The end of religious orders and the future of their properties

Franciscans and poor clares, benedictines, mercedarians, Jesus’ companions inspired by Ignatius of Loyola, carmelite men and women, passionists, Marists…. an endless list. They were instituted to relieve, accompany, educate, heal, and care for those who are alone or have nothing. Or to devote themselves to “contemplative life”, “working and praying”, deeply living in profound communion with everything. Those women and men, throughout the centuries, gave the people the best of themselves with admirable dedication and selflessness, and the people supported them materially and spiritually with immense generosity. Our towns and cities bear their mark.

But “religious life” –like the time of traditional “religions”- is nearing its end. I do not mean that the values that gave rise to those congregations and orders –samaritan compassion, subversive hope, brotherly-sisterly universal love – are no longer valid. They will always be, let’s hope. But in the last 60 years the cultural framework (theological and anthropological) on which that form of life has been sustained, and its very name, has fallen apart.

Our view of the world and of the human being, of matter and “spirit”, of the body, sexuality and gender…. and, therefore, our image of God, have changed profoundly. It is no longer held that celibacy is more humane or that it brings the person closer to God or to Life than the practice of sexuality, or that obedience to a superior is more valuable in itself, or that the individual is more responsible or solidary because the ownership of goods rests with the order. Neither is it held that the three vows are “advice” given by Jesus of Nazareth to those who wish to follow him more closely, more fully or prophetically. And even if Jesus would have given that advice, that would not make it valid today, just as are not valid his ideas about the origin and the end of the world, the creation of the human being, angels and demons, or about a Creator God.

The foundations on which religious life has rested and which have justified it from its beginnings until today have crumbled. And that is the simple reason why in western Europe vocations to that form of life are disappearing, in a process that could have been anticipated, but its coming was not seen. Vocations to a life in its deepest meaning are not disappearing, but to the theological and canonical model of “consacrated life”. Sociological data and their underlying trend indicate that, within two or three decades in the European countries, the great majority of monasteries, convents and religious residences will stand empty due to the cultural-religious metamorphosis. And all of this indicates that it will also occur, sooner or later, in all continents, just as what happened before in the Basque Country or in Catalonya is now occurring in Castille and Andalusia, or what happened before in France, Denmark or Sweden is now occurring in Italy, Spain or even Poland.

Will religious congregations be able to clearly understand the sign of these times and convert their death process into a way to life, their institutional dissolution into spiritual transformation? Or will they choose to close their eyes, run forward and condemn themselves to decadence, looking desperately for vocations or importing them from wherever they can? Knowing how to live ultimately leads to knowing how to die, to allowing oneself to be completely transformed.

I cannot but mention here another even greater challenge, related to, or derived from, the already mentioned one: what will be the destiny religious orders will give to their temples, sanctuaries, convents, houses and other properties, which are not few, when their communities close for good so that their originary charisma and authentic history will not disappear, too? It is fair that they provide the necessary conditions for all their surviving members to live reasonably their final years. The rest does not belong to them, no matter how many and how legal their ownership titles may be. Whatever they do not need belongs to the people. The people were who, directly or indirectly, built their temples and convents. In no way should they end up in the hands of the highest bidder.

Let them, then, return to the people, to the public institutions, but not through sale at market price, because that would be equivalent to making taxpayers pay for the second time for the convent, church or property which they or their forebearers (or the kings and lords who exploited them) gave to the religious orders. Let the religious orders desacralize their temples and sanctuaries to become places of “spirit and life” where the people may breathe in peace, enjoy the silence, get together and improve their coexistence, dream of a better world, enjoy the beauty of music and words, celebrate love and birth, say goodbye to their dead and alleviate mourning. Transfering their properties to the church in general and to diocesan institutions would ultimately betray the charisma that inspired those religious orders, it would be a fraud to the people who sustained them and to whom they consacrated their lives, an insult to the memories of our parents, grandparents and ancestors.

I write these lines just before February 2th, when the Catholic liturgy celebrates “the day of religious life”. In the Mass we will read again Luke’s imaginary and beautiful passage about two old prophets, Simeon and Anna, who receive the child Jesus when he is presented in the temple in Jerusalem. Simeon, “a righteous and devout man”, “was awaiting for the consolation of Israel”, of all peoples. He opens his eyes, sees Jesus and recognizes the Light of a new world, and he says to Life: “you may now dismiss your servant in peace”. Anna, 84 years old, is a widow from a very early age, and she is there, too. She opens her mouth to speak “about the child to all who await liberation”. Do not lock yourselves up in the temple, she says, open its doors, there is no more cloister than the world. Do not look at the past, another future is possible.

Aizarna, January 30th, 2022.

Translated by Mertxe de Renobales Scheifler