The Nation - News from June 7, 1989

Three remaining rebel nuns who locked themselves in an infirmary at the Monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Morris Township, N.J., last October face dismissal from the Carmelite order if they do not submit to Vatican rulings and abandon their protest by July 1, said Timothy Manning, a spokesman for the Catholic diocese of Paterson, N.J. The Carmelite community in the monastery will begin a 40-day expulsion process July 1 if the nuns--a former prioress and two other sisters--do not submit to church authority by then, Manning said. A fourth woman behind the dissidents’ barricade is a former novice whose temporary vows have expired. A fifth woman abandoned the protest because of health problems. The traditionalist nuns claim that the mother superior has disrupted their prayerful, ascetic life style by introducing such modern amenities as sweets, music and television.