The Priest and the Nun: Some time ago we gave some extracts from a letter to “The Times” by the Abbess of the ladies who had been evicted from their convert in Rome. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Clifton wrote a reply in which he acknowledges that the main facts of the story of the priest and the nun were true. But he championed the subsequent action of the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome, and added that Miss Pynsent, the Abbess, was not a Christian, but an Agnostic. Rome: Yesterday Miss Pynsent replied in “The Times” she admits the charge of Agnosticism this Bishop made against her. She declares that it could not has, been the cause of the attitude of the Vatican and the Inquisition towards the sisterhood, for they did not know it and even several of the nuns who remain around her did not learn it until they read the Bishop’s letter. Miss Pynsent had desired to conceal her change of view from the world until she had secured some help for these survivors of the wreck but now that the Bishop has made the public charge, she says boldly that “When sad experience convinced me that injustice and immorality are, in Rome the rule rather than the exception, and that the Church instead of being a purely spiritual organization is practically a huge political machine worked for mundane ends by worldly-minded men, l lost the belief which I had cherished during 26 unhesitating years of Catholic life.”
No Punishment for the Priest: With regard to the elopement of wealthy nun with a priest, Miss Pynsent thinks perhaps “fellow culprit” would better describe her than the term “Poor victim.” which the Bishop of Clifton had used, and she complains that the guilty priest, whom the Bishop righty called a “scoundrel, “has received no punishment beyond that of being sent for an eight day’s retreat to the country house, of the religious congregation to which he belongs. He has continued his usual work in Rome and has during the annual octave of the Epiphany at Sant Andrea della Valle been the soul of the services conducted there according to the service rites.
Another Charge: The Bishop suggested laxity by the Abbess was responsible for the erring sister’s conduct and said that he heard criticisms in 1896 as to the way in which the Benedictine nuns were allowed to go about in public. Miss Proem retorts: —”It is to be regretted that the hundreds of nuns walking about the principal streets of Rome to-day in a manner unworthy of a religious habit, are not obliged to observe the caution and modesty practiced by the English Benedictines. Although the letter had only a terrace on which to take exercise they never went into the streets of Rome on foot.”
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive
Referenced
GRO1138 Devonport: Lucretia Anna Maude Pinsent: 1857 – 1934