Monday, October 16, 2006 Seares: Carmelite nuns’ clout By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
MANY people associate nuns with vows of chastity, poverty, or silence and the women forsaking one, two, or all three for God.
In movies, people remember Flying Nun and Singing Nun. Moviegoers blessed, or cursed, to watch Spaniard Pedro Almodovar’s films see nuns unavoidably: the Pedro recipe is “sex, actress Carmen Maura, nuns, and drugs (and nuns).”
Nuns usually don’t land in the news except when they join street protests. Images of Edsa 1 teem with nuns who, with rosary beads and flowers, braved army tanks and guns.
In Cebu, Carmelite nuns are known for anti-rain prayers. Those not wishing a festivity rained out send chicken eggs to go with Carmelites’ petition for good weather.
What prayers do
Carmelites are famous for something else. Then president Cory Aquino was given safety in their monastery when Edsa 1 broke out. Now President Arroyo seeks nuns’ company and prayers whenever she can. (Glo must need all the support there is, especially from nuns who see egg use beyond omelette.)
Carmelite clout packs a wallop. That may be why residents at or near Juan Luna Ave., Cebu City tug nuns’ habit to stop a flyover/underpass project near the monastery.
And they might win. Prayers, even without eggs, can send floods to a desanctified state project. Not counting barrage of messages nuns can fire to the Boss about health or tenure of politicos.
