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Naughty Nuns

ramonmercado said:
Sister Mary's planning application, number 666, has received objection and support.
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I wonder how hard the council worked to get that number for the application....
 
Bets shes cross now.

Permission refused for Sister Mary Michael's cross
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-19002236

Sister Mary will continue to invite friends and family to pray in her garden
y
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'Nun' wants big illuminated cross
Meeting Sister Mary Michael
Da Vinci code nun 'not genuine'

A nun who wanted to erect a 7.38m-high illuminated cross in her back garden has had planning permission refused.

Sister Mary Michael said she believed God wanted her to have the "Cross of Love" at her home in North Hykeham, Lincolnshire.

But North Kesteven District Council said the cross would be "inappropriate and intrusive".

Sister Mary said she will now have to be a "little light" herself.

"I thought it would be lovely for people," said the 68-year-old.


The illuminated cross would have been higher than Sister Mary's bungalow
Sister Mary said the cross would have been a scaled down version of the 738m Glorious Cross of Dozulé in France.

She wanted it to be a beacon for people to come to her garden to pray.

But the planning application, number 666, was rejected by the council who said: "The proposed development would, by virtue of its height in comparison with surrounding residential properties and its illumination, represent an inappropriate and intrusive feature within this wholly residential area."

Continue reading the main story
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Start Quote

You can't fight the council. I think the Devil is a bit easier really”

Sister Mary Michael

Sister Mary said she would not try to appeal against the decision or submit another application.

"You can't fight the council. I think the Devil is a bit easier really," she said.

She said she will continue to invite friends and family to pray in her garden.

She previously attracted wide attention when she held a prayer vigil at the Da Vinci Code premiere in Cannes.

She also protested at Lincoln Cathedral when the Da Vinci Code was being filmed there.
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staticgirl said:
ramonmercado said:
Sister Mary's planning application, number 666, has received objection and support.
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I wonder how hard the council worked to get that number for the application....
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Somebody in the council planning department has a sense of humour.
 
A virgin birth? E's the Messiah!

Nun who gave birth in Italy 'unaware of pregnancy'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25787757

Nuns at the same convent were equally surprised

A nun who gave birth to a baby boy in the central Italian city of Rieti, said she had no idea she was pregnant, local media report.

The 31-year-old was rushed to hospital with abdominal pains, which she thought were stomach cramps.

The young mother, who is originally from El Salvador, reportedly named her newborn Francis after the current Pope.

The mayor of Rieti, Simone Petrangeli has appealed to the public and media to respect the woman's privacy.

The news has drawn international attention to the small city of 47,700 inhabitants.

The nun called the ambulance on Wednesday morning. A few hours later she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

"I did not know I was pregnant. I only felt a stomach pain," she was quoted as saying by the Ansa news agency.

People at the hospital have begun collecting clothes and donations for the mother and her child, Italian media say.

The woman belongs to a convent near Rieti, which manages an old people's home.

Fellow nuns at the convent said they were "surprised" by the news.

Local pastor Don Fabrizio Borrello told journalists that the nun planned to take care of the baby.

"I guess she's telling the truth when she says she arrived at the hospital unaware of the pregnancy."
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The Roman Catholic Church in Argentina has launched an investigation into whether four nuns helped to hide a hoard of cash and jewels.

The probe leader Reverend Tom O'Donnell, said they would try "to determine if there was a canonical crime".

Last month, a former government minister was arrested outside their convent near Buenos Aires.

He was allegedly trying to hide almost $9m (£6.8m) in cash and jewels.

Nuns working at the Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima religious community about 55km (35 miles) west of the capital Buenos Aires called the police after they saw a man throwing plastic bags full of money over a wall.

He was allegedly Jose Lopez, who was the public works minister in the former government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

The media in Argentina recently showed CCTV footage allegedly showing Mr Lopez bringing the bags with wads of cash in several currencies and jewels into the convent, helped by two nuns. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36852119?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
Down with that sort of thing!
 
A now-retired Southern California nun has been sentenced for embezzling over $800,000 used to cover her gambling and credit debts.
Los Angeles nun, 80, gets prison for $835,000 school theft

A Los Angeles nun and school principal who stole more than $800,000 to pay for a gambling habit was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison.

Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, admitted to stealing the money from 2008 to 2018 while she was principal at St. James Catholic School in the LA suburb of Torrance.

She pleaded guilty last July to one count each of wire fraud and money laundering

U.S. District Court Judge Otis D. Wright II also ordered Kreuper to pay back the school approximately $835,000 as restitution ...

“I have sinned, I’ve broken the law and I have no excuses,” Kreuper said via teleconference. “My actions were in violation of my vows, my commandments, the law and, above all, the sacred trust that so many had placed in me. I was wrong and I’m profoundly sorry for the pain and suffering I’ve caused so many people.” ...

Prosecutors said that in a plea agreement that the now-retired elementary school principal acknowledged that she embezzled donations, tuition and fees.

In her plea agreement, Kreuper acknowledged diverting money to pay for personal expenses that included credit card charges and “large gambling expenses incurred at casinos” ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/los-ange...eft-torrance-3ac59d3d7a68dab4d5a5f8040b60cc91
 
'Sexting' nun branded wh*re and banished from monastery but denies breaking no sex vow

A nun who was branded a "wh**e" and exiled from her monastery after confessing to sexting a priest has denied she broke her vow of chastity.

0_Nun-banished-from-monastery-for-sexting-with-priest-denies-breaking-vow-of-chastity.jpg


Reverend Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach, the former leader of a Catholic convent in Texas, is suing Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson after he claimed she was guilty of breaking her promise to never have sex.

She insists her romance with a priest "never got physical."

The 43-year-old nun, who has chronic health issues that have confined her to a wheelchair and require her to use a feeding tube, admitted to having a raunchy over-the-phone romance with a Montana priest during an interrogation by the bishop back in April.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/sexting-nun-branded-whre-banished-30358339

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson
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Word from my Catholic group:

1 Bishop has behaved disgracefully.
2 Priest may be guilty of something
3 Mother Superior may be guilty of something.
4 Consenting adults = no foul
5 Media reporting means there can't be any justice here - 1

Grief and solidarity :(
 
Frideswide said:
Word from my Catholic group:

1 Bishop has behaved disgracefully.
2 Priest may be guilty of something
3 Mother Superior may be guilty of something.
4 Consenting adults = no foul
5 Media reporting means there can't be any justice here - 1

Grief and solidarity :(
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The Catholic church needs to change. Insisting that there can be no relationships at all is just inhuman.
 
Mythopoeika said:
The Catholic church needs to change. Insisting that there can be no relationships at all is just inhuman.
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Remember that there are different flavours of Catholic. These are Roman, I am Old.

Old has situations where you can take similar vows. Our emphasis is on keeping the vow and fulfilling the service. I don't know quite what the situation is for the unfortunate Prioest and Mother Superior - except that they should be respected and loved (agape and caritas not eros ;) ) and treated with kindness and fellowship, whatever they have done or not done. Even murder, our emphasis is on support and love - it doesn't mean the person isn't reported and must take the punishment of course.

Lay orders aren't well known outwith The Church but seem, to me, to be very useful and are flourishing.

I find the emphasis on "sexual sin" odd and unhelpful. Yes, there are situations where celibacy is the right option. But... maybe there are some Roman Catholics here who could speak on this?

I'm writing from the heart here, this may not be coherent!

Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum, ignoscere divinum.
 
Frideswide said:
Remember that there are different flavours of Catholic. These are Roman, I am Old.

Old has situations where you can take similar vows. Our emphasis is on keeping the vow and fulfilling the service. I don't know quite what the situation is for the unfortunate Prioest and Mother Superior - except that they should be respected and loved (agape and caritas not eros ;) ) and treated with kindness and fellowship, whatever they have done or not done. Even murder, our emphasis is on support and love - it doesn't mean the person isn't reported and must take the punishment of course.

Lay orders aren't well known outwith The Church but seem, to me, to be very useful and are flourishing.

I find the emphasis on "sexual sin" odd and unhelpful. Yes, there are situations where celibacy is the right option. But... maybe there are some Roman Catholics here who could speak on this?

I'm writing from the heart here, this may not be coherent!

Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum, ignoscere divinum.
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I have never been a Catholic, so I am not able to understand all of these positions.
I guess that would be an ecumenical matter.
that-would-be-an-ecumenical-matter-ecumenical.gif
 
Frideswide said:
I find the emphasis on "sexual sin" odd and unhelpful. Yes, there are situations where celibacy is the right option. But... maybe there are some Roman Catholics here who could speak on this?
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As someone who was raised RC and still feels some affinity for the Church, I am always amazed at the way the media and much of the public (Roman Catholics included) seem to think the Church equates all sex with sin, that clergy and members of religious orders are somehow expected to turn into sexless beings, and that sexual transgressions are somehow more heinous than any crime except (possibly) murder. Church leaders and good priests are both more realistic and more understanding than that.

I understand the philosophy that priests, nuns, etc. are essentially "married to their job" and therefore should not be having extramarital affairs. (I don't necessarily believe in it, but I understand it.) But they're still human, fallible, and worthy of forgiveness, just like people in regular marriages.

BTW, I'm told a priest I once knew used to joke "We don't take a vow of sexual abstinence, we take a vow of celibacy. That just means we can't get married."
 
ChasFink said:
I understand the philosophy that priests, nuns, etc. are essentially "married to their job" and therefore should not be having extramarital affairs. (I don't necessarily believe in it, but I understand it.) But they're still human, fallible, and worthy of forgiveness, just like people in regular marriages.
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I've always thought that while the individual are human and thusly fallible - they can commit sin ... and regret it - the Church itself cannot be seen as 'weak' and fallible. It's individual representatives can be at fault, not the institution itself.
Which demonstrates one big problem.
The individual representatives can be fallible and human, but if they are 'promoted' to the papacy then they are suddenly infallible.
I see it as an individual can be good or bad. But the organisation they belong to shapes how they are expected to behave and woe betide anyone who doesn't toe the Party line.

All this would've been different if at the Synod of Whitby, King Oswiu of Northumbria had chosen to follow the Rule of Columba (Irish Church). Then we'd have conhospitae, or monasteries of both male and female inhabitants, the religious could marry, and there was an abhorrence of capital punishment.
 
Stormkhan said:
the Church itself cannot be seen as 'weak' and fallible. It's individual representatives can be at fault, not the institution itself.
Which demonstrates one big problem.
The individual representatives can be fallible and human, but if they are 'promoted' to the papacy then they are suddenly infallible.
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Frideswide said:
Only ex cathedra. On which occasion they really are speaking for the Church!
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It is here we enter into the wonderful and often misunderstood world of the Roman Catholic Church's logic.

The image of the Church as infallible helps the members of the Church* maintain their faith. This was important in the past when organized religions were as integral to everyday life as are governments - something that is still true in some places today. It can be argued that this image has some psychological value today when Church members look to the teachings of their faith and to their clergy for guidance through difficult times.

As for the "infallibility" of the Pope, this is simply a way of recognizing the Pope's supreme authority, in the same way a king or queen's authority cannot be superceded. As Frideswide points out, that authority only relates to matters of faith, and only when that authority is specifically invoked. Monarchs' powers are often similarly limited. Again, if the language of infallibility strengthens the bond between Church members and leadership, so much the better.

But what if a Pope becomes so corrupt as to derail the intent of the Church as a whole? It is declared that he never was Pope. How could he be if he was so fallible? An analogy is found in the Church's teaching about the permanence of marriage: divorce is not allowed, but a faulty marriage can be annulled, i.e. declared to have never been legitimate.

----
* Let's not forget that "the Church" is not just the leadership, but the membership as well. I was always taught that, in the U.S., our representative government meant that the people were, in some real sense, the government.
 
ChasFink said:
But what if a Pope becomes so corrupt as to derail the intent of the Church as a whole? It is declared that he never was Pope. How could he be if he was so fallible? An analogy is found in the Church's teaching about the permanence of marriage: divorce is not allowed, but a faulty marriage can be annulled, i.e. declared to have never been legitimate.
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As an outsider*, I find this a fascinating point. The Pope is infallible as long as The Church says he is. As soon as he doesn't toe the party line then he isn't infallible and so isn't Pope?
So The Church (as an institution) treats the Pope - God's voice as a direct link all the way back to Saint Peter - as a figurehead, only using his authority while it suits The Church?
How does that square with belief in The Church as a whole? "We speak the Truth that you should follow. Oh, unless we don't say what we think is the Truth and, in that case, we'll replace the Truth (in the form of Il Papa) with someone who is really speaking the Truth as we see it.
Amen.
Don't get me wrong at all - I'm seriously interested as a theological construct**, and I'm genuinely fascinated by the logic (which has no link to faith, really) of any religious Church dogma.

* I was raised as 'weak' CofE; i.e. my parents put that down on forms but apart from christenings, burials and marriages they never saw inside a church. I love architecture, and I hope I've an open and enquiring mind. I've been a guest at a Jewish wedding, a celebration of Eid in a mosque, and I've no axe to grind.This is all far more than my parents or siblings experienced. I'm a Celt. Not a druid or even a follower of druidism. I'll take 'pagan' easily. So, I'm happy in my world-view and have no axe to grind against 'Non-followers'.
** As I've read, there was a Bishop in the Middle Ages who, on being tested on his loyalty to the King (as Gods Annointed) as opposed to the Papacy, at the time based in Avignon. His answer to 'the contest' was brilliant and quite inspiring:
"The faith in God comes from inside us all. It is how we feel. Religion, though, is a construct of man. We try to make sense of our faith, but we are all fallible. Who should we trust? God who gives us our faith, or man who makes the rules of it?"
 
@Stormkhan
I'm no theologian, and what I said is filtered through my own experience and opinion. But let me try to explain further. I hope my analogies to government do not become tedious. (And I caution my fellow members to not let any further discussion lapse into politics - or even preference for one system over another.)

As the creators of the American system of government - and many other modern systems of government - realized, the problem with instilling authority in any person or persons is that there must always be some form of check against those at the top. The power of the person at the very top is dependent on the system of checks and balances, and can vary as public faith in one branch of governance or another waxes and wanes. No system is perfect in this regard.

The RC Church can be seen as an old-fashioned monarchy. Many such institutions say the monarch's power is bestowed by God. But many such institutions have had certain leaders discredited, either at the time or later. In fact, the same can be said of all forms of, and branches of, government. (I'm looking at you, Dred Scott decision.)

As I said earlier, the words used have value, both effectively and psychologically. And the power of the people, whether officially recognized or gained by revolution, is always a factor.

BTW, JFK, the first Roman Catholic U.S. president, also faced questions on the campaign trail about his loyalties to the Vatican. He was perhaps less eloquent than the quote you provided, but clearly pointed out how ridiculous such fears were.

Also BTW, I too have explored other paths, including what might be called paganism. I remember when I was in grade school - sixth grade, maybe, in a Catholic school - we were studying other religions. A student who was having a hard time wrapping his head around Hinduism asked "why should we care about this if we believe ours is the one true religion?" The teacher pointed out that there was no contradiction with believing in one's own faith and understanding and respecting that of others. After all, we should expect the same.
 
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