On Wed, 23 Feb 2005, DSR wrote:
> Egads, I guess we better not mention gay divorce!
That's very funny. But actually, I can tell you from experience, he'd have no trouble with it.
I had four aunts on my mother's side who were nuns. When she married my father, a divorced Jew, she was excommunicated, not because he was a Jew, but because he was divorced. The two nuns who were still alive at that point, Sisters Bernard and Iraneus, continued for 10 years to address all mail to her in her maiden name, including our annual Christmas package of unsanctified communion wafers, which we used to eat with honey. At that point there they finally relented, agreed to visit for the first and last time, and thereafter addressed her mail using her married name.
After 25 years of marriage, my parents divorced. My mother was so scared of telling Sister Iraneus she put it off for two years. Finally she got up the courage and told her. And Sister Iraneus danced around the convent with an energy that belied her 85 years. My mother said "Sister Iraneus, did you hear what I said? I got divorced!" But eventually she got it. As far as Sister Iraneus was concerned, she'd been living in sin for 25 years, and now -- hallelujah -- she had finally stopped.
Michael