Poor Clare nuns coming to Arizona

Phoenix, Ariz., May 16, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Five Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration will establish a new monastery this month on a mountain peak in Black Canyon City, located in the Diocese of Phoenix.

Bishop Thomas Olmsted invited the monastic nuns of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Ala., to come to Phoenix. The Alabama monastery reportedly has been blessed with an abundance of vocations in recent years. This will be the only contemplative community in the Diocese of Phoenix.

The Poor Clares were founded by St. Clare of Assisi in the 13^th century. The bishop explained the three main principles by which the Poor Clares live: an intense spousal love for Christ the Bridegroom; a spontaneous joy in being Christ's Bride; a radical commitment to the Poor Christ expressed in poverty of spirit and body.

“We give thanks for their witness to Christ in the hidden life of the cloister,” said Bishop Olmsted in a statement. “We also welcome their solidarity with us in begging God for a new springtime of religious and priestly vocations, for more vigorous family life and for a stronger commitment to the Gospel of Life.

“Religious do not take the place of the lay faithful in the Church's mission, nor do they diminish their importance,” the bishop stated. “On the contrary, religious enrich the whole Church and inspire all the baptized to live our faith with conviction and to hand it on with joy.

“All authentic forms of religious life contribute to the holiness of the Church,” he continued. “They make Christ more visible and the Gospel more credible to our contemporaries. All religious remind the rest of us in the Church of the universal call to holiness.”