Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - It was Pope Pius XII who instituted on 21 November 1953, on the liturgical memory of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, the “Day Pro Orantibus”. On this recurrence the faithful are encouraged to thank God for the enclosed life, for the numerous monks and nuns in the world living a cloistered life who help to spread the Kingdom of God praying continually to the Lord. The Day invites us to turn our thoughts to cloisters, to sustain these religious with spiritual and material aid, to remind men and women of today, often immersed in the convulsive and frenetic bustle of modern life, the importance of making Jesus Christ and prayer the centre of human existence.
The Segretariato Assistenza Monache, presided by the secretary of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was instituted by Pope Pius XII in 1954 to verify the situation of enclosed convents and to offer economic support to those in particular need. According to information supplied by the Segretariato, which assists an average of 150-180 convents in needs which vary from formation of novices, to food supplies and medicines for older nuns, today in Italy there are 534 convents with 6,800 nuns and 360 novices. In other countries in Europe there are 1,800 convents, in Africa there are 90, in Asia 180, in the United States America 190, in South America 740. These make a total number of convents of enclosed nuns in the world of 3,534 with 47,626 nuns and 8,107 novices. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 20/11/2006 - Righe 18, parole 268)
