Monday, October 15, 2007

Polish police end nun rebellion

Polish police have evicted a group of defrocked Roman Catholic nuns from a convent they were occupying in defiance of the Vatican.
Bailiffs used ladders to scale the walls of the convent in the eastern town of Kazimierz Dolny, and opened the gates to let in some 150 policemen.

The police found some 65 nuns, a baby and a Franciscan monk in the building.

The nuns resisted attempts to replace their mother superior, who claims to have seen visions of the Holy Spirit.

Last year, the Vatican expelled 10 of the nuns from their order - the Congregation of the Sisters of Bethany.

However the sisters remained and were later joined by a number of novices.

A Church spokesman has likened the group to a sect, and said the nuns had been subjected to mental manipulation.

A Polish court earlier this year approved a request from the Bethany order to evict them.

On Wednesday police in riot gear found the nuns and their mother superior inside the convent playing guitar and singing religious songs, a police spokesman said.

Police also found one woman with a baby, whom they later took to hospital.

The women were seen being escorted from the convent.

Franciscan monk Roman Komaryczko, the nuns' alleged spiritual leader, was led away in handcuffs.
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