Saturday, September 13, 1997

Change of habit for daughters of charity

By MAUREEN HAYDEN

Scripps Howard News Service

Three centuries after the followers of St. Vincent de Paul covered their hair with simple veils to look like the peasants they were serving, members of the religious order have removed the head coverings, saying their founder would have wanted it that way.

Last month, the Daughters of Charity followed the actions many of their fellow Roman Catholic sisters took 30 years ago with a decision to opt out of their traditional religious garb.

No longer will their members have to wear the distinctive light-blue uniform and head covering, called a "coif," when they are out among the public. Instead they have the option of wearing a blouse and skirt of simple design, with no veil.

"When St. Vincent founded our order in the 17th century in France, he wanted us to look like the people we were serving," said Sister Catherine Madigan, the head of the nine-state Daughters of Charity provincialate located in Evansville, Ind.

"The people have changed in their dress, but we hadn't," she said.

It was in June, when Daughters from 73 nations gathered in Paris for their general assembly, that the decision was made.

Many of the sisters - who provide health care and education - felt the habit had become an obstacle in the work they did, especially in some Third World nations. And yet because some members believe the habits can also work to their advantage, the Daughters have the choice between shedding them or not.

"Some of our members believe the habit is comforting to the people they serve," said Sister Madigan. "For some it's a witness of their faith. And in some neighborhoods where we work, it's protection."

The decision comes at a time when some religious orders are clinging to their traditional dress and pointing to the words of Pope John Paul II as justification.

In a papal letter issued last year, the Pope strongly suggested both priests and nuns wear their habits as a visible sign to the world of their vocations.

That was affirmation for the sisters who have stayed in habit, including members of the Order of St. Clare and the Little Sisters of the Poor.

"Wearing a habit doesn't make a person religious," said Sister Mary Martha Blandford, who lives in the Monastery of St. Clare in Evansville. "But it does make us appreciate more the vocation we've chosen. And it's a reminder to the public that in this time of turmoil, there are people leading a simpler life."

On a recent shopping trip, a young child spotted Sister Blandford and a fellow nun and hollered out: "Look, Mom, real nuns!"

"I've had people come up and thank me for wearing my habit," said Sister Blandford. "It makes people think about God and higher things."

And yet, she admits, the habit has also frightened some people off.

"I've had people almost dart away from me when they saw me," she said. "I guess they are scared or think 'She's weird.' "

For most religious orders, the question of what to wear was not an issue until the Second Vatican Council, a landmark event resulting in dramatic changes in the Catholic church.

Vatican II called upon members of religious orders to re-examine their roots and return to their original intent of serving the poor and spreading the faith. For many nuns, that meant initially wearing modified habits of shorter length and a simpler head covering.

But by the early 1970s, many religious communities dropped even the modified habit in favor of civilian clothes.

The reaction from the public was mixed.

Sister Margaret Ann Hagan was an accounting major in a secular college in 1968 when she and her fellow Ursuline nuns decided to stop wearing their habits.

"I felt totally accepted by the students," she said. "Although I was a big topic of conversation."

The issue of habits is controversial within the Catholic Church, said Dean Hoge, a theology professor at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Some church leaders blame the lack of habits for the dramatic drop in the numbers of priests and nuns.

Yet others think the habits took them away from their origins.

"In early Christianity, the disciples didn't set themselves off from the people as something special," said Ruth Wallace, a former Immaculate Heart of Mary sister and now a colleague of Hoge's at Catholic University. "Jesus didn't wear any special garb."

Despite the urging of the pope to return to traditional dress, Hoge doesn't think the nuns who have shed their habits would go back easily.

Unlike Catholic priests, who have little say in the rules that govern their lives, nuns belong to "communities" that have become increasingly democratic.

"They take real pride in being independent thinkers," said Hoge. "They have a certain level of freedom that priests don't have."

(Maureen Hayden is a reporter at The Courier in Evansville, Ind.)