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Is becoming a nun an act of rebellion?
It just might be.
Nuns might take the same vows, but they can lead
very different lives - from
running schools and missions to protesting and
working for social justice,
as journalist Cheryl Reed discovered.
She spent four years traveling the country and
interviewing more than 300
nuns in 50 orders for her new book, "Unveiled: The
Hidden Lives of Nuns,"
(Berkley Books; $24.95).
Reed, a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times,
practiced "immersion
journalism," by working, praying and living with
nuns when possible.
Some of them were living what they described as a
"countercultural
lifestyle."
"In some ways, they try to compare themselves to
hippies," she says,
laughing.
"There are nuns protesting, praying to the goddess
and wearing street
clothes and marrying lesbians in Minnesota." And
there are those "who were
cloistered and shaving their heads and beating
themselves in St. Louis."
She was a bit surprised at how outspoken some of
them are and how willing
they are to challenge the teachings of the church.
"There are nuns in Chicago who marched (April 24
in Washington, D.C.)
wearing sweatshirts saying 'Nuns for Choice.'
"I think that shocks a lot of people. They think
of the stereotypes of meek
nuns wearing a full habit, . . . that's not what
they are," she says.
So why be a nun at all?
Many of the sisters Reed interviewed had grown up
in large, Catholic rural
families.
"For that era, it offered them an alternative
life, a life of power. They
ran schools and hospitals. They were doing all the
things that men were
doing, outside the convent."
Some of the women she met entered later in life,
at an average age of 38.
About one-third of them had been married with
children; most had worked and
many had advanced degrees.
"They sort of achieved all the things the world
said was important and
valuable, but they felt they were missing
something," she says.
On the other hand, joining the sisterhood is not
for everyone.
"For a lot of women, they feel they could do all
the things you can do as a
nun, without becoming a nun. You can be charitable
and altruistic, without
having to give up sex and men," Reed says.
So what's with the title of the book?
"The 'hidden life' is the nun's life, they call it
the hidden life. And it's
an 'unveiling' of the stereotypes of nuns."
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