“A sad affair”, said Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, commenting on the expulsion on 10 October of a group of women, former sisters of the Family of Bethany, from the convent of Kazimierz Dolny, a little town on the banks of the river Vistula in southern central Poland. The archbishop recalled that the affair of the former nuns, who had not accepted the Holy See’s nomination of the new mother superior general and as an act of disobedience had chosen to isolate themselves in one of the houses belonging to the congregation – where they had remained barricaded for two years – “is especially sad for those persons who were forced into this situation”. Archbishop Nycz regretted deeply that all attempts of reconciliation, both at the diocesan level and that of the congregation, or the attempts to reach a compromise promoted by the Vatican, had failed to reach their hoped-for effects. The congregation, wishing to re-gain possession of the house that the former sisters has decided illegally to occupy, was forced to present a suit to the district court of Pulawy. The eviction order was carried out by judicial officials, with the help of the police, after almost a year since the decision of the Holy See to expel the disobedient nuns from the congregation. The Archbishop of Lublin Jozef Zycinski has taken steps, however, to ensure the women be given hospitality by families and retreat houses in the vicinity. Of the 65 sisters evicted, many young novices who have not yet taken their perpetual vows may ask for re-admission in other religious orders. But some of the more elderly ex-sisters no longer have that chance.
