Bill Donohue released the following comments today:
Aside from Deacon Greg Kandra, the
Catholic News Agency, and EWTN, both the religious and secular
media—including the Catholic media—have failed to report an important
story that deserves wide attention: on New Year’s Day, 11 Anglican nuns
from the Community of St. Mary the Virgin in England entered the
Catholic Church. Moreover, a sister from another order of Anglican nuns
joined with them to form a new Catholic order, the Sisters of the
Blessed Virgin Mary.
The 12 sisters were received wearing
their black habits, the signature color of their new Benedictine order.
William Oddie, a prominent English writer and broadcaster (himself a
convert), described the scene: “Here was a pristine, freshly minted
Catholic community, fizzing with new life and (unlike, I fear, most
Catholic sisters these days) wearing full habits….I had feared they
might be received in lay clothes, only being clothed in their habits
once the new community had been formally established, but there was no
nonsense of that kind.”
The sisters will spend the next six
weeks with a Benedictine community, learning the contours of the
normative order. After that they will live a life of poverty in service
to the Lord. “This historic event (I don’t think it’s too much to call
it that),” says Oddie, “is a sign of great hope for the future of the
Catholic Church in England.”
So why isn’t this “historic event” being
publicized? Imagine the media reaction if on New Year’s Day 12 renegade
Anglican nuns had held a press conference in their street clothes
announcing their intent to join a dissident Catholic order so they can
press for gay marriage and women priests! It would have been front-page
news. And had they rented an oversized luxury bus to haul them around
town, that would have been world news. But because these are humble
orthodox nuns, who eschew media gimmicks, there is a news blackout.
God bless these wonderful women.
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