Commissar Closes the Cloister of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in Teramo

Teramo

(Teramo) The Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate are leaving Teramo, the capital city of the Italian region of Abruzzo. As the religious house of Teramo announced in a statement, the closing on February 11th of the Monastery of Teramo is "based on a decision of the Apostolic Commissioner," Father Fidenzio Volpi.

As a reason, a "decline of Brothers" and the "departure of some religious" were mentioned. In both cases, these were direct consequences of the provisional administration of the Order which had been blooming till July 2013.  The "decline" is due to resignations, which were triggered by the radical intervention of members appointed by the Commissar appointed by the Roman Congregation of Religious because the original charism of the Order was destroyed. The "departure" means forced displacements and exile of the friars by the Commissar.

On October 6, 2007 Bishop Michele Seccia of Teramo had entrusted the parish and convent of San Domenico to the young Franciscans.  In 2008 the  Marian lay community of Missione Immacolata Media Trice and the Third Order were established. Since the same year, the Fathers have celebrated the Traditional Rite since the implementation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, not only the convent's, but public worship, such as the  Office and Vespers. In a pastoral concern for the parish,  the Mass was celebrated in both the traditional and the new Rites.

In 2005, the Dominicans had Abandoned the Monastery for Lack of Vocations 

In 1287  the Dominicans in Teramo established  the church and convent of San Domenico. After a long flowering, the Dominican convent was dissolved in 1809 by the Napoleonic storm, the church  was converted into a stall and the monastery into barracks. After the Congress of Vienna, the Confraternity of the Rosary, founded in 1556 by the Dominicans in Teramo for the care of the restoration of the Church. Because of the anticlerical attitude of 1860 by the newly created Italian state, it would take 130 years for the Dominicans were to return to Teramo. Only the Lateran Treaty made it possible that in 1939, the church was adopted by the Dominicans and the monastery was repopulated.

The Dominican church "experienced then in 1969-1971 as part of the post-conciliar liturgical reform, interventions in the design of the presbytery," as it states on the remaining website of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Teramo. In 2005, the Dominicans had to abandon the monastery Teramo "for lack of vocations."

Soon the monastery was empty, then the Bishop of Teramo summoned  the Franciscans of the Immaculate summoned a young  Order, which had no staffing problems and had thus guaranteed the safe continuation of the monastery and pastoral care. Less than seven years later, the tide has turned dramatically through papal intervention. In two days, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate will leave Teramo, but for very different reasons than the Dominicans.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Wikicommons

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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