Nuns Sue Church, Charge Unlawful Control of Monastery

Traditionalist nuns holed up in a monastery for three weeks in a dispute over changes in their austere life style have filed suit against their superiors and the church, it was reported today.

Three of the five rebel nuns filed a lawsuit Monday in Morris County Superior Court, the Newark Star-Ledger reported. The suit accuses the monastery’s prioress, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson and other church officials of seeking to take “unlawful possession and control” of the Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel in Morris Township.

The nuns seek to have the prioress, Mother Teresa Hewitt, removed and replaced by a prioress elected by the convent community.

Newsweek magazine this week quotes Mother Teresa as saying the dissident nuns “really blow my mind.”