AS THE Vatican frets that men and women are no longer prepared to devote their life to God in the monasteries and convents of the Catholic church, one religious order believes that it has found the answer.

In the heart of Rome, the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany has quietly opened the first convento misto, where men and women who take religious orders can choose to live under the same roof.

Unlike nuns and friars in traditional convents and monasteries, the Bethany brethren take meals together and hold joint prayer sessions every day.

They engage in discussions on the issues of the day and share the daily chores, such as tending the gardens that provide much of their fresh food.

Housed in a modern complex in the district of Giustiniana on the Via Cassia, the monks and nuns live in separate cells in the same wing, with the men on the top floor and the women on the floor below. The cells all have ensuite bathrooms.

Pope Benedict XVI has shut the door firmly on any prospect of allowing priests to marry. Brother Paolo, the Father Superior at the Fraternity of Bethany, said that he believed mixed communities offered “the way forward”, and would attract men and women to the religious life at a time when Church vocations were in decline.

Men and women together create “powerful positive energy”, he said. “This is an important development which is being asssessed by the Church. It could be the beginning of something much bigger. We hope it will grow.”

The community yesterday celebrated its first anniversary with its 14 nuns and three friars and a congregation of well-wishers. They eat together in a communal dining room, with “many lively discussions on issues of the day”, from politics to bioethics.

Most community members have university degrees, and most are young, with an average age of 33. The men and women pray together — the first session starts at 3am and the last ends at 11pm. They also share the household tasks, including kitchen duties and picking fruit and vegetables from the extensive grounds - the order is self-sufficient. Television is allowed for news bulletins only, although videos of “suitable” religious films are shown in the evenings.

Mobile phones are not banned, although they are considered “communal” and so are shared.

One of the nuns, Sister Elena, 38, is a former karate champion, while the tall, bearded Brother Paolo, also 38, was once a noted basketball player. He was also an economist with a promising career in international finance in Zurich and Paris.

“I realised something was missing in my life, and I was called by God,” he said. Attracted to the teachings of St Francis, he was ordained three years ago. “We welcome anyone,” he said. “We do not go out to the world, the world comes to us. St Francis did not found charities for the poor, he gave dignity to poverty by becoming poor himself.”

Friars and nuns wear the same grey hooded habits and thick sky blue cardigans — essential in the chill of a Rome winter. “We can’t afford much heating,” Brother Paolo explained. At yesterday’s celebratory Mass the nuns read the lessons and sang modern hymns to the accompaniment of guitars and an electric keyboard while the monks — Brother Paolo, Brother Giuseppe and Brother Pierluigi — presided.

The nuns do not, however, appear to support the idea of women priests, an innovation sternly opposed by the late John Paul II and by his successor and former doctrinal adviser, Benedict XVI. Nor did they regret turning their backs on married life.

One nun said she that had been about to marry when she “had a dream in which I clearly saw myself surrounded by the happy members of a religious order. I had no idea who they were.” She broke off her engagement, identified the order as the Fraternity of Bethany, and joined it, “finding true happiness”.

Brother Paolo said that he was confident that the order would know how to respond if a nun and a monk fell in love.

“Well, apart from closed orders, most communities of monks and nuns have contact with the opposite sex in one way or another. There is always the possibility they will be attracted to each other. But people become friars or nuns because they are committed to Christ. When Christ is in your life you need no other partner.”

MIXED BLESSINGS

In 1969 Pope Paul VI gave the Franciscans autonomy but their leftist sympathies have irritated the new Pope