nuns

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Despite 'Spiritual Halo,' Nuns Are Part of Something Darker

Victims who are sexually abused by women of the cloth aren't often discussed in church sex scandals

(Newser) - On Wednesdays, the support group meets over Zoom. Members talk about their lives, religious families, and old parochial schools. But mostly, they're there to talk about the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of Catholic nuns—and it's a topic that deserves more attention, they say. The...

Nuns' Response to 'Heinous Gun Crimes': a Lawsuit

They're shareholders, and they're suing Smith & Wesson for sales of assault weapons

(Newser) - A group of Catholic nuns is suing Smith & Wesson, demanding the gunmaker stop selling assault weapons that have "no purpose other than mass murder." The nuns representing four congregations in Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Oregon bought up shares in the company before suing in what they dub...

Dodgers Do 180 on Pride Night After 2nd Round of Backlash

MLB team uninvited LGBTQ+ charity group after conservative complaints, then reinvited them

(Newser) - It didn't seem out of the ordinary that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence , an LGBTQ+ charity and satirical performance drag group in which participants dress as nuns, had been invited to the Los Angeles Dodgers' 10th annual Pride Night next month. The group was set to receive a "...

Nun's 'Peaceful Patience' Helped Her Survive Kidnapping

Sister Suellen Tennyson, who lost 20 pounds in captivity, was held for 5 months in Burkina Faso

(Newser) - Sister Suellen Tennyson sat amazed as one of her captors began washing her feet. "I was just taken aback," the 83-year-old Roman Catholic nun and former international leader of the Marianites of Holy Cross tells the Clarion Herald from a safe haven in the Archdiocese of New Orleans,...

Cardinal's 'Bombshell' Reveal Involves Pope, a Nun, and $1M

Angelo Becciu testifies that Francis OK'd paying that to free kidnapped Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez

(Newser) - Pope Francis authorized spending up to around $1 million to free a Colombian nun kidnapped by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mali, a cardinal testified Thursday, revealing previously secret papal approval to hire a British security firm to find the nun and secure her freedom. Cardinal Angelo Becciu's bombshell testimony could...

Gambling Nun to Serve Year Behind Bars: 'I Have Sinned'

'I have no excuses,' says Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, who stole $835K from Catholic school

(Newser) - Update: A California nun and retired principal who embezzled $835,000 in donations, tuition, and fees from a Catholic elementary school will now have to pay it all back and serve a year behind bars. "I have sinned, I've broken the law, and I have no excuses,"...

India Cracks Down on Mother Teresa's Charity

Amid rising anti-Christian sentiment, India bars Missionaries of Charity from foreign funding

(Newser) - On Christmas Day in India came a move that some say is the result of rising anti-Christian sentiment. On Saturday, the Hindu-majority nation refused to renew the license that allowed for funding from abroad for Missionaries of Charity, the group founded by Mother Teresa that runs nun-managed shelters and other...

Citing Expose, Pope Warns of Abuse of Nuns by Superiors

Francis has moved against unchecked power of church and lay superiors

(Newser) - Pope Francis on Saturday drew attention to a problem that the Vatican has long sought to play down: the abuses of power by mother superiors against nuns who, because of their vows of obedience, have little recourse but to obey. During an audience with members of the Vatican's congregation...

Sister Prejean: Let Inmate Have Final Human Touch

John Henry Ramirez deserves to have pastor present at Texas execution, she writes

(Newser) - Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun made famous by the book and movie Dead Man Walking, is making a public appeal on behalf of a death row inmate in Texas. In a New York Times essay, Prejean argues that the state should grant the request of John Henry Ramirez that...

Nun Embezzled $835K to Fund Gambling Habit

Mary Margaret Kreuper could get 40 years

(Newser) - A Los Angeles nun who took a vow of poverty has agreed to plea guilty to federal charges for stealing more than $800,000 to pay for a gambling habit, prosecutors announced Tuesday. Mary Margaret Kreuper, 79, was charged Tuesday with one count of wire fraud and one count of...

Nun Kneels Before Troops: 'Shoot Me Instead'

Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng emerges as a hero in Myanmar

(Newser) - Her name is Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng, and the Catholic nun is emerging as a hero in Myanmar's deadly unrest . On Monday, the 45-year-old knelt in front of soldiers about to crack down on protesters in the city of Myitkyina and pleaded with them to hold fire, reports...

'We Had Six Women Die in 48 Hours'
'We Had Six Women
Die in 48 Hours'
Jan 31, 2021 4:38 PM CST

'We Had Six Women Die in 48 Hours'

A COVID outbreak claims the lives of nine Michigan nuns

(Newser) - A COVID-19 outbreak in Michigan has claimed the lives of nine nuns, CNN reports. The women, who were living at the Motherhouse campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, ranged in age from 81 to 94 and died between Jan. 11 and Jan. 26. Most were at high risk due to...

COVID-19 Kills 8 Nuns at Retirement Home in a Week

Other residents have tested positive, order says

(Newser) - Eight nuns living at a retirement home for sisters in suburban Milwaukee died of COVID-19 complications in the past week—four of them on the same day, according to the congregation that runs the home. The School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province said other sisters who live at...

COVID Went Through Convent 'Like Wildfire'

Convent in Livonia, Mich., loses 13 nuns to virus

(Newser) - In what "may be the worst loss of life to a community of women religious since the 1918 influenza pandemic," a Roman Catholic convent in Livonia, Mich., says it has lost 13 of its nuns to COVID-19. CBS News reports that's 22% of the convent's nuns,...

Fraudster Hid for Years Among Nuns. Then One Got Wise

Fake sister couldn't keep her story straight: cops

(Newser) - A convicted fraudster convinced nuns that she was a kind sister in need of help during two years on the run, according to police in Italy. The 47-year-old woman, who has not been named, fled Sicily after she was convicted of fraud, impersonation, and theft and sentenced in absentia to...

Pope's Shocker on Nuns: 'Sexual Slavery,' Forced Abortions

'Do we have to do more? Yes. Are we willing? Yes.'

(Newser) - A shocking first emerged from the pope on Tuesday: admission of more sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, this time of nuns at the hands of male clergy. The New York Times notes it's the first time the pontiff has publicly recognized the church's very own #MeToo issue,...

30 Nuns and 1 Priest Stuck in the Snow: Don't Come Get Us

Austrian order has been cut off from the world for days

(Newser) - Authorities in Austria tried to reach dozens of Catholic nuns whose Alpine monastery has been cut off from the world for days because of heavy snowfall, per the AP . But public broadcaster ORF reported Thursday that the nuns say they've got enough food and fuel, and they want to...

School: Nuns Used 'Forgotten' Account, Stole Up to $500K

St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif., says it's not pressing charges

(Newser) - It wasn't a noteworthy request, but what it helped reveal was significant: A family asked for a copy of a check they had paid to a California Catholic school. But when the staff at St. James Catholic School in Torrance retrieved it, they realized it had been deposited into...

Unlikely Catholic Revolt: Tiny Order of French Nuns

Tiny order threatens to renounce vows rather than accept Rome's decision to replace their leader

(Newser) - The Vatican has an unusual dilemma after nearly all the nuns in a tiny French religious order threatened to renounce their vows rather than accept the Holy See's decision to remove their superior. The sisters argue that the Vatican commissioners sent to replace their superior general, the niece of...

In 4-Year Quest, Writer Unearths Horrors of US Orphanage
She Went to the
Orphanage at 2.
Horrible Things
Followed
in case you missed it
Sep 1, 2018 12:11 PM CDT

She Went to the Orphanage at 2. Horrible Things Followed

BuzzFeed News has the piece on the St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont

(Newser) - In countries ranging from Canada to Ireland to Australia, the 20th-century abuses that took place in orphanages, oftentimes Catholic ones, have been exposed. But "no such reckoning has taken place" in America, writes Christine Kenneally for BuzzFeed News . "Even today the stories of the orphanages are rarely...

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