Entering and leaving the enclosure

15. The granting of permission to enter and to leave the enclosure always requires a just and grave cause, (⁶⁶) dictated, that is, by genuine need on the part of the individual nun or the monastery: this is required to safeguard the conditions demanded by the wholly contemplative life and, on the part of the nuns, it is a requirement of consistency with the vocation they have chosen. By its very nature then, every entry into or exit from the enclosure must constitute an exception.

The custom of recording entrances and exits in a book may be maintained, at the discretion of the conventual Chapter, also as a contribution to knowledge of the monastery's life and history.