Vienna – On June 15, 2025, the news outlet Silere non possum reported exclusively on the launch of a canonical visitation to the Austrian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, where the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has decided to focus its attention. The reason? It is a large and thriving community, with a notable presence of young vocations.
This reality does not sit well with the Holy See, and in particular with Mauro Giuseppe Lepori, Abbot General of the Cistercian Order. Over the years, even His Eminence Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has created no small amount of trouble for this community. In recent times, the Vatican has shown a clear preference for closing religious houses rather than fostering their growth and flourishing—and, for some, the presence of young people seems to be more a cause for alarm than for hope.
The Abbot of Heiligenkreuz, Maximilian Heim, 64, received this apostolic visitation with pain and concern—feelings shared by all the monks both inside and beyond the Austrian abbey. In recent years, such interventions have more often destroyed flourishing communities than supported or guided them. Today, at the head of the Roman Dicastery are two women—Simona Brambilla and Focolare member Tiziana Merletti—who have made ideology their life’s creed, elevating it to a new gospel.
In recent hours, Abbot Maximilian has been hospitalized at a clinic of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God in Vienna for a suspected heart attack. The incident deeply shook him and led him to tender his resignation as President Abbot of the Austrian Cistercian Congregation. At present, the role is being fulfilled by Rev. Abbot Reinhold Dessl, O. Cist., Abbot of Wilhering.
This leaves an unavoidable question: as a Church and as a Vatican institution, are we truly convinced that we are doing the will of Jesus Christ by acting in this way—shielding those who cause real harm to the Church and to people through abuse and scandal, while persecuting those who lack “the right friends” or who simply do not align ideologically with the governance of the moment?
This is not merely an ideological persecution—it is the upending of people’s lives at the hands of those who act without scruples. We have seen this far too often: bishops, priests, friars, and nuns being targeted without a shred of evidence, stripped of any chance to defend themselves. We know of individuals who have fallen gravely ill, even died, because of the very people who should have been their protectors and supporters.
d.W.A.
Silere non possum