I’m (pictured left) wedged in the back of a Toyota Corolla on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, next to Sister Honorata, (pictured right) an 83-year-old, five-foot-tall, extremely plump nun. We’re headed to a small town a few hours away. After endless traffic snarls, we turn onto a highway. The sister driving us turns up the Read more
Assault rifles, mass shootings and Catholic nuns aren’t usually linked – but in the US nuns are suing Smith & Wesson’s directors over its AR-15 assault rifle production. Their aim is to try to force the firearms manufacturer to stop making, marketing and selling assault-style rifles many US killers use in mass shootings. The nuns’ Read more
The construction of a Catholic religious centre in Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier, Ardèche, France, has caused controversy. Earlier this week, nuns from the missionary group formed a human chain around a digger to prevent the activists from chaining themselves to it. However, the clash turned physical when an unnamed nun from the Notre Dame Missionary Family sprinted across Read more
In his new book, “Il Velo del Silenzio” (“Veil of Silence”) Italian journalist and author Salvatore Cernuzio writes of meeting a childhood friend who had joined a cloistered community of nuns. Ten years later, a “tribunal” of older sisters decided she did not have a vocation and sent her packing. Just days earlier, Jesuit Father Read more
An article in a Jesuit magazine describing alleged exploitation of nuns in Catholic convents has been criticized as an attempt to silence members of women’s religious orders who have begun to speak out against sexual abuse by priests. “I think there is a possibility of a revolt of religious sisters,” said Lucetta Scaraffia, the former Read more
Abuse in women’s congregations is rife, according to Giovanni Cucci SJ. Through research, pastoral experience and interviews with F Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Cucci has formed a picture of the abuse. For the most part the abuse does not take Read more
A group of nuns have reportedly volunteered to be locked inside a coronavirus hit nursing home in Poland after numbers of staff there were dramatically reduced by infection and quarantine measures. According to the Polish TV site TVN24, 10 sisters from the Congregation of St. Dominic stepped in when a coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in a Read more
Fifty-nine nuns belonging to two convents in Rome are said to have tested positive for COVID-19. Forty of the sisters belong to the Daughters of San Camillo convent on the outskirts of Rome, while 19 of the 21 sisters from the Angelic Sisters of Saint Paul convent in Rome are reportedly infected. Local authorities have Read more
Speaking to a network of religious sisters that helps human trafficking victims, Pope Francis on Thursday told them to work closely with the local church, because this is necessary for their project to be successful. “I want to reiterate that the journey of consecrated life, both female and male, is the path of ecclesial insertion,” Read more
Nuns are also guilty of sexually abusing minors, say survivors. Women who were sexually abused by nuns say while the abuse of boys by priests is being widely documented, their trauma is being overlooked. “It’s a spiritual rape, it really is,” one says. “It steals your faith. I envy people who have faith.” “Nuns kind Read more