CONVENT LIFE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 20, 20 May 1909, Page 10

CONVENT LIFE

WHAT IT IS, AND WHAT IT IS NOT

The recent sensation (says a writer in the Glasgow Observer), regarding 'runaway nuns' at Colchester renders opportune some statement regarding the general rules of' religious Orders delating to the reception of nuns in Catholic convents. The popular impression among unenlightened Protestants is that Catholic convents exist as receptacles for Catholic girls -who have been ' crossed in love,' or that convents are instituted for the purpose of attracting women of large fortune so that their money may be collared for Church purposes, or that Catholic convents are virtually prisons to which Catholic girls are lured and interned in life-long durance, with no hope and no means of escape, being made the while to undergo cruel tortures, and to remain exposed to moral dangers beyond description or even imagination. Catholics know that there isn't the least grain of truth in any of these silly, stupid, and vile suggestions, and even enlightened Protestants either know this also, or conclude that Catholic fathers and mothers would scarcely send their beloved children to conventual institutions, as the Protestant-Alliance Protestant conceives them, if there were the least foundation for the Protestant Alliance conception of what a Catholic convent, is. To begin with, a Catholic girl who enters a convent usually enters in early youth. Catholics with actual knowledge know that there is no foundation for the ' crossed in love ' theory, for the excellejnt reason that girls become nuns, or begin to become nuns, oftener in their teens than out of them, and while their chances in the marriage market, so far from being exhausted, have hardly begun. In the second place, Catholic nuns can't live on air, and the days of material manna are over— for the present at least. They must live on bread and butter; on theordinary physical sustenance of the ordinary woman of the world. This has to be provided. Where is it to come from? Where the Catholic nun is a teacher she earns her own bread. No question of fortune or dowry arises here. The nun, as an individual, -is able to give wage-bearing service which may assist in the maintenance of others who, in their earlier day, have borne the burden of the day and its heat. Other Catholic nuns belong to the mendicant Orders, such as the Sisters of Nazareth, or the Little Sisters of the Poor. These also give labor which furnishes maintenance. They beg from door to door for the poor whom they succor, and from the charity given to them they first of all feed the poor, or the young, or the helpless confided to their care before they feed themselves. They work laboriously late and early at occupations which furnish physical sustenance and shelter. Here, again, as a rule, no qtiestion of dowry arises. The nun gives her labor at a calling which furnishes supply for her simple needs. Then, again, there is a third class of Catholic nuns, belonging to what are called The Contemplative Orders. These pass their time in meditation and prayer, not from any spirit of laziness, but because their life, which is that of the highest perfection, is one of constant mental communion with God, which cannot suffer even the disturbance of ordinary, every-day avocationl They think and pray, and pray and think, making Jiheir whole lives complete immolation of ceaseless worship" of the Divine.It is obvious that those called to this state must live like other people whilse they pursue their sublime avocation. Now, where are the ways and means to come from? The Catholic Church has^no national revenue nowadays. (The ' Reformers 'saw to thatf) Manifestly the nun who enters on such a life as this must provide the wherewithal for her material maintenance, and from such nuns (they are the fewest) a dowry is sought and received on their entry to conventual life. In this there is nothing unreasonable. A Protestant sending his girl to a boarding. school on the Continent pays' for her maintenance while she is there. The Catholic parent sending his daughter to a contemplative convent finds nothing, irrational or extortionate in being called upon to furnish the means for her material upkeep during her period of residence in such an institution. • With regard to the other aspect, it should be clear, even .to Protestant Alliance obtuseness, that the teaching nun, or the mendicant nun, has the utmost freedom and facility of movement. " She walks the streets every day,, and returns to her convent voluntarily^ But even in the case of the contemplative nun. the utmost precaution is* taken to ensure the freedom of the individual at all times. In common with nuns of all classes, she has to undergo a period of probation. A noviceship, usually extending over some years, is undergone. During this time the pro-

bationer has opportunity of becoming acquainted with the life she is going to lead. All its details are manifested. She has ample time to think whether it suits her, or whether it doesn't, and she is not merely free to leave at any time she pleases, but she is counselled earnestly that it is a conscientious duty not to adopt or accept the conventual life unless she has found that it is the vocation to which Providence has called her. The rules of the great Orders, the legislation of the Church as set down by the Council of Trent, All Guarantee the Nun the Utmost Freedom. in her choice of the state to which she may be called. In the event of a nun, even after her final profession, losing her vocation, or becoming in any way unhappy — the victim of depression or wearisomeness — abundant remedy is provided. Her friends have the means of easy access to her — if they care to visit her. Her confessor is in constant communication with her. It is the duty of a bishop to visit, either in person or by deputy, every Catholic convent within his diocese, in order that he may afford facility for the expression of any complaint on- the part of an inmate; and this is a rule which is rigidly observed. In the case of confessors or episcopal -visitors, the Catholic Church wisely provides that there must be a periodical jihange of person, so as to prevent the least chance of libuse arising within', or of complaint from within being shut off from prompt and proper, ventilation. Even on the mere grounds of common sense, no observant Protestant would credit the extravagant stories cf the ordinary ' ex-nun ' or ' escaped nun.' The most sensational stories of the ex-mm are those which come from the absolute impostor, such as ' Mrs. Slattery,' who never was a nun, and probably never inside of' a convent door, and yet who is touring the world drawing money from the pockets of Protestant fools for telling them tales, not merely devoid of the least foundation, but of a character which would make any decent woman blush to give ear to. Take it at its lowest, observant Protestants should be able to see that when they get a real ex-nun, such as the late Mary Frances Cusack, who, having been a Protestant, became a Catholic nun of a strict and contemplative Order, and finally a Protestant again, they should be able to see that when such a woman, after ceasing to be a nun, and ceasing to be a Catholic, devotes her platform discourses to fine points of doctrinal difference, and refuses, as Mary Cusack (to her credit, be.it said) refused to listen, to the suggestion of the Protestant Alliance school that She Should Talk' Filth, and not doctrine — it should be clear, we say, that the filthy story of the ordinary ' ex-nun ' has no ground in fact, and that even the mild sensation of the ' escape ' is also groundless. Miss Cusack never pretended to have escaped. She posed as an. 'ex '-nun only, and bitterly confessed, in sadness of heart, her disappointment, that there was no platform for the mere ex-nun, and that the money of Protestant Alliance audiences was only forthcoming to the unscrupulous adventuress who, besides being ' ex,' also posed as ' escaped,' and drew boldly on imagination, as ' Mrs. Slattery ' does, to furnish her patrons with what they pay for, viz., filth. The mere fact that in any large community a number of Catholic ladies can be found who, having been nuns, are now nuns no longer, is ample proof -to any reasonable Protestant that the tales of imprisonment and enforced detention so commonly spun by ' escaped nuns ' are devoid of fact. Of course, there are some people who don't want to know the truth, and who refuse to believe it when it is told them. These people are past argument, and it is a waste of time to attempt either to reason with them" or placate them. The last word of a Catholic on the convent system ought to be this : that it is a Catholic matter, pertaining^ to Catholics only, and one with which Protestants have no legitimate business to interfere. There are Protestant convents, of course, but as a rule ' the convent ' means a , Catholic convent. Where ,a bigoted or ill-minded Protestant proves impervious to the plain truth, plainly stated, the ground which the Catholic should assume with such a one is — ' Mind your own business ! '