Chapter XII

 

“Jack, get me more Drop Dead Coffee.  I need to finish this article.  Damn, I wish there was something juicier.”

Frank was frustrated.  I could tell he just thought there were too many unanswered questions to the story. 

“Jack, read back my last version.”

Here is what Frank had me read back.

Nuns Perform Mass Resignation

by Frank Huntington

Sixteen nuns in the small backwater Convento de Santa Clara in the town of the same name in Spain have suddenly all quit the Catholic Church.  Each has renounced her faith in God including the Mother Superior.  It all happened on November 15 in the early morning hours when the nuns were supposed to go to morning prayer.  The nuns quickly realized that each and every one of them did not feel like praying to her God above.  Soon the spirit of freedom from religion brought out a revolutionary fervor and the nuns went on a French Revolution style rampage and smashed, burned, and defaced all the religious symbols in the convent and the church.

The sisters tried to spread their non-religious revolution to the townspeople and were quickly rebuked by these traditionally minded Catholics.  It was public pressure that resulted in the Church and local politicians to have the sisters bodily removed from the convent. 

They sought refuge in a rented villa outside of the town.  With money from illegally selling gold and silver objects from the church they live as a sort of atheist commune.  According to both Monsignor Angelo Pietro and one of the sisters this reporter interviewed, they are fearful of the future and drawing emotional support from one another.

What is fascinating about these new atheist feminists is that their conversion is strictly emotional.  It is not because one of them infiltrated the convent with contraband books by Dawkins, Hitchens, or Ingersol.  They are ignorant of the rich atheist tradition in disproving the claims of religion. 

This lack of philosophical foundation has led the former sisters to feel an existential emptiness.  This is especially evident in the suicide on December 7 of the former Mother Superior.  According to Monsignor Angelo Pietro, a spokesman for the Catholic Church, it is like the sisters were stricken with “religious amnesia.”  The Monsignor is in charge of trying to clean up the mess that the sisters left the convent and the church in.  He says the Church will reopen the Convent, but has no idea when that will happen.

No decisions have been made by the Church on pursuing civil charges against the former sisters for the damage and thefts of the five hundred year old buildings. 

“That is as far as you have gotten, Frank.” 

“Thanks Jack.  I think I have got the gist of it done.  Can you put in more quotes by the Monsignor for me and come up with an ending for me?  Read back what you come up with. 

“Okay, Sir.  The next paragraph reads, “Former nun Maria Lopez who was originally from . . . “

 

Chapter XIII

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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