Before I speak about Sr. Christiana’s final insult as I left her 5th Grade class, I’d like to share some thoughts I had about the previous Blog Entry regarding the incident involving Louis.
It occurred to me that I do believe the nuns generally valued the boys more than the girls, and this may have been the reason Louis got away with his misbehavior while I got punished for simply defending my rights. When I thought more about it, I guess I realized it is not too surprising. Only men could be ordained deacons or priests, and they were “given steak and wine at dinner” while the nuns “drank water and ate chopped meat” ( figuratively and probably realistically). Have you ever seen the movie, Doubt? Back in that era in our church history, there were many more restrictions on the Sisters than there were on the Priests. And, although it is somewhat better now, the women in our church are certainly not where they should be. So getting back to the nuns at St. Michael’s in the 1950’s, I strongly believe that the way people view us and treat us, mirrors back to us who we are, or at least who we think we are. When others see and treat us as inferior, we start to see ourselves that way. I believe the nuns, because they were females, saw themselves as less valuable than the males. After all, that was most definitely how they were treated. Possibly this realization can help me to find some level of forgiveness for Sr. Christiana.
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