C 603 Challenges: When Bishops are Replaced by New Bishops

[[Dear Sister, while you didn't address this directly, you intimated the existence of potential problems when the bishop who professed and consecrated a c 603 hermit is replaced by another bishop. I understand a diocesan hermit can't just move to a new diocese, so can't follow this bishop, but what happens if, as you say, the new bishop has neither the time, the inclination, nor the appropriate expertise to supervise a solitary hermit? You have stressed the ecclesial nature of the vocation and the synodal nature of the relationship between hermit and diocese, so it seems a real problem if the hermit is willing to live her vocation on these terms, but the diocese would rather forget their c 603 hermit(s) even exist(s). Am I imagining a real problem or a non-existent one?]]

Really important questions, and I am grateful you have asked them after all these years! I have not taken on this constellation of questions on this blog because, until recently, my main information on it was anecdotal. One of the most "dangerous" (or perhaps "tricky") times in the important ecclesial connections that are part of the diocesan hermit's vocation occurs when a bishop dies, moves to another diocese as Archbishop, or is otherwise replaced by another ordinary. Whatever the cause of the replacement, diocesan hermits are pretty much the last persons considered on the list of those needing the new bishop's attention. By itself, that need not be a problem, but when a new ordinary comes into office, it is typical (at least in dioceses with a single bishop) that all other significant points of contact for the hermit will also be changed. The bishop's secretary changes; vicars for religious usually do the same. There will be new Chancellors and Vicar Generals, and few or none of these will be likely to be familiar with an established c 603 hermit in the diocese. That is even more true if the hermit's consecration was more than a few years in the past.

My own diocese clearly thought about some of these difficulties in asking me to select someone to act as a delegate for myself and the diocese/diocesan bishop. During one change in episcopal office (there have been five bishops during these years), the outgoing bishop assigned the Vicar for Religious, who already knew me, to meet with me either routinely or in case of special need until a permanent replacement (new bishop) was assigned. In that way, the interim bishop did not have to worry about me in any way, and I had an additional point of consistent contact with the diocese itself besides my delegate, as did Sister Marietta, my delegate. But over the years, new bishops came in, bishops' secretaries shifted to other offices and departments or left the chancery altogether, one Vicar for Religious died, a co-Vicar eventually left for another diocese, and some offices went unfilled for a time -- or simply ceased to be extant due to lack of adequate personnel. Additional difficulties can occur when an incoming bishop has no real sense of what "supervision" of a c 603 hermit actually means, or when diocesan "gatekeepers" (secretaries, for instance) who don't know the hermit have no real sense of why that person should need to meet personally with the new bishop. Some dioceses fail to include diocesan hermits in their directories, which leads to greater difficulties in setting appointments with the local ordinary or other diocesan personnel. It also means the diocese cannot easily refer others to the diocese's c 603 hermit(s) if they are called for this.

I have heard any number of stories from hermits who have tried to work out their relationship with the diocese, and especially with the bishop. Sometimes, bishops refuse to meet one-on-one and will only meet with all the diocesan hermits as a group. Few dioceses have more than one hermit, but when they do, this arrangement is not necessarily helpful because each vocation is incredibly individual, and each hermit really needs to be known in the same way. Moreover, real trust between bishop and hermit is rooted in personal knowledge, takes time to solidify, and thus, at least some of their meetings need to be one-on-one. All of this represents another reason delegates are such an important option in assisting a diocese to carry out its appropriate oversight for such a significant and little-understood vocation. I have never met a bishop who feels c 603 calls for too much from him or is an onerous responsibility -- whether out of a false sense of self-importance, or for any other reason. Most of those I know currently -- usually through candidates and those seeking information -- understand and honor the significance of the vocation, and that number is growing all the time. 

I have met or heard about incoming bishops for whom c 603 is a surprise --- especially if they learn of it through meeting their own c 603 hermit for the first time. (This was my experience (and his!) when I first met Oakland's current bishop.) Recently, the stories I hear are much more positive than in the canon's earlier history, with bishops seeking to treat c 603 candidates and consecrated hermits in the pastoral way the canon calls for. After all, solitary hermits with an ecclesial vocation really need these connections to be vibrant ones even though actual meetings between bishops and hermits will be infrequent (once or twice a year). Most of these dioceses use delegates (usually religious women and men, other bishops, or vocation personnel and Vicars). On the other hand, there are still way too many dioceses that refuse to even consider c 603 vocations, or that don't understand the significance of the vocation sufficiently to give them the appropriate supervision they call for.

The c 603 hermit needs to grow in her ecclesial sensibilities and place in the diocese and universal church. The diocesan role was envisioned to be central, whether for this reason or others. Most of us turn to others who strengthen, support, educate, and help direct our growth in this. These may include pastors, spiritual directors, local religious communities, friends in the consecrated state, other c 603 hermits, including those in other countries, and so forth. It is unfortunate when the hermit's chancery excludes itself from such an arrangement. No one is served well when this happens, but that is especially true not only for the solitary consecrated hermit, but for the vocation itself and the local Church it is meant to nourish and serve. Brief though this post is, it points to one of the most important constellations of problems facing c 603's continuing use in the Church. Hopefully, this will raise some more specific questions to continue what is a new discussion here.

New Camaldoli Hermitage Evacuation Update

Dear Oblates and Friends, Thank you very much for your prayers and concern for the community of New Camaldoli as the wildfires continue here in Big Sur. We are grateful for the many messages of concern and prayer we have received during these difficult days. As our area is presently under an Evacuation Warning because of the Plaskett Fire to the south of the Hermitage and the Timber Fire continues to burn to our north, we decided it was prudent to evacuate and close the Hermitage before the situation became more urgent. Members of the monastic community and staff are safe and being well cared for.

We have been deeply touched by the prayers and expressions of support we have received from so many people. Please continue to hold New Camaldoli in your prayers, but also let your prayers extend to our neighbors throughout Big Sur, especially those whose homes and livelihoods are threatened by fires. We pray also for the safety of the firefighters and emergency personnel working in difficult and dangerous conditions, and for their families who wait and worry for them. We are profoundly grateful for their courage, dedication, and service to our community as they work to protect the Hermitage and this beautiful and fragile part of the Big Sur coast.

For the time being, the Hermitage remains closed while the fire is active and the evacuation warning remains in place, and we will announce reopening plans when it is appropriate to do so.

With gratitude for your prayers, friendship, and support,
Fr. Ignatius 

Prior - New Camaldoli Hermitage

With New Camaldoli already empty, Fr. Ignatius, walks alone from the church to the waiting car after entrusting the Hermitage and all it holds to God. He would be the last monk to leave

On the Adequacy and Supposed Inadequacy of c 603

[[Hi Sister, I watched a video about you and c 603 that said the canon was ineffective in correcting problems with hermits, and so, what was the use of the canon anyway? The person creating the video noted that if a hermit wanted to choose their own spiritual director, they could do that, and the canon, or maybe the bishop, had nothing to say in the matter. I thought they were saying again, what was the use of a canon law that did nothing anyway? As I say, the whole video (Leaving an Ugly Situation) seemed to be about you and canon 603 and said that your Diocese didn't even know who you were when this person called them about you. It raised a ton of questions for me [about hermits and their dioceses], but I wanted to ask here about the inadequacy of Canon 603. Do you think that's the case? I don't think I have ever heard you opine that the canon is insufficient or inadequate; have you? How would you respond to someone putting up a post like the one mentioned?]]

Thanks for the questions. I will answer those that are relatively new and skip the others for now. Unfortunately, when the author complains that c 603 does not deal with hermits whom a diocese has complaints about or who live their vocation badly, and for that reason, "what's the use of such a canon?" it's a lot like saying "that hammer is ineffective at drilling holes, so what is the use of having such a tool?" Similarly, saying that "c 603 does not specify who can be the hermit's spiritual director, etc." is a lot like complaining that a dictionary doesn't dictate (or legislate) how a writer must compose an essay. The point in either case is that c 603 does what it is meant to do. It was not created to discipline hermits or to chart the exact steps a consecrated hermit must take in her decidedly individual relationship and journey with God. It was created to establish in universal law -- and thus "raise" an ancient and still relatively little-known and inadequately valued vocation to the consecrated state of life.

Other canons and canonical processes are dedicated to doing the kind of thing your author decries c 603 for not doing. If someone is truly not living their vocation, there are canonical mechanisms for dealing with such a situation. If one's spiritual director is not sufficiently fitted to work with this vocation or this candidate/hermit, the diocese can even request the candidate (or hermit) find someone more suitable and provide specific referrals if that would be helpful. Still, c 603 is a wonderful combination of the "sine qua non" and the personally defined and necessary. It provides for a vocation of hardly-to-be-imagined depth served both by significant constraints and an awesome flexibility and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit. This means that c 603 reflects both the universally valid and the truly individual and deeply personal in a way that tries to assure the hermit/candidate neither falls into the worldly distortion of individualism nor slides into the anti-Christian pettiness and blind rigidity of legalism. 

Likewise, therefore, the canon expects the creative collaboration between Church and candidate/hermit as both together explore the face and importance of solitary eremitical life in today's world. It seems to me that c 603 invites a startlingly vivid embodiment of the process of synodality where both hermit and Church together walk their own vocations in a mutual and mutually enhancing freedom most would regard not only as authentic, but as prophetic. One partner's freedom enhances the freedom of the other and both challenge and inspire the other to truly be who God calls them to be. The Church learns from the hermit's lived experience while the hermit's own vision of and response to her vocation is also shaped by the ecclesial sensibilities revealed and entrusted to her by that same Church. Written over a period of several years during this journey of discernment with the local Church, the Rule of Life required by c 603 brings together what cannot be relinquished by either the Church or the solitary hermit committed to living the vocation given by God to both the Church and the hermit as a means to authentic humanity and union with God. In this way, Canon 603 does a great deal of work and allows for other canons in the Church's code to play their own roles when and as genuinely necessary. 

No, I don't believe c 603 is deficient. I do think it is inadequately understood, and that is where some experienced c 603 hermits will be a great help to the Church in the future. Most especially, the Church requires the assistance of those who understand the canon not merely as a norm (remember canon means "norm") or piece of ecclesiastical legislation they have learned about from the outside in, but instead as an astounding topographical map of an existential journey they have made or are making and therefore understand from the inside out. Once the canon is appreciated in this way, criticisms of its putative inadequacy and negative evaluations of its reasons for existing fall away.

As a final note, I have responded before to the accusations made against me in the video you referred to. If you wish to read that, you will find the post here: Misconceptions and whole cloth untruths. Several posts written during the Summer of 2024 are linked to the topics discussed in that post.

Why Not Describe Living With Chronic Illness More Often?

[[Dear Sister Laurel, I wondered why you don't describe living with chronic illness more often. You don't give much sense of what living with intractable seizures and chronic pain is like. Isn't that important to you? Don't you think it would be important to your readers? I know you said that speaking about these things goes a long way and isn't necessary, but I am curious about how you live life as a hermit in such circumstances. I think that's important. Don't you?]]

Thanks for your questions. I am especially glad you have read what else I have already said about this, especially the part about how a little bit of this kind of sharing goes a long way and is usually not especially necessary except to signal lived experience, the need for prayer, or to indicate one might be helpful to others experiencing something similar. I do believe that the question of how one lives a hermit life in the presence of serious chronic illness is an important one. My own decision is to witness to the life I live, and to give less space to the obstacles/potential blessings that hinder and result from that life. Think of it this way. If I were traveling along a desert trackway and tripped over a rock, I might well describe how serious the fall I took was and how it changed my plans for the present. I would not necessarily speak about the rock's dimensions, color, composition, age, or rarity, and I would certainly not describe this every time I mentioned having once taken a serious fall that affected my life as a hermit.

I think that readers of this blog, and those who might be familiar with my other writing or teaching, will come to understand that over the years I have come to understand chronic illness as a potential vocational path, an example of desert existence and liminality, a way of life that marginalizes, provides unique perspective, opens one to the Gospel in significant and vivid ways, and intensifies the yearning we each have to become fully, authentically, and meaningfully ourselves in spite of our limitations. In other words, my experience of chronic illness points me directly to God and my own yearning for fullness of life with God in Christ. These are the things I write about, the things that are truly important to me and (I sincerely think!!!) to God. They are the things that allow me to write about the very full, even unimaginably rich life that c 603 involves in its hiddenness. They are the things that allow some aspects of uncontrolled seizure, the difficulty of managing medications and other treatment modalities, and the struggle associated with intractable chronic pain to assume places of grace in my life. This, in turn, opens my life to the white martyrdom (witness) of the hermit and enriches the life of the Church and others as well.

You have said you are curious. That's great. If you have specific questions about living with chronic illness, dealing with medications, or working with a huge variety of clinicians, please ask them. If you have specific needs to ask the question and understand the answer, please state those needs and ask the question!! If the question or answer violates boundaries of privacy, propriety, comfort, etc., I will be sure to let you know while saying what I can. (Mostly, of course, I'll just say what I can.) Some questions I could answer privately, but not on this blog. If that's sufficient for you, then great, ask away!! Your questions could really be helpful in indicating what would be useful for readers beyond what I have already written, and I would be grateful to you for them.