Roman Catholic Nuns

In the Roman Catholic system, nuns play an important role. They are subtle workers who, behind the scenes, handle all the administrative activities required to maintain the church system, train children, run public schools, hospitals and much more.

The recruitment of nuns

The role of a sacrificial nun who submits her life to the service of the church might not sound like an aspiring vocational call for any teenage girls.

Despite this, thousands of women have sought to become nuns. What makes the church so successful at recruiting so many women?

Well, one of the ways in which they are recruited is through confessionals. This is where the priest is able to source out those who are gullible and who could be easily swayed into giving their lives in submissive service to the church.

Some women may feel more inclined to do anything to rid themselves of the pain and shame associated with the sins they confess, like someone who has been in a recent shattering relationship and is struggling with depression.

Many priests are adept at preying on sensitive souls who keep returning for confessional after confessional. As soon as a suitable pain or suffering occurs, they sneak in the idea of joining the church.

According to Loraine Boettner (an American theologian and author known for his critical works on Roman Catholicism) in his book on Roman Catholicism;

“In the setup of the Roman Catholic Church it is he confessional box that feeds the nunneries. The groundwork is done on the Catholic girl in the parochial school where the nun is made an object of holy glamour, a replica of the Virgin Mary.

The institution of the confessional makes it easy for the priest to find the girls they want and naturally try to select the choice ones. Ordinarily confessions begin at the age of seven. Through this means the priest comes to know the very heart and soul of those who confess, which to them would be desirable in the service of the church, and which can be persuaded and which cannot.

It’s easy for a trained priest to seize a passing fancy and blow it into a full-scale vocation. Once the victim has been chosen, pressure is applied directly and indirectly until the battle is won. Appeals are made to the girl’s Christian sense of duty. The girl’s natural reluctance to enter into such a life is pictured as the evil influence of the world and the Devil.”

And then he writes,

“Usually the most opportune time for persuading a girl to enter a convent comes just after she’s been disappointed in love. Blighted romance often affords the priest his most valuable opportunity.”

Helen Conroy writes in her book Forgotten Women in Convents notes:

“A jilted girl in the first rush of shame and agony at the shattering of her romance is an easy victim of any priest. Knowing that such intense grief cannot last long, the girl is urged to go into a convent at once… [They] give up everything they possess… which becomes immediately the church’s possession.”

Conroy also notes, “The girl’s mind is poisoned against the mother who bore her… This doctrine of hatred of parents fully explains why a girl is not allowed to dispose of her property until 60 days before she is to take the veil (become a nun) and the vows” [the period where she is expected to accept the convent as her real home].

The hard life of a nun

Choosing to leave one’s family (and even hating them) is one of the most challenging parts of entering a convent.

An emotional disconnect like this can lead to psychological trauma. Essentially, the woman must die to all maternal instincts, as well as the idea of ever being cared for by a man.

Former priest Emmett McLoughlin, in his book People’s Padre (1954), described the life of a nun as follows;

“The nun is one of the most remarkable products of the Roman Catholic Church. She’s an absolute slave, one whose willingness to offer her life should fill communist leaders with jealousy. One from whom the hierarchy conceals her slavery by the wedding ring on her finger. One who believes that in shining the bishop’s shoes, waiting on his table or scrubbing the floor, she is gathering treasure in heaven. She is the one who makes possible the church’s hundreds of hospitals, the one who teaches in parochial schools and orphanages and so forth. She is also a woman with all the desires, instincts, loyalties, and hatreds of which a woman is capable; subservient to her man through her indoctrination of her wedding to Christ; often catty and gossipy towards sister nuns and hospital nurses; maternal in her hoverings over priests and children; matriarchal in her petty policies for the control of her hospital and convent.”

The recruitment of nuns in the Roman Catholic Church is deeply rooted in emotional and psychological tactics. As critics like Loraine Boettner, Helen Conroy, and Emmett McLoughlin have highlighted, vulnerable women—often in moments of distress or heartbreak—are targeted and persuaded to join the convent. Once inside, they are stripped of their possessions, disconnected from their families, and subjected to a life of sacrifice and servitude.

The picture that emerges is not one of spiritual fulfillment but rather one of a harsh, isolating existence where personal freedom and desires are suppressed in the name of duty and religious devotion. This stark reality challenges the romanticized view of convent life, revealing the underlying pressures and hardships faced by those who choose—or are coerced—into this path.