The other day I wrote about a website called Catholic Nuns Today with which we had some fun. But there is more to the story. We saw many things on the site that gave us a chuckle, a Nun on a motorcycle, Sr. Bob the Builder, Sr. Trombone, and a cosmocentric Harry Potter lookalike. All good stuff. But some people wrote to us, “What is your problem?” To get semi-serious for one second I point you to a profile of one sister on the site. Remember, this site is designed to let young women know what being a nun is really like, what it is all about. Read this, actually just skim it, scan it, or skip it as it is quite long and I only post it here just to illustrate my point. Do that and then I will tell you what my problem is.

Sister Shawnee Marie Daniels-Sykes, SSND, PhD, Assistant Professor of Theology and Bioethics, Mount Mary College

Ethics and healthcare—what’s right, what is questionable, and what is wrong—have lead me on my journey as a nurse, a teacher, and a Sister.

Growing up in a protective and stable Catholic family, I first thought about becoming a Sister when I was about 12 years old, but my family was not quite certain what this would mean for me, given that so many of the sisters left the central city of Milwaukee where I was raised. They wanted me to move slowly before making any decision about religious life, as they always encouraged me to explore all of my life’s options, including completing a college degree and becoming self-sufficient.
EXPAND THIS QUOTATION…

For your information, Sister Shawnee’s profile is 1340 words long (Just in case you chose not to expand it to read the whole thing). Sister has done some good work for sure, but do you want to know what my problem is with the site? Want to know what my problem is with this style of nun?

Ok, I will tell you. One thousand three hundred and forty words on what it is to be a nun and Jesus is never mentioned. Not once. Actually God is not really mentioned either as she only mentions God in passing referring only to ” the family of God.” Want to know what my problem is? There you have it. One thousand three hundred and forty words on Sister defending the rules, breaking the rules, getting sick, getting better, and doing yoga. One thousand three hundred and forty words all about sister and nothing about God. Yes, I have a problem with that.

Many thanks to Alice for pointing to this profile.