Nuns — frontline superheroes

In an age of villainy, war and inequality, it makes sense that we need superheroes.

And after trying Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we may have found the best superheroes yet: Nuns.

‘‘I may not believe in God, but I do believe in nuns,’’ writes Jo Piazza, in her forthcoming book, If Nuns Ruled the World.

Piazza is an agnostic living in New York City who began interviewing nuns and found herself utterly charmed and inspired.

‘‘They eschew the spotlight by their very nature, and yet they’re out there in the world every day, living the Gospel and caring for the poor,’’ Piazza writes.

‘‘They don’t hide behind fancy and expensive vestments, a pulpit, or a sermon.

I have never met a nun who rides a Mercedes-Benz or a Cadillac.

They walk a lot; they ride bikes.’’

One of the most erroneous caricatures of nuns is that they are prim, Victorian figures cloistered in convents.

On the contrary, I’ve become a huge fan of nuns because I see them so often risking their lives around the world, confronting warlords, pimps and thugs, while speaking the local languages fluently.

In a selfish world, they epitomise selflessness and compassion.

There are also plenty of formidable nuns whom even warlords don’t want to mess with, who combine reverence with ferocity, who defy the Roman Catholic Church by handing out condoms to prostitutes to protect them from HIV.

One of the nuns whom Piazza profiles is Sister Megan Rice.

She earned a graduate degree and then moved to Nigeria in 1962 to run a school for girls she had helped establish in a remote area with no electricity or running water.

After returning to the US, she began campaigning against nuclear weapons.

In 2012, at the age of 82, she masterminded the break-in of a nuclear complex in Tennessee, to call attention to the nuclear threat.

As she was handcuffed by armed security guards, she sang This Little Light of Mine.

She is now serving a prison sentence of almost three years. Continue reading

Source

Nicholas Kristof is a New York Times journalist.

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