Posted on 11/28/2005 6:26:59 AM PST by Knitting A Conundrum
Roman women are converts to convents
By Hilary Clarke in Rome
(Filed: 28/11/2005)
Growing numbers of educated Italian women are throwing away their high heels and lipstick and opting for the austere life of nuns in closed convents.
A surprising 550 women in Rome chose to withdraw to cloisters this year compared with 350 two years ago, it emerged at a conference organised by the Vicariate of Rome and Italy's Union of Mother Superiors (Usmi).
Most of the country's 7,500 cloistered nuns have traditionally come from regions such as the Marches, making the sudden rise in the city of la dolce vita even more surprising.
Until recently, most women entering closed convents in Rome were third world immigrants with little education. Now the recruits are all Italians with university degrees.
"They are realising that what the world has to offer to them is not all it is made out to be," said Sister Pieremilia Bertolin, the secretary general of Usmi.
"They are starting to reason with their heads and not just believing the messages advertising throws at them."
In the past, a cloistered life really meant cutting yourself off from your past and from the material world. Today, however, sisters can stay in touch with loved ones and the world at large via the telephone and the internet.
Good for them!
Now if more Italian women would do the same reasoning and decide to have children, there might be a few Italians left in 100 years.
they won't if they become nuns.
Well, obviously ... but the ones who aren't nuns don't have children, either.
It goes deeper than deciding to have children. Feminism, which teaches that there is no purpose in the differences of the sexes, is one of the great heresies of our day that demeans the role of women. Christian women need to rediscover the truth that there is purpose in God's creation of us as male and female. Instead of trying to ape men, women should demand the respect of being women with the purpose of being God's instrument of bringing forth (both by bearing and by raising and educating at home) the next generation.
I think you're preaching to the choir there when you say that to Tax-chick! She's absolutely one who put her money where her mouth is when it comes to that sort of thing....
And she's a great example, too.
Awfully nice of you :-).
My point was that the decision for a religious vocation, like the decision to have children abundantly, requires a decisive rejection of society's and the media's presentation of what matters in life.
Petrosius is right that the rejection of distinctive characters for men and women is part of the problem. The concept that the most important values are money and "freedom," defined as irresponsibility, is a distortion of the best qualities of both men and women.
I have no doubt about Tax-chick. God bless her! I posted only because I think we need to start attacking the roots of the problem which can be found in Feminism. Even among conservative leaders there is a reluctance to take on the root assumptions of Feminism and reaffirm the proper distinctions between men and women.
I think feminism is a symptom, rather than the root cause. In my opinion, materialism is the cause - the decisive rejection of the eternal and invisible in favor of the temporal and concrete.
As some of the "Biblical family" advocates among evangelicals point out, men left the home and family first, in pursuit of money and worldly acclaim. Women just followed the example.
Excellent points.
Don't forget Freud, who told us it was all about sex. And many in the Church itself appear to have believed him.
Very interesting. I think vocations to cloistered orders are up in Spain, too, particularly since some of the orders have started going back to various traditions - both informal "in-house" and liturgical - that they dumped after VatII.
Hope for the future!
Oh, I know that...I just know you are a great role model for a more appropriate approach. And I am pleased that some people are beginning to see what really matters!
Start it with the renaissance, and part of the cultural reaction to the bubonic plague, amongst other things. The Protestant reformation grows out of that particular matrix.
There's a lot of crossroads that got us to the point we are in now.
But here we are.
So we have to show the world the alternative.
Thanks!
Pray for Vocations
I expect an explosion of regular (as opposed to diocesan) religous vocations over the next three decades. What are your thoughts?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.