Why we kicked the habit (Irish nuns)

[emad]

The Independent
Ireland's new breed of nuns knows all about the ways of the world - some even have piercings. But do these thoroughly modern sisters have what it takes to save souls, wonders David McKittrick
08 November 2004


Clare Gilmore has three very obvious sets of facial adornments - four studs in one ear, two in the other and a bar through one eyebrow. She also has three tattoos, depicting a fairy, a rose and a dolphin.

Aged 27, she describes herself as a modern woman. She's had two long-term boyfriends, and goes to the cinema and the pub with her mates. She has a mobile - and a terrific giggle.

Clare is a novice with the Sisters of Mercy in Limerick, and is 18 months into the lengthy process of taking holy orders. She is a deeply religious person, but there is much about her that clearly confounds the traditional picture of the Irish nun. In the old days, nuns used to be described as demure, submissive and deferential - or perhaps forbidding and oppressive. But this is a new type of nun for a new, updated Ireland. She chooses her own clothes. She does not possess a habit.

Of the facial piercings, she says, with a laugh: "They stay. I'm a modern woman; I like piercings, I think they're attractive. It's just part of my personality, an expression of who I am. People ask me if I'll have to get rid of them, but they've been accepted by the sisters. It hasn't been an issue."

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=580519

[skygazer]

1. Makes no less sense to me than the traditional ways

I never understood why nuns and priests couldn't marry and live normal lives. I don't see why you can't serve god and still be a human being. One of many things about religions that baffles me.

[KitSileya]

2. Actually, I disagree with you.

I have several friends who have become RC nuns and priests, from the ages of 29 to 83. Their lives are no less normal than mine or yours. So they've chosen to live in celibacy, and in same-gender communities. Doesn't diminish their lives one jot - in fact, from my viewpoint, a 29-year old single woman without job, whose friends seem all to be in longterm relationships, theirs seem the richer. Am I unnormal for not having married?

The happiest person I know, is an American Trappistine nun of 60, who joined an open order at 14 and switched to the closed order of the Trappistines at 19. She lives with several other nuns on a small island in the fjord just outside my hometown of Trondheim, Norway, living off the land, and, as per Trappistine regulation, keeps silent great parts of the day.

The concept of monks and nuns come to us from Buddhism. It's about 5000 years old. It is not unnormal - to paraphrase Forrest Gump, normal is as normal does. For them it's normal to live their lives the way they do. It's their choice - which today is made by themselves, after they reach maturity. It doesn't hurt anyone. And they are most certainly still human beings, even tho' they've decided to sacrifice some aspects of their life to their God - just as anyone in a relationship sacrifices something!

[Cleita]

3. It goes back to the Church's earliest monastic traditions, of

renouncing the world for a life of solitude and prayer. This included forsaking carnal pleasures and practicing chastity, fasting and sleep deprivation. It also meant you owned nothing not even your will, hence the vow of obedience to a superior. Also, it could mean a vow of silence, meaning you gave up talking. It was to remove any distractions and barriers to your dialogue with God.

I think there are a few saintly souls who were meant to do this, but they really should relax the restrictions for the majority of religious clergy IMHO either that or do what the Buddhists do, where you commit yourself to a certain amount of time in the monastery, sort of like spending a few years in military service.