It was the future that announced on Friday the dismissal of the 6 sisters from their Cistercian order. It is a severe and very rare sanction which implies that they become secular again.
The nuns will call
This will be a suspensive appeal. Their lawyer, Maître Paul Muylaert, is particularly upset, especially as the sisters have received the notification this Friday around 4 p.m., therefore, well after the publication in the press, which is scandalous, for their lawyer.
“I confess to you, personally, my astonishment and my deep indignation, says Master Muylaert. I have never seen this during my career as a lawyer. That a decision of such gravity, that is to say the dismissal of the sisters, which means secularization, should be communicated via the press. I also remind you that some sisters are old and over 80 years old. One of these sisters has more than 60 years of monastic life. These are people who are, despite everything, relatively fragile. It is obvious that all this is not in accordance with canon law. There is a serious lack of communication on the part of the order which will, of course, be denounced in the context of an appeal which will be introduced. For me, this is a new serious violation of the elementary principles of respect for persons “.
A very severe penalty
It is a sanction which is provided for in the event of repeated and obstinate disobedience, to use the term of canon law, which is not the case here. As Master Muylaert explains. “It is a very serious sanction for a sister who, all her life, has lived an exemplary monastic life and who is rejected from the order. In reality, what is invoked, via the press, as being a disobedience is the fact of refusing to leave the monastery to go to another monastery. In reality, it is a canonical request which is contrary to civil law and the Walloon decree. However, it is indeed civil law that prevails over canon law. It’s elementary. We are no longer before the French Revolution. But, fortunately, the appeal is suspensive, which means that secularization is suspended at that time.