The Presentation Sisters, who taught widely at schools in the East Bay, including the former Presentation High School in Berkeley, have closed their 272-acre Los Gatos center.
In a statement, the Sisters said: “Presentation Center has struggled to maintain fiscal stability while simultaneously honoring its mission to provide a place for affordable opportunities for prayer, respite and spiritual renewal for individual guests and many groups from Catholic schools and other nonprofit entities. Despite the concerted efforts of the Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees and the dedicated staff, the center has operated with deficit budgets for a number of years.”
Fewer sisters available for full-time ministry, rising operational expenses and substantial improvements required to maintain a safe and attractive infrastructure were cited as reasons for the closure.
The Sisters purchased the property, at the time, a private boys’ school, in 1956, and turned it into a novitiate and retreat/vacation destination for professed Sisters and in the 1970s as a spiritual retreat and conference center.
From Catholic Voice Oakland.
It will make for a nice, palatial estate for a tech billionaire.
The Presentation Sisters have a fiscal fiduciary responsibility to the individual sisters to conserve available assets to meet the retirement and eventual end of life needs of those sisters. I agree they should cease retreat center operations, unless some other organization is willing to fully cover the operating deficit. I’m not from the Los Gatos area. I suspect the 272 acres are highly valuable, especially if a developer can get friendly but fair zoning. I’m hoping the good Sisters have a hard-nosed professional adviser in this area.
Fewer sisters or fewer vocations? Very sad, but with God all things are possible when you teach the fullness of truth!
Nano Nagle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano_Nagle
continued….
We were taught by the Presentation Sisters. Just a few names! Sister Mary William, Sister Mary Raymond, Sister Mary de Montfort, Sister Mary Socorro, Sister Mary Edward, Sister Mary Lawrence, Sister Mary Martin. What beautiful grammar school memories! I can still remember them all wearing their full habits! Thank you, for teaching us to love God! Thank you, for teaching us to honor the Blessed Mother! Thank you, for having us memorize the little Baltimore Catechism because it remained within our hearts! Thank you, for filling the school library with the little Tan books about the lives of the saints! Thank you, for teaching us to love our Catholic faith!
Do they no longer wear habits, full or otherwise?
Good question Larry! This link below should really help to answer some questions. You can see in one of the photos the full habits that were once worn. This order went from joyfully teaching children the fullness of truth to then *credit Vatican II* for turning them into social/political activists. Something is very wrong with this picture and the results show it.
https://www.presentationsisterssf.org/history.htm
I’m not familiar with the property, but ideally they should sell to another religious order that can make good use of the property.
Good idea; how about the ICKSP?
Gravey,
Actually, I was thinking of a small group of Carmelite nuns that I know. However, I’m sure that the Institute of Christ the King could also make good use of the property.
Where is the Catholic community in all of this. We have delightful memories – but what about preserving our patrimony and keeping the Faith alive (holding the line and donating to maintain Centers such as this)?
Pope Benedict XVI said it clearly:”The Church of the future will be smaller, poorer, less significant in the eyes of the world; but the Church will be holier” Is that “future” here?
Yes, please donate to Catholic centers that can never recruit a sufficient number of Catholic staff, and have no customers.
“Pope Benedict XVI said it clearly:”The Church of the future will be smaller, poorer, less significant in the eyes of the world; but the Church will be holier” Is that “future” here?” = You’ve answered your own question :>)
“You will know them by their fruits.” Our once thriving orders and good Catholic schools are dying out. Instead of transmitting the full truth, many have unwittingly, (some deliberately) withered themselves and others, away from the true vine, under the guise of political activism. When individuals publicly credit Vatican II for their own demise, then isn’t it time to clarify teachings as Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Cardinal Burke requested?
https://www.presentationsisterssf.org/history.htm
Holding the line! May the Perpetual Light shine upon him for transmitting and clarifying the truth!
Cardinal who taught that adulterers should not receive Communion dies | News | LifeSite
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-who-raised-concern-about-cardinal-kasper-agenda-dies1?utm_content=bufferbe369&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
The vast amounts of monetary treasure used to cover up for and pay off the disgrace of the Homosex Infiltration of the Priesthood and their Ephebophile Attack on the trusting Boys of the Church, make this situation a true Disgrace.
I understand the Sisters Need for care as they age, but the notion of such a beautiful and useful place being sold off to an atheistic homosex ‘Tech- Kulture (like Apple for example) would be nothing more than supporting Evil
How about the Church stopping funding of ‘professional catholics’ who work to Undermine Church Teaching about basic Moral positions (like pandering to radical gender feminist / homosex Misandry), and putting such assets to Good Use, while caring for the Sisters as well?
According to Rosa Bruno Joffre, et al. “Catholic Education in the Wake of Vatican II,” (2017), the “full embrace” of Vatican II by the Presentation Sisters in the USA at a conference of the order in 1967 resulted in a 1/3 loss of membership by 10 years later of over 130 professed sisters, so that by 1977, their numbers were reduced to 264 total sisters, a blow from which they have never recovered. They have continued to dwindle to a few dozen today, most of them over age 70.
If you go to their website, presentationsisters.org, it might have a lot to do with their practice of chair yoga, support of DACA, belief in creation spirituality, and yes, this is all the bitter fruit of Vatican II
Anonymous,
“Bitter fruit of V2???” Your opinion suffers from poor analysis. Ecumenical Councils are works of the Magisterium that involve the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit. But you’re asserting that this isn’t true as Arius asserted against Nicea, Nestorius against Ephesus, Luther against Trent, and Lefebvre against Vatican II.
Let’s look at this critically. Vatican II ended in 1965, but Western culture suffered a revolution circa 1967, something akin to the release of Satan spoken of by Revelation 20:7.
You’re saying that Vatican II corrupted the Church: I say that the Church had become staid and complacent and was a sitting target for the cultural explosion that occurred.
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For my evidence, I cite a tale of two diocese: Krakow and Los Angeles. Krakow didn’t suffer the cultural revolution of the West and had a bishop who energetically prepared his diocese and effectively implemented the Council. His diocese would eventually be instrumental in the destruction of communism.
L.A., on the other hand, experienced the cultural explosion and had a bishop, James McIntyre, who refused to implement Vatican II. Cardinal Manning eventually did this, but he did so poorly. To this day, his diocese suffers from poor leadership.
Now if you’re correct, on the other hand, please cite the sections of the conciliar documents that caused all this wreckage.