The same thing happened to “The Singing Nun” of the Sixties who would eventually commit suicide with her lesbian lover. Worldly fame and the religious life go together as well as bleach and vinegar.
Not In The Slightest
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I would guess that deep down she was probably looking for a way out of her vocation. You don’t give up God so easily for the world, if God indeed was the centre of your life.
Sometimes the reverse happens: growing up in a Lebanese Christian household I was familiar with a Lebanese singer by the name of Rabih El-Khawli who gained fame around the Middle East in the 80’s and 90’s, even singing for Presidents and Royalty. After his brother died from a motorcycle accident he reassessed his life. He gave away his wealth and fame and became a monk in the Catholic Maronite order and later a priest. He changed his name back to his birth name Tony. I visited the a monastery of St Rafqa in North of Lebanon in 2000 where he lived and people would talk about how he lived a very solitary existence and would fast, pray, sing in the Church. Fr Tony El-Khawli O.L.M now travels and talks and he visited Our Lady of Victory Parish in Pittsburgh in 2014. I couldn’t find much on the Internet about him except this article:
https://www.albawaba.com/amp/news/lebanese-singer-rabih-khawli-becomes-monk
I would agree with you Ezabelle about the move out of religious life. Either you have the call or don’t. You can’t give what you don’t have and maybe she just didn’t have it to give to Him.
I’m always in awe of great singers.
I imagine them conversing with God early on in the development of the talent.
God is so very kind that He as allows us free will. Many take their talents to stardom…of a sort. Many too…are able to stay in His company and sing strictly for His glory. Those individuals are heavenly bodies and stars that never fade away.
May this young woman not follow the way of the “Singing Nun”. May Cristina remain faithful to Christ outside the consecrated life.
Her Superiors should have known better than to allow a young religious to appear on trash TV. They are partly to blame for her defection.
The “Signing Nun”? The Belgians had no nun who went by that title.
Corrected. They didn’t have the singing nun either. That title was popular in English speaking nations. In Belgium I believe her appellation was “the happy nun”.
Kathryn Hulme was the author of The Nun Story. She drew many accounts from the religious life of former Sister Xaverine S.C.J.M. (Marie Louise Habetse) whom she met while working on an international project working to resettle refugees and others displaced by the war. The book is not a biography of Habetse. Much of it is fiction. Hulme seemed to think based on observation of Habetse that she was very damaged by the war in her homeland of Belgium.
In time the became friends and lived together in Arizona, California and lastly in Hawaii.
Hulme worked as an author and Habetse continued her nursing career. Interesting that Habetse nursed Audrey Hepburn when she was injured on the set of The Unforgiven.
Hulme converted to Catholicism; both women remained Catholic til death. Hulme died in 1981, aged 81 and Habetse in 1986, aged 81. I had heard the story that they were lesbians but there is mention of this in their wikipedia bios. Nor of suicide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Hulme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Louise_Habetse sister from the Nun Story
“Sometimes the reverse happens…”
That’s a very good point, Ezabelle. Here’s one fairly well-known example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Hart#Vocational_calling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8a9nqj2W-A
The Singing Nun (aka Soeur Soirire or Sister Smile) was born Jeanine Deckers in Belgium in 1933, took the religious name Sister Luc Gabriel, and recorded her big hit “Dominique” in 1963. She left the convent in 1966, but remained a practicing (though not completely orthodox) Catholic afterward. She lived with a female friend for the last 14 years of her life and publicly insisted they were platonic friends, not lesbians, although her biographers claim otherwise. They both committed suicide by overdose in 1985 and are buried side by side in their Belgian hometown.
Thanks Elaine. What a pitiful ending. Sounds like she had deep personal issues. I’m sorry she saw no hope in the end. With God there is always hope. Always.
Sounds like the former nun Jeanine Decker and her friend were hounded by the press about their supposed lebianism. Perhaps it influenced in part their decision to end the pain by suicide. Once the untrue accusation or statement about gayness is online it is difficult to squash that rumor. As we know the gay community has an an agenda.
An unfounded rumor made the rounds a few years about the friendship of Hulme and Habetse (Nun Story model) a few years ago when The Nun Story was being shown on several movie services. I made a typo in my comment about the supposed lesbianism of Hulme and Habetse, there was NO mention of lesbianism in the Wiki bios nor was in their many private papers.