Nuns and Nones

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“Nones,” as readers of this blog should know by now, are people who answer “none” on survey questions about their religious affiliation. The surveys show that more Americans, especially the young, are giving this answer.

And I hope all of you still know what a nun is. They’re getting scarcer, but I’m a big fan. They were my teachers in eight years of grade school and I’ve had many friends who are nuns. I greatly admire their self-sacrifice, dedication to their faith and their dogged willingness to serve others.

But it would be hard to name two groups that are less compatible, at least on the surface.

I read about the Nuns and Nones project in the National Catholic Reporter, but recently an extensive article in the New York Times reported a new twist. A small group of nones, described as “progressive millennials,” none of whom are practicing Catholics, decided to take up temporary residence in an active convent.

A Pilot Project

“Intended to be a pilot project, the unusual roommate situation with the Sisters of Mercy would last for six months,” says the Times article. “The idea was spearheaded by Adam Horowitz, a 32-year-old Jewish man, and the pilot program was guided by Judy Carle, a 79-year-old Catholic Sister of Mercy in the Bay Area.

“(Horowitz and his friends) were brainstorming ways they could live radical activist lives, lives of total devotion to their causes. They were trying to figure out who was already doing this, and when Mr. Horowitz talked to a minister, it came to him. The answer was nuns.

‘These are radical … women who have lived lives devoted to social justice,” said one participant. “And we can learn from them.’

“These are also hard times for the sisters,” the article says. “The average age of a Catholic nun in the United States is close to 80. Convents around the country are closing. The number of nuns in the United States has collapsed from 180,000 in 1965 to below 50,000 today. Sisters are passing leadership at Catholic hospitals and schools to lay people. Some have even begun talking about their mission here in America as being complete.

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“At the same time, millennials are the least religious group of people in America — only about 27 percent attend weekly religious services.”

The millennials worked their normal jobs during the day, but in the evenings and on weekends shared the nuns’ activities. They joined for convent feasts and Easter vigil. They had their feet washed on Holy Thursday.

The sisters weren’t sure what exactly the young people wanted to know about them, and the first meeting came as a shock.

“I was stunned,” said Sister Patsy Harney, “and I said to the other sisters, ‘You will never guess what the millennials want to talk about: the vows.’ Everybody laughed.'

“Millennials were looking at it like this is the glue,” said one of the nuns. “They were looking for the secret sauce of how we do this.”

Overwhelmed by Life's Choices

The Nones, many of whom said they felt overwhelmed by life’s choices, were drawn to the discipline and the notion of sacrifice. Believe it or not, a life of chastity was especially appealing to them.

“I started to realize chastity was an invitation to ‘right relationship’ and not just about celibacy,” Sarah Jane Bradley said. “In an era of Me Too, we need right relationships. We need to know what it means to respect someone’s personhood and to respect your own personhood and to be a conduit for love rather than ego needs.”

The millennials started rethinking the other vows. The vow of poverty is about stewardship of resources and shared prosperity, they said. But obedience, as a concept, was tricky.

“It sounds like it’s about taking orders, but the sisters helped me see it’s about preparing the heart for dialogue and a deep internal listening for truth,” Ms. Bradley said. “The vows opened up this portal in which to really appreciate how countercultural the lives these sisters have led are.”