Occasionally I am asked if a person has to be Catholic in order to become a nun. There are a number of ways to approach this question.

First, the word nun is used across religious traditions to refer to a woman who takes vows “committing her to a religious life.” Wikipedia further notes that “the term ‘nun’ is applicable to Roman Catholics, Eastern Christians, Anglicans, Lutherans, Jains, Buddhists, and Taoists, for example.”

Here in the United States, the word nun most often refers to the Catholic variety of nuns because that’s probably what most people are familiar with, even outside of Catholic circles. And for many the distinction between nun and sister is rarely if ever noticed by those outside of religious life (a term that refers to a way of life characterized by the vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience).

Still there are a number of people who have a kind of generic image of nuns as women who dedicate themselves to God, pray a lot, and do good for others. Sometimes this image is also associated with a rejection of not only the world but with ordinary living and being human … that that nuns somehow live a blissfully peaceful, utopia-esque life that is totally unencumbered by the ordinary stuff of life — relationships, heartache, struggle, joy, fun, suffering, busy-ness, etc. While it is true that we live a different kind of lifestyle and seek peace by the grace of God, we are still human and are affected by the world we live in and our own humanity whether we are cloistered nuns or nuns living in the mainstream world. All that is to say that for people who have the generic image of nuns, they may have no idea that being a nun means that your vows and your way of life is located within a particular religious tradition, not just free floating.

The Roman Catholic Christian tradition, of which I am a member, is not the only religious tradition, nor is it even the only Christian tradition that has nuns. I recently read an article about Episcopal nuns who belong to The Order of Saint Helena in Augusta, Georgia. There’s even some who blog — check out Sister Claire Joy who is also a member of Sister Bloggers, “Catholic Sisters, Episcopal Sisters, women in formation, those discerning a religious vocation and others who want to join the conversation.” There are also ecumenical communities of nuns such as the Benedictine Women of Madison whom I’ve had the joy of meeting.

So the answer to the question really is, No, you don’t have to be Catholic to be a nun, but you do have to belong to a particular religious tradition. If you want to be a Catholic nun, then yes, you have to be Catholic!