CHAPTER 3: EUCHARIST IN ECUMENICAL MONASTERIES 97 to the world of today. This framework is developed by the monks and nuns themselves, and reflects typical experiences of modernity as they themselves experience them.238 Continuity and discontinuity both characterize New Monastic Communities, resulting in limited canonical recognition compared to classical monasteries. They do not fit the canonical framework for congregations and orders. Bose, for example, strategically maintains its peripheral position vis-à-vis ecclesiastical structures. Stefania Palmisano argues that the community could have acquired recognition as an institute of consecrated life but has settled for the status of private association for the faithful, which it has had since 2001. Higher levels of recognition – implying assimilation to the traditional monastic frame – would have had its repercussions for the organization and composition of the community. Palmisano analyzes that, in particular, the necessity of excluding the non-Catholic members from the community would have been problematic for the ecumenical community.239 Other NMCs do not even acquire this lowest level of canonical recognition, or do not actively seek it. In the case of Taizé, its Reformed origins, composition, and unique ecumenical position make it virtually impossible, and probably equally undesirable, to fit the canonical structures of the Roman Catholic Church. Still, both communities are inspired by the monastic tradition and have adopted fundamental characteristics like a rule, the taking of religious vows, wearing habits in church, and, although in a reduced form compared to the traditional liturgy of the hours, fixed prayer times. Therefore, it seems appropriate to acknowledge their rootedness in the monastic tradition by referring to them as monastic communities. Referring explicitly to new monastic communities, the Roman Catholic Church heralds and encourages the contribution of consecrated life, old and new, to ecumenism: Consecrated life, which is rooted in the common tradition of the undivided Church, undoubtedly has a particular vocation in promoting unity. Established monastic and religious communities as well as new communities and ecclesial movements can be privileged places of ecumenical hospitality, of prayer for unity and for the ‘exchange of gifts’ among Christians.240 238 Palmisano, 126. 239 Palmisano, 149-150. In addition, Palmisano points at the spirituality of the community and its wish to maintain a peripheral relation to the Roman Catholic Church, allowing a prophetic presence and voice. Palmisano further lists (economic) autonomy as a third reason. 240 Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, The Bishop and Christian Unity, sec. 23.
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