been unfair to the Archdiocese of Cologne. Several of us Benedictines have been addressed as well by the Cardinal. There was really nothing untried in order to find a solution, which is possible and would do justice to the place.

Many participants and inquirers were horrified by the giant buildings with 21,000 cubic meters. We have looked for months to find a solution. I went to a visitor conference of the Benedictine Congregation of Subiaco in Brazil, in order to get a promise [votum] from our Congregation.

It really shocks me, when I see how the reactions are. In stead of praying for the Church, for the good way of a neighbor, we are publicly denounced in some quarters. As in the past, so we are also keeping the public informed -- as to the future of the Abbey. At the current moment there is nothing that is newsworthy.

I can't completely address the entirety of the speculations. They damage the Abbey and do not serve the subject. The only thing for it is time and patience.

We monks have to have to know about so many things. It is said to us that Siegburg is losing a "spiritual center", which makes people sad and, ahh, how important the Abbey actually has become in people's lives. How it has gone though with us monks during the events of the last months -- has been seldom inquired about outside the Church. It can hardly be conceived how it is for me to end 947 years of history and tradition.

As it is, evenings alone are like the way of the Cross for me, the empty refectory and the Kalefactorium [Scriptorium]-- as it is "my" Cloister which I must see die. No one could understand this pain, who isn't involved."

Together with the above explanation about their situation, is this recommended reading for all who dare to believe and utter the lie about the "new springtime after the Council".

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

In Germany, a thousand years of Christianity is at an end. The propagated form of "opening to the world" has not achieved the expected goals. And where one could assume 40 years ago a "mistake in good faith" that is with those who hold in the face of bankruptcy in this course, almost impossible. The "unworldliness" of the Church can not be arrested or prevented by Episcopal Conferences. It happens. In goods like in the situation with the Weltbild situation long destroying the Church, and in lesser goods such as this manifestation of the fact that a Monastery like Michaelberg is for the vast majority, at best, of only folkloric significance. The minority is involved, and they suffers alongside.

Translated from summorumpontificum.de....