Woman Can't Become Nun Till She Dumps $18K Student Loan

A 28-year-old Broadway costume designer recently decided to switch career gears, and it's a big change—she wants to become a nun, CBS News reports. But there's one major roadblock to Alida Taylor's dream to enter the Sisters of Life convent in September that only divine intervention, generous patrons, or a lottery win may be able to remedy: She needs to completely pay off the $18,000 student loan she took out to get her fashion degree from the University of Louisiana. "That financial debt, having that be resolved allows her to freely enter into her vocation," the convent's Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei tells CBS New York, which notes that each congregation determines whether it will accept women with debt.

Taylor can't even take on an outside gig during her convent stay to knock her debt down, because, as the sister notes, "religious life is a full-time job." So Taylor has set up a GoFundMe page, where she explains she first felt the pull toward a religious life when she was just 8 years old. "I had a difficult time reconciling these desires I had for my life with choosing this unique path, such as marriage, a career, adventure," she explains. And even though her current life is "beautiful," she says, after a move to a Catholic discernment house, a place for aspiring nuns to reflect on their choice, she realized that "the Lord has made his call clear." If Taylor is unable to find a way to resolve her financial issues? The convent says there's always next year. (Maybe she could get this other convent to throw in a prayer for her.)