Nuns have been told to spend less time on social media and more time in quiet contemplation.
The Vatican told the Catholic Church’s 38,000 cloistered nuns that tweeting too much and reading the news intrudes on a life of prayer.
In a document titled ‘Cor Orans’, Latin for ‘Praying Heart’, nuns are taught how to apply Pope Francis’s Apostolic Constitution, which was issued in 2016.
It issues guidelines on life in monasteries, including legal, administrative and spiritual topics.
Nuns are being told that tweeting too much and reading too many news stories intrudes on a life of prayer
The document warns that ‘it is possible to empty contemplative silence when the cloister is filled with noise, news and words’
And while it does not forbid social media, it states that it should be used in moderation.
It warns that ‘it is possible to empty contemplative silence when the cloister is filled with noise, news and words’.
Nuns should use social media with ‘sobriety and discretion’, it continues, and ‘that they may be at the service of formation for the contemplative life and necessary communication, and do not become occasions for wasting time or escaping from the demands of fraternal life in community’.
It adds: ‘Nor should they prove harmful for your vocation, or become an obstacle to your life wholly dedicated to contemplation.’
It comes after a consultation with nuns in monasteries who were asked what they required to better live out their vocation.
The document was presented at a press conference on Tuesday by Archbishop José Rodriguez Carballo, reports the Vatican News.
Mr Carballo said he aims to ‘clarify the provisions of the law, developing and determining the procedures for its execution.’
It comes after a consultation with nuns in monasteries who were asked what they required to better live out their vocation.
Mr Carballo said: ‘We copied what arrived from the nuns,’ adding that the document’s goal was to bring ‘a desire for renovation with the protection and safeguarding of the pillars of contemplative life’.