The New York Times did a piece on a Trappist monastery in South Carolina. If memory serves, at its height it had fifty brothers. Today it has around 10. To try and bolster its numbers, it is introducing month long and year long "vows", even allowing nonreligious individuals to take part in the program. The program sort of reminds me of Neal Stephenson's book Anathem, where people take vows for 1 year, ten years one-hundred years or even longer. It is an interesting read.
Abbeys are close to my heart. I did my undergraduate degree at a Benedictine abbey. It was an interesting experience. That said, I do wish I'd taken part more in the monastic side of things. I've been meaning to read the Benedict Option for a while now. One way to save communities like this Trappist monastery is making them more family friendly -- like a Christian kibbutz.
Sarkozy has been charged. He was picked up for questioning yesterday. He's accused of accepting 50 million Euro's worth of campaign money from Libya. If you want to get an idea for how the French legal system operates, I suggest Engrenages. It is sort of like a French version of The Wire.
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