Yep,we who attended Cathilic school,experienced at least one nun that was far from pleasant.However,I remember many more that really were very sweet. I think Pope Francis was speaking to those rogue nuns we all see andread about ,who are in direct defiance with Church Doctrine.You know,the ones who traded their habits for pantsuits in the 70’s and never looked back!
Please don’t go there, I beg you. It is very misleading to many Catholics and non-Catholics alike. To mislead anyone is a grave sin against justice, charity and truth.
Habits have never been part of Church doctrine. The term did not even come into existence until the 1500s. If one pays close attention the term used was habit and not uniforms. The way that the term was used was to describe a habitual form of dress. It did not mean a uniform. For example, in a family as large as is our Franciscan family, we have habits, but we have never had a uniform. There are over 300 different Franciscan habits ranging from tunics with cowls, to blue jeans with a hooded shirt and a Tau for men. The there is the French Benedictine habit worn in brown by the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration to a simple brown skirt and white blouse worn at other Poor Clare houses. St. Francis and St. Clare never commanded a uniform. Each house was to decide what to wear according to time, climate, work, resources available and the taste of the religious who lived in that house. After the sisters or the friars vote on what they want to wear, the superior the executes the command by enforcing the regulation. Notice, it’s a regulation not a doctrine.
Just like Clare and Francis there were other founders who left the decision of a habit to their sons and daughters, some simply told them to wear whatever every other religious was wearing and others outright opposed habits; therefore, those religious have never worn one. In this diverse group we find St. Augustine, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta (opposed habits for her brothers), St. Eugene de Mazenod, St. John Bosco, Bl. William Chaminade and Fr. Thomas Judge.
There were some founders who were very specific about the habit, such as St. Dominic, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Paul of the Cross, St. John de Matha, the Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Friars, St. Bruno, St. Robert, St. Jane Frances de Chantal and many others.
We must say it correctly. Religious garb is a habit. It is not a uniform, nor a doctrine.
Canon Law commands religious to wear a habit. However, the law cannot be applied to those who
a) belong to religious communities where the founder says differently (I’ll explain why)
and
b) belong to a religious community that has been given permission by the Holy See not to wear a habit.
Let’s go to (a). In law there is a point of antiquity. If something has been a law for more than 100 years, the Church leaves it alone. It applies the law only to that which is newer. In the case of the Jesuits who are 500 years old, the canon to wear a habit does not apply to them. They have never worn a habit in 500 years. They have always worn whatever is the custom for the clergy in their place of residence. In other words, you’re not supposed to be able to identify a Jesuit. He should blend in with non-religious clergy aka secular clergy.
Let’s go to (b) Bl. John Paul II gave permission to more than 500 communities of women to dispense with any form of habit, even though the founders had dictated a habit. The pope always trumps the founder.
Now let’s move to another error in your post. You say “rogue nuns”. Have you ever met a nun?
Most Catholics have never met a nun and most will never meet one either. Nuns do not mingle with the laity. They live in enclosures and only come out for business. The only nuns allowed to travel outside of the enclosure are Franciscans, because Clare did not make her nuns make a vow of enclosure. To do so would mean that they would have to depend on the friars to care for them. Clare was determined that no male would ever have authority over her nuns. To this day, the Poor Clares lord it over the friars, not the other way around. LOL. We don’t dare tell them what to do for fear that they’ll pray that a landslide will bury us alive. God listens to those women. You don’t play games with them.
Next, let’s address the pantsuits. I don’t like pantsuits on sisters either. But a suit of any kind does not a rogue make. I’ve worked alongside the Carmelite Sisters of Charity for several years. I have never met a more dedicated, more prayerful, more obedient group of women religious. Most them wear slacks. There is nothing rogue about them.
The women religious who have gone rogue, to use your term, are not nuns. They are sisters. They do not represent the whole population of sisters in the Catholic Church. In fact, the majority of sisters in the Catholic Church are outside of the USA.
The problem sisters in the Catholic Church are Americans. That should be no surprise to any of us. Americans have been a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church since Americanist Heresy of the 1890s. That Catholicism survived in this country is the greatest proof of the existence of God. :sad_yes:
