Cura pastoralis in deserto

"From early in its history, the Carthusians order recognised that withdrawal from the temptations of the world did not eliminate the need for pastoral care of those in its communities. In the Statuta Antiqua, it is made clear that the general chapter of the order 'quod habet curam animarum nostrarum', exercised its pastoral function over the order in a variety of ways, some of which closely paralleled the care exercised by an episcopal synod over the pastoral walfare of the diocesan family ... Thus the statutes lay on him [the prior] the cura animarum of his monks (and indeed of the lay brethren ...) without offering any advice or indication as to how these duties should be executed. This his hardly surprising. Little monastic legislation and few regulae devote much space to the implementation of the pastoral charge. Furthermore the legislation which shaped and defined the nature of the pastoral responsibilities of the Carthusian prior was promulgated for the most part before the developments in pastoral theology which were recognised and given new impetus by the Lateran Council in 1215" (p. 162-163).