"The new Benedictus Foundation wants to encourage and support social works," explains Abbot Jean-Pierre Longeat OSB, president of the Alliance for International Monasticism (AIM) based in Paris.

The Benedictus Foundation was founded in 2021 by AIM and the Friends of Monasteries Worldwide (AMTM). It is being sponsored and housed by Caritas-France, which handles administrative matters.

"Very often, monasteries develop agricultural activities or schools and dispensaries. Benedictus will allow us to help these social commitments of the monasteries," explains the 68-year-old Benedictine abbot.

With some 1,800 monastic communities, AIM is united through the Benedictus Foundation to "participate in the transformation of society, placing people at the centre," Abbot Jean-Pierre says.

Often modest and silent, the monks and nuns through the foundation will be able to share their social dynamics with those around them.

The influence of the monasteries on these development projects is all the more valuable since their presence is long term and stable.

However, in order to carry out these programmes, the monasteries will have to adopt business techniques.

"We don't agree on everything; we don't operate in the same way. But confronting monastic life with the business world can be enriching," explains the president of AIM.

Until now, AIM's mission has been to support new monastic foundations around the world. This was primarily focused on Africa, South America and Asia.

It has helped with the training of monks and nuns and with supporting development projects for communities.

Representatives of Benedictine monasteries gathered in Paris this week with delegates of companies to compare views on the world's challenges including climate, urbanisation and globalisation.

Featured speakers included Abbot Longeat and Pierre-André de Chalendar, president of the Saint-Gobain Group and lecturer in the business school at Institut Catholique of Paris.

"We must find an alternative to commercial and economic globalisation," Abbot Longeat insists. He added, we must "deepen our fundamentals for the benefit of a new global humanity."

He says the COVID-19 crisis has offered valuable lessons in this respect. During the various lockdowns, the Internet intensified links between communities and distant people.

"We are entering a new era," predicts the abbot, "in the sense of the great geological eras."

Sources

La Croix International

The decision comes soon after the abbey and its monastic community completely separated from Downside School, a move that followed a 2018 investigation by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) into abuse at both Downside and Ampleforth.

At Downside IICSA found a "culture of acceptance of abusive behaviour" that prioritised monks' reputations over the safety of children. Read more

Sr Teresa Forcades, from the Benedictine monastery of Monserrat near Barcelona, is running in the next Catalan election in September.

The vote has been dubbed a de facto referendum on independence from Spain.

Sr Teresa is the number one candidate on the ballot list of Procés Constituent a Catalunya, a grouping she helped found two years ago.

It calls for the founding of an independent Catalan state with a nationalised banking system and energy sector, no armed forces, no immigration laws, payment for parents who stay at home and on-demand abortion, reported the Sunday Telegraph.

Sr Teresa is awaiting permission from the local bishop for her exclaustration, a period spent outside the convent or monastery which can last up to three years.

The sisters at the monastery have agreed to let her be in politics this time.

She sees independence from Spain as the only way for Catalonia to escape what she describes as "the stifling orthodoxies of today's neoliberal society".

Sr Teresa, described as one of Catalonia's most prominent anti-establishment voices, has a Twitter account with nearly 35,000 followers.

Her YouTube videos, in which she explains the ills of "big pharma" and global capitalism, have been viewed by hundreds of thousands.

She admits some people have asked "how can you have a nun running the country?"

"A lot of people are still very anticlerical and with the history we had with Franco in power, it is understandable that there are many progressive people who have always seen the Church as the enemy," she said.

The fact that she is consistently critical of the Church from within may have helped boost her credibility as a politician aiming to bring about radical reform, she added.

In a 2013 interview, she argued for women priests and for leaving contraception and abortion to individuals' consciences.

"The Roman Catholic Church, which is my church, is misogynist and patriarchal in its structure. That needs to be changed as quickly as possible," she said then.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• The Guardian
• Image: The Guardian