These nuns is such a beautiful religious habit were the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood, an Order of Franciscan sisters founded immediately after WW I in England, They wore this stunning and beautiful religious habit all the way up to 1980 when they exchanged this unique garb for a simple blue dress and short veil. Today, they are, like so many Orders of sisters, habitless....wearing layclothes. Their membership has subsequently declined from roughly 460 immediately before Vatican II, to about 230 today with a median age of about 73. ALL the Irish and English nuns (and they were always about 85% of the Order, are over 70. They used to get substantial vocations from Malaysia, Singapor, Canada, and India....but after they liberalized, discarded this magnificent habit, and then chose layclothes and a radical agenda (inter-religious dialog over saving souls, dissent over prayer), those sources of vocations dried up as well. They used to staff 2 schools in the Archdiocese of New York, but with their liberalizing, those places are now closed and the sisters gone from the USA. Many of their houses in England (where they now have the bulk of their members and houses), are actually homes for retired/aged sisters. They have almost zero missions anymore....most of them are too old. The minute they gave up traditional religious life and this beautiful habit, they started to collapse. Same story 1000x over since Vatican II. These Orders of sisters will never change or admit they were wrong. Maybe new groups of young people would like to re-found the Order, wearing this wonderful habit and practicing the traditions of the Order again. Let us pray that these old videos inspire young people to re-found according to Catholic tradition, Orders which were destroyed by misguided enthusiasm and warped values after Vatican II.
These nuns is such a beautiful religious habit were the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood, an Order of Franciscan sisters founded immediately after WW I in England, They wore this stunning and beautiful religious habit all the way up to 1980 when they exchanged this unique garb for a simple blue dress and short veil. Today, they are, like so many Orders of sisters, habitless....wearing layclothes. Their membership has subsequently declined from roughly 460 immediately before Vatican II, to about 230 today with a median age of about 73. ALL the Irish and English nuns (and they were always about 85% of the Order, are over 70. They used to get substantial vocations from Malaysia, Singapor, Canada, and India....but after they liberalized, discarded this magnificent habit, and then chose layclothes and a radical agenda (inter-religious dialog over saving souls, dissent over prayer), those sources of vocations dried up as well.
ReplyDeleteThey used to staff 2 schools in the Archdiocese of New York, but with their liberalizing, those places are now closed and the sisters gone from the USA. Many of their houses in England (where they now have the bulk of their members and houses), are actually homes for retired/aged sisters.
They have almost zero missions anymore....most of them are too old.
The minute they gave up traditional religious life and this beautiful habit, they started to collapse. Same story 1000x over since Vatican II.
These Orders of sisters will never change or admit they were wrong.
Maybe new groups of young people would like to re-found the Order, wearing this wonderful habit and practicing the traditions of the Order again. Let us pray that these old videos inspire young people to re-found according to Catholic tradition, Orders which were destroyed by misguided enthusiasm and warped values after Vatican II.
This beautiful place has been turned into a retreat center. May it be filled once again with sisters!
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