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News & ArtsSunday, April 29, 2012
Religion The Awesomeness* of Nuns
Posted by Bethany Jean Clement on Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 10:28 AM
And of Nicholas Kristof:
...In 1996, Kony’s army attacked a Ugandan girls’ school and kidnapped 139 students. Sister Rachele hiked through the jungle in pursuit of the kidnappers—some of the most menacing men imaginable, notorious for raping and torturing their victims to death. Eventually, she caught up with the 200 gunmen and demanded that they release the girls. Somehow, she browbeat the warlord in charge into releasing the great majority of the girls...
...Elias Chacour, a prominent Palestinian archbishop in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, recounts in a memoir that he once asked a convent if it could supply two nuns for a community literacy project. The mother superior said she would have to check with her bishop.
“The bishop was very clear in his refusal to allow two nuns,” the mother superior told him later. “I cannot disobey him in that.” She added: “I will send you three nuns!”
The Vatican's messing with the wrong little old ladies. (Are there any right little old ladies to mess with? Who's doing the P.R. in Rome?!)
1
Joseph Ratzinger is gonna find out shortly that American Catholics like their nuns a hell of a lot more than they like their pope.
2
I briefly worked for a Catholic-y non-profit, and the nuns were far and away the best perk of the job.
Keep on keepin' on, nuns!
Keep on keepin' on, nuns!
3
If by right old ladies to mess with we mean old ladies who deserve it, then Phylis Schlafly, Barbara Bush, Lynne Cheney, Jan Brewer, Jean Schmidt, Virgina Foxx, Sarah Palin, Meg Whitman, Jennifer Dunn, and Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, for starters.
5
I once worked in a Catholic Hospital with a bunch of awesome nuns. If you wanted something done, you went to the nuns, not Fr. Kenny or the rest of the worthless (male) admins. I watched a nun with an absolutely lovely Irish accent pretty much tell a pompous windbag (high-ranking) Catholic bishop where he could go and all the things he could do with himself on the way there with a smile on her face and a delightful lilt to her to her voice. He missed the bulk of her message - though he got the gist - but the rest of us who witnessed it were just rolling afterwards, and even the Sr. in charge was holding back a smirk.
6
When Papa Vel-DuRay was dying at the Catholic hospital that I was born at, and had had all my usual childhood dramas at, it was a nun who got to deal with my complete emotional breakdown, which she did with kindness and grace.. She was the "pastoral associate" (or something like that) for the IC unit. How anyone could do that job day after day is beyond me, but I'm glad those people exist.
The church and I parted ways long ago, but I still have a soft spot for the sisters - even the mean ones. I think they meant well, and their lives could not have been easy ones.
The church and I parted ways long ago, but I still have a soft spot for the sisters - even the mean ones. I think they meant well, and their lives could not have been easy ones.
7
That's like listing all the neato things child raping Catholic priests have done, ignoring their long list of crimes, and saying how "awesome" they are.
Don't believe me? Nuns are different than priests? OK. Let's talk about all the clever subterfuge and sophistic “I cannot disobey him in that... I will send you three nuns!” bullshit the Providence Health & Services have been up to in Washington to deny women access to birth control and abortion. Tell me about their "awesome" tricks and lies behind their takeover of Swedish Medical Center.
So, yeah, nuns are great. When they're not being fucking evil. It's kind of interesting what a pass nuns get when it comes to Church shenanigans.
Don't believe me? Nuns are different than priests? OK. Let's talk about all the clever subterfuge and sophistic “I cannot disobey him in that... I will send you three nuns!” bullshit the Providence Health & Services have been up to in Washington to deny women access to birth control and abortion. Tell me about their "awesome" tricks and lies behind their takeover of Swedish Medical Center.
So, yeah, nuns are great. When they're not being fucking evil. It's kind of interesting what a pass nuns get when it comes to Church shenanigans.
8
The last nun who taught at my elementary school had an instrument she had dubbed, "The Wisdom Stick". It was a 1" thick, 3 foot long dowel with a hand carved owl on one end.
She broke it over my ass (I can't remember what for). I have to say, it did wise me up real good from that point forward. I also know now, one should not fuck with nuns.
Great story/punchline.
She broke it over my ass (I can't remember what for). I have to say, it did wise me up real good from that point forward. I also know now, one should not fuck with nuns.
Great story/punchline.
9
@7, certainly there were and are evil and abusive nuns (see Magdalene laundries as one systemic and long-secret example beyond the knuckle scars of generations of parochial-school students), but I suspect there's a difference approaching an order of magnitude between nuns and priests in the evil:good ratio.
As with priests, many women doubtless go into the religious life trying to escape a homosexual (or, in an extreme minority, pedophilic) sexual attraction that they know at some level to be true and ineradicable. But women, by nature or nurture, are probably less likely to whine and act out duplicitously. By and large, they pour their energy and nurturing spirits into doing good in some of the worst possible circumstances. That they do so in the face of an arrogant and hypocritical patriarchy is even more to their credit—it's the rare priest or brother who labors outside of the comfortable environs of a suburban rectory with its all-but-conscripted housekeepers and its dull routine of weekly sermons and rote administration of "sacraments" (as well as its endless parade of altar servers).
I'm not here to apologize for religion; I left my Catholic upbringing bowing and scraping in the rear-view mirror long ago. But there are lots of people, many of them queer, unable to escape the centripetal pull of religious dogma who nevertheless triumph against all odds, who avoid vengeful cruelty and manage to comfort more afflicted than you and I ever will.
As with priests, many women doubtless go into the religious life trying to escape a homosexual (or, in an extreme minority, pedophilic) sexual attraction that they know at some level to be true and ineradicable. But women, by nature or nurture, are probably less likely to whine and act out duplicitously. By and large, they pour their energy and nurturing spirits into doing good in some of the worst possible circumstances. That they do so in the face of an arrogant and hypocritical patriarchy is even more to their credit—it's the rare priest or brother who labors outside of the comfortable environs of a suburban rectory with its all-but-conscripted housekeepers and its dull routine of weekly sermons and rote administration of "sacraments" (as well as its endless parade of altar servers).
I'm not here to apologize for religion; I left my Catholic upbringing bowing and scraping in the rear-view mirror long ago. But there are lots of people, many of them queer, unable to escape the centripetal pull of religious dogma who nevertheless triumph against all odds, who avoid vengeful cruelty and manage to comfort more afflicted than you and I ever will.
10
@7, the Sisters of Providence are not run by nuns. Nuns don't have control over anything, since the bishops are all male, and certainly won't do anything that Ratzinger wouldn't want them to.
11
@7 Spot on. I can only imagine all the nun apologists are not the same people decrying the priesthood. It's all the same ethically bankrupt organization.
12
Exactly! Brave women rule! Which is why it's time for a woman president.
http://www.jillstein.org/
http://www.gp-wa.us/
Schedule:
THU May 3, 4 pm - Jill arrives Seattle
THU May 3, 7 to 8 pm - phone interview with David Cobb on Humboldt County radio
FRI May 4, 3 to 6 pm - Reception in Olympia at the Urban Onion, 116 Legion Way
SAT May 5, 8 to 8:30 am - Skype conversation with Maine Convention
SAT May 5, 9 to 5 - Spring Gathering in Seattle at the Labor Temple, 2800 1st Ave; see menu to left
Sat May 5, 6 to 9 pm - Openhouse/fundraiser at the Labor Temple again
SUN May 6, 12 noon onward - Port Townsend at the Port Townsend Senior Center, 620 Tyler St.
SUN May 6, 6:30 to 9 pm - Reception in Mt Vernon at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, 202 S 1st St, Rm 309
MON May 7, early AM - flying to SF
http://www.makestickers.com/pc/2889/jill…
http://www.jillstein.org/
http://www.gp-wa.us/
Schedule:
THU May 3, 4 pm - Jill arrives Seattle
THU May 3, 7 to 8 pm - phone interview with David Cobb on Humboldt County radio
FRI May 4, 3 to 6 pm - Reception in Olympia at the Urban Onion, 116 Legion Way
SAT May 5, 8 to 8:30 am - Skype conversation with Maine Convention
SAT May 5, 9 to 5 - Spring Gathering in Seattle at the Labor Temple, 2800 1st Ave; see menu to left
Sat May 5, 6 to 9 pm - Openhouse/fundraiser at the Labor Temple again
SUN May 6, 12 noon onward - Port Townsend at the Port Townsend Senior Center, 620 Tyler St.
SUN May 6, 6:30 to 9 pm - Reception in Mt Vernon at the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, 202 S 1st St, Rm 309
MON May 7, early AM - flying to SF
http://www.makestickers.com/pc/2889/jill…
13
The baddest-ass nun from my Catholic school days was Sister Mary Gregory. Yes, she chose a dude's name. Even the bullies were terrified of her.
14
@11, you may imagine that but you're wrong. I don't apologize for anyone. You tell me about some nuns who've done worse than rap some hands and I'll think of them the same way I think about rapist priests and bishops. In the meantime, the nuns are doing the shit work of the Church and the men are wearing the pretty clothes and living in palaces.
15
I was in public school in the 70's ( my parents took a look at my older sister's parochial school acheivements, and decided that one of their children shoud know how to spell) and we had teachers there who were just as crazy as the nuns. We had one teacher who would lock you in a box, and another who would make you lean against a wall in a sitting position (which is quite painful if you don't have developed thigh muscles.) they all would rap your knuckles and spank you, and we had prayers until probably about 1973.
People were just rougher on kids back then.
People were just rougher on kids back then.
16
@11
Nuns do a great deal of evil, not the least of which is contributing to a general stunted psychological, moral, philosophical, scientific, ..., personhood through the perpetuation of stone age mythology. Then how 'bout the dear Mother Theresa. See, e.g.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_p…
No, not all nuns are pure evil but not a one is better than a million other non-nun humans.
Nuns do a great deal of evil, not the least of which is contributing to a general stunted psychological, moral, philosophical, scientific, ..., personhood through the perpetuation of stone age mythology. Then how 'bout the dear Mother Theresa. See, e.g.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_p…
No, not all nuns are pure evil but not a one is better than a million other non-nun humans.
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