Monday, February 13, 2012

Elderly nun disowned by the Church which says her monastery is a fraud

Mount Caritas is a small monastery on a hill in Connecticut, which has been open for more than 30 years but has never attracted more than five nuns.

Now, there are only two: the 81-year-old founder, Mother Mary Peter, and half-blind Sister Francesca, 75.

But these elderly women have found themselves at the centre of a storm of controversy - because the Catholic Church claims they are not nuns at all, and Mount Caritas is not a monastery.

The extraordinary story of the struggle between Mount Caritas and the institutional Church was revealed this week by the Hartford Courant.

The Church is trying to stop Mount Caritas from calling itself a monastery, as it has never undergone a formal process of recognition - and it also plans to crack down on the sale of the 'Monastery Bread' which provides the nuns with much of their livelihood.

If the monastery is no longer recognised as a religious organisation, it could face a large bill from the IRS, which has so far exempted it from property taxes on its $750,000 estate.

And to make matters worse for the community, Mount Caritas is being sued by a former supporter who claims she was deceived and betrayed by Mother Peter.

The self-proclaimed abbess, whose real name is Dorothy Jordan, bought the estate in Ashford which would become Mount Caritas in 1977, when she was working as an anaesthetist.

She says that soon afterwards she took her vows as a nun - but the Church insists that these were simply private vows which did not commit her to a monastic life or give her membership of a religious order.

Mother Peter, as she called herself from then on, started the community at Mount Caritas with the encouragement of Daniel Reilly, then Bishop of Norwich, the diocese of which Mount Caritas would form a part if it were officially recognised.

The site is perfect for a spiritual retreat, with its rolling acres, simple architecture and friendly animals outside.

So in 1982 Mr Reilly agreed to establish Mount Caritas as a 'pious union', and said that if the community could attract at least six would-be nuns the diocese would consider upgrading its status to that of a fully-fledged monastery.

Mother Peter never managed to find the requisite number of members, but nonetheless continued to lead the communal life for the next three decades in what she describes as a 'Benedictine priory'.

She was joined by Sister Francesca, her last remaining companion, in 1994.

The Church is now making a renewed effort to crack down on this institution which exists outside its structure and hierarchy, but which nonetheless claims to be an orthodox Catholic community.

Michael Cote, the current Bishop of Norfolk, has circulated a letter saying: 'They are not nuns. They are not Benedictines. Mount Caritas is not a monastery.'

He added that 'faithful Catholics are being drawn in and harmed by their experiences' of the community.

But Mother Peter insisted that the Church's campaign against her is motivated by vindictiveness.

'We have been persecuted for some time,' she told the Courant. 'We haven't hurt anybody here, and we've helped a lot of people.'

The Church's hardline stance seems to have been motivated by the renewal of a plan to build a chapel at Mount Caritas, which the diocese says would in fact be no more than 'a private home offering a space in which you gather for prayer'.

And Janet Wagner, a woman who gave $200,000 to build the chapel and a guesthouse where she and her husband would live, says she was tricked by Mother Peter.

Mrs Wagner had already been warned by Mr Cote that Mount Caritas had no official status, but it was not until she fell out with Mother Peter that she turned against the community.

She claimed that one day in October, the pair argued over her contribution to Mount Caritas, and Mother Peter screamed at her to leave then ran after her to collect the keys to the building so she could not return.

She is now suing the community - which she says is 'a dark place' - to reclaim the money she gave them.

Mother Peter says that Ms Wagner was aggressive towards her, and stormed out voluntarily.

And she seems unlikely to cave in to pressure from the Church - so the bizarre saga of Mount Caritas looks set to continue.