This is sad news because a convent is supposed to be a place where people can draw near to God, and God can draw near to them. However, considering the circumstances around this tragic story, I think it's best that this place is closed.
Scotsman.com has the full story here.
A convent where a Romanian nun was crucified during an apparent exorcism ritual was not sanctified by the church and has been closed, an Orthodox Church official said today.
Bishop Corneliu Barladeanu, who is in charge of the Vaslui province, said the monk who headed the convent, Daniel Petru Corogeanu, was suspended from the priesthood and can no longer hold religious services. He was also excluded from monastic life.
“The convent is closed and won’t reopen,” he said.
The 23-year-old nun, Maricica Irina Cornici, died last week in apparent exorcism in which she was allegedly bound to a cross, had a towel stuffed into her mouth and left without food for three days.
Corogeanu and four nuns have been indicted in connection with the death. They have not been arrested, pending the results of a second autopsy, local prosecutor Ovidiu Berindei said.
They were charged with depriving a person of liberty which resulted in her death, and if found guilty could face up to 25 years in prison, the prosecutor said. The case will be taken over by a special team of prosecutors from Bucharest.
The case has caused outrage in Romania. Corogeanu, 29, appeared defiant on Sunday, when he performed a funeral service for the dead nun, saying that he was trying to take the devils out of the woman.
When asked whether the nun was mentally ill and in need of medical help instead of exorcism, he responded: “You can’t take the devil out of people with pills. You cure (possession by) the devils with fasting and prayer.”
He added the nun had to be restrained because she was violent, but denied that she was starved.
After the convent’s closure, nuns who were not involved in the deadly exorcism would be transferred to other convents, Bishop Barladeanu said. The other four nuns face an investigation by church authorities on their involvement in the death and violent behaviour afterward.
Barladeanu said he was physically and verbally assaulted on Sunday by nuns at the convent when he came to suspend Corogeanu and take away his bible, the cross and the convent’s icon.
The church, which is faced with a shortage of priests, had granted Corogeanu the right to work as a priest, despite the fact that he had not completed his theological studies, Barladeanu said. He added the church now planned to introduce psychological tests for men entering the monastic life.
The Holy Trinity convent was built in 2001 by a lawyer and had not been sanctified by the Orthodox Church, Barladeanu added.
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