Philly archdiocese ends busy week with multiple press releases to concerned faithful

UPDATE 16:49 MST 16 April 2021: Scroll to bottom.

Priorities…

http://Archphila.org/category/press-releases/

Still not a peep about 15 Discalced Carmelites fleeing the archdiocese for Nebraska, even after multiple requests directly to the head of the communications office.

To be fair, I have received multiple comments/messages that there may be trouble inside the order: A power struggle between confederated houses. It’s likely there are multiple factors in play here, with some within the order and the diocese wanting to enforce Cor Orans, the thermonuclear war on Contemplatives instituted by antipope Bergoglio.

There is also this:

UPDATE: The archdiocese finally responded to my two email inquiries on the situation. A short interaction took place. I paste it all here without comment:

8 thoughts on “Philly archdiocese ends busy week with multiple press releases to concerned faithful”

  1. At the Final Judgement I wonder if The King will ask:

    How did you keep Earth Day? rather than How did you keep each Sabbath holy by attending Mass?

    Did you remember to honor Ramadan? rather than How did you bring Truth to those who honor a false god?

    Did you provide inner city poor women with tampons rather than Did you teach inner city women the beauty of chastity?

    Just sayin…

  2. St Benedict Jospeh Labre, 16 April 2021 A. D.
    Mark–Follow the money.

    It’s a land grab. The Carmel owns the land; and the diocese like most run by the clerical Homosexual Network strangling the Church, is I’d surmise near bankrupt. Remember the Pennsylvania A. G.’s report of 2018?

    A priest friend of mine close to Sr. Pia, a disciple of Padre Pio and the last Carmelite in the monastery, says she’s the only sister left holding the fort, so to speak. Of course they had a problem with the ‘confederation’ Bergoglio engineered via Cors Unam to destroy contemplative life and orders, as you and others have rightly noted, with which Perez forced them to associate. Perez has also tried to take over the order by other means and thus the land through one of his vicariate henchmen. All efforts so far have failed, and may they continue to do so. Here’s the problem with having a false pope running around making awful laws and appointments, all illegitimate, all designed to destroy Holy Mother Church.

    Save the Carmel! Viva Cristo Rey!

  3. This is my only beef with my church. All the organizations and petty infighting. Why do we have to have different constitutions, different aims and goals, different tiers of accountability? Jesus didn’t want a massive Church administrative state.

    While we all have charisms, the idea that this warrants competing groups of people that all worship the same Jesus boggles my mind.

    One Church, right?

    1. One Church, many members.

      The centralization of hierarchical power via bishops’ conferences has been horrible.

      The world has run mad for centralization, aka communism in the political world.

      The Church must hold to a proper understanding of hierarchy. That a person like Francis feels comfortable imposing a thing like Cor Orans on every individual order the world over is the imposition of a Marxist one-size-fits-all ideology.

      It is not of God. It is not natural. It perverts the correct order of things. Local control and a certain autonomy are to be desired under the Big Tent of the CC.

      But what can be expected when a Mind/Body/Spirit New Age conference is being planned?

  4. Archbishop Perez is doing a pastoral visit (I think) to St. Mary’s in Conshohocken on June 27. As a member there, I am following this situation closely.

  5. Another one of my followers alerted me to the continued uproar in independent media concerning the Philadelphia Carmel, and a video from ‘Restoring the Faith’ channel on YouTube. I left a lengthy comment in reply to the program host; since I mentioned you in the reply I will share it here for you and your readers, too. My intent is to shed some light on misstatements or misunderstandings in that YouTube broadcast.

    (1) The Discalced Carmelite nuns in the USA have been federated for decades. Please search for the St. Teresa Association, the Queen of Carmel Association, and the Carmelite Communities Associated as the three associations that observe the 1991 Constitutions. The monasteries that observe the 1990 Constitutions have their own form of association. In other nations around the world, Discalced Carmelite nuns form associations based on geographic location (e.g. France), but in the USA our nuns formed associations based on like-mindedness. When Cor Orans was issued, Discalced Carmelite Superior General Saverio Cannistrà made one thing perfectly clear: the autonomy of Discalced Carmelite monasteries is in no way threatened by either the document Vultum Dei Quaerere or the Cor Orans instruction. There is no “Mother Federal” over and above a Mother Prioress. Among Discalced Carmelites in the USA and around the world, the principal purpose of an association is mutual aid and support; the elected president and her council form a consultative body. There are many examples worldwide of member monasteries assisting one another within an association in times of need, whether that need might be material or a need for personnel for a limited period of time.

    (2) Decisions to suppress monasteries — this is a juridical term — in particular, monasteries mentioned in your video, are decisions that have been made for centuries. What Cor Orans instructs in nos. 67-73 is an accurate description of the decision-making process. The only novelty in Cor Orans is that it indicates that the federation president and the priest who is the federation assistant participate in the consultation. Frankly, that is good news for the monastery threatened with suppression, because the federation president and federation assistant — again, both of these positions have existed among Discalced Carmelites for many years — can act as advocates for the nuns whose lives are “in the balance”. A review of the news stories surrounding the closure of Concord and Erie Carmels, for example, indicates that a decision was reached, after consultation, to suppress the monastery because of advancing age and lack of vocations. Other Carmels have reached different decisions; the Carmels of Indianapolis and Louisville were not suppressed but freely chose instead to relocate to cloistered facilities on the campuses of nearby religious orders. The Carmel of Indianapolis sold its monastery to the Archdiocese (now a very successful college seminary) and moved to the campus of the Franciscan Sisters of Oldenburg. The Carmel of Louisville sold its monastery to the Archdiocese (now part of the Archdiocesan cemetery) and moved to the campus of the Ursuline Motherhouse. There are some who point to usus antiquior vs. novus ordo as a reason for one Carmel thriving while another Carmel falters. That’s a false dichotomy. The Carmel of Indianapolis was known as a ‘progressive’ monastery ever since its chaplain sent the nuns reel-to-reel tapes from the Second Vatican Council. The Carmel of Louisville, to the contrary, was one of the most ‘traditional’ monasteries in the nation and observed the same Constitutions of 1990 as the nuns of Valparaiso, Elysburg, and Post Falls. Why did the Lord permit Louisville to wither on the Vine of Carmel? This is a mystery of God.

    (3) To learn more about the 20th c. history of Discalced Carmelite nuns’ federations, federation assistants, and the role Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus played in settling an all-out fratricidal war among the Discalced Carmelite nuns in France, see my Quote of the Day blog post for 20 September 2019 [Nota Bene: If I recall correctly, it was Blessed Marie-Eugene who introduced the concept of formal federations to the Discalced Carmelite nuns; in France, the monasteries already were unofficially federated; in the 1970s and 1980s the Spanish monasteries founded by St. Maria Maravillas and those who were like-minded were unofficially federated, too — they formed the heart and soul of the movement that led to the creation of the 1990 Constitutions mentioned below].
    https://carmelitequotes.blog/2019/09/20/quote-of-the-day-20-september/

    (4) Please become familiar with the 1990 Constitutions of the Discalced Carmelite nuns, approved by St. John Paul II in an effort to resolve another constitutional crisis among the nuns, this time centered in Spain. Roughly 15% of monasteries worldwide follow the 1990 Constitutions; the remaining monasteries observe the Constitutions of 1991. In essence, the decision of St. John Paul II directed the ‘1990 monasteries’ to submit to the authority of the Holy See; the ‘1991 monasteries’ are, so to speak, in full communion with the Superior General of the Discalced Carmelite Order and the entire Teresian Carmel. There has been some movement in the USA in recent years toward a rapprochement between the 1990 and 1991 monasteries; as St. Teresa said in the Way of Perfection, ch. 4, “all must be friends, all must be loved, all must be held dear, all must be helped.” Based on the reply of the archdiocese to blogger Mark Docherty, one is left to question: who is or was the superior of the Carmel of Philadelphia? Was it the archbishop, or did the nuns have a different superior? What Constitutions were they observing? The Constitutions of 1991 or 1990? The website of the Discalced Carmelite Order still indicates that Philadelphia Carmel observes 1991 Constitutions.

    So we can see that the situation in Philadelphia is far more complex than a matter of Latin liturgy. My conversations with those in the order who have knowledge of the Philadelphia situation indicate that here, too, St. John of the Cross is correct: “Keep this in mind, daughters: the soul that is quick to turn to speaking and conversing is slow to turn to God. For when it is turned toward God, it is then strongly and inwardly drawn toward silence and flight from all conversation. For God desires a soul to rejoice with him more than with any other person, however advanced and helpful the person may be” (Letter 8).

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