[Catholic Caucus] The Vatican Assault on Religious Life Claims More Victims

Crisis Magazine ^ | February 14, 2023 | Mary Cuff

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[Catholic Caucus] The Vatican Assault on Religious Life Claims More Victims

An Italian monastery worth millions is another in a succession of religious houses being shut down by the Vatican for questionable reasons.

For more than seven hundred years, the Franciscan monastery of Santa Chiara has stood overlooking the glorious waters of the Amalfi Coast in the town of Ravello, the “city of music” and the “pearl of the Amalfi.” Poor Clares came to Ravello in 1297, just after the death of St. Francis, and the monastery and town have flourished together for almost a thousand years.

The monastery grounds, church, and manuscript library have been deemed historically significant by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism. The sisters support themselves financially by means of a historic hotel and by producing limoncello. 

But the monastery now stands at the brink of suppression and destruction, thanks to recent interventions by Rome, which reached a crescendo just last week when two of its nuns were defrocked for attempting to remain in the cloister in which they had vowed to live out the rest of their lives.

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Ping

[Steve_Seattle]

"the Franciscan monastery of Santa Chiara"

I recently learned that "Chiara" is the actual named of Clare, the famous female friend and follower of St. Francis.