Rorate Caeli

Mariawald Trappist Abbey Closed Down -- Summorum Undone by Current Vatican Regime


The Trappist Monastery of Mariawald, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, was one of the very few monastic houses in the world to make use of the provision present in Article 3 of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum that allowed for the whole conversion of such a house to the exclusive use of the Traditional Rite.

We covered this momentous news in 2008 (see our 2012 post), and in 2015 we published the translation of a great interview granted by the abbot responsible for this change, Dom Josef Vollberg.

The traditional turn at Mariawald was too much for the current vindictive regime installed in Rome, and they forced the abbot out in 2016, as we also covered at the time.

Now, the inevitable outcome arrived: as GloriaTV reports, the old abbey is being closed and completely dismantled. What two world wars could not destroy, Bergoglianism could:

German Old-Rite Trappist Abbey Will Be Closed Down

The old-rite Trappist abbey of Mariawald, Germany, will be closed down. The Vatican, the Trappist order, and the Diocese of Aachen on whose territory the abbey is located, have announced this in Mariawald.

The monastery was inhabited by the Trappists since 1909. All employees lose their jobs. The monks will be transferred to other monasteries.

During this year, the monastery and all its possessions will be handed over to Aachen diocese. The monastery and church of Mariawald will probably remain closed forever.

In a letter dated November 21, 2008, Benedict XVI granted the abbey the privilege to return to the old usages of the Trappist Order in liturgy and monastic life. This concerned especially a return to the venerable Old Rite. The pope saw this project as a "renewal of the church in the spirit of tradition". Now this renewal is over before it could get off the ground.

It is true that while the Church will survive all obstacles, religious houses, cathedrals, abbeys have been closed and destroyed many times before. Yet, we are confident in the hope that, just as abbeys ravaged by savagery, in the Reformation and in the post-conciliar storm, did not last forever, the current regime in the Vatican will not last forever either.

Iam enim hiems transiit; imber abiit, et recessit. Flores apparuerunt in terra nostra; tempus putationis advenit: vox turturis audita est in terra nostra;
ficus protulit grossos suos; vineæ florentes dederunt odorem suum. Surge, amica mea, speciosa mea, et veni:
columba mea, in foraminibus petræ, in caverna maceriæ, ostende mihi faciem tuam, sonet vox tua in auribus meis: vox enim tua dulcis, et facies tua decora.