Vigilance over the enclosure

21. The Diocesan Bishop or the regular Superior are to exercise vigilance over the custody of the enclosure of monasteries entrusted to their care and are to defend it, to the extent of their competence, assisting the Superior, who is responsible for its direct custody.

The Diocesan Bishop or the regular Superior do not ordinarily intervene in the granting of dispensations from enclosure, but only in particular cases, as provided for in the present Instruction.

During the canonical visitation, the Visitator must ascertain whether the norms of enclosure and the spirit of separation from the world are being observed.

The Church, by virtue of her profound esteem for their vocation, encourages nuns to remain faithful to the cloistered life and to express responsibly in their lives the spirit and discipline of enclosure, in order to foster in the community a fuller and more fruitful contemplation of the Triune God.