91 monasteries closed in France, none in the Latin breviary communities: Tradition resists by facts

A telling statistical signal: in 20 years, 91 monasteries have closed in France, but none among those that celebrate the divine office exclusively in Latin. What remains alive is what has not yielded to liturgical aggiornamento. A fact to ponder in the ongoing debate on Traditionis Custodes.

The fact

The Salon Beige reports, based on studies by the National Center for Vocations, that between 2005 and 2025, approximately 91 Catholic monasteries have closed in France. Key point: among the communities whose divine office is celebrated exclusively in Latin (Benedictines of Fontgombault and Barroux, Carthusians), there have been no closures. The large Benedictine houses faithful to the Latin liturgical tradition, such as Solesmes where Gregorian chant structures the ordinary form, are also holding steady. Young vocations continue to present themselves there.

Our reading

This observation is not first and foremost a liturgical argument; it is an anthropological fact. Young people who embrace the contemplative life seek radicality: they want the totality of a living tradition, including its liturgical language. The Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium n° 36 § 1, had maintained: "the use of the Latin language will be preserved in the Latin rites." Paragraph 2 opened the door to vernacular languages. The post-conciliar application inverted the relationship, to the point of making Latin an exception to be justified. Yet it is preservation, not abandonment, that produces vocations. The motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (July 16, 2021), in seeking to restrict the use of the extraordinary form, opposes a clear demographic signal. Cardinal Burke, in his LifeSiteNews interview of July 17, 2026, rightly asks Leo XIV to review this text.

To ponder

A thing dies when it ceases to be what it is. What has resisted is not nostalgia; it is fidelity. Pray for contemplative vocations.