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The Sisters of Mary Morning Star

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The Sisters of Mary Morning Star, or in Latin Maria Stella Matutina, are a religious community in the Catholic Church, who were previously the Contemplative Sisters of St. John. The founder of the Contemplative Sisters of St. John, Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe, was accused of sexual abuse, and the communities he founded were found to also have incidents of abuse within them. The Sisters broke off from the wider Community of St. John and reformed under their new name of Sisters of Mary Morning Star in Spain in August 2014.[1] [2]

History[edit]

Three years after Fr Marie-Dominique Philippe's death in 2006, sexual abuse of nuns within the community was revealed, as well as psychological abuse, power abuse and manipulation by the Superior at the time, Sr Alix, and her team of governance, including Mistress of Novices, Sr Marthe. A new superior of the Sisters was imposed by the local bishop and this led to the schism, with the majority of the Sisters of St John leaving their community. Following their original superior, Sr Alix, and Sr Marthe, they left France to re-found in Bergara, Spain, renaming themselves the Sisters of St. John and St. Dominic in June 2012.[3][4] The group was dissolved, “suppressed, effective immediately and without the possibility of being reconstituted under another form” by Pope Benedict XVI just 6 months later in January 2013.[5] Pope Benedict recognised the influence and power the elder Sisters held over the younger ones, and tried to stop this abuse. However they re-founded a third time in August 2014 as the Sisters of Mary Morning Star[1], with Pope Francis as Pope at the time.

Current Status[edit]

In February 2019, Pope Francis spoke about these Sisters, "a certain slavery of women had crept in, slavery to the point of sexual slavery on the part of clergy or the founder."[6][7] It was clarified by the Holy See Press Office and the Pope the next day, saying that he more specifically meant " 'manipulation,' a form of abuse of power that is reflected also in sexual abuse."[8] This isolating and manipulative power abuse is still in the community today, it has been noted that there is an affective attachment that the Superior Sisters form with their younger Sisters by isolating them from speaking to another Sister for spiritual advice or direction, or even from speaking to a priest or anyone outside of community for spiritual direction, unlike many other Religious Communities who make it a point to have a Spiritual Director outside of community to balance the delegation of power and allow the Sister the freedom to decide and discern God's Will, not the Superior's will, for her life. Cut off from family and friends, and not allowed to have particular friendships, not allowed to speak with a spiritual director, and even given rules on what can or cannot be said to the priest in confession "you are not allowed to speak to anyone outside of community what happens within community" was often told by the Superior. This cult-like community has formed through disobedience to the Church, through suspicion of those in authority (the Bishop naming a new Superior for the Sisters of St John and the community rejecting her.) The superiors use their affective attachment with each Sister to manipulate those under them in community. In their previous community this affective attachment has gone so far as sexual abuse. This manipulation and abuse of authority is spoken about by a previous Sister of St John who left the convent, Marie-Laure Janssens.[9] A number of other women have also spoken up, about the incidents of abuse, brainwashing, manipulation, and resulting in suicide attempts by Sisters and even a successful suicide attempt.

Despite all this, however, they obtained authorization to create a new community outside of the Saint John Community, the Sisters of Mary Morning Star.[10] The Pope had specified that the previous foundress, Sr Alix, and those in the previous government of the community, naming Sr Marthe among these, were to be "completely excluded from religious life."[10] However, they still allow the former Novice Mistress, Sr Marthe, to give the daily formation talks, recorded by her and sent to all their convents worldwide. Sr Marthe secretly still holds position of power, through instructing the current Sisters in the council, and through formation of the whole community by sending out her daily talks to the community's convents worldwide. Like it has already been said, these Sisters are very good at hiding truth and manipulating it for their own benefit.

They neither allow Sisters to speak to psychologists for help, even when they have mental health illnesses. And no psychological assessment is used in accepting Sisters into community. They have no application process, so there is no way to discern if someone is of a particular sexual orientation or of sound mental health, two things which can contribute to abuse within a close and confined and isolated community like the Sisters of Mary Morning Star.

Locations[edit]

The Sisters of Mary Morning Star have convents worldwide[11]

  • Africa: Cameroon; Burkina Faso.
  • Asia: Cebu, Philippines;
  • Australia: Brisbane, invited by Archbishop Mark Coleridge[12]. Superior: Sr Samuel Angleys, previous Sister of the Sisters of St John.
  • Europe: Spain: Bergara (Motherhouse), Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, UK: Lynton, North Devon; Waterford, Ireland.
  • South and Central America: Cuba, Mexico, Brazil
  • USA: Ghent, Minnesota (novitiate)[13] Vocations Director: Sr. Aude Renard, previous Sister of the Sisters of St John; Monona, Wisconsin[14]. Superior: Sr Mary Thomas, previous Sister of the Sisters of St John.

See also[edit]


Others articles of the Topic Catholicism : First Council of Constantinople, Latin

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Chronological Facts Concerning the Contemplative Sisters of Saint John (2009-2014)". The Brothers of Saint John. 2019-02-08. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  2. CNN, Melissa Bell, Saskya Vandoorne and Laura Smith-Spark. "They say they were abused by priests, then silenced. Now these women are speaking out". CNN. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  3. "Chronological Facts Concerning the Contemplative Sisters of Saint John (2009-2014)". The Brothers of Saint John. 2019-02-08. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  4. Winfield, Nicole (February 6, 2019). "Pope publicly acknowledges clergy sexual abuse of nuns". ABC News. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  5. "France: The Conduct of the Community of St. John's Founder Denounced". FSSPX.Actualités / FSSPX.News. 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  6. Winfield, Nicole (February 6, 2019). "Pope publicly acknowledges clergy sexual abuse of nuns". ABC News. Retrieved February 6, 2019.
  7. Pope Francis confirms priests' abuse of nuns included "sexual slavery". CBS News. Archived 2019-02-06 at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Vatican clarifies pope's comments on sexual abuse of women religious". Catholic Herald. February 7, 2019. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2019. Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help)
  9. lenversdudecor.org. "Marie-Laure Janssens : « J'ai été victime d'abus spirituel pendant onze ans »". L'envers du décor (in français). Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Hoffner, Anne-Bénédicte (3 July 2014). "Rome accepte que d'anciennes Sœurs de Saint-Jean créent un nouvel institut". La Croix. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  11. "Our convents – Sisters of Maria Stella Matutina". Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  12. "Sisters of Mary Morning Star choose Brisbane as first home in Oceania". The Catholic Leader. 2019-09-17. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  13. "Sisters of Mary Morning Star". Cloistered Life. Retrieved 2022-01-31.
  14. "Sisters of Mary Morning Star". Cloistered Life. Retrieved 2022-01-31.


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