SOME FACTS ABOUT CONVENT LIFE

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 27, Issue 21, 27 May 1909, Page 815

SOME FACTS ABOUT CONVENT LIFE

There are few Protestants who nowadays entertain any deleterious- thoughts about convents (says a writer in the Catholic Times). And I think such views should not be put forward as commonly entertained. There is, however, a prejudice arising from the nature of the case. If people reject vows, celibacy, etc., it is not likely they -will love convents, and they will be ready to believe evil of them suggested by the principles of their own religion. In these days, however, ho doubt there is commonly a respect for convents that contrasts very, favorably with old views, very far perhaps from the love and veneration entertained by Catholics, but a vast improvement on what existed formerly. We should be ready to respond to such a feeling by explaining convent life at least in its general idea. It may be considered a strange thing that convent life should be regarded by many as so great a mystery. No life in England is more easily known. There are many things that are far more hidden and secret. What is known, for instance, about the Masonic Lodges? • That is one instance of a secrecy carefully "veiled and hidden. The Rules of the Religious Orders are easily accessible, and -any further details are supplied by the work of each Order. The fact is that many people go by a strange and perverse rule of contrary as regards convents. If the rule says one thing, they-imagine that the inmates do another; if the avowed work's aim and object involve definite actions, they say that the inhabitants of all these busy, colonies do entirely something else. Hence they interpret everything in a strange spirit of irony, and assume that nuns enter convents on purpose to do what the rules on the surface' forbid, and follow a course of conduct at variance with all their avowed objects. - Such people say they know human nature. If they did really know it, they would hot suppose that such a course of life would be possible. Ido not at present propose to defend convent life, or even to explain it; but to fill up the outline with a few facts" that' are commonly unknown. Convent life is very usually supposed to- embrace those only who have taken the vows and live in convents. It embraces, however, More Than One Class; and may be called a world of very considerable extent, stretching far beyond the convent walls. First there is the considerable number of persons who try and who are unablo to enter convents. The number of those who wish to enter and are unable is great enough to make a big convent by themselves. Then there are the persons who enter the convent in order to go out again, who come and look and leave, or who are not admitted beyond the precincts and the first trial. Applications and cases of this sort are numerous. Next there is the large class of those who enter the convent, put on the habit, persevere for a time, and leave before profession. Every Catholic knows cases of this kind. They are to be found in all ranks of life. No slur rests upon them. They have tried and found they had no vocation, or as perhaps also it more frequently happens it was found out for them that they were better where they were before, and they were induced to leave. Every convent in any country can mention cases of this kind. "~~ The Cause of Departure may be health, or strength, or unsuitability of various kinds in relation to the work and duties of the community. One thing can be safely said : that the cause of departure is rarely, if ever, that imagined by the prejudiced imagination of the Protestant public. But why do I say Protestant? Are there not at the present day many Protestant convents? There are, I believe, about thirteen different Orders in the Church of England, and the total number of inmates must be considerable, while even the Nonconformists are not altogether hostile to the word md thing called ' Sister.' After all, we have more in common in this matter than we perhaps imagined. Thirdly, there is the class of persons who enter convents, take the vows, live there some years, and then leave. I know several of this class. Some of them succeed in after life; others are not so happily settled. As regards Persons Who Wish to Leave in this way, there is no difficulty in respect to any physical restraint, and I do not think anyone has the right to make any further inquiry on the part .of those who represent the cause of bodily liberty. and nothing else. To ask convents to take their views of vows and rules is a strange idea, and only shows that with all possible and fair explanations there will always remain an obvious irreducible minimum of opposition between convictions founded on such different principles. Anyone who wishes to leave can make application to the Bishop, and if the wish is a real one, the thing is done, the vows being ' simple vows ' and are intrinsically dispensable.

There remains one other class connected with convent life — a olass so completely hidden from the Protestant public that they never take it into account at all. Yet it is a very real class— a class that makes all the chief difficulties and complications of the situation. This is the class of persons who leave, and who wish to return. This class embraces those who leave both before and after vows, it is a curious psychological fact, A Commentary of the Most Illuminating Kind upon the inmost recesses of human nature, that convents in general have more trouble with Titiis class than with any other. A celebrated law case some few years ago opened the eyes of the public very considerably on this point. There was a young lady who brought an action against her convent; why of her cause she was, made to s leave. Here was an eye-opener, indeed ! The public could&inderstand an action for imprisonment and constraint, but here_, was an ex-nun wanting to return, prosecuting her superiors because they made her leave 1 It was a mystery, indeed — a saving mystery that did a great deal of good. Every convent dreads this type of person, and several that I know of have smarted s severely from them. __ Strange to say, no sooner is the wish to leave gratified than a reaction sets in and begets An Ardent Wish to Return. It is not always so, but it is so frequently enough to make a class and a difficulty by itself. This well-known fact and tendency give rise to what may be called a subdivision of the same class of those who wish to leave, yet who are evidently influenced by a mere whim that will turn into the opposite direction when gratified. What aro superiors to do in such a case? Is it not natural and: proper on their part to advise delay? Is not their part to save the person from a step they know will be regretted ? This is all the more their duty because they know how difficult, if not impossible, it will be to reopen the door again when once closed on the one they love. The Protestant Public does many a ' cruel kindness ' when it raises the cry r f ' escaped nun.' That cry is the death knell to any possibility of return. No convent could reopen its doors to any such subject again — the risk would be v too .great. Such a cry is raised libellously against the convent; but it is__ aimed no less at the peace and happiness of the so-called ' victim ' herself, who is thereby doomed to have all her possible and probable regret turned into bitterness. .Is convent life hapßy? Perfect happiness is not possible here below. Here is the hypocrisy of the proposals put before convents by their foes. The prospects of a happiness in the world is often a prospect assuredly which the members of the Protestant Alliance can never realise, and with equal certainty, it may be said, which they will never take the trouble to realise as regards any ' escaped ' victim they choose to patronise and advertise for one lurid hour. I can say after a long experience that there is More Happiness in Convents than Outside, to say the least. When we see the work done by our nuns on behalf of the poor, the sick, and the afflicted, it is time that prejudice should cease, and facts seen as they really are. The work done by nuns is unique. There is nothing like it. The Salvation Army, with all its excellent qualities, does- not come near it. Perhaps some reader will have seen the recently-published Poor-Law Report, a .valuable document indeed, vibrating with every kind of human interest. When reading some of the sad details, the thought occurred to me, how different would it all be if nuns had charge of all the poor in England !