what is the cor orans?

Cor Orans: Document providing guidelines for contemplative women’s monastic life under the Catholic Church. The Cor Orans is a long document that outlines how a monastery is created, how it operates, and how it ends.

The first thing to read is the relationship between the Monastery and the local Bishop (which in our case is Bishop Robert Brennan). Review sections 83 (e) and (f).

VII. Relations between the Monastery and the Diocesan Bishop

 83 All female monasteries, without prejudice to internal autonomy[57] and possible external exemption[58] are subject to the diocesan Bishop, who exercises pastoral care in the following cases:

a) the community of the female monastery is subject to the power of the Bishop[59], to whom it must devote respect and reverence in what concerns the public exercise of divine worship, the care of souls,[60] and the forms of apostolate corresponding to their character[61];

b) the diocesan Bishop[62], on the occasion of the pastoral visit or other paternal visits and even in case of necessity, can provide appropriate solutions himself[63] when he finds that there are abuses and after appeals made to the Major Superior have had no effect;

c) the diocesan Bishop intervenes in the erection of the monastery by giving written consent before the approval of the Apostolic See is requested[64];

d) the diocesan Bishop intervenes, as local Ordinary, in the appointment of the chaplain[65] and, always as local Ordinary, in the approval of ordinary confessors[66]. Everything must take place “considering the specificity of the proper charism and the needs of fraternal life in community”[67];

e) the diocesan Bishop intervenes in the suppression of the monastery by expressing his opinion[68];

f) the exclaustrated nun refers to the diocesan Bishop, as the local Ordinary, and to her Superiors, remaining under their dependence and care[69];

g) the diocesan Bishop has the faculty, for a just cause, of entering the cloister and allowing other people to enter, with the consent of the Major Superior,[70].

For congregated monasteries and associated monasteries, the points of pastoral care delineated above constitute the only possible forms of intervention by the diocesan Bishop, since the rights/duties of the President of the Congregation for the congregated monasteries and the rights/duties of the religious Ordinary of the Associating Institute towards the associated monastery must be safeguarded.

For monasteries entrusted to the particular vigilance of the diocesan Bishop, the points of pastoral care just outlined are to be added to those that the Code of Canon Law presents as expressions of particular vigilance, referred to in no. 81 of the present Instruction.

The next thing to read is what happens when the monastery is suppressing operation read points 68, 69, 71, and 72:

V. Suppression

67 Affiliation can be an opportunity for recovery and rebirth when autonomy of life is partially compromised. If the situation of incapacity is irreversible, the solution, as painful as it is necessary, is the suppression of the monastery.

68 A monastery of nuns that cannot express, according to the contemplative nature and finality of the Institute, the particular public witness to Christ and to the Church His Bride, must be suppressed, keeping in mind the usefulness to the Church and to the Institute to which the monastery belongs.

69. In these cases, it is up to the Holy See to evaluate the opportunity of setting up an ad hoc commission formed by the Ordinary, by the Federation President, the Federal Assistant, and by the Major Superior of the monastery[43].

70 Among the criteria that can contribute to determine a judgment concerning the suppression of a monastery, after having examined all the circumstances, the following points should be considered as a whole: the number of nuns, the advanced age of the majority of the members, the real capacity for government and formation, lack of candidates for a number of years, lack of the necessary vitality in living and transmitting the charism in dynamic fidelity[44].

71 A monastery of nuns is only suppressed by the Holy See after having acquired the opinion of the diocesan Bishop[45] and, if it seems opportune, having heard the opinion of the Federal President, of the religious Assistant, and of the religious Ordinary, if the monastery is associated according to the norm of can. 614 CJC.

72. The assets of the suppressed monastery, respecting the will of the founders and donors, follow the surviving nuns and go, in proportion, to the monasteries that receive them, unless otherwise provided by the Holy See[46] which may dispose, in individual cases, of a portion of the assets to be given to charity, to the particular church within whose boundaries the monastery is located, to the Federation, and to the “Fund for the nuns”.

73 In the event of the suppression of a totally extinct monastery, when there are no surviving nuns, unless otherwise provided by the Holy See[47], the destination of the suppressed monastery’s assets, in compliance with canon and civil law, go to the respective higher juridical person, that is, to the Federation of monasteries or to another structure of communion among the monasteries equal to it or to the female monastic Congregation.

What we know

Through conversations with other monastic communities, the sisters wanted the Cor Orans. They asked the Bishop for his opinion before the commission was set into motion. The Ad Hoc Commission is not a secretive process. Through research, we found other monasteries promoting the process on social media.​

Why is this important:

The Bishop of Brooklyn has not made a statement on the closing of the school or the suppression of the monastery. If the Holy See is responsible for closing this school as a result of the Cor Orans, the Bishop of Brooklyn & Queens, responsible for this part of his flock, should also share in the responsibility.