By Bill Collins

Should nuns be allowed to marry?

That question was asked of several sisters in convents throughout the metropolitan Atlanta area and without exception their answer was: “No!”

Because of talk in the Catholic church of doing away with priestly celibacy, and little, if any talk of abolishing the vows of chastity, a straw poll was taken among sisters of various orders here to get their feelings.

Some nuns refused to comment on the subject. Others considered it a ridiculous question.

The dictionary defines celibacy as the state of being unmarried.

Sister Kristen of St. Joseph’s Infirmary in Atlanta said, “Our vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are the essence of our religious life.

“If we changed or eliminated any one of them, I don’t think we could any longer be religious women.

“I consider the vow of chastity as the giving of myself to Christ in order to serve his church. It is a total commitment and dedication,” Sister Kristen explained.

The way Sister Louann, director of religious education for St. Thomas More parish, sees it, “It’s contradictory for a sister to be married. There are two styles of live, the married and the unmarried. You need both styles of living, but for me celibacy is living in harmony with what I believe.”

The sister, a member of a teaching order, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, explained that by remaining unmarried “we are unlimited in our love.”

An older nun in a conservative order explained her feelings this way:

“Celibacy or virginity is essential to the religious life, as is the living in community. Those of us who have made perpetual vows, should remain faithful of our commitment and not to go back on our promise.

“For our Lord has said: ‘He who sets his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy to be called my disciple.’ He does not say merely ‘my consecrated soul’ but even “my disciple.”

The sister pointed out, “We took the vows willingly and after mature deliberation and trial. Whoever goes back on the vows made to God is like the man who would betray his country in the times of war under pretext that it would do better under domination of the enemy.”

Another sister described her feelings this way: “Either marriage or the religious life is a big undertaking. You can’t possibly give yourself to two things.”

As Sister Claire explains it, “By living an unmarried life I am free to work with more children than I ever could married. Each year I teach fifth and sixth graders at St. Thomas More in Decatur explained Sister.

“For those 100, I take the place of their mother while they are at school. I have to be a nurse, and a detective as well as a teacher.

“My vow of chastity makes me freer, than if I were married, to do what God wants me to do,” Sister Claire concluded.

Still another sister who asked to remain anonymous said “Celibacy is the renunciation of marriage not just the renunciation of marriage for the sake of science, medicine, some art, but wholly for the kingdom of God.

“Without the aim of the highest love of God and neighbor, celibacy as we practice it is meaningless,” she added.

Freely chosen celibacy of religious women is a topic a recent Chicago publication by a nun who left the convent earlier this year.

Maryellen Muckenhirn, writing in the publication “Trans Sister”, says that in the past, nuns, by custom, were afraid of contact with men.

But, she says, “The eruption of awareness of the need to be adult American women precisely in order to be effectively Christian has blown wide open the question of types of relationship between sisters and men, often priests and brothers but also laymen.”

“It is unreal not to face the fact that this is a brand new type of problem for the voluntarily celibate religious women,” the author states.

And the former sister says there is a crucial need for more shared Christian life between married persons and celibates.

“Each style needs the other for stress of different human and Christian values. Each style proclaims differently the mystery of the human persons and the necessity of freedom for choice in the basic decision about one’s own sexuality. Perhaps more contact and sharing between celibate and married person will help demythologize both styles of life,” Miss Muckenhirn concludes.