Sunday, August 11, 2024

Benedictine: "The dismissal is often the last option"

Benediktinerin: "Die Entlassung ist oft die letzte Option"

Since 2023 there has been the Institute of Order Law in Dinklage. 

Two Benedictine women from the Abbey of Sankt Scholastika Burg Dinklage founded it themselves and worked there: Sister Scholastika Häring (56) and Sister Lydia Schulte-Sutrum (42). 

The two religious women are trained canon law and experts in religious order law. 

Both work as a defender for marriage at the Office of the Office in Münster. Through their work at the Institute of Order Law, they want to help other religious members to do their rights. 

In an interview with katholisch.de, the two report on the main concerns they are concerned with.

Question: Sister Scholastika, Sister Lydia, who contacts you to get advice?

Sister Scholasticica Häring: We advise religious women who contact us with personal questions and also religious community, mostly represented by their superiors. We are two of us in the Order Institute and have regular inquiries. We saw the need and wanted to help others with our expertise. Of course, religious can also turn to the respective diocese and ask the canon rights or the local ones. But often those in ordinary matters are not as close as we are. Therefore, we are a great help for many religious women who can quickly and quickly turn to us with their questions. There was nothing comparable in Germany before.

Question: What questions or problems do religious people need to support?

Sister Scholastika: In part, it is about legal issues such as the formation of congregations. So when several monasteries join together to form larger units and new statutes are passed, some things must be clarified. This has also affected our abbey, because we have been part of a larger European Congregation for several years. We are happy to pass on the experience gained from this. The deliberations are often also about the question of lecasing the order.

Question: That means you advise religious who are considering leaving a community?

Sister Lydia Schulte-Sutrum: Yes, we advise sisters who want to separate from their community. They usually inform themselves about the possibilities of exlaustration and or an exit and inquire about the consequences of this decision. What can someone expect to take this one step? What consequences does the religious have to expect? We want to be a point of contact for such and other issues. Sometimes we advise individual religious who have received a warning.

Question: When does a religious give a warning?

Sister Scholastika: This is similar to if someone receives a warning from his employer for different reasons. In a religious order, for example, this is the case when a religious person constantly neglects the obligations of a common life, i.e. therefore does not come to the Liturgy of the Hours or if there is no stubborn agreement with the superiors. A warning is often issued in connection with a dismissal procedure. It is important that the member of the Community concerned has the opportunity to defend itself. However, if the warning is justified and the member of the Order does not improve, a second warning can be issued. Only if this does not lead to an improvement can the person concerned be released.

Question: You advise both sides in such cases?

Sister Lydia: It's not that easy. Because once we have heard and advised one side, it is difficult to provide advice to the other side with unbiased. In other cases, not so confrontational, we have so far managed to have assigned each other the "counter side". This has worked quite well in one or two cases, as I think. But there are constellations in which members of the Order behave in such a way that they seem no longer sustainable from the community's point of view. 

The release is then often the last option to be targeted after long struggles. 

However, legal protection always applies to all parties involved. 

Therefore, the rights of the person concerned must be respected. In the proper right of the Order, many things can be regulated and shaped, but for this a good legal culture is needed.

Question: That is certainly a challenge for religious communities?

Sister Scholastika: Yes, it is always a consideration of church law between the good of the individual and the good of the community. Canon law as a whole keeps regarded in communion. 

Therefore, it is important for us to look at what can be done additionally for individuals. If, for example, a sister applies for the exlausitism so that she may live outside the community for a few years, then we see what rights and obligations are attached to it for the person concerned, but also for the superior. We can help both sides with advice. 

First of all, we ask for the necessary information, for example whether a religious order is papal or episcopal law. However, we usually do not specify any concrete solutions. We always encourage people to seek conversation with the superior on site in order to look for a solution together. However, you can always contact us. We are there for this. So far, we have received a lot of grateful feedback.

Question: How many questions have you received so far?

Sister Lydia: Since the opening of the institute, we have had around 27 inquiries in personal affairs and 31 requests from religious communities, mostly represented by their superiors. The requests of communities were concerned in the broadest sense about the topics of merger, internationality, the statutes revisions, closings and negotiations with the dioceses. This is what a great issue there is for the communities, because they need to become smaller, dissolve and close their locations.

Question: To what extent do you advise on monastery closures?

Sister Scholastika: Many communities are getting smaller. Then it is usually about questions such as: How can a line be chosen? Do we need other forms of leadership or new constitutions and statutes? What forms of membership might be added? Or how do we join another community or how do we dissolve? These are frequent questions that are brought to us. Many religious communities give their social institutions or schools to foundations. We can only advise the canonically part of these questions. Because we are not lawyers and do not know what we do in civil foundations.

Question: What questions do you personally ask?

Sister Scholastika: We are concerned with current regulations of religious law, such as the existing inequalities in religious law between men's and women's communities. Networking within the Benedictine Order and the further development of the right of him or her own are also of great concern to us. 

We also cooperate with the ecclesiastical contact point for women and men who have experienced violence in the ecclesial sphere. We ourselves advise on the questions of canon law. 

The question of whether to locate a certain injustice that has happened or occurs in the context of spiritual abuse is sometimes coming up. In general, women and men in the church should be able to act on an equal footing. We share our expertise across religious and national borders and support religious and religious communities in taking their legal future into their own hands.