In a move that religious scholars say is unprecedented, 10 of the 12 nuns at an Episcopal convent in Catonsville left their church Thursday to become Roman Catholics, the latest defectors from a denomination divided over the ordination of gay men and women.
The members of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor were welcomed into the Catholic Church by Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, who confirmed the women during a Mass in their chapel. Each vowed to continue the tradition of consecrated life, now as a religious institute within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
"We know our beliefs and where we are," said Mother Christina Christie, superior of the order that came to Baltimore in 1872. "We were drifting farther apart from the more liberal road the Episcopal Church is traveling. We are now more at home in the Roman Catholic Church."
Also joining the church was the Rev. Warren Tanghe, the sisters' chaplain. In a statement, Episcopal Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton wished them God's blessings.
"Despite the sadness we feel in having to say farewell, our mutual joy is that we remain as one spiritual family of faith, one body in Christ," he said.
The women join the movement out of the nation's sixth-largest Protestant denomination since the 2003 consecration of its first openly gay bishop thrust long-standing divisions over homosexuality out into the open.
Their departure, which the sisters said they had been considering for years, comes weeks after voters at the Episcopal General Convention declared homosexuals eligible for any ordained ministry within the church and began writing prayers to bless gay unions.
"As we interpret Scripture, it does not give you license to be actively involved in a same-sex relationship," said Christie, who became a nun in 1966. "It is not the person we have a problem with. It is what that person is doing. And now that the Episcopal Church has given permission to bless these partnerships, it is way off the boat."
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered." It celebrates marriages only between men and women.
Other Episcopalians frustrated with the direction of the American church have broken away and sought separate recognition within the worldwide Anglican Communion. One such group, the Anglican Church of North America, formed from four dioceses and several individual parishes in the United States and Canada, held its first national assembly in June.
