The Case of the Outlaw Nuns

There are some legal cases that should make Americans grateful for the separation of church and state. This one wasn’t all that long ago. In the 1980s, the Sisters of the Order of Poor Clare lived in a convent in Bruges, Belgium. Most were elderly, and were counting on the Catholic church to care for them in their old age after a lifetime of devotion, isolation, and poverty. But they heard that their bishop was planning to liquidate the convent and separate the nuns. So they took matters into their own hands.

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The nuns legally owned the convent, and they wanted any property and profits from it to go to their families when they died. However, the church takes a vow of poverty seriously, and considered any property of the nuns to be the church’s property. In the wake of the dissolution rumors, the nuns skipped ahead of the bishop and sold the convent themselves, along with the priceless artworks it contained. With the proceeds, they bought a crumbling castle in the south of France, with a swimming pool and tennis courts, but no running water. They also bought cars and racehorses. By the time the bishop heard about the sale, it was a done deal. The eight nuns were very happy in their new retirement home, but that was far from the end of the story. The bishop wanted the convent, its artworks, and the nuns, back under his control. Read about the runaway nuns of Poor Clare at Mel magazine.

Source: neatorama

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