Bad Habits

"If this is your idea of poverty, then what's your idea of chastity?" It is an old joke when encountering Religious with a fondness for the finer things in life.

But it makes a serious point. Why does only fidelity to the second vow matter, and not fidelity to the first and the third?

Don't just wonder "Where is the nun?" when those summoned to Rome appear on or in the fawning media. Remember that that make-up and that jewellery, those twin sets and those hairdos, cost money. Serious money.

Is this is their idea of poverty, then what is their idea of obedience? That one has been answered by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

And if this is their idea of poverty, then what is their idea of chastity? That one has been answered by the sins, not of commission, but of omission and of permission, in the published writing of Sister Margaret Farley.