Wonderful old men, but few now and venerable in age.
Across the street is located the largest university in Italy.
Would be nice to see the Franciscans of the Immaculate take over and really change San Lorenzo into a the powerhouse it needs to be.
I don't mean to blame Vatican II, but it's the truth. Because of it, and all the horrible abuses in every aspect of Church life since, we are going to start seeing the collapse and disappearance of some of the Catholic Church's oldest and at one time largest Orders.
ReplyDeleteThe Jesuits, for instance have declined close to 20,000 since Vatican II and have an average age of priests of nearly 70. So too the Franciscans (OFM), the White Fathers, Redemptorists, Salesians, and others.
IN all Italy, there are only 2 Jesuit novices.
IN Italy less than 700 Jesuits remain. Less than 1,000 Dominicans. Less than 200 Augustinians. Only about 40 Carthusians. ONly about 30 Trappists. Less than 50 Camaldolese.
Only about 300 Servites.
Orders of nuns are by far worse off. Except for cloistered Orders of nuns.
Before Vatican II, there were 80,000 world wide cloistered nuns. Today, there are about 55,000 which is down from the late 1950-early 1960's, but up from the mid-1970's when there were only 46,000 world wide.
Before Vatican II, there were 1.2 million nuns.
Today, there are about 800,000. That's down close to 400,000 from 1960. The USA alone acconts for 130,000 of the loss. The USA , Canada, Western Europe and Australia are the biggest loosers.
Just about all of the really big Orders of nuns discarded both the religious habit and Catholic tradition years ago. Their median ages are now about 76. Do the math folks! In about 5 years, Orders like the Daughters of Charity, Sisters of Mercy, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Religious of the Sacred Heart etc. will have median ages in their early 80's and will cease being viable communities.
Same for many Orders of men like the Jesuits, Franciscans, Capuchins (sorry to say, because they were the great Padre Pio's Order), Blessed Sacrament Fathers, Christian Brothers...etc.
Orders in some countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, France) have nearly all their members in nursing homes!
This is entirely due to the reforms and agenda of Vatican II, the Novus Ordo itself, and the dissenting agenda perpetuated by these Orders for 40+ years.
On the other hand, Orders which have adopted Vatican II the least, or who have slowly returned to Catholic tradition (the Franciscans of the Immaculata, etc.) are stabilizing and growing. MARIAWALD Trappist Abbey in Germany which went back to the Tridentine Latin Mass and Catholic tradition only last year (2008), has this year (2009) more postulants (3), than it has had in 40 years, and more than mostly all the Trappist Abbies in the entire world save for 2-3 (Sept Fons in France, Novy Dur in Czech. Rep, and 1 in Africa).
The moral for these Franciscans pictured in this photo, and all Orders is to return to Catholic tradition and the Tridentine Latin Mass.
They won't unfortunatly...so their sad fate is sealed.