On the occasion of the last staggered departure of the Jesuits and the definitive closure of the Community of Montesión, the Brotherhood of the Silencio of Our Lady of Montesión expresses first of all its personal gratitude to all the Jesuits, priests and coadjutor brothers, who served in Montesión and who contributed to the apostolate of the Society of Jesus with their initiatives and their pedagogy, all with strength of spirit and personal sacrifice: thank you to all those we had the good fortune to know and thank you to all those who preceded them.
Established in 1927 and initially based in the Marian Congregation (today the building has been converted into a boutique hotel) and later in the church of Montesión, El Silencio faces the most immediate future, full of unknowns, with serenity and the usual commitment to the Ignatian charism.
At this time, we do not know if we will be able to maintain the headquarters in Montesión, if we will be able to keep Christ of Silencio in the Church of Montesión, if we will be able to celebrate our events (religious and mayoral) in Montesión, if we will be part of the regional apostolic platform of Valencia of the Society of Jesus, nor where we will celebrate the centenary of the Fraternity in two years.
We will not abandon Montesión on our own initiative. In recent months we have received offers for all of the above from other religious orders. For this we express our gratitude, an expression of the trust that El Silencio deserves, although our desire is to remain linked to Montesión. We consider ourselves part of Montesión and will only change our headquarters upon request.
Silence without Jesuits
Yes, we know, because we have asked the government of the Society of Jesus in Spain not to have a Jesuit advisor. After ninety-eight years, El Silencio will no longer be linked to the Society of Jesus. Last June, we understood from the statements of its spokesman that the Society would not renounce its apostolate in Mallorca and that it would be directed from the Apostolic Platform of Valencia, with periodic visits. Without a Jesuit advisor, It makes no sense to belong to a platform of secular organizations born under the spiritual influence of the Society of Jesus.
We deeply regret the decision to extinguish the Jesuit community; to eliminate the teaching of the oldest Jesuit school in the world; to abandon the sanctuary of San Alonso Rodríguez and to abandon the property for a period of seventy years, after which the entire history of Montesión – in its different dimensions, apostolic, educational and historical heritage – will have been distorted.
We consider that none of these decisions has any objective justification. We appreciate the countless signs of support we have received to express our appreciation not only from Mallorca, but from many places in Spain and even abroad; while itWe are aggravating the exclusions issued by the spokesperson of the Company: the brothers of El Silencio simply do not deserve it.
The Silence of Our Lady of Montesión has always acted guided by the spirit of love and service, and by the most altruistic and authentic commitment to the Society in general, which is not infallible, and to Montesión in particular. It would have been desirable if the criticisms we have expressed – resulting from the incomprehension of their decisions – had been admitted from this commitment and not in the context of confrontation to which they were led.
“Too much personal interest”
It would also have been desirable that some lay people with names and surnames, participants in this process from its inception, would have warned the management of the company of the coming social reaction and would have built conciliatory bridges. None of this happened and it hurts us. In this process, too many personal interests have emerged of which the government of the Society is perhaps not even aware. If it had relied on its fellow Jesuits of Montesión rather than on certain lay people, everything would have been more edifying.
This climate of confrontation caused us to be excluded from the celebrations of San Ignacio in Montesión, which served to say goodbye to the community; the exclusion was reaffirmed. This decision, located outside the walls of Ignatian love and service, led El Silencio to organize a small act of gratitude and farewell to the Jesuits who were its advisors. Due to the exceptional nature of the initiative, the event was very moving for everyone.
We do not agree with the way in which this process has been carried out. Without discussing the ownership of the assets and the sovereignty of the Society in making decisions regarding its members and assets, the importance of this decision deserved to be adopted and explained in another way, with greater trust in the organizations involved; not so much with the intention of influencing the decision as of trying to provide a solution to the problem. Since the decision to eliminate teaching in Montesión was made public, El Silencio offered himself with all his personal means, direct and indirect, to avoid such a radical decision. The offer was in vain.
Mounting without Jesuits
El Silencio has more than a hundred brothers, almost all students and former students; some years, almost a hundred altar boys have paraded, almost all students of Montesión, and some European provincials of the Company have even presided over our events.
In these times of uncertainty, we will continue to be the fraternity of the Colegio de Montesión and we will offer ourselves again – hopefully this time with more luck – to be an instrument of the pastoral care of the School. It is no coincidence that some brothers are or have been catechists at the College, others in the Padre Montalvo Association and still others are volunteers at the Fundació Montisión Solidària.
Apart from any coordination instrument such as the PAL – of relative utility with the only parenthesis of the intervention of Father Elías López -, El Silencio was already coordinating its actions on its own initiative with other lay organizations of Ignatian inspiration. In any case, we will continue to carry the shield of Montesión with the infinite pride that we feel for it.
We express our well-founded fear of a Montesión without Jesuits. In the last ten years, no Jesuit has taken over the direction of the College. This is understandable given the lack of vocations, even if the balance sheet of the shared mission in Mallorca is unfortunate. Despite the value of the teaching staff, the quality of teaching has declined considerably, following the implementation of a very deficient methodological system. Pastoral care can also clearly be improved, without this being the way to go into details.
El Silencio has insisted all these years on the need for the Jesuits of Montesión to get involved in the pastoral activity of the College, without success. We are concerned about the immediate future in the new context, even if we have well-founded hopes in the new CEO, who is of proven solvency.
We are aware of the difficulties that the Society of Jesus is going through, especially in Europe, and in any case we will remain faithful to our commitment of love and service to it. We ask God to guide your decisions to success and we thank him for the opportunity to have been formed with and among the Jesuits. We also ask you to help us understand the motivations for this decision.
It will be difficult to guide our actions without the contact of the Jesuits. Fortunately, the Bishopric has offered us an advisor, who will serve as a guide in our spiritual formation. We take this opportunity to thank Mr. Bishop for his sensitivity and good intention throughout this process. We must also thank the newspaper Última Hora, which already in 2022, in manifest solitude and general incomprehension, was the only media to alert us to the reality announced by El Silencio. In 2024, COPE, IB3, Diario de Mallorca, as well as national media such as ABC, El Mundo, El País and Ok Diario joined the group.
We are deeply grateful. The Society of Jesus is an immense work of Ignatius of Loyola, which cannot be obscured by concrete decisions, however incomprehensible they may seem to us. In any case, our commitment to the Society of Jesus remains intact, as does the orientation of our actions: “in everything, to love and to serve.”
In Palma (Majorca), September 12, 2024, feast of the Sweet Name of Mary.
