God's Take on the Decline in Many Religious Orders

Over the last week I saw a couple of things intersect that made a light go on in my mind. The 1st thing was something that popped out at me as I was reading the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. I should explain that I regularly pick up my copy of the Diary & read a few paragraphs. I have been through it several times, each time I notice something new. This time it was this. It was sections 1702-3 where God talks about religious & priests.

Then a CNS article about a book on the decline in the numbers of women religious kept popping up in several sites/blogs. The article, Beyond the veil: Debate continues on why number of nuns is declining, talked about a review of Italian Claretian Father Angelo Pardilla's book Religious Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Father Giancarlo Rocca in L'Osservatore Romano. The debate is was a misreading of Vatican II to blame or not? Or did the problem go back to way before Vatican II?

Fr. Pardilla says the principal cause for the decline was that many religious misunderstood the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and lost a sense of their identity. His proof, the fact that the number of vowed religious -- both men and women -- has dropped sharply since Vatican II, except in the contemplative orders that still wear habits and live with a regimented community life.

Fr. Rocca says that a misreading of the Second Vatican Council could not be the prime culprit. He points to the fact that in many places the numbers began to drop in the 1930s, long before the council opened in 1962. The real reason was the key is the emancipation of women. (I have a small problem with this theory as there have been rises & drops in the numbers over the centuries, but nothing like post Vatican II.)

While I think a huge misreading of the key documents was a huge part of the problem, I think it was misread because of a deeper problem in many of these orders that are now dying out. While the problem may have caused the numbers to drop in some places before Vatican II, it didn't fully surface, or do its damage until they took what was really said in the documents & bastardized it into their false "Spirit of Vatican II". & I think the real root problem is found in what I read in St. Faustina's Diary.

The root cause is found in 1702. The explanation for the success of those orders who still wear the habit is found in 1703.

(1702)Toward the end of the Way of the Cross which I was making, the Lord Jesus began to complain about the souls of religious and priests, about the lack of love in chosen souls. I will allow convents and churches to be destroyed. I answered, “Jesus, but there are so many souls praising You in convents.” The Lord answered, that praise wounds My Heart, because love has been banished from convents. Souls without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just enough warmth to keep them alive: My Heart cannot bear this. All the graces that I pour out upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock. I cannot stand them, because they are neither good or bad. I called convents into being to sanctify the world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame of love and sacrifice should burst forth. And if they do not repent and become enkindled by their first love, I will deliver them over to the fate of this world…

How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart specially chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through…

(1703)When I tried to intercede for them, I could find nothing with which to excuse them and, being at the time unable to think of anything in their defense, my heart was seized with pain, and I wept bitterly. Then the Lord looked at me kindly and comforted me with these words: Do not cry. There are still a great number of souls who love Me very much, but My Heart desires to be loved by all and, because My love is great, that is why I warn and chastise them.

So, lets look at what things are like in those dying orders. While there are a few in those convents who truly love God, they are usually the elder, infirm sisters. Think about what goes on in those orders. They are into New Age, radical feminism, etc. I'd say that when Jesus said, that they were full of "Souls without love and without devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just enough warmth to keep them alive." is an accurate description of the dying orders. So is this: "(T)heir guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! " &, as Jesus warned, this is why those convents are being destroyed.

As for the orders that are growing, yes they are the ones who wear a habit, etc. But that is only an outer manifestation of what lies within their hearts. They are filled with the souls that Jesus said are those who: "love Me very much". These are the convents who are doing what Jesus said in 1702: "I called convents into being to sanctify the world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame of love and sacrifice should burst forth." They are hearing & answering that call as Jesus wants. & He is blessing that loving response to prayer, service, penance & atonement. These orders are growing because they enable those joining to respond to God's call. These orders are not running away from it as the dying orders are.

Some of those growing convents are a part of the older religious orders. God is doing through them what he did through Ss. Teresa of Avila & John of the Cross for the Carmelites, bringing about a renewal in those orders. He is also using them as a sign to the dying branches. But so far, the leaders of the dying convents are refusing to read the "signs of the times". Like the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus, they refuse to face what lies ahead for them if they don't change. As Jesus warned, He "will deliver them over to the fate of this world…"

The new religious orders that are springing up are a part of the Sprintime of Hope (pun intended) Pope John Paul talked about. The same is true about those growing convents from older orders. They are the new sprouts that come after the pruning. Just as the monasteries were where the light of God's flame kept burning in what was called the "Dark Ages", these convents will be where God's light will shine forth from to strengthen & encourage God's people in the struggles ahead.

Maybe it is time follow the example of St. Faustina & stop trying to excuse the dying convents or to think of anything in their defense. Instead, we need to support those growing orders with prayer as well as financially.

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20 some years ago I got a Presentation Sister mad at me when I commented that maybe it was God's will some of these orders were dying out. After what I recently read in the Diary, it looks like I was doing a better job of listenning to the voice of the Holy Spirit than I knew. Praise God!