Rebellious ex-nuns evicted in Poland

KAZIMIERZ DOLNY – Court officials backed by 150 police pushed their way into a convent in eastern Poland on Wednesday to evict about 65 rebellious ex-nuns and a monk who have occupied the complex illegally for two years.

The women had taken over the building in a rebellion against the Vatican, which had ordered the replacement of their mother superior, Jadwiga Ligocka. “They were disobedient,” said Mieczyslaw Puzewicz, a spokesman for the Lublin diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.”They didn’t recognise the authority of the mother superior.”After a locksmith forced open the gate to the walled convent in the eastern Polish town of Kazimierz Dolny, police in riot gear pushed forward, encountering an onslaught of verbal aggression from some of the ex-nuns from the Sisters of Bethany order, police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said.”They were swearing at policemen,” Sokolowski told The Associated Press from outside the complex.Others, however, were cooperating with police who were trying to remove them, he said.Police also found a woman with an 8-month-old baby whom they took to a hospital.Sokolowski said the mother of the child appeared to be a relative of one of the holed-up ex-nuns.Reporters at the site were not allowed into the convent, but TVN25 ran video taken by police that showed them negotiating with nuns in black habits, trying to convince them to leave the nunnery.The church has refused to give many details about the rebellion two years ago, but Polish news media have reported that Mother Jadwiga was a charismatic figure who had had religious visions, and was attempting to transform the convent into a contemplative order.The Lublin diocese hinted at that in a statement on its Web site, which says that “Mother Jadwiga’s private revelations and the fact that she made it a guideline to stick by them caused unease to the Congregation.”Puzewicz, who was at the convent site, said the ex-nuns were reacting to the eviction attempt with verbal aggression and by chanting religious songs, and said that they were acting “as if they are being manipulated.”He did not say who he thought was manipulating them.In 2006, the Vatican formally expelled the nuns from the Bethany order, but the women refused to leave the building, cutting themselves off from the outside world.A former Franciscan friar lived with them.The church eventually sought legal action to remove them, and a court in nearby Pulawy ordered the eviction — a step they had previously resisted.The convent’s electricity was cut off earlier this year, but local residents sympathised with the ex-nuns’ plight and secretly funnelled them food in the night.Nampa-AP”They were disobedient,” said Mieczyslaw Puzewicz, a spokesman for the Lublin diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.”They didn’t recognise the authority of the mother superior.”After a locksmith forced open the gate to the walled convent in the eastern Polish town of Kazimierz Dolny, police in riot gear pushed forward, encountering an onslaught of verbal aggression from some of the ex-nuns from the Sisters of Bethany order, police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said.”They were swearing at policemen,” Sokolowski told The Associated Press from outside the complex.Others, however, were cooperating with police who were trying to remove them, he said.Police also found a woman with an 8-month-old baby whom they took to a hospital.Sokolowski said the mother of the child appeared to be a relative of one of the holed-up ex-nuns.Reporters at the site were not allowed into the convent, but TVN25 ran video taken by police that showed them negotiating with nuns in black habits, trying to convince them to leave the nunnery.The church has refused to give many details about the rebellion two years ago, but Polish news media have reported that Mother Jadwiga was a charismatic figure who had had religious visions, and was attempting to transform the convent into a contemplative order.The Lublin diocese hinted at that in a statement on its Web site, which says that “Mother Jadwiga’s private revelations and the fact that she made it a guideline to stick by them caused unease to the Congregation.”Puzewicz, who was at the convent site, said the ex-nuns were reacting to the eviction attempt with verbal aggression and by chanting religious songs, and said that they were acting “as if they are being manipulated.”He did not say who he thought was manipulating them.In 2006, the Vatican formally expelled the nuns from the Bethany order, but the women refused to leave the building, cutting themselves off from the outside world.A former Franciscan friar lived with them.The church eventually sought legal action to remove them, and a court in nearby Pulawy ordered the eviction — a step they had previously resisted.The convent’s electricity was cut off earlier this year, but local residents sympathised with the ex-nuns’ plight and secretly funnelled them food in the night.Nampa-AP