Post intelligent and civil comments. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the NLM
Congratulations to the London Extraordinary Form community. This group has waited patiently for an upgrade from monthly to weekly for a long time. Hopefully the new chapel will be easier for newcomers to find than the former location.
Shawn,
Is this the old Sisters of St. Joseph convent? I heard that it was being closed and put up for sale (just like Morrow Park in Toronto). Wow, what a Chapel? The choir all along the side is similar to Loretto Abbey in Toronto. Could you imagine when it was full of nuns singing the Office?
What a great thing for London in a perfect space.
So, how long until the banners and grand piano disappear???
David,
Actually, it already has been sold, it is now an upscale retirement residence, but the local diocese still retains use of the chapel for university Masses etc -- though in actuality, it is rather well attended by the retirees more than any students.
The banners are actually gone, I think the piano remains, but so too is the blessed sacrament no longer present within the chapel unfortunately. Still, that is not of necessity for the sacred rites to occur of course, as nice as it would be.
The next thing is to establish a stronger choral tradition; acquire some new appointments for the altar; and advertise.
So many convents are closing belonging to the major religious Orders, that soon there will be none left.
I read that the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary ( a radical femminist Order) which once was very traditional, had a beautiful habit, and apostolate in missions has closed over 100+ missions in the last 5 years. The Cabrini nuns, which also was a very strong Order, especially in Italy, had 2,200 sisters (in addition to several hundred her in the USA) before Vatican II, but now is down to an aged body of 340, with only a few dozen in the USA.
The Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of Saint Joseph, Dominican Sisters (23 congregations in the USA), and Franciscans are all contracting and shrinking rapidly. All liberal femminst Orders, they suffer the same fate...very aged members and property being sold off.
On the other hand, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Holy Eucharist have after only 10 years of traditional religious life and wearing the full "old fashioned" habit gone from only 4 to nearly 100
members!!!!
I wish the FSSP, INstitute of Christ the King, and even the SSPX could buy up many of these convents and either use them themselves, or sell them to traditional/traditionalist Orders of sisters. There's more of them thay we think. New groups, as well as afew old ones which have junked the 1970's secular lifestyle and returning to tradition.
Did anyone hear that the Sisters of Charity (in Canada, either the Charity Sisters of Montreal or Quebec) also known as the "Grey Nuns" have sold their Motherhouse and it too is being converted into either apartments or a retirement home.
Very sad. The bad fruits of Vatican II keep multiplying. Thank God for the Motu Proprio, but it will take decades to recover from the damage done by Vatican II. Worse than the Protestant Reformation...if that's possible!
Kenjiro,
The Domincan Sisters of Mary are a very orthodox order but they do not wear the old fashioned habit. Their habits lack the collars and wimples that you see on the Franciscans of Perpetual Adoration and would have been worn by almost all nuns in the past.
That's true. Having the wimple and different style veil would be better, but that's quibbling alittle. I'm just happy that they wear a very traditional habit compared to the 98% of other Orders in the USA which are very aged, femminist dissenting communities which will soon be entirely extinct.
Don't be surprised if the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist do bring back the wimple and veil. I've noticed some of the sisters wearing their veil in such a way that it doesn't show the hair at all. Alot of them are doing this.
Remember Mother Angelica's monastery?
Way back in 1986, they still wore the short little brown dress with the beige collar and veil. Then around 1989, they adopted a floor length version of the same habit, keeping the beige collar and beige veil. Then, in 1993 (Dec.), they returned to wearing the traditional habit with wimple and long black veil lined in white.
I often wished that Mother Angelica would found a teaching community of Franciscan sisters waering a black version of the same habit. We need a lot more good Orders of teaching nuns to replace the lunatic femminist dissenting nuns who threw away the habit, and all vestiges of traditional life.
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