nun

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Nun Who Won Italy's The Voice Is No Longer a Nun

Cristina Scuccia may also continue to pursue music career

(Newser) - The so-called "Singing Nun" who stunned The Voice of Italy, winning the reality TV singing competition in 2014 , is no longer a nun. Cristina Scuccia was a member of the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family convent in Milan when she auditioned on the Italian version of the popular...

Nun's 'Peaceful Patience' Helped Her Survive Kidnapping

Sister Suellen Tennyson, who lost 20 pounds in captivity, was held for 5 months in Burkina Faso

(Newser) - Sister Suellen Tennyson sat amazed as one of her captors began washing her feet. "I was just taken aback," the 83-year-old Roman Catholic nun and former international leader of the Marianites of Holy Cross tells the Clarion Herald from a safe haven in the Archdiocese of New Orleans,...

Cardinal's 'Bombshell' Reveal Involves Pope, a Nun, and $1M

Angelo Becciu testifies that Francis OK'd paying that to free kidnapped Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez

(Newser) - Pope Francis authorized spending up to around $1 million to free a Colombian nun kidnapped by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mali, a cardinal testified Thursday, revealing previously secret papal approval to hire a British security firm to find the nun and secure her freedom. Cardinal Angelo Becciu's bombshell testimony could...

Sister Prejean: Let Inmate Have Final Human Touch

John Henry Ramirez deserves to have pastor present at Texas execution, she writes

(Newser) - Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun made famous by the book and movie Dead Man Walking, is making a public appeal on behalf of a death row inmate in Texas. In a New York Times essay, Prejean argues that the state should grant the request of John Henry Ramirez that...

In 4-Year Quest, Writer Unearths Horrors of US Orphanage
She Went to the
Orphanage at 2.
Horrible Things
Followed
in case you missed it

She Went to the Orphanage at 2. Horrible Things Followed

BuzzFeed News has the piece on the St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont

(Newser) - In countries ranging from Canada to Ireland to Australia, the 20th-century abuses that took place in orphanages, oftentimes Catholic ones, have been exposed. But "no such reckoning has taken place" in America, writes Christine Kenneally for BuzzFeed News . "Even today the stories of the orphanages are rarely...

Irma's 'Chainsaw Sister' Had to Google Instructions

Sister Margaret Ann of Miami has become an internet sensation

(Newser) - The Florida nun who became an internet sensation when video emerged of her—dressed in full habit—wielding a chainsaw to clear downed trees after Hurricane Irma says she had to look up instructions on how to start the tool. "I actually had to Google it to find out...

Nun Says Sex Is Such a Gift That Even Mary Probably Had It

Sister Lucia Caram's remarks aren't going over well

(Newser) - Mary was in love with Joseph and they probably had sex—full stop. That's the general gist of what a popular Dominican nun known for her huge Twitter following and recipes she whips up in her Catalan convent said on Spanish TV Sunday, and it's causing a whole...

After Quake, Nun Texted 'Adieu' to Family

Strong aftershock hits stricken Italian town

(Newser) - The AP has tracked down the nun seen in an iconic photo of this week's devastating earthquake in central Italy. Marjana Lleshi, 35, says she thought she would die when the Amatrice convent she was sleeping in collapsed early Wednesday, killing three other nuns and four of the elderly...

Police: Nun Has No Cash, So Robber Takes Rosary

2 women have been charged in Massachusetts

(Newser) - If you're thinking a nun might not be your best choice for robbing if you're looking to grab a bunch of cash, you're apparently not wrong: Police in Massachusetts say a woman held up a sister from the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth convent at knifepoint Sunday...

Philly Nun Guilty of Less-Than-Holy Crime

Judge rejects Ambien defense in DUI case

(Newser) - How God will judge her remains to be seen. A New Jersey judge, on the other hand, has convicted a nun of DUI after she crashed into an auto repair shop on Nov. 7. Washington Township Judge Martin Whitcraft on Wednesday rejected Sister Kimberly Miller's argument that she was...

'Zinging Nun' Mother Angelica Dead at 92

She built a Catholic media empire

(Newser) - She was born Rita Rizzo in Canton, Ohio, but she became better known to millions around the world as Mother Angelica, a Franciscan nun who founded the giant media empire known as the Eternal Word Television Network. On Sunday, the EWTN announced that Mother Angelica had died at age 92...

Next for Woman Who Tamed Billy the Kid: Sainthood?

Sister Segale's is first cause for sainthood in New Mexico's history

(Newser) - The woman once saluted as the "fastest nun in the West" is on the path to beatification. The cause of Sister Blandina Segale's sainthood has officially been declared open; it's the first time such a cause has been opened in the history of New Mexico's Roman...

Nun-to-Be Charged With Baby's Murder

Sosefina Amoa gave birth 5 days after arriving at the center

(Newser) - Police have charged a woman studying to become a Catholic nun in the death of her newborn son. Police say Sosefina Amoa, 26, gave birth to the boy Oct. 10 in her room at the Little Sisters of the Poor elderly care facility. Afraid the nuns would hear the newborn'...

Next Pope Should Be a Nun
 Next Pope Should Be a Nun 
OPINION

Next Pope Should Be a Nun

EJ Dionne thinks the Catholic Church should go big

(Newser) - EJ Dionne thinks the Catholic Church should make a "brave and bold" choice when it picks a new pope: It should pick a nun. Will it happen? Not a chance, he writes at the Washington Post , but putting a woman in charge "would vastly strengthen Catholicism, help the...

$100K Stolen From Churches by ... Gambling Nun?

Sister Mary Anne Rapp faces grand larceny charge

(Newser) - A New York nun is facing a grand larceny charge today after allegedly stealing more than $100,000 from two churches where she worked … and using the money to reportedly fuel her gambling habit. Sister Mary Anne Rapp is accused of stealing donations from parishioners, and sources tell the...

Tibetan Nun Sets Self Ablaze
 Tibetan Nun Sets Self Ablaze 

Tibetan Nun Sets Self Ablaze

Woman dies after 9th clergy self-immolation since March

(Newser) - A Tibetan nun protesting China's policies has died after setting herself on fire outside a nunnery in Sichuan province, the Free Tibet group says. The 20-year-old woman, who called for religious freedom in Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama, is the ninth Buddhist clergy member—and the...

Monk Caught Smuggling Nun's Remains

He wanted to give her a better burial at Cyprus monastery

(Newser) - Bag checkers at the Athens airport turned a Cypriot monk over to authorities when they discovered a nun's skeleton in his luggage. The monk admitted digging up the nun's 4-year-old grave at an Athens cemetery so he could bring her remains back to his monastery in Cyprus, reports Huffington Post...

Screwy Catholic Church Axes Nun Who OK'd Abortion

It saved mom's life, but church doesn't care

(Newser) - News that the Catholic Church has excommunicated a nun because she approved an abortion to save a mother's life (see NPR's story here ) doesn't make much sense to a blogger at Feministe . The nun, an administrator at a Catholic hospital in Phoenix, apparently was supposed to let this woman...

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