The Guardian

Last orders? Belgium’s Trappist beers under threat as vocations run dry

The country’s oldest Trappist brewery faces an uncertain future after a decline in people entering monastic life For nearly 190 years the monks of Westmalle in northern Belgium have been involved in ...
Wall Street Journal

Trappist Beer Needs Trappist Monks to Brew It, but the Vocation Is Dwindling

HAMONT-ACHEL, Belgium—Exclusive Trappist breweries are facing a supply problem: They’re running out of monks. Brothers at the picturesque abbeys are aging, and fewer men are taking vows these days.
National Catholic Reporter

You've heard of Thomas Merton. Many other Trappist monks also lived remarkable lives.

In the late 1960s, a young NCR reporter named Colman McCarthy saw the emerging decline of American Trappist monasteries and offered a diagnosis: The monastic life is not active enough. Looking back ...
The Australian Financial Review

The world is changing. This Trappist abbey isn't

"A year and a half ago, I could do anything – run the chain saw, cut up trees, use a backhoe." Brother Joseph Swedo was bent forward in his chair, his rugged hands folded delicately in his lap. As a ...
The Irish Times

The Dáil's 'monk' must question his vocation

Dáil Sketch / Michael O'Regan: Consigned to a political Trappist monastery, with a vow of verbal celibacy, Ceann Comhairle John… Dáil Sketch / Michael O'Regan:Consigned to a political Trappist ...
The Daily Telegraph

Belgium's beer brewing Trappist monks face recruitment crisis

Achel brewery has lost their Authentic Trappist Product label after last two monks retire with no one to replace them James Crisp is The Telegraph’s Europe Editor. He has covered the EU and Europe for ...