Former Nun’s Prayers Answered in Casino
I’m not so much interested in the story as I am in the woman’s status as a “former nun.”
Are the vows that a nun takes for life? Or is there an option out? Of course, there is nothing stopping a nun from just “picking up and leaving” the convent, but I’m curious if, in the eyes of the church, this woman is living in violation of her vows. Or is this something that varies on an order-by-order basis?
Zev Steinhardt
I’m speaking only of Roman Catholics here. Other religions do have sisterhoods but I don’t know much about them.
Members of religious orders (sisters, brothers, priests, moks, etc.) go through various levels of training to ensure their suitability to a religious life. During that time, they take “temporary” vows. If they decide/are asked to leave, obviously those vows are excused. So it’s possible this former nun never professed what are called “final vows.” I’ve known several women who did that.
Even if she did, however, she could still ask for a dispensation from her vows to go back and live a secular life. There’d be a lot of hearings and red tape, but the bottom line is, yes you can be excused from your vows. I’ve known a couple of “former nuns” who remained active in the Church, only they were now “civilians.”
An old teacher of mine was a former nun. She fell in love with some guy and left the church (and still continued to teach at the catholic school).
Altogether I found it quite odd…
This is basically correct, but I would quibble about including priests in the list in this context.
There are two sets of entrance steps. When one first asks to enter the order[sup]1[/sup]*, one enters the novitiate (is accepted as a novice). (Some groups had a pre-novitiate in in which the applicant was called a postulant.) Depending on the hierarchy of the order[sup]1[/sup], there might be several different levels of application or training during this period, but one did not profess any vows. At this level, a man seeking to be a priest and a man seeking to be a brother would be treated the same. However, someone who wished to be a priest would then go on to additional training and enter holy orders[sup]2[/sup]. (In the old days, there were twelve of them, although by the 1960s, most were little more than a formality thrown into the curriculum every few months.) Each order[sup]2[/sup] is permanent, but it might have little bearing on a man’s life if he withdrew, except that he might be expected to recite certain prayers, daily, as fit his station. Once one had attained the order[sup]2[/sup] of deacon (just below priest), one needed to get special dispensation to withdraw.
Women never had the opportunity to enter holy orders[sup]2[/sup], of course. To become a sister, a woman professed her vows, raising her out of the novitiate. Depending on the age and structure of the order[sup]1[/sup] to which she belonged, she might have anywhere from one to four sets of “temporary” vows, each lasting one, three, or seven years. (The orders[sup]1[/sup] got to set their own rules, so there is no set rule I can state that covers all conditions.) Eventually, however, if she did not withdraw, she was expected to profess her final or permanent vows.
I am not actually sure whether brothers were given the same “temporary vow” escape, or not. I had rather little contact with orders[sup]1[/sup] of brothers growing up and never knew anyone who withdrew.
Zev, haven’t you seen The Sound of Music?
Yes, but I thought it pretty clear that Maria was only a novice.
Zev Steinhardt
I was being tongue in cheek, but I have seen former novices (i.e. one UK Big Brother contestant) described as former nuns, though ythis is probably incorrect.
Well, friends of my parents were a former nun and a former priest. Yes, they were both “confirmed.” (Practicing?)
I don’t know if they attended church or not, but I could find out.
Interestingly, she vacumed her driveway, and would remove light bulbs from lamps to dust them - really, she had a serious “cleanliness is next to Godliness” thing going on. No, I am not making this up.
Same here, except she was the vice principal and her husband was a former seminarian.
Well, seriously-if you leave the church, what can they do to stop you?
Also, the movie The Nun’s Story with Audrey Hepburn is based on a true story-and the women left her vows.
HOORAY! I GET TO SAY IT!!!
She kicked the habit.
