This Article was I believe written by Fr Christopher in 1966. Given the closure of the School twenty eight years later and the current state of the Abbey and monastery fabric, it was prophetic...and thoroughly well researched by a great historian.
In the September of this year (1966 Ed.), there were no novices in the
Belmont novitiate. Since the end of the war, when DD.
Luke, Aelred, and Jerome entered the novitiate, there has
been only one other brief period without any novices (August
1960 to September 1961), and even during that period there
was one postulant (Dom Alban) for most of the time. This
disturbing fact has provoked much thought and discussion
inside the Community, but theorising can be vague and un-
balanced unless based upon statistics.
Since Belmont started to clothe novices for itself (1901),
153 men have joined the Community (an average of just over
two a year). Of these, 51 (or 1 in 3) left during their first year s
novitiate. A further 25 (or 1 in 6) left, with Dispensations where
necessary, after taking Simple Vows. This means that 77
novices or 1 in 2, have persevered. This, I think, is a higher
proportion than most religious houses or seminaries expect
The picture is even better than these figures suggest. Of the 51
novices who left in their first year, four became secular priests,
and five (including the present Abbot of Caldey) ]omed other
religious houses. And, of the 25 monks who left Belmont after
taking Simple Vows, eight became secular priests, and one
ioined another religious house. Thus, of the 76 monks who have
left Belmont, as distinct from the 77 who have persevered,
18 (or 1 in 4) have gone on to the secular priesthood or another
religious house. It should also be noted in Belmont's favour
that of the 25 monks who left after Simple Vows, only seven did
so after Solemn Vows (and two of those Secularised). Only one
monk in Solemn Vows (Dom Gerard) has left us since the end of
the war. A valid conclusion to be drawn from these figures
would seem to be that we are doing better than most orders or
the seculars. If we can get two novices a year, of whom one
perseveres to Solemn Profession, we shall be keeping to our
average recruitment rate. But whether this average recruitment
rate will enable us to continue meeting our present commit-
ments is another matter, as we shall see.
The post-war figures for what we might call perseverence-
rate are markedly different from the pre-war ones. Of the 153
24 novices who have joined Belmont, 112 came between 1901 and
1945, and 41 between 1946 and 1965. Of the pre-war 112, 36-1-%
left during their first year novitiate, 17% after Simple Vows,
and only 46^% persevered. But of the post-war 41, only 24^%
left during their first year novitiate, 14% after taking Simple
Vows, and no less than 61% have persevered. (Of course, of the
post-war 25 who have persevered, all are still alive, eight in
their twenties and twelve in their thirties, so it would perhaps be
statistically presumptuous to assume their perseverence until
death). Nevertheless, perhaps we have here a valid conclusion:
post-war religious show considerably firmer perseverence than
pre-war.
What effect does age of entry into the novitiate have on
perseverence-rate? Very little, if we take the total figures. Of the
136 Choir monks in Belmont's history (some of the 17 Claustral
Brothers have shown a feminine reticence about their dates of
birth, which makes them elusive creatures for sociological
analysis) ; 65 joined in their late 'teens (17, 18 or 19), 44 in
their early twenties (aged 20 to 25), and 27 were "late" voca-
tions (26 plus). 51% of the teenagers persevered, 48% of the
early twenties, and 55^% of the "late" vocations. Nothing
much in that. But if we take only the post-war figures, the
picture is rather different. Out of the 41 who have joined since
1946, 56% of teenagers persevered, 70% of early twenties,
and 67% of "late" vocations. The conclusion to be drawn from
these striking figures may well be that chances of perseverence
are increased by joining Belmont, not straight from school,
but after two or three years "in the world".
How far does being an Old Boy of the School affect Voca-
tions? DD. Andrew and Hilary, who joined the Community in
1923 and 1925 respectively, are strictly speaking Old Boys of
the Alumnate, for it was not until September 1926 that a fully-
fledged lay-school was opened at Belmont. Since that time,
forty years ago this year, 32 Old Boys have joined—less than 1
a year. Of these 32, 18 persevered (56%,)—but of the 14 who left
us, two went on to the Secular Priesthood and one to Prink-
nash. Of the 18 who persevered, two (DD. Stephen Sheehy
and Philip) have died. The remaining 16 are : DD. Robert,
Brendan, Cyril, Martin, Br. James, DD. Osmund Furlong,
Roger, Stephen, Illtyd, Mark, David, Augustine, Dunstan,
Alban, Simon and Patrick. But it would seem rather narrow to
confine our picture of School Vocations to those Old Boys who
have joined the Belmont Community. In addition to the 32 Old
Boys who have tried their vocation here, since 1926, 12 Old
Boys have tried other religious houses, of whom six have
persevered ; and nine have tried the Secular Priesthood, of
whom eight have persevered. The six persevering religious are
monks of Mount St. Bernard's, Douai, Buckfast, Quarr and
Prinknash, and Jesuit. The eight persevering seculars are
two English priests, two Irish priests, one Menevia priest, one
Australian priest, and one American and one English secular
student. Altogether, then, 53 Old Boys have tried some form
of clerical vocation, and 35 (no less than 66%) have persevered.
So far, then, our conclusion would be pretty favourable towards
the School.
It is when we analyse those 53 clerical Old Boys a little more
closely that some disquieting facts begin to emerge. The School
is now just over forty years old. Let us break down those forty
years into four decades : September 1926 to December 1936—
small, "family" school, average size : 40 boys ; January 1937
to December 1946—wartime, "evacuee" school, average size :
85 boys ; January 1947 to December 1956—expanding, but
still "amateur" and "family-size" school, average size : 100
boys ; and, finally, January 1957 to the present day—newly-
housed, professionally-staffed, larger school, average size:
185 boys. In the first decade, 11 Old Boys tried for Belmont and
three elsewhere, and a total of 10 persevered. In the second
decade, three tried Belmont and eight elsewhere, and a total of
seven persevered. In the third decade, 11 tried Belmont and
eight elsewhere, and a total of 13 persevered. In the fourth
decade, which we are just ending, only seven tried Belmont
and only two tried elsewhere, and at the moment five are
persevering. These are very startling figures. They could be
more provocatively expressed like this : in the first ten years of
the School, when we had only 40 boys, twice as many boys
entered on and persevered in a clerical vocation, as in the last
ten years when we have had 185 boys. The School has more
than quadrupled, vocations have halved. Lest the comparison
with that sheltered little family-school of the 20's and 30's
seem too remote and strained to be particularly meaningful,
let us put it like this. In the first ten years after the war, 11
Old Boys joined us, in this last ten years, seven. Yet in the last
ten years, the School was nearly twice the size. If propor-
tionately the same number of Old Boys had joined us in this
last ten years, then we should have had 20 Old Boy novices,
not seven, and we would now have nine more Juniors in the
House than we actually have. Or, instead of Derek Green and
Michael Crowley being the only two boys in the last ten years
we have sent to branches of the priesthood and religious life other
than our own, we would have sent 15 boys to seminaries and
other religious houses. The conclusion would appear inescapable :
either the character of the School has changed dramatically in
the last ten years, or the character of our boys has changed.
Or both. ..
The question of Vocations from the School is of considerable
importance, as the School is our greatest single source of
vocations. This was not always so. Between 1926 and 1936,
only 28% of our novices were Old Boys, and between 1937 and
1946 only 23%. But since the war the picture has been quite
different : between 1947 and 1956 48% of novices were Old
Boys, and in the last decade (1957 to 1966) 47%. The conclusion
to be drawn from this would appear to be that while the
Community is not yet a clerical Old Boys' Society, we are
becoming inbred to this extent : that one in every two novices is
an Old Boy. The perseverence-rate of Old Boys is, incidentally,
slightly higher than that of non-Old Boys. Since 1926, 56% of
Old Boys have persevered, compared with 51% of non-Old
Boys But even that grain of comfort needs modifying—in the
last decade (1957 to 1966) only 57% of Old Boys have perse-
vered, compared with 75% of non-Old Boys. So, to put it
simply, if next year we had a novitiate of eight, on the average
four would be Old Boys and four would be from elsewhere.
But of the four Old Boys, two would leave ; while of the four
non-Old Boys, only one would leave. The conclusion would
again appear to be that something has gone wrong with recent
boys' attitude towards vocations.
What sort of picture does the Belmont Community present
to a boy in the School, wondering whether to join it? Statisti-
cally, rather a curious outline emerges. There are 55 Belmont
monks—26 below the age of 46, and 29 of 47 and over. Of the 26
who are under 46, all are living at Belmont, except for two
(DD. Wulstan and Stephen) at Alderwasley, one (Dom Bede)
at Redditch, and one (Dom Laurence) in the R.A.F. Of the 29
monks who are over 47, only four Choir monks (Father Abbot,
Father Sub-Prior and DD. Denis and Damian) live in at
Belmont. (The five Claustral Brothers also live at Belmont, of
course.) Of the 20 remaining older monks, five are at Alder-
wasley, 11 on the parish, two at convents, one is a school
chaplain, and one is in a rest home. We have come to take this
picture for granted, but it is, perhaps, to a boy, a rather curious
version of the monastic life : 22 young monks and four old
ones at Belmont; four young monks and 20 old ones living
outside. Perhaps we could argue to this conclusion : that the
residential Community, and therefore the School, may well be
suffering from the absence of experienced and mature old
priests, while the parishes may well be suffering from the
absence of vigorous and enthusiastic young priests. And this
may, perhaps, be deterring vocations.
There is another point. Of the 22 young monks living at
Belmont (and they mean Belmont to a boy in the School), 15
are largely occupied in teaching in the School (nine of them
full-time). Of the remaining seven young monks, four, to the
boys' knowledge, are now training for teaching in the School.
As far as a boy in the School can see, the only external activity
of a monk of Belmont is schoolmastering at a Public School.
Can we draw a conclusion. A boy who feels no inclination
towards Public School teaching, or who lacks the intellectual
ability to gain the professional qualifications for such work, may
well be deterred from trying his vocation at Belmont.
How serious is the Vocations Crisis for us as a Community?
Could we look at it like this? At present the Abbot of Belmont
has to find the manpower to keep the full Monastic Office going
each day in the Abbey Church, to run a Public School and two
Prep. Schools (Belmont, Alderwasley and Llanarth), and to
run five parishes (Belmont, Whitehaven, Redditch, Kells and
Weobley). It would seem reasonable to take 65 as an average
age for retirement for a Belmont monk (of our nine monks now
over the age of 65, only two are doing full-time work on the
commitments we have just mentioned). If that is so, within the
next ten years, 12 Belmont monks will pass the age of 65,
and therefore, probably, leave 12 "appointments" vacant. To
leave a margin for accidents (e.g. a monk dying under the age of
65 or a monk asking to be dispensed from Solemn Vows) the
Abbot will therefore need an additional 15 Solemnly Professed
and ordained monks in the next ten years. But to get 15
persevering new monks, on our average perseverence-rate, we
would need 30 men joining the novitiate. And 30 novices in ten
years is three a year. And if, since the war, half our novices have
come from the School, that means we must have three Old
Boys joining the Community every two years. This conclusion
would appear inescapable : if we are to keep our present
commitments (one Abbey Church, one Public School, two Prep
Schools and five Parishes) going, we must have three new
novices each year between next September (1967) and Sep-
tember 1976 And, of course, if we wish to expand our activities
in any way—(a foreign mission? supply centre for the whole of
Herefordshire? retreat centre? liturgical/ecumenical discussion
centre? secondary modern or industrial chaplaincies? scholar-
ship and research?)—or, equally important, if we want to
reduce the severe pressure of work on the present resident
community—then we must have yet more than three novices a
year There is, then, no immediate crisis. But if another year
goes by without any novices, or even a year with only one or
two novices, then there will inevitably be an acute manpower
crisis, involving the abandonment of a School or Pansh,
within ten years from now.
DCJ