Saturday, January 17, 2009

Inspectors can be fooled

The Vatican has released a report on American seminaries that says they are generally healthy. I would be happy about this if I didn't remember Sr. Veronica Marie. Years and years ago when I was in grade school we had a nun who wasn't like the rest. Her hems were shorter than the other nuns. Her veil showed more hair than all the others. She didn't wear her rosary on her belt either. In gym class she wore sweats and and a scowl. Then one day Sr. Veronica Marie showed up at school in her full habit. You know why? Because the Mother Superior of her order was making a visit. The whole time Mother Superior was there Sr. VM was in her habit and looked as pious as my nun dolls. The day after Mother Superior left to check on another school somewhere else Sr. Veronica Marie was back in her old clothes.

The last time I saw her she was a principal at a boy's school which was a good place for her as I'd always gotten the impression that she didn't like girls much. She'd stopped wearing the mini veil altogether and looked more like your cranky old feminist aunt than a nun. I'll never know what Mother Superior thought of her visit but I'm willing to bet that she probably looked at Sr. VM and thought 'Nope, nothing wrong here.'