Vatican Removes Abbess - Triggers Monastic Collapse
Mother Ghammachi became Italy’s youngest abbess in spring 2018, aged 34. She was renowned for her big blue eyes and winning smile.
Despite Canon Law and common sense requiring formal and transparent charges, Mother Ghammachi was only told: “You know what you have done.”
Key figures against her include Sister Simona Brambilla, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Religious, and Father Mauro Giuseppe Lepori. He is a Swiss Cistercian monk and the current Abbot General of the Cistercian Order. Silere Non Possum accuses him of narcissism.
The Cistercian nunnery has undergone around a dozen apostolic visits in recent years, prompted by a letter from an outsider.
The initial visitations cleared Mother Ghammachi of misconduct. It was only in later reports that she was accused of toxic leadership.
On Good Friday, Fr. Lepori informed the nunnery that they would be placed under the authority of a commissionary, Sister Martha Driscoll, an 81-year-old American Trappist nun.
Five nuns left in the following weeks. One of them told a local newspaper that the Vatican Dicastery for Religious had "destroyed the peace" inside the monastery, saying: "We feel stifled."
After the commissionary began the takeover, a further six nuns left in May.
Of 32 Cistercian nuns in 2023, currently only 16 remain — out of loyalty to the order, according to Rome, and due to age, according to Mother Ghammachi. The twelve nuns that left in recent weeks live at an undisclosed location.
Local media reported that the Cistercian order intended to sell the monastery. However, the young abbess had managed to restructure its finances within a few years and pay off its debts.
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