Post-Francis, there must be a revival in contemplative life which he hated so much

Francis was known to have, like so many unreflective anti-clericals, a great hostility to the pure contemplative life and this affected the policies pursued by the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in cases of individual monasteries.  Sister Brambilla, who heads the Dicastery must take some of the blame as the willing executor of her master's orders. 

See

Apostolic Constitution Gaudete et Exsultate

Shocking words from Pope Francis

"26. It is not healthy to love silence while fleeing interaction with others, to want peace and quiet while avoiding activity, to seek prayer while disdaining service. Everything can be accepted and integrated into our life in this world, and become a part of our path to holiness. We are called to be contemplatives even in the midst of action, and to grow in holiness by responsibly and generously carrying out our proper mission."

COR ORANS

IMPLEMENTING INSTRUCTION
OF THE 

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION “VULTUM DEI QUAERERE”
ON WOMEN’S CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE

The disastrous effect of Cor Orans

Vatican-caused pain and weeping of Italian contemplative nuns

In contrast, here a statement today by the Archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela

Pro Orantibus Day: "You are beacons in the midst of the storm"

Roselló, to Contemplative Life: "You are my strength, my support, and my security"

"I want to approach the monasteries of contemplative life in our Diocese with gratitude, reverence, and fraternity. In the silence of the cloisters, but embellished with the singing of the psalms, contemplative religious life becomes prayerful souls."

"I need contemplative life and I need your prayer. You are part of my episcopal ministry. Without contemplative prayer, my personal and ministerial life would be weakened."

June 15, 2025 Florencio Roselló, Archbishop of Pamplona

We celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, a model of community, a model of prayer, a feast that leads us to think about and live Pro Orantibus Day. On this feast day, I wish to approach the monasteries of contemplative life in our Diocese with gratitude, reverence, and fraternity. In the silence of the cloisters, but embellished by the singing of the psalms, the contemplative religious life becomes prayerful souls who often sustain the Church and the world, even without their presence and prayer being seen.

I have commented on this on several visits to the monasteries of contemplative life. My episcopal ministry is sustained by the prayer of many people in Navarre, but especially by the monasteries of contemplative life. I feel their prayer close; I hear the singing of the psalms from afar. They are my strength, my support, and my security as Archbishop of Pamplona and Bishop of Tudela. I need the contemplative life, and I need their prayer. They are part of my episcopal ministry. Without contemplative prayer, my personal and ministerial life would be weakened. Perhaps this is a selfish reflection, but it is not without realism. I say it as I feel it. Thanks to the contemplative life for sustaining me with your prayer and contemplation.

This year's theme, "Pray with faith, live with hope," invites us to look to the contemplative men and women who, from the silence of monasteries and convents, are living witnesses that God is the ultimate foundation of our existence. Contemplative prayerful faith is not evasion or withdrawal, but a deep root that sustains the entire Church and the world, especially in these times marked by uncertainty and fragility. Times of war and division, where innocent human lives die for no reason. This reality requires a prayer of profound faith, which transmits hope to all who come to pray, sing, and share their faith with contemplative monks and nuns.

Many people don't understand the contemplative life until they experience it. Once they enter the contemplative monasteries, they speak with the monks and nuns, and appreciate that, with their lives dedicated to prayer, they teach us to hope against all hope, to trust when strength fails, to live with our eyes fixed on the Lord even when all seems dark. They are beacons in the midst of the storm, sentinels of hope, tireless intercessors for humanity.

This faith that radiates from the contemplative life, this hope that their prayer and words transmit, infect many lost, desperate people who come to these monasteries. The contemplative life is a strength of life, it is faith incarnated in every consecrated man and woman, and their gaze projects a renewed hope, brought to us by the Jubilee of Hope that our beloved Pope Francis gave us before his departure to the Father.

As the Diocese of Pamplona and Tudela, let us look at the contemplative life with joy, with enthusiasm, and hope, based on our faith.

In times of vocational crisis, also in the contemplative life that entails painful decisions, today more than ever you are called to live your consecration with hope, knowing that you are responding to God's call, and placing your contemplative monasteries in God's hands, so that He may transform contemplative lives into an offering to God and a testimony of fidelity and prayer before the world. As the Diocese of Pamplona and Tudela, let us look at the contemplative life with joy, with enthusiasm, and hope, based on our faith.

May the Virgin Mary, woman of silence and listening, intercede for our contemplative communities and for the entire Church, so that there may never be a lack of generous souls who respond to God's call with a life dedicated to prayer and contemplation.

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