The Portland daily press., 1874-08-04
ERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE
Converts.
THE STORY OF A GILL SAID To RE DE.
TANNED IN CHICAGO NuNNERY.

The Chicago Times, in an article IN com
vents, says: Undoubtedly there are neonle
VINO still believe that the sun goes around
| the earth. There may also be few who
| entertain suspicion that the moon is made
OF green cheese. The Seven-day Advent,sts
| keep their trunks packed. Gentlemen Of
| Indiana are OF opinion that George III. PEN
dleton is still potential, and that the DEM
| ocrati, patty will carry the next Presidential
| election. But there is no disputing the fact
| that honest minds exist who hold with
horror the idea that converts are prisons, in
which persons may be immared against their
| own tree will, or in defiance of the wishes
| OF their parents if the persons be minors.
In the Times Of yesterday was related, for
the sake of fairness, the statement of mother
VINO asserted that she resided at No. 649 East
Twelfth street, New York; that she sent
| her daughter, two years ago as pupil to th,,
Academy o! ST. Frances Xavier on Wabash
avenue. Chlcago; that the girl was then n
Protestant, as her family is now. Meanwhile
tie girl became Catholic, it appears, and.
when. the mother arrived here, a few days
ago, to take the young lady home, she was
informed that her daughter had entered tha
novltiate as postuaEt, seeking the veil; and
when the afflicted mother expressed her
dissatisfaction and desire to recla m the
child from the convent and the church,
the superior said to her, it all the daugh-
tiers obeyed the mothers there would b.
no sisters in the church The mother threat
ened to see Bishop Foley in regard 10 tAe
matter, whereat, it is alleged, the superior
hastily and discourteously bowed the indg-
nant parent out, and Immediately made an
airline TO the bishops residence and posted
that prelate so thoroughly that when the
mother, who did not, we presume, attempt 10
run race with the superior, sent her name
to the bishop, a flunkey informed her that
tne bishop was not in, although he was up
stairs" which was curious and improbable
message for the bishops funkey to present
AS will be seen by this issue of the Times
there is basis of lac: for the mothers story,
which was told with the excitement natural
under so painful circumstanc But that the
public may understand precisely the possibil-
ties in all such cases, a brief summary of the
rules which universally govern the admission
OF candidates for the cloister in the United
States is given:
First, and always, egress and ingress are as
easy as anywhere else. ''Nuns'' may come
and nuns" may go, and keep going forever.
In fact, there are not a half dozen real clois-
tiers in the United States, and there is noe
one in Chicago. The religious live in ord;na-
ry houses, under uniform regulations as t.,
meals and labor, prayer and sleep-a mild
sort OF community life not hidden from the
world, always open to inquiry. and secluded
merely from passers by on the high road.
Every religious house is open TO visitors, with
no barrier except that OF good manners, and
every nook and corner may be mnutely and
daily examined. The idea of keeping any
one in such places against her will is prepos-
ferrous and can only be the fiction of a NOR
bid imagination.
Secondly, no young lady under majority Is
accepted as postulant-a mere applicant for
admission to the community life-without tha
explicit consent of her parents or guardian.
This consent must be given in person or by
writing, and is presentabe to the bishop in
stead OF the superior of the house, ample se-
curity being thus furnished against misrepre-
sentation.
accepted unless it is made manifest that there
are no home duties which have prior claila
upon her service, whatever her personal pref
erence may be, and it is necessary TO estab-
lish.that her parents are not sick or poor and
that her severance OF filial relations will not
infict upon them serious or undue neral ard
temporal distress.
That these rules are no more than just will
be readily agreed by those who have any
knowledge of the consuming self sacrifice
which animates young women who seek, the
sum of existence in the abandonment of indi-
viduaty, no less than by that smaller class
which has seen or felt the anguish OF parents
or relatives in surrendering those dear 10
them into an eternal alienation. But the ex-
istence of such rules expose the fallacy of the
story quoted at the beginning of this article,
and the romantic character of all narratives
similar to it.