Boston nun criticizes fitness-club ad with women dressed as nuns

Published: 2008-02-05

BOSTON (CNS) -- A representative of women religious in the Boston Archdiocese said an advertisement in Boston Magazine for a fitness center that featured women in habits sketching a nude man was an insult to those in religious life. "This ad is in such poor taste," said Sister Marian Batho, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who is the delegate for religious for the archdiocese. "It shows a terrible lack of understanding of religious life and what religious life is all about." The ad ran the same week that the Catholic Church was preparing to celebrate World Day for Consecrated Life, which was Feb. 2. Titled "Figure drawing," the ad depicts three heavily made-up young women dressed in traditional black-and-white habits who are sketching a nude male model in a pose reminiscent of Michelangelo's "David." "It is insulting to all women who have chosen this life," Sister Batho told The Pilot, newspaper of the Boston Archdiocese. "How we live and what we do is really the complete opposite of this ad."

Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .