Sunday, November 27, 2011

Siebenburg Abbey to Close After 947 Years

Edit: what was uncertain before is now looking more certain, and these Abbeys are being sold for a song.

"No one can understand this pain who isn't involved."

That the thousand year old Benedictine Abbey on the Michealsberg in Siegburg can not last any longer has been known for a year. Since then there has been increasing speculation about the future use of the buildings. Rumours have been heating up, from the tasteless April Fool's joke in the local press, which proposed to turn it into a shopping center, to the sad development that the former Redemptorist Cloister 5 kilometers distant, will be turned into an "event center".

The withdrawal of the Benedictine presence has been entrusted to the last Monk on the Michealsberg, Brother Linus OSB, who has put his opinion on the current situation into words, which could only move:

"There is no correspondence to fact that the Abbey will be used for a commercial purpose. In the last two weeks I've only clearly told the daily "General-Anzeiger", that a purely spiritual use in the future is improbable. From that it was said that the Abbey will have a commercial use, which I consider a distortion of my words.

These are rumors sent into the world, which have no basis.

Neither 'kreuz.net' nor the Cologne 'Stade-Anzeiger" -- or any one else -- can describe the pain which we Siegburger Monks have experienced in the last Months. We must give up our home, the place of our monastic stabilitas. Decadence has been ascribed to us. But here there are Monks -- for example Father Mauritius -- who've seen sixty long years of dedicated service.

I know entire back ground. And on this I have to say: things have also been unfair to the Archdiocese of Cologne. Several of us Benedictines have been addressed as well by the Cardinal. There was really nothing untried in order to find a solution, which is possible and would do justice to the place.

Many participants and inquirers were horrified by the giant buildings with 21,000 cubic meters. We have looked for months to find a solution. I went to a visitor conference of the Benedictine Congregation of Subiaco in Brazil, in order to get a promise [votum] from our Congregation.

It really shocks me, when I see how the reactions are. In stead of praying for the Church, for the good way of a neighbor, we are publicly denounced in some quarters. As in the past, so we are also keeping the public informed -- as to the future of the Abbey. At the current moment there is nothing that is newsworthy.

I can't completely address the entirety of the speculations. They damage the Abbey and do not serve the subject. The only thing for it is time and patience.

We monks have to have to know about so many things. It is said to us that Siegburg is losing a "spiritual center", which makes people sad and, ahh, how important the Abbey actually has become in people's lives. How it has gone though with us monks during the events of the last months -- has been seldom inquired about outside the Church. It can hardly be conceived how it is for me to end 947 years of history and tradition.

As it is, evenings alone are like the way of the Cross for me, the empty refectory and the Kalefactorium [Scriptorium]-- as it is "my" Cloister which I must see die. No one could understand this pain, who isn't involved."


Together with the above explanation about their situation, is this recommended reading for all who dare to believe and utter the lie about the "new springtime after the Council".

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.


In Germany, a thousand years of Christianity is at an end. The propagated form of "opening to the world" has not achieved the expected goals. And where one could assume 40 years ago a "mistake in good faith" that is with those who hold in the face of bankruptcy in this course, almost impossible. The "unworldliness" of the Church can not be arrested or prevented by Episcopal Conferences. It happens. In goods like in the situation with the Weltbild situation long destroying the Church, and in lesser goods such as this manifestation of the fact that a Monastery like Michaelberg is for the vast majority, at best, of only folkloric significance. The minority is involved, and they suffers alongside.

Translated from summorumpontificum.de....

9 comments:

Elizabeth D said...

The American-origin Benedictine Monks in Norcia Italy seem to be wonderful young men, can they (or others like them who speak or could learn German) not make a foundation in this place?

Tancred said...

Considering that the Diocese of Wurzburg is wreckovating a magnificent baroque church for 1.7 Million Euros just to make a church look ugly, you've got to wonder what their priorities are.

Anonymous said...

The Novus Ordo Church is the Devil's Workshop.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the SSPX can take over. Every time REAL CATHOLICISM takes over the fake Catholicism of the Post-Vatican II council, a miraculous turnarounds take place.

Deo Gratias

Tancred said...

At 2 Million this place is a steal, but the SSPX might be overburdened with its own project trying to restore an abandoned monastery.

Since Mariawald restored traditional practices at their Monastery, they've been growing as well. They may have to expand at some point... Someone has to have the money to keep this place from becoming a shopping center.

http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com/2011/11/trappist-monastery-continues-to-grow.html

Bo Hagerf said...

Are there any real men today?

Unknown said...

The NO has been an unmitigated disaster for every part of the church - all chief indicators demonstrate a church in absolute decline. Thank God for that. Now let us have the true Roman Catholic Restoration desired by Pope St Pius X. We have suffered almost 50 years of betrayal by the church hierarchy and its disappearing prebyterate.

Anonymous said...

Very sad news. A fairly large number of abbeys, convents and religious houses in the UK have been decimated in the wake of Vatican II. Most were down to a few elderly religious with their communities not having received novices for years. By contrast, following the Council of Trent there was a great revival and burgeoning of religious orders old and new. Quite the opposite has happened since Vatican II with the number of priests and religious of box sexes decimated to the point where they have had to sell off their abbeys and convents etc. and join another equally diminished community. To name one religious order of women; the Poor Clares of Darling, Liverpool and Baddesley Clinton have all sold their monasteries and moved out. They had only small communities of elderly nuns. Recently the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook Abbey have sold the place and moved to smaller premises. We are still waiting for the promised great renewal, and Rome is still in denial that the so called council reforms have had catastrophic consequences for the Church.

James said...

"They make a desolation, and they call it [renewal]" - Tacitus must have had V2 & its "New Babel" in his sights.

V2 is the Church on contraceptives, aborting the life its members as though there were no tomorrow. Want the "culture of death" ? Look no further than the V2 Church.