Aging Catholic Nuns Get Care at Jewish Nursing Home - ABC NewsAs the Catholic Church winds down in the USA, what to do with so many aging nuns is becoming a major problem. But have no fear, centuries of bigotry, persecution and racism can be cast aside when the need arises.
The aging nuns are being put into Jewish retirement homes to be looked after by the very people that they once taught others to despise and persecute. Fortunately, it seems that Jews are prepared to forgive their enemies and do into others what they would have others do unto them.
Why has this crisis arrisen?
A researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University found that there are more nuns over 90 in the USA than under 60; over 80% of nuns in the USA are over 60. There are now too few young nuns to care for the elderly ones. The Sisters of Charity of New York now has just 270 nuns, down from its 1960s peak of 1,350. There have been no new sisters in the U.S. in the last 20 years!
The Sisters of Charity were the first to approach the nonprofit Jewish Home Lifecare for help, followed quickly by the Manhattan-based Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary and the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
It certainly fit our needs. We can stay together, we have our own little chapel. They went out of their way to find a space for us to have Mass. I have to say it was so nice I was a little reluctant, because I took a vow of poverty.
Sister Loretta Theresa Richards, 86
The only drawback seems to be the food:
I miss the bacon. I notice that we never get ham or pork chops. The food is good, though.
Sister Maria Goretti Mannix, 83
I wonder what the long line of anti-semitic Popes would have made of all this love and mutual respect. It's good to see a bit of decent Humanism can bypass centuries of indoctrinated hate and bring a little comfort and happiness in a person's declining years, but one has to wonder at a Church with so much wealth that turns to a Jewish charity to care for its aging servants. Even allowing for the vast sums they've had to put aside to compensate their victims, surely the Vatican could sell off some of its treasures and help out.
Credit to Why Evolution is True for the tipoff.
I often think that the main practical reason the Catholic Church demands celibacy of its clergy is so that the Church does not have to give up its wealth to support the widows and children of the deceased clergy.
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