Pope Francis's recent comment about nuns having a 'vinegar face' has been met with criticism from some, who argue that it's patronizing, inappropriate, and misogynistic. The author, a liberal Catholic nun, counters the Pope's view by highlighting the joy and love for life that many nuns embody, particularly those who work with victims and survivors of clerical abuse.
‘Many times in my life I have encountered nuns with a vinegar face’ he told the women for liberal Catholic nuns like me: the good guys are in charge, progress is on the horizon, the Spirit blows freely. I won’t spoil it, but in a scene towards the end a cluster of young women – nuns – burst out into the sunlight, their laughter rattling the stony courtyards of the Vatican.in a conversation with an order of teaching sisters in Rome.
It felt like the papal equivalent of someone on the street telling me, “cheer up, love”: patronising, inappropriate and misogynistic. In my initial irritation, I thought: if we nuns do look grumpy, perhaps it is because we are often left to repair the damage done to people by the institutional Church and its male hierarchy. Like, who work with victims and survivors of clerical abuse.
The Pope’s words also frustrate me because they aren’t true. Let me tell you about some of the nuns I know. In my own congregation,and Instagram influencers. Sour-faced gossips? Hardly. These are women whose joy – whose love for life – has guided them into a vocation centred around sharing that same joy with others, particularly those whom society and the Church persecute and marginalise.
The Pope’s remarks don’t even represent the cultural zeitgeist when it comes to nuns. Our homes and convents might not quite swing with the same rhythm as, but Sisters Maria and Mary Clarence are closer to the nuns I know than Pope Francis’s caricature. Even horror movies get it right: from, popular culture has rightly picked up on the nuance that women in the Church are often the change-makers, their spiritual and emotional gifts stifled by structure.
are trained. In the Catholic Church only men can be priests, and they are often trained by other men in male-dominated seminaries. Brilliant women are being incorporated into the training structure as lecturers and counsellors, but they are never peers. For a priest of Francis’s generation, there was likely very little substantial input from, or encounter with, women, meaning we remain two-dimensional: mothers, sisters or saints.
Pope Francis Nuns Criticism Misogyny Catholic Church
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