Fleeing the cloistered convent, due to the "unbearable tensions" created in the monastic community and culminating with the removal of the mother abbess. It is the story of five Cistercian nuns from the convent of San Giacomo di Veglia in Vittorio Veneto, in the province of Treviso, who left to move to another secret place, due to the vicissitudes that, in their opinion, undermined the place of prayer. A monastery, moreover, well known outside: because the nuns of San Giacomo di Veglia are appreciated producers of bottles of Prosecco Docg, made with grapes from the convent's vineyards.
The five showed up at the Carabinieri barracks to warn them of their exit and the need to "take refuge in safety" in another location. This was confirmed today by sources in the force. But what happened in the monastery? The youngest of the nuns has spoken to the Gazzettino so far, telling of "unbearable tensions" and the arrival of a papal inspection commission that led to the removal of the abbess, Mother Aline Pereira. The superior's forced farewell would have generated "strong psychological pressure" on the 5 other nuns, linked to the abbess.
Despite the secrecy due to conventual life, there are no serious criminal or civil reasons behind the 'divorce' of the group of nuns from San Giacomo di Veglia. "We had to flee," the young nun said, "because the climate, since the Commission arrived that removed Sister Aline, has become unbearable." Some of them had been living in the monastery for 25 years. They had also asked their Dicastery for dispensation from their vows and permission to break the cloister, but were refused.
"They destroyed a situation of peace that had lasted for half a century, we felt suffocated," the young nun told the Gazzettino. The Diocese of Vittorio Veneto made the matter official, although it did not enter into the merits of the matter, but it made public the decision of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life : the Treviso monastery was "placed under special administration" and a Pontifical Commissioner was appointed (in addition to two counselors), "who assumed all the powers that the regulations of the Institute and the universal regulations of the Church attribute to the Mother Abbess."
The roots of the story would seem to be rooted in a quarrel that began in January 2023, when a letter from four nuns addressed to the Pope was sent from the convent, with accusations against the mother abbess. Accusations that, after two initial inspection visits, she had filed away as "slander".
(Online Union)
