Irish nuns launch website

[emad]

It may not be Ireland's answer to the DU, ......BUT:

<snip>

An order of nuns in the Irish Republic who have taken vows of chastity, poverty and obedience have launched their own website.
The Poor Clares order, which is based in Galway believe embracing the internet will "help them to share an alternative perspective on life with the outside world". Sister Louis, the abbess of the order's monastery at Nuns' Island in the city said the website would offer hope "in a world overshadowed by consumerism."

Sister Louis added that the Poor Clare sisters were anxious to put into effect Pope John Paul II's recent plea for monasteries to be "schools of prayer" at a time when so many people are starved of spirituality. The sisters' aim was for their new website - www.poorclares.ie - to let them take up that challenge in a manner compatible with their vocation as closed nuns. The launch of the website has coincided with the 750th anniversary of the death of their founder, St Clare.

Sister Louis said they hoped that the site would encourage people to "reflect more attentively on life, looking forward to the nuns' presence on the internet being a kind of signpost to God". As well as telling the story of daily life in the monastery, the website features a history of the Poor Clares in Ireland - and also incorporates a section on "prayer ideas for busy people". The Poor Clares have maintained a low-key presence in Galway since 1642.

Under the terms of their enclosure vows, the Poor Clares do not leave the precincts of their monastery without a particularly good reason.
And the grille, through which they speak to visitors, is regarded as a symbol of the sisters' wish to live totally for God.

<snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3185096.stm



Competition for all those DUers who have also taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience??????

[xJlM]

1. Haven't taken a VOW of poverty...

It just sort of worked out that way.

Actually, I'm pretty fortunate while being unemployed. I have enough to eat healthy, and put some gas in my ride. Pay the electricity, pay the cable bill, pay for my medical insurance and I can work towards being healthy. Maybe even towards being gainfully employed.

[emad]

2. No one EVER owns up to the 'chastity' or 'obedience' bits unless

of course they HAVE to...

Bet the DU site is pretty thin on the ground for those last two qualities...

[0007]

5. You know what they say when one assumes!

Who knows you could be walking around with no clothes.

[noonwitch]

3. "Schools of Prayer" hopefully doesn't mean more of the laundries

I'll have to check the link regarding the poor clares, but irish nuns are known for the laundries that people could send their troubled teenaged girls to. Instead of embarrassing their families by being "fast" or getting pregnant or whatever, the girls would be used as slave labor in the laudry facilities run by the church. They also got beat and otherwise mistreated by the nuns.

[emad]

4. Linen wasn't the ONLY thing Irish nuns were good at laundering.....

the IRA used convent bank accounts to siphon off cocaine profits and re-cycle them to finance Solidarity in Poland and bankroll Lech Walesa into office....

Abusing teenage mothers was just the icing on the cake....

[Bridget Burke]

7. That's a good one!

Link, please?

(Sounds like wise recycling to me!)

[Bridget Burke]

6. No, it doesn't; please DO check the link.

(Better late than never.)

The "laundries" were operated by the Magdalene Sisters (hence the movie title "Magdalene Laundries").

The Poor Clares are the "sister order" of the Franciscans. Here's their site:

http://www.poorclares.ie/page3.html

[CBHagman]

8. Don't tar everybody with the same brush.

Peter Mullan makes ONE MOVIE on the Magdalene laundries (which were only closed in 1996!), and suddenly people hold themselves experts on all orders of nuns. Please don't go making pronouncements about nuns; there are so many different orders with so many different missions that generalizing is not the best idea.


Google "Francis of Assisi" and "Saint Clare" to get a clearer picture.

And the old joke is that even God doesn't know how many orders of nuns there are...

[rocktivity]

9. Oh, pooh--there's no e-mail address!

I was all set to tell them hello, and that I thought their joining the cyber world was a great idea! I'm not a Catholic, but I think we'd get along since we have living in high poverty in common!


rocknation

[BadGimp]

10. with some live webcams they could rake in the cash

there's a big market for that sortsa stuff :evilgrin:

stand back everyone...I hear a lighting bolt with my name on it...