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Comment by codingdave | Hacker News Reader

> no different than a monk or a nun (whose beliefs are weaved into everything they say)

How many monks or nuns have you know? I grew up going to Catholic schools, and can assure you that monks, nun, and priests are real people who have real conversation. Maybe not the ones who choose to join the specific order the woman from the article joined, but in general, yes.

I can sympathize that your friend grew apart from you. I've had friends do the same. But that is life. It would be short-sighted to write off entire groups of people because of one person's experience.

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Roman Catholics monks often being "real people who have real conversation" is largely the result of certain monastic orders being created with laxer rules on interacting with the secular world. Historically, and still today within stricter Catholics orders and in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, monks and nuns are encouraged to limit conversation on secular themes. Definitely one can go and interact with the monks or nuns, but that interaction is best limited to conversation on spiritual themes, discussion of work that has to be done, or just enjoying the silence together.

My folks knew a woman who became a Discalced Carmelite. Visiting was mostly through a screen. On the other hand, I distinctly remember going with my mom into the convent garden, on the nun's invitation, to get some plants to take home. This would have been about 1973. Whether a man would have been allowed into the garden in the 1950s, of course I have no idea.

This woman did have general conversation, yes. I understand that she later became a hermit.

>I grew up going to Catholic schools

Me, too. Church every Sunday and Bible studies every week (for many years), plus Catholic school (for a year).

I'm not saying they are one-dimentional. I'm saying their views on many subjects tend to be filtered through their religious belief. Different from a plumber, a banker or a teacher who wouldn't filter their perspectives on many subjects through their vocation.

> Different from a plumber, a banker or a teacher who wouldn't filter their perspectives on many subjects through their vocation.

Not their job, but in many cases they’d filter it through their religious, political, or otherwise ideological beliefs. Which, ib the case of specifically Catholic religious views would (as well as their status as a married person or committed single) be considered as much part of their vocation as it would be for someone called to religious life and/or holy orders.

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