May 15, 2008

St. Meinrad's and Ferdinand Community

We stopped at Ferdinand, Indiana as we traveled east because the "Sisters of St. Benedict" brochure obtained at a rest stop advertised their beautiful monastery church of the Immaculate Conception. The magnificent edifice took nine years to build--from 1915 to 1924. It is truly a testament to the faith of the people of that time who funded, designed, and constructed the church.

From one picture in the brochure (we saw no nuns during our visit), the community members no longer wear their habits. We also saw a "no-nuclear" sign as we entered the grounds. Their web site advertises "centering prayer," Sr. Joan Chittister's books, and other "liberal" stuff. I concluded that the monastery is populated mostly by nuns who would not be comfortable with their founders' lives and beliefs.

I didn't get the same disturbed feeling when we visited St. Meinrad's ArchAbbey and Seminary that lies several miles south of the Benedictine nuns. We actually saw two men dressed in black cassocks! This large seminary has been used by the Archbishop of Kansas City, KS to train future priests. Again we saw a magnificent structure built by our forefathers in faith.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Ferdinand Benedictines are a radical liberal femminst community, dissidents all. That they have 4-5 young girls in training to join them is a disaster. Young people should be warned about them, or they will loose their Catholic Faith.
Fortunatly, the 3 Benedictine Federations of Sisters in the USA are all 95% very aged communities of radical habitless feminist dissidents who in 10 years will have passed from the scene...and their once glorious Benedictine congregations (50 years ago), will be only a memory....like all communities of liberal habitless nuns.