The Carmelite Nuns at Auschwitz

I write to thank Deena Metzger and The Times for the piece on the Carmelite nuns and the death camps. Her touchingly personal account raises significantly the level of recent discussion concerning the appropriateness of the convent at Auschwitz.

As a Catholic I am painfully aware of the “bewildering, sometimes malevolent role of the Roman Catholic Church” toward Jews. Yet I am saddened by the fracas over the Carmelites at Auschwitz. I ask myself: Why must this be an either/or issue? Why instead can’t it be “both/and”? Both the convent and several other places for all who come, as Metzger did, seeking reconciliation? To my mind there is no doubt the most prominent presence should be Jewish. But why can’t the Carmelites be there as well? Perhaps with a lower profile. They could start by downsizing the giant cross Metzger describes, for example.

Still, they should be there, I feel, and not simply because Catholics perished at Auschwitz, nor because the nuns offer a sympathetic base for people of all faiths. They should be there because of who they are and what they do.

Some facts may help those unacquainted with the peculiar role of this ancient order. These nuns don’t teach or nurse or perform social services. Their sole “work” is to pray and fast and thereby to atone for sin. This work of atonement is global as well as personal, and it continues today to define the Carmelite.

They pray and fast to atone, to make reparation for sin, for all sin, but particularly for that great sin of our age, Auschwitz and the other death camps. Let their voices remain to mingle with those of many faiths that rise to heaven from these grotesque graveyards.

DOROTHY DUNN

Los Angeles