Mother Teresa to Talk to Pope About Nuns in N.J.

Five cloistered nuns who locked themselves in their monastery in a dispute over moves to liberalize their austere life style were overjoyed today by news that Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa will speak to the Pope on their behalf.

“We’re delighted, because we know we’ll get some help,” said Sister John of the Cross, a spokeswoman for the Carmelite nuns who have been holed up in the infirmary wing of their convent since last week.

“Mother Teresa will see the Holy Father about us. It’s a positive sign for us that (the Pope’s decision) will be in our favor,” she said. “We know he’s very much behind the move to preserve the traditional Carmelite order throughout the world. He has been a supporter of keeping it conservative.”

Mother Teresa said in an interview published today that she will ask Pope John Paul II during a regularly scheduled visit to Rome to intercede on behalf of the five nuns.

“I’ll be going after two or three weeks,” the 1979 Nobel laureate told the Record of Hackensack.

Sister John and three others from the Order of the Discalced Carmelites, ranging in age from 28 to 45, locked themselves last Tuesday in the infirmary wing of the secluded Monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Morris Townhip.

A fifth nun, 72-year-old former prioress Mother Philamena, joined the group Wednesday. Mother Philamena, who is recovering from a pacemaker operation, feared she would be transferred to a nursing home by the current prioress, the nuns said.

The sisters say they are trying to avoid eviction from the convent, where they have been locked in conflict with a new prioress over a liberalization of their monastic, contemplative life style.