MUST SEE… Catholic Nun WOWS Judges & Audience on Italy’s “The Voice” (Video)

Sr. Cristina Scuccia, stunned the judges on Italy’s “The Voice” this week. The Italian nun brought at least one of the judges to tears by her amazing performance.

Sister Scuccia’s performance this week already has over 3 million hits on YouTube. Catholic News Agency reported:

Sr. Cristina Scuccia is a 25 year old member of the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family who has appeared on “The Voice of Italy,” a reality show akin to “American Idol” or “Britain’s Got Talent.”

Sr. Cristina surprised the four judges on The Voice of Italy March 19 with both her talent and her habit.

The judges on the show begin with their backs turned to the performer, and turn around only if they like what they hear.

As the judges turned to face Sr. Cristina, their astonishment was visible at seeing a young nun singing Alicia Keys’ “No One.”

A native of Sicily, Sr. Cristina arrived at the show accompanied by four sisters from her community, as well as her parents.

The four judges of the popular TV program are the Italian singers Raffaella Carra, J-Ax, Noemi, and Piero Pelu.

After her performance, Carra asked Sr. Cristina if she is really a nun, and why she chose to compete on the show.

“I came here because I have a gift and I want to share that gift. I am here to evangelize.”

“That’s an interesting quote, dsc. Where’s it from?”

Fr. John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary, posted on the word of the day list.

“Nothing lewd, rude or crude with that”

Her body language was lewd, intentionally or not. Whether she intended it or not, that kind of music is intended to—and does—raise base feelings.

I did not say that I deplored all kinds of music and dance. I said I deplore that kind of music and dance.

“Recall that allegedly offensive music—and dancing!—caused Saul’s daughter Michal, to reject her husband David…But there’s no indication he was at fault in this instance.”

Allegedly?

6:17. And they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle, which David had pitched for it: and David offered holocausts, and peace offerings before the Lord.

6:18. And when he had made an end of offering holocausts and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.

6:19. And he distributed to all the multitude of Israel, both men and women, to every one, a cake of bread, and a piece of roasted beef, and fine flour fried with oil: and all the people departed every one to his own house.

6:20. And David returned to bless his own house: and Michol the daughter of Saul coming out to meet David, said: How glorious was the king of Israel to day, uncovering himself before the handmaids of his servants, and was naked, as if one of the buffoons should be naked.

6:21. And David said to Michol: Before the Lord, who chose me rather than thy father, and than all his house, and commanded me to be ruler over the people of the Lord in Israel,

6:22. I will both play and make myself meaner than I have done: and I will be little in my own eyes: and with the handmaids of whom thou speakest, I shall appear more glorious.

6:23. Therefore Michol the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

It sounds to me like he was naked in front of the hot chicks.

The sisters used to tell my mother and her classmates, “A girl who will chew gum will smoke, and a girl who will smoke will swear, and a girl who will swear will drink, and we all know what a girl who will drink will do.”

Be that as it may, I think we all know what a king who will get naked in front of the hot chicks will do.

Good on Michol. She turned an adulterer out of her bed.

“Remember, too, that to cheer up her nuns, St. Teresa of Avila—Doctor of the Church—handed out tambourines, and danced with castanets.”

Tambourines, castanets, and voices were probably the best they had to offer. I cannot prove it, but I am confident that both their music and dance were of the sort that arouses noble feelings and emotions.

James MacMillan, director of music at the Dominican-run St Columba’s Church in Glasgow, and head of Musica Sacra Scotland, an initiative aimed at reviving chant-based worship in the Scottish Catholic Church, wrote, “The use of simple unadorned melodies from the Catholic treasury of tradition and its great reservoir of musical heritage is the most prayerful and respectful way a Catholic can raise his or her voice at the altar of God.”

I don’t think it can be said any better than that.

First of all, your interpretation deprecating David is far from the common one, since you repeat Michal's slander that he was "naked" (some translations say "half-naked" or "lightly clad")--- Michal's interpretation --- when actually he was wearing a linen ephod, the common garment of the lowest and youngest of the priestly ranks.

Michal's objection was that it was unbefitting a king to be girded with a linen ephod, a tightly fitting garment, which left him free to exert himself in the dance. It was regarded by Michal as an act of renunciation of royal splendor, as it was a dress worn even by a child when admitted to service in a priest's family (1 Samuel 2:18). Clearly David meant to rank himself for the time among the humblest servitors of the ark.

There is nothing in the text to make one think she was turning an "adulterer" out of her bed. His casting aside his heavy royal robes --- the equivalenmt of the papal Cappa Magna --- was unquestionably done as an act of religious homage, his attitudes and dress being symbolic of humility, ardor, thankfulness, and devotion.

I feel sorry for Michal. David laid aside his robes as a symbol that, though he was royalty, because of his joy in the Lord he was content to wear the common garment of the lowest servant of the temple. I think her objection was not to his nudity (he would not have been nude, in any case) but to his humility.

Look. Sr. Cristina was not doing anything lewd. Her body language was both nunnish (those big clomping schoolmarm shoes) and childish (the waving and giggling). It's not like she was even gyrating or jiggling, let alone grinding and twerking. Ladies in cake mix commercials are lascivious compared to that little Sicilian sister.

And look again. This would be scandalous if it were presented illegitimately as liturgical music (I speak as one of the founding members of our parish Schola Latina! I can't stand Marty Haugen! So there!)--- I'm completely WITH your James McMillan --- but it's not liturgy you're seeing here, it's evangelization.

Lewd? Inappropriate? Are you kidding? The very first step in evangelization is to show people you have a heart, a soul, a God-given human personality that appeals to THEIRS and that respects THEIRS. An open countenance, a cry of recognition, a word in your own language.

This Sr. Cristina has shown she speaks the "language" of pop rock very well, and she has come to meet the rockers and rappers in. their. world. That blasts down walls and opens hearts. If that doesn't open the door of Evangelization, what does?

Nuff not. I'm out of steam. I'm going to bed with --- thanks to our Cristina -- a smile. One for you, too, my dear fellow Musica Sacra dsc.

“First of all, your interpretation deprecating David”

I did not offer an interpretation. I quoted the Bible.

“since you repeat Michal’s slander that he was “naked” (some translations say “half-naked” or “lightly clad”)-— Michal’s interpretation”

Saint Jerome, who had access to resources completely unavailable to those who came centuries later, used a Latin word that is translated in the Douay as “naked.”

“when actually he was wearing a linen ephod”

What is the source for that, please?

“Clearly David meant to rank himself for the time among the humblest servitors of the ark. There is nothing in the text to make one think she was turning an “adulterer” out of her bed.”

Those statements rest on your assertion that the Douay is guilty of terminological inexactitude. That remains to be demonstrated.

“Look. Sr. Cristina was not doing anything lewd.”

Yes, she was.

“Her body language was both nunnish.”

From your perspective. Not from mine. And no, I do not have a “thing” for nuns.

“Ladies in cake mix commercials are lascivious compared to that little Sicilian sister.”

A famous pornography performer was once the model housewife on the Ivory Soap Box.

“but it’s not liturgy you’re seeing here, it’s evangelization.”

All the objections to “Christian rock” apply equally well—no, they are even more appropriate—here.

If we are to view it as evangelization, then my objection would be that it is faulty evangelization, in that it presents something as a part of Christianity which most certainly is not.

“The very first step in evangelization is to show people you have a heart, a soul, a God-given human personality that appeals to THEIRS and that respects THEIRS.”

I disagree most strongly. From the examples of the apostles, and of Our Lord Himself, I have come to think that the first step in evangelization is to show people that you have something completely outside their experience, something transcendent, something miraculous. Magnificent cathedrals were for centuries a part of that.

“An open countenance, a cry of recognition, a word in your own language.”

Sorry, but that seems more like marketing to me. Evangelization is not selling. It has to be more than that, or it fails to represent this astounding, miraculous, baffling, amazing faith as it is. Or at least as close as we can get to that.

“This Sr. Cristina has shown she speaks the “language” of pop rock very well, and she has come to meet the rockers and rappers in. their. world.”

And while she is evangelizing them, what about the millions of other listeners? Can’t you guess what the effects of that will be?

“That blasts down walls and opens hearts.”

Not in my experience. Sorry. In my experience it leads quickly to a place where the best thing you can do is to shake the dust from your feet.

“If that doesn’t open the door of Evangelization, what does?”

The Holy Spirit? The hope of resurrection unto reward, prayers of Patriarchs, predictions of Prophets, preaching of Apostles, faith of Confessors, purity of holy Virgins, deeds of righteous men?

You know—the way it was done until Satan’s successes in the mid-twentieth century.

It just occurred to me…just a minute, I have some boilerplate…

Selection.TypeText Text:=“Ironically, decent people are often slowest to see the perfidy that lurks in a scumbag’s heart.”

Perhaps you are also slow to see the evil in things like this. (Which would reflect well on you.)

2 Samuel 6:14
David danced before the Lord with all his might; David was girded with a linen ephod.

Dear dsc, I am no a Biblical scholar, I am only a peanut in the peanut gallery. I quote sources I can hardly be said to have mastered. I can't even read Hebrew or Greek, so there you see the most ridiculous limitation of all.

However, a quick tour of the commentaries (LINK) --- the easiest brief reference I can find--- shows a rough consensus that the "issue" with Michal was David's display, not of indecency, but of humility. Her derisive words show, I think, a terrible jealousy, which is not surprising when you're married to a National Savior, Warrior Hero, Rock Star of whom the women have been chanting his praises from Day One ("Saul has killed his thousands, David his ten-thousands")--- that same deadly jealousy that drove her father the King out of his mind.

Yes, I think Michal judged wrongly. My interpretation from the peanut gallery.

I don't know, dsc, maybe what little Sr. Cristina is doing is perilous. But I just don't see how we can claim so often to love people when we don't even want to know them, don't want to be where they are, don't want to be seen with them, and don't want to speak their language. What kind of missionary is that?

The point of this "The Voice" TV program is that the young aspiring talents get to choose one of the judges as their mentor in the competition. The idea is, the chosen judge is supposed to coach the young gifted n00bie. (That's what all that "choose me, choose me" stuff was all about.) So the presumption is that Sr. Cristina wants an entree into the rap-pop-rock'n'roll world for evangelizing purposes --- which is what she said, and I am not immediately inclined to call her a liar.

We shall see. I hope to see her putting out great videos full of the love of the Lord, love and truth; and I hope to see that J-AX --- clearly smitten, isn't he? --- coming over to the Catholic side.

Let's pray for this little sister, hey?

Hope all things.

“I am no a Biblical scholar, I am only a peanut in the peanut gallery. I quote sources I can hardly be said to have mastered. I can’t even read Hebrew or Greek”

Then I would say we are peers, except that I happen to know that you are more of a scholar than I.

“rough consensus that the “issue” with Michal was David’s display, not of indecency, but of humility.”

You will pardon me if my initial response to the words “rough consensus” is skepticism. That doesn’t mean I can’t be persuaded, but we’ve had some bad experiences with the notion of “consensus” in recent decades.

“Her derisive words show, I think, a terrible jealousy, which is not surprising when you’re married to a National Savior, Warrior Hero”

It has not been my experience during this past 6.3 decades that wives are jealous of their husbands’ success. Maybe I just missed it, but I don’t think so.

“My interpretation from the peanut gallery.”

And mine.

“But I just don’t see how we can claim so often to love people when we don’t even want to know them, don’t want to be where they are, don’t want to be seen with them, and don’t want to speak their language.”

Our Lord requires us to perform the deeds of love, not to feel the emotion in our hearts. That said, if we are to know them, we must know them on His terms.

If we are to go where they are, we must go on His terms. Our Lord dined with women of ill repute, but is there any indication that He did anything more than that? He was without sin. I’m not, and I think most Christians would agree that I, as husband and father, have an obligation to avoid the society of naughty ladies of the evening.

Those of us who are not divine have an obligation not to give scandal. If we are to be seen with them, it must be on His terms.

If we are to speak with them, it must be on His terms. Hipster slang is not a language; it is merely a corruption of English. It does not create a language barrier, as even the slimiest gangster can communicate in English. Using their slang implies approval of their immoral conduct.

“What kind of missionary is that?”

One who evangelizes without participating in the sins of those he seeks to convert.

“So the presumption is that Sr. Cristina wants an entree into the rap-pop-rock’n’roll world for evangelizing purposes -— which is what she said, and I am not immediately inclined to call her a liar.”

I did not call her a liar either. I think she is misguided, as are all who think that evangelization requires participation in the sins of those they would convert. I could be wrong, but, you know, I’m not.

“We shall see. I hope to see her putting out great videos full of the love of the Lord, love and truth; and I hope to see that J-AX -— clearly smitten, isn’t he? -— coming over to the Catholic side.”

The Lord can work anything for good. The problem is that making those noises evokes a human response that is morally degrading, depending partly on the listener but also on what is heard.

“Let’s pray for this little sister, hey?”

Okay. I hope prayers from me don’t backfire.

“Hope all things.”

But I know that God is not going to do some of the things I would like him to, because I am so often wrong, and He never is. I just have faith that whatever He does will be the right thing, even if I end up a piece of burnt toast.

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