Poor Clare abbess criticizes Vatican order to close convents with fewer than five nuns
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Madrid, Spain, Feb 26, 2025 / 18:07 pm (CNA).
The Poor Clare abbess of the Monastery of Santo Cristo de Balaguer in Lérida province in northeast Spain is calling out for criticism the 2018 rule established by Pope Francis according to which communities of women religious with less than five nuns must be dissolved, a rule that does not apply to male communities.
Sister María Victoria Triviño, OSC, made her critique in an article published by the magazine “Catalunya Cristiana” regarding the recent closure of the Monastery of Santa María de Pedralbes in Barcelona that had been in existence for 700 years.
Asked about the reason for the closure, “which people, hurt and perplexed, address to some of the Poor Clares every day,” the nun explained that the Holy Father published the apostolic constitution Vultum Dei Quaerere in 2016 but emphasized that the document “did not affect monks.”
Similarly, regarding the Cor orans instruction, published in 2018 to implement Vultum Dei Quaerere, the Poor Clare nun pointed out that “it affects women’s monasteries around the world, not men’s.”
This instruction establishes that “if a monastery has only five nuns, it loses its autonomy and must be affiliated with another monastery.” Furthermore, if it falls below that number, it must be abolished, according to Abbess Triviño.
In such a case, an apostolic visitor is appointed who, if he issues a negative report to the Roman Curia, “the transfer of the sisters is ordered” and the building is closed.
In the opinion of the abbess, this rule “which in normal circumstances may be opportune, in a difficult time of a vocations crisis, a crisis of values, economic crisis, etc., has had an effect of the confiscation of church property by the Church itself.”
In her dissertation, the abbess noted that, just as the habit of the Poor Clares can be adapted “according to the cold regions” as stated in their rule, “each monastery acquires peculiarities ‘according to the region’ in which it lives.”
“If the closure of a monastery always means the loss of its production of liturgical items, of the intercessory influence on the city, the loss of a presence that bears witness [in an environment], so often secular, to the fact that ‘God exists and makes us happy,’ to all this we must add distinctive characteristics such as the artistic legacy, the cultural, musical, artisanal influence, etc. After all this, there will always be regret for desacralizing a sacred place”, she noted.
In this regard, the abbess also lamented the closure of other monasteries such as that of the Holy Trinity in Valencia (founded in 1242), the Monastery of St. Clare la Real in Toledo (founded in 1254) or the Monastery of St. Clare in Salamanca, founded by St. Clare of Assisi in 1238.
The abbess concluded that “much has already been lost. And only [by the intervention of] the Roman Dicastery for Consecrated Life can we avoid further loss. How? By attenuating the instructions given for all women’s monasteries.”
In her opinion, it should be the nuns who "when the time comes, can take the options of continuing or closing according to their real situation, like men's monasteries, for which no limits are set."
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.