In the heart of Rome, the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany has quietly opened the first convento misto, where men and women who take religious orders can choose to live under the same roof.
Unlike nuns and friars in traditional convents and monasteries, the Bethany brethren take meals together and hold joint prayer sessions every day.
They engage in discussions on the issues of the day and share the daily chores, such as tending the gardens that provide much of their fresh food. [Source]
But since it isn’t a monastery or a covent is it a conventery or a monavent? I am not sure what to make of this other than that it would have to be done very prudently.
…Brother Paolo said that he was confident that the order would know how to respond if a nun and a monk fell in love.
“Well, apart from closed orders, most communities of monks and nuns have contact with the opposite sex in one way or another. There is always the possibility they will be attracted to each other. But people become friars or nuns because they are committed to Christ. When Christ is in your life you need no other partner.”
Well that is certainly the right answer
… Pope Benedict XVI has shut the door firmly on any prospect of allowing priests to marry. Brother Paolo, the Father Superior at the Fraternity of Bethany, said that he believed mixed communities offered “the way forward”, and would attract men and women to the religious life at a time when Church vocations were in decline.
It seems to me that having a vocation to the religious life that required as a condition to live in a mixed community is rather problematic. It is like saying I will give myself wholly to Christ in religious life only if I can live in community with members of the opposite sex. The Church has a rich history of the interactions between religious of both sexes with St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila being a prime example.
The author of the article of course takes multiple potshots at the pope, past and present.
…Pope Benedict XVI has shut the door firmly on any prospect of allowing priests to marry.
…The nuns do not, however, appear to support the idea of women priests, an innovation sternly opposed by the late John Paul II and by his successor and former doctrinal adviser, Benedict XVI.
…In 1969 Pope Paul VI gave the Franciscans autonomy but their leftist sympathies have irritated the new Pope
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FWIW, the times I have felt most comfortable with my own sexuality were the times I spent chastely in mixed communities. The presence of women and their unique way of being complimented and encouraged me to be holier than when I was either in single-sex communities or alone. I believe that sexuality can become more integrated when it is linked to a person rather than a fantasy. We are drawn to the opposite sex not solely for the physical reality of sex but also it’s psychological (and spiritual?) complimentarity. There is much more to say here but after all it’s a “comments” box not an essay box!
This sounds like Redwall…
Ye’re darn tootin’, it’s not a new idea. The Brigittines had a double monastery (both ruled by the abbess). And they weren’t the only ones, either. Nowadays they’re no longer mixed, but there are some Brigittine brothers out there as well as Brigittine sisters.
(The Brigittines were thought up by St. Brigitta of Sweden and founded by her daughter. Brigitta is not to be confused with St. Brigit of Ireland.)
The Missionary Fathers of the Precious Blood and the Sisters of the Precious Blood used to share one residence, too. (A Father ruled both orders, then, but the Mother Superior held the pursestrings. Just like a real family.) This ended only a little more than a hundred years ago, given the “missionary” conditions in Ohio, and the fact that the guy who founded the Fathers and the lady who founded the Sisters were son and mother.
Also, it used to be extremely common for Sisters to do housework for priests, among their other duties.
So, really, this isn’t all that unusual. We just don’t hear about this kind of thing, because we live in a country where anti-Catholics were always looking for scandal and nobody wanted to throw them any bones.
My impression of double monasteries in old Europe is that the mens’ and the womens’ portions always functioned as separate entities in their day-to-day operations, or nearly so, and that contact between the men and the women – other than top management – was limited to a few public, liturgical exercises such as Holy Mass in the main chapel.
Daily contact – meals taken, work done in a shared setting on a regular basis? I have a hard time picturing that having been tried before Vatican II . . .
Another comment is that monasteries and convents are not the same thing but for the different sexes. It depends on whether it’s a solenm vow or simple vow, at least for the women (so Benedictine nuns, who are called Dame when fully proffesed, BTW, live in monasteries).
Aren’t the Community of the Beatitudes mixed communities as well?
There are a few religious communities that are not fullblown orders who have mixed monasteries. For example, the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, a public association of the faithful, has mixed monasteries in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and Ometepe, Nicaragua.
I guarantee that there will be a baby in this coed convent before 2006 comes to an end.
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