Sunday Nunday: A Very, Very, Very Fine House

Note: I spent nine years getting taught by Sisters of Saint Joseph, and I have generally found that nuns are pretty much the best people around. Thus, I introduce Sunday Nunday, in which I find interesting news about nuns and blog about it.

Nuns should get anything they want. (Within reason, of course. Renouncing your vows, for example, is probably not the best idea.)

But still. They give up everything they own, they get up early for Mass every morning (a feat indeed), and they can get serious stuff done when they want to (word, Mother Teresa). So when a FOX affiliate got all up in arms this weekend over a New Jersey parish that purchased an $800,000 McMansion to house its nuns, I was left wondering what all the fuss is about.

At first glance, this seems mildly excessive. After all, the nuns at my high school lived in a convent that was attached to the actual school. That's like working in an office all day and then walking down the hall to your bedroom. No one but nuns could do that without wanting to burn the place down within a week.

Anyway, nuns are generally expected to live in weird/terrible conditions and like it, and no one ever really makes an issue about it, including the nuns, because they know it's all part of the vows, yo.

Thus, when a parish in New Jersey bought a swanky new house for its five nuns, people were upset. The news report quotes some parishioners yelling about how nuns take a vow of poverty and that this is a waste of money for the parish and it's a terrible example to set, etc. etc. etc.

My favorite line is the lede in the article that accompanies the video: "Why are five New Jersey nuns living in a mansion that should be in Beverly Hills?"

BECAUSE THEY'RE AWESOME. OKAY? Okay.

The FOX affiliate also takes stalker helicopter photos of the house. Not cool.

The report goes on to mention, a little halfheartedly, that the nuns in question were living in a three-bedroom house and expected to welcome three more by the summer. Eight nuns and three bedrooms doesn't exactly work out. And building a new but more modest house for the nuns would have set the parish back by about $2 million, the archdiocese explains.

So we have eight nuns in a six-bedroom house, plus several acres of land, all bought at a discount price from a Catholic couple who were selling their house and wanted to help the parish out. Not only do the nuns get an awesome house, but the parish plans to use it for retreats, too. And you can totally throw giant church fairs on the new land.

I highly doubt that living in a huge new house will suddenly cause the nuns to adopt a high-flying nouveau riche lifestyle in which they ride around their new estate in personalized golf carts or something. And if they do, who cares? If I encountered a bunch of nuns driving a golf cart with their order's logo on it or something, I could die happy.

So: the parish saves money, the nuns finally get some decent housing, and the parishioners get a giant multi-acre party zone on which to throw fairs and raise more money for the church. Clearly, there is nothing wrong with this scenario. Catholicism for the win.