With
the Catholic Church in damage control all around the world over
revelations of child abuse going back decades, one can’t help
wondering if there might also be a cause for women who were bullied
into the convent life in times past to seek some kind of apology.
How
many unmarriageable daughters or immature teenage girls who were yet
to know their own minds ended up behind locked doors through family
and/or priestly coercion?
When
they realised they were unsuited to convent life, a few were brave
enough to walk - more likely run - away, but many others would have been so indoctrinated
by the system or maybe even too afraid of the wider world to have
even tried. How many ended their lives in frustration and bitterness
that resulted in mental disorders or harsh treatment of others, including children, in their care? (Many members of the older
generation who had nuns for teachers will know all about it!)
In
our modern secular age, it’s easy to forget the bitter sectarian
divisions that once raged in society between Catholics and
Protestants and that the press was often the major battleground. Reports of “escaped nuns” were guaranteed to inflame passions.
Protestant editors liked nothing better than having some sensational
story of a woman defecting from imagined wicked and
secretive Romish practices with salacious tales to tell of what
really went on in convents.
On
the other hand, Catholic Church spokespersons (usually men of course)
would proclaim that there was no compulsion on
any woman to remain in a convent, that she was always free to leave
should she choose. The reality was probably quite different.
The
mud-slinging and accusations from pulpits of both persuasions were
remarkable. Catholic defectors would be condemned with hyperbole such as describing them as “the foulest weeds in the
Pope’s garden” (Fr. Cleary, Minneapolis) and every effort was
made to show them to be liars, lunatics, or just simple-minded
innocent girls whose heads were turned by money-makers and con-men
(no doubt Protestant.)
And
of course there was nothing better for restoring Catholic esteem than reports of these poor
misguided souls retracting their defection on their death beds and
accepting the last rites of their original church.
Researching
these women through the digital archives of newspapers can make for
eye-opening and fascinating reading. In Chronicling America, there
are reports on a number of them such as one Sister Mary Ethel (surname unknown) who
came from India and lectured in America on her “10 Years in Hell”
and other inflammatory topics, also a Mary Windsor White who retracted
on her deathbed.
Some
of the more famous “escaped nuns” who published books were Edith O’Gorman and Josephine M. Bunkley (Andrews) and both women were later mired in sensationalism or controversy as to their truth.
There
was a 1869 British court case known as the "Great Convent Case" that can be read at the
Internet Archive - Saurin vs. Star & Kennedy – which still generates academic works on the topic.
In
Australia as recently as the 1920s, columns of newsprint were devoted
to the case of “the nun in the nightgown”, Sister Ligouri, or
Bridget Partridge, whose sad story makes for sober reading.
In
modern or open societies, one hopes that any woman entering a nunnery these
days is able to make her own own informed choice. In other cultures, there could still be clouds hanging over convent life. Just recently, this report appeared in the Indian Telegraph -
and thereby hangs another nun's tale.
Further
reading:
