The Dutch provincial of the Augustinian order has proposed opening convents to men & women of any Christian faith, married or single. Rome has threatened to disband the Dutch province.

DECEMBER is the darkest month. The sun is lowest in the sky. The nights are longest. Yet in its midst—perhaps in their hunger for warmth and light in the nadir of seasons—believers of the Western world have immemorially celebrated hope. In recent years, God has seemed to many…