Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-01-24
Real Motive That Prompts Girls
to Embrace the Religious
. Life.
Efforts Made to Injure These
Good Women Prove
" Unavailing.
COVER LAND LIKE GENTLE Dew

six young ladies, whose ages
ranged from sixteen to twenty-four,'
received the habit of the Sisters of
st Joseph in the Cathedral at
Wichita a week ago last saturday.
Noting the important event, the
Catholic Advance most truthfully
says: sUC Tar N
8 A ceremony of this kind can not
be witnessed with indifference. One
may well ask IL a girl of sixteen
knows her own mind sufficiently TO
feel sure she will be contented with
a life so repugnant to every human
inclination. The same question has
been asked and answered by the
Catholic church. Reception of the
religious habit is only the first
step. There follow two years of
novitiate. during which time the
aspirant familiarizes herself with
the duties and obligations to be inn,
posed upon her when she shall have
made her three VOWS of poverty,
chastity and obedience. Whatever
our enemies may say, girls that
enter a convent are always free to
leave it and ii is not an uncommon
occurrence to see them return home
even after having. received the
habit. Strange as IL may sound,
religious communities are far less
anxious to secure or keep subjects
than subjects are ,desirous of en-
tering community. Close attention
is paid to the characteristic traits of
each novice and those who show the
least dissatisfaction with their own
choice are sent back immediately to
their relatives.
= It is thought sometimes by good
people that converts are the havens
of loye-sick maidens or world
weary matrons.--. We do not say that
a few such may not occasionally
glide past the convent doors and,
forgetting the past, start a new
life. thanks to the assistance OF
Gods grace and the example OF their
companions. But these are very
exceptional cases, for mourning
over a dead love or disgust of man
kind in general does not mix well
with the requirements of an active,
self-sacrificing life. Converts do
not want broken hearts and will not
accept them, unless the candidates
" dlOh6 oOAhS
pretty good cement with which to
piece firmly together the shattered
fragments. Not one girl out of a
thousand had a heart affair" be-
fore entering the convent. The real
motive that prompts girls to embrace
the religious life is enthusiasm,
not disappointment. Girls of sixteen,
eighteen or twenty are not gen
orally suffering from aggravated
melancholia.
One is appalled, at the thought of
what would happen il the vast
army of Sisters now found in the
United States were suddenly to
disappear. Silently but constantly
they have gone on increasing in
numbers, until today they cover
the land like a gentle dew. Wher-
ever stricken humanity needs help
they are to be found. BY the bed
side of the sick and dying, near
helpless old age or faltering orphan
childhood, over the desks of am
bilious pupils and in close touch
with every effort to better or re-
lieve the human race, stand our
Sisters, peerless queens of the vast
kingdom of suffering and ignorance.
Chivalry demands of every man
respect for womanhood, but only the
basest of degenerates would dare
lift his hand against the woman who
makes a holocaust of herself so that
she may be useful to others. War
against nuns has always recoiled on
the heads of it's instigators. France
is calling back her nuns and
Portugal will do the same The
efforts that are being made to in
jure the Sisters of this country will
prove unavailing, for the broad,
common-sense American has already
pronounced judgment and II is en-
tirely in favor of those
white lilies that nod in the gar
dens Of God,
The maidens who take the veil"