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. Read more
It takes nerves of steel to stand in your doorway and tell rebel soldiers waving guns that no, the woman they are seeking is most certainly not in the room behind you, when in fact she is hiding a few feet away, under your bed. But that’s what Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe did. It takes stunning Read more
Whac-A-Nun season opened with a bang in Rome as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) again excoriated the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). Rapped knuckles belonged to LCWR, to Fordham theologian Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, and to any other American woman walking around with letters after her name. Even Seattle Archbishop J. Read more
Roman Catholic women of a certain age will remember being obsessed as teenagers with Kathryn Hulme’s The Nun’s Story, book and film – “Is God calling me to be Audrey Hepburn?” It’s still a good strong read, and even more fascinating when you know the story behind it. It is a novel, but based on the Read more
Andrea Tornielli, a veteran Vatican journalist, writes in her new book, “I Fioretti di Papa Francesco (The Little Flowers of Pope Francis),” that the life of Pope Francis was saved by nuns who worked in the hospital where the pontiff was ill as a young man. “I am alive thanks to one of them,” the Read more
Sister Margaret Farley, author of the book “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” continues to support the cause for gay marriage even after she was silenced by the Vatican last year for her book. The Vatican ruled that Sister Farley’s book didn’t uphold Catholic moral teaching. Irish American Sister Farley graduated, taught and Read more
Islamists in Egypt burned down a Christian school, paraded three nuns on the streets like “prisoners of war,” and sexually abused two women last week as supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi attacked at least 58 churches, Christian institutions, homes and shops. The Islamists called for the reinstatement of Morsi, who is from the Muslim Read more
A “new attitude” of cooperation and equality must govern relations between the Vatican and Catholic sisters around the world, the National Catholic Reporter said, quoting a key Vatican cardinal. That attitude, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz said in May, must be grounded in the understanding that both the church hierarchy and the sisters “are two Read more
Two women from Tonga, Sister Malia Cecilia and Sister Malia Makalita, were among six novices who took first their first vows as as Little Sisters of the Poor in the United States at the beginning of the month. Cardinal Dolan presided at the Mass of Religious Profession at St. Ann’s Novitiate, Queens Village, New York. He Read more
A young monastic order of nuns in the United States has for the second time released an album that has debuted in the top position on Billboard magazine’s classical traditional music chart. “This is an unprecedented accomplishment for … a group of contemplative nuns, this devoted, hidden prayerful group who do not tour and remain Read more