Sister María Victoria Triviño, OSC, reflected on the recent closure of the 700-year-old Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes in Barcelona.
Newsroom (28/02/2025 09:37, Gaudium Press) The Abbess of the Monastery of Santo Cristo de Balaguer (Lleida, Spain), of the Order of Saint Clare (Poor Clares), has criticized the rule established by Pope Francis, according to which communities of women religious with fewer than five sisters must be dissolved, which is not the case with those of men.
Sister María Victoria Triviño, OSC, made this comment in an article published by the magazine Cataluña Cristiana, regarding the recent closure of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes in Barcelona (Spain), after 700 years of history.
When asked about the reason for the closure ‘which people, hurt and perplexed, address to some Poor Clares every day’, the nun explains that the Holy Father published the apostolic constitution Vultum Dei Quaerere in 2016. The nun emphasizes that the document ‘did not concern monks’.
Likewise, with regard to the Cor orans instruction, published in 2018 to support the application of Vultum Dei Quaerere, the Clarisse nun insists that ‘it affects women’s monasteries throughout the world, not men’s monasteries’.
In this instruction, it is established that ‘if a monastery has only five nuns, it loses its autonomy and must affiliate to another monastery’. Furthermore, if it falls below this number, it must be suppressed, explains Abbess Triviño.
This situation is monitored by an apostolic visitator who, if he issues a negative report to the Roman Curia, ‘orders the transfer of the sisters’ and the building is closed.
In the Abbess’ opinion, this rule “which, under normal circumstances, can be opportune, at a difficult time of vocational crisis, crisis of values, economic crisis, etc., has had an effect of internal discontent”.
In her presentation, the Abbess considers that, just as the Poor Clares‘ habit can be adapted “according to the cold regions”, as their Rule prescribes, “each monastery acquires peculiarities ”according to the region’ in which it lives’.
‘If the closure of a monastery always means the loss of its usual liturgical celebrations, its missionary influence in the city, the loss of an often secular witnessing presence to the fact that ‘God exists and makes us happy’, to all this we must add peculiarities such as the artistic legacy, the cultural, musical and artisanal influence, etc. After all, we will always regret the desacralization of a sacred place,’ she adds.
In this sense, she also laments the closure of other monasteries, such as the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Valencia (founded in 1242) whose works and decoration were directed by the admirable Sister Isabel de Villena in the 15th century; the Monastery of Santa Clara la Real in Toledo (founded in 1254) which houses the royal tombs or the Monastery of Santa Clara in Salamanca, founded during the life of St. Clare in 1238 and restored in the 16th century.
The Abbess concludes that ‘much has already been lost. And only the Roman Dicastery for Consecrated Life can prevent further losses. How? By softening the instructions given in all the women’s monasteries’.
In her opinion, it should be the religious who, ‘when the time comes, have the option of continuing or closing according to their real situation, as in the male monasteries, where there are no limits’.
With files from Aciprensa
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
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