SSPX Sisters Elect a New Superior General

(Paris) On Monday, April 9, the General Chapter of the Sisters of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X elected a new Superior General.
 
The General Chapter met in the Mother house of the Congregation in the Abbaye Saint Michel-en-Brenne in the French department of Indre in the presence of Auxiliary Bishop Alfonso de Galaretta.

The capitulars elected Sr. Maria Jean Bréant, the former novice mistress of the Order, the fourth Superior General. Her term of office is six years. So far, Sr. Maria Jean worked at the novitiate Notre Dame de Compassion in Ruffec.
 
The third Superior General was Mother Marie-Augustin de Poulpiquet, who since 2006 has been the head of the sisterhood for two terms of office.
 
The first Assistant General was Sr. Thérèse Trutt from Baden, second General Assistant Sr. Marie Claire Wuilloud from Valais. She is superior of the monastery of St. Pius X in Göffingen in Swabia.
The Sisters of the Society of St. Pius X were founded on September 22, 1974 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in Rome. He was assisted by his biological sister, Mother Marie Gabriel, then a nun of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit (Spiritanerinnen). She asked for thr eclaustration to make the Order with a small group of other women and was the first Superior General. In 1977, the first postulant entered.
 
Today, the congregation has 195 sisters and more than 20 novices living and working in 27 houses on all five continents.
 
The Abbaye Saint Michel -en-Brenne was acquired in 1975 and became the mother house of the sisters. The abbey was founded around 632 by the Frankish archbishop Sigirand of Tours, who is today revered in France as Saint Cyran. In the 17th century, the monastery had become a center of Jansenism, which is why it was abolished in the early 18th century. After the French Revolution, the buildings were used for various purposes until they were restored by Archbishop Lefebvre again to ecclesiastical and monastic purposes.
 
According to the donor's will, the sisters live "intensely with the Lord's sacrifice renewed and continued on our altars" and worship the "sacrificial lamb always present in the Blessed Sacrament." In addition, they support "the apostolate of priests in various fields" in order "to lead the souls to this very worship".
 
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: FSSPX (screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG 

Trappist Nuns In Syria Do Not Fear Fate of Trappists in Algeria

(Damascus)  They came to the near East in 2005 with the intention to live out the Christianization of the first centuries after Christ.   Their history is comparable to the Trappist monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, who in 1996 were murdered by a moderate Islamic group.  Xavier Beauvaus created a memorial for them and their martyrdom by the film "Of Men and Gods".

The comparison is more pressing when one things of the five Trappists, who left their peaceful and isolated Cloister in Valserena in Tuscany, Italy, in order to go to Syria.  A land whose internal situation had been already tense and in the midst of a civil war with thousands of deaths and flooded with hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Why have they decided to found a new Cloister in an unstable country like Syria?  "Because Christianity had developed here and spread from here to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Armenia, India and China", say the sisters.  "in the first centuries the mission was led by a living Monastic movement, which existed alone and independently of one another here and in Egypt."  The sisters recall St. Ephraem the Syrian, Saint Simeon the Stylite, St. John Chrysostom or St. John of Damascus, whose traces they follow.  "Going out from our Latin and Benedictine Tradition we want to follow the stream, because we are convinced of the rich fruits, which will come about in an exchange between the West and Eastern heritage of Christendom."

So the Cloister of Azeir exists amidst the civil war afflicted cities of Homs and Tartous in Central Asia. The sisters feel a mission in that, which resembles that of the monks of Tibhirine:  to help Christians and Muslims without respect to religion, to be a lighthouse of peace and harmony in the civil war,  which they did not foresee when the five Trappists set foot for the first time on Syrian soil. "Now we belong to these people.  The fate of the Syrians is our fate,"  says Abbess Monica to AsiaNews.

The nuns reported on their internet site established and independent of all propaganda of one of the other sides of the civil war and the fate of Syria's Christians.   Some of the letters of the last months could have been called out.  They described for everyone the suffering of the civilian population.  For them the Cloister is clearly a sign of hope, because it is "a place, where God is really present through the Eucharist and through the Church, through the prayer and the brotherly community.  It is a blessing for all."

"Why should we go away?" was the astonished response of the sisters.  "The people here ring our door.  They seek help, diverse help.   They ask for food, they seek consolation, young men have started to come to us, because they are seeking someone to help them to understand things, to reflect, to grow innerly."  The Cloister offers already numerous people sanctuary and accommodation, people, who are have been made refugees by government troops or the rebels, people who are pursued by one side or the other.  Even as a place for secret business, the Cloister is on hand.

"We are called to give a witness of our Christian hohpe, which is stronger than all worry.  Why should we go away from a place, where the people so desperately need this hope",  said the Abbess to Asia News.

Text: Religion en libertad/Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Valserena

15 Sisters of the Community of St. John Took Perpetual Vows -- New Monastery in Cordoba

(Madrid) 15 Sisters of the Community of St. John have made their last vows on the last 29th June in the parish of La Rambla in Cordoba.  The solemn profession was on  the occasion of the 100th Birthday of Father Marie Dominique  Philippe who died in 2006, whom the sisters consider their founder. The sisters are from Austria, England, France and Spain, where many family members were on hand to celebrate and witness the festive occasion of life surrender and consecration to the Lord.

The Mass was celebrated by  the Bishop of Cordoba, Demetrio Fernandez.  Bishop celebrated in the presence of the Vicar General and the Rector of the Seminary of the Diocese. The sisters have settled recently in the Diocese of Cordoba. 25 sisters of the Community live in the monastery near Cordoba  and worldwide there are now 150 sisters who lead a contemplative life, but without examination. The female branch of the St. John's community was founded on 8 December of 1982 and has been recognized since 1994 as a diocesan congregation.

Unlike other religious communities  St. John's puts both the same emphasis of importance the habits of both their female and the male branches.

The male branch, which now has some 600 brethren, arose from a merger of theology students to the Dominican priest and professor at the University of Freiburg in Uechtland, Marie Dominique Philippe, which was formed in 1975 and is recognized canon law since 1987. The mother house is in Rimont in France. He now has offices throughout Asia, Africa, America and Europe. In Austria, the Priory Queen Mary in Marchegg and in Switzerland, the Priory of Saint Jean in Geneva. In the Netherlands and Belgium, there are both brothers and sister communities of the Congregation.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Community of St. John

Link to katholisches....

Energetic Female Religious Running Out of the Church

Detroit — Nuns from Michigan and throughout the nation are assembling in St. Louis this week to prepare their response to a Vatican crackdown that criticized their loyalty and accused them of "radical feminism." This spring, the Vatican ordered a review of the umbrella group of the nation's 55,000 nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, claiming the sisters had gone rogue, focusing on social justice issues and neglecting church teachings on subjects including contraception, abortion and homosexuality. The rift, which has sparked a split among the faithful and a wave of sympathy for the nuns, is being felt in Metro Detroit.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120806/LIFESTYLE04/208060337#ixzz22o5sVWta

Elvis' Old Friend Returns to Holywood a Witness of Religious Life

Edit:  She looks terribly refined in that garment, a sign of contradiction.   The secret is that there is an entire universe in the cloister, a beautiful halo of stars about the house at night and incredible wonders in a life lived with childlike purity.


Perhaps sister will inspire more young women to evaluate their course in life and embark on an adventure most men would be too timorous to undertake themselves.

Of course, the habit works on a lot of different levels, there's a level of wonder and a reflection on what it means, it's a prayer.
If you plan to watch the Oscars this Sunday, keep your eye out for Dolores Hart, the 1960s starlet who starred opposite Montgomery Clift, Robert Wagner, and Elvis Presley — twice.
She’ll be easy to spot: just look for the cheerful-looking woman in the nun’s habit. That’s because Hart, who famously shared one of Presley's first on-screen kisses, is now Mother Prioress Dolores, Benedictine nun. Her unusual life story, from the glitz of Tinseltown to a cloistered convent in Connecticut, where she now lives, is the topic of a new HBO documentary, “God Is The Bigger Elvis.”
 Hart, now 73, grew up in Chicago and got her start in acting at the age of 19 locking lips with Elvis as one of his love interests in the 1957 movie, "Loving You." She went on to star in a series of high-profile movies and Broadway productions, and was nominated for a Tony Award in in 1959. She also got engaged to Don Robinson, a Los Angeles architect.

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Nuns Complain bitterly about Vatican Investigation

Liberal nuns make their thoughts known about the Vatican investigation. Some say that the Vatican is using it to cover up sex-abuse, another one is saying that surgery was banned by the Church.

Vatican investigation into compliance of U.S. Sisters to Catholic doctrine should not impact members of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Agnes.

"And hopefully, it will not impact our university," said Sister Mary Mollison, acting president at Marian University.

She addressed Catholic religious women gathered Thursday at the Stayer Center about tension and rising polarization in the church.

Issues reportedly being investigated include the acceptance of gays and lesbians, the Catholic path as an exclusive path to redemption, and the return of habits. Vatican concerns have also focused on the declining numbers of religious vocations in Western cultures.

"Our freedom is part of the tension going on," Mollison confirmed.

Cardinal Franc Rode' said he requested the three-year study in response to concerns expressed by American Catholics — religious, laity, clergy and hierarchy — about the welfare of religious women and consecrated life in general, according to the National Catholic Reporter. Rhode heads the Vatican office overseeing religious orders.

Assessment of "women religious," as they are referred to in the Catholic Church, could include whether or not those speaking for an order support the idea of women priests, or gay marriage, or whether they believe there can be salvation outside the Catholic church, Mollison said.

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