Can you join the Catholic Church if you are not a virgin?

I have been wondering this for years and I have always thought about becoming a Nun.
I would love to teach kids how to cook and well damn it I am getting too old to live with my Dad.

You can even join the Catholic Church if you don't drink.
John
Though I'm pretty sure the teetotalers can't join the Knights of Columbus.

:smoke:

Grandpa was a lifetime member of the K of C and he never drank in his life. His dad was a brewer, and grandpa made bathtub gin for grandma, but he never drank!

being a virgin will not prevent you from becoming a nun, but be prepared to be told that wanting to teach kids to cook and not live with Dad is not the same as a religious vocation.

Ain't easy becoming a nun. Converting to Catholicism is a bit of work, and then they really vet you to see if you are convinced about religious dedication or just trying to avoid life.

Then it's years as a novice until they think you're ready to take the final vows.

Many call in, but few are chosen. Or can handle it.

I did this before I was married but it was not for me after I learned all the stuff. I was married by a Priest but not in the church. I also had to sign a paper that I would bring up my children in the church.Married women with children do become nums but I think it is rare. Married men also become priest and I think you will see alot more of that as the church is having trouble getting Priest.I would think that these peoples families are gone when they do this, but I am not sure.

AFAIK you can become a nun if you're not a virgin, but after you become a nun you will be required to remain celibate.

Quentin robert de nameland down there right now, with a whole face-full of ’ignint mcnugget’, looking for a virgin with nice breath!

Why, maybe it’s you!
And you don’t even know it!
Hey, they’re really dancin’,
Dey really dancin’...
They’re on auto-destruct! on the floor on the pipe bouncin’ off-a the wall!
Right offa dat wall, too!
Hey, the people here are really tearin’ it up
Dey tearin’ it off!
On the side in the back by the front of the stage
Took de boy’s mohawk off!
They ain’t really crazy (you can take it from me)
Uh-oh! I smells trubba!
I should know, ’cause I go every time I’m in town
Christians comin’ up!
If you never tried it, lemme straighten you out:
Lemme straighten you out, now...
It’s the best kinda place to un-fasten yerself, while you
Get off dat wall now, boy!
Work the wall!
Dey workin’ de wall!
Work the floor!
Dey not only woikin’ it, dey turnin’ de damn thing!
Work the pipe!
De pipe?

:kick:

Yes you can become a nun if youre not a virgin.

You can join some convents without becoming a nun. You live the monastic life as a "civilian". It's a major commitment and one which should not be taken lightly. I'm pretty sure they'd look at your reasons for joining as not being valid.

Good luck.

You may take the vows to become a nun even if you are not a virgin, but upon doing so, you vow to spend the rest of your life in celibacy, in poverty, and in strict obedience to the wishes of your superiors regardless of their merit and your own desires.

More importantly, there is no reason to either join the church or to take sacred vows if you wish to teach children to cook.

http://www.acfchefs.org/ccf/ccfprgm.html

I am feeling a bit old.

First of all, you have to be Catholic. If you aren't already, you'll have to go through instruction at a church and get confirmed (and baptized, if you aren't already).

My friend found that the nuns are actually rather fussy about whom they will take. You have to have a medical and psychiatric evaluation, and you have to have held a job in the secular world for at least five years. In other words, they don't want anyone who is trying to run away from their problems or who can't cope in general.

You also need to determine whether you want to live like a nun. One way to try it out is to go on retreat at a convent. (I've been with groups that did this. Even Episcopal groups will sometimes go on retreat at convents that have particularly nice locations or facilities.) Usually, you pay the cost of your meals, attend all the scheduled services, and spend the rest of your time meditating or reading religious books.

Personally, having gone on a couple of these retreats, I wouldn't become a nun, even if I were Catholic. It's a nice, restful way to live for a weekend, but after a while, getting up at 5:00 AM, never having any privacy, attending services five to seven times a day, and spending my whole life with the same couple of dozen people would drive me batty.

In any case, I doubt that the nuns would accept you simply because you didn't want to live with your dad. There must be other ways to get out of the house. If your county has subsidized housing for people on disability, now is the time to put your name on the waiting list.

Gave me subsidized housing or I would be homeless right now. I had to take my Dad in and I am putting him on the lease because he lived with us when we lost our house to a foreclosure.

I am ugly now and old looking and I think that I am going through a depression because of my birthday that is coming up.

I love helping people and I don't think that I can ever have kids because of the bypass surgery.
The gastric bypass messed me up for life and I posted about it over a year ago.
I asked the Doctor questions about my situation and she made a joke about it. She was the one that had a brother running for congress on the Republican ticket and told the patients in my therapy group to vote for him. I stopped going to my gastric bypass therapy group because she yelled at me to shut up when I was being honest with people who were looking into getting the surgery. I told them the truth and I believe in telling people the truth and she went nuts.
I said FU to her and I walked out.

One thing that I would have to straighten up is my swearing because it's a bad habit. I keep saying bloody hell at culinary college and most of the people don't know what I mean.

My Chef tells me that he wants to fix me up with a friend of his and I have never mentioned to him that I want a date. I fell behind in my classes and I am f*cked up big time.
If I don't get through my college I will be on disability the rest of my life.

I have several uncles that are preachers in the Carolinas. My cousin is a missionary and my mom's side of the family were Dutch and from a religions sect like Mennonite's. She was taught to wait on her husband before she took care of herself and all of her sisters did the same thing :puke:.
My Mom's aunts were Jewish and there was a big fight on burying my Mom is a Catholic Cemetery because the Aunts were from her Mother's side of the family.

We are a mixed mutts when it comes to religion.

With the way Bush & his crime family have things going everyone is going to need religious help.

At one time I was wanting to start several charities.
(This was before we lost our house)

One charities was going to be for the poor in the South who had lost jobs because of plants closing. I would have helped them go through a college program for training on a field that they could find work in their state in.

Another Charity was going to be for poor people who own pets.
When you are broke you can get help on human food but there is nothing for Cat's.
I use to feed my Cat's and I wouldn't eat before I found out about places that would help you when you are hungry. I would go in and ask them for all of their tuna or canned chicken for my cats and I wouldn't eat. At the time I had 4 cats, 3 dogs and a bird. The bird I could fee because her food didn't cost much.
Also, I wanted to help poor people with voucher's to take their pets to the Doctor.

I just started taking a new medication and it's making me feel a bit odd.

IIRC, the Sisters of Charity take temporary 4-year vows before their permanent vows.

There are many different orders of nuns, all with differing requirements. If you want to sign up with the Church, I'd advise going to a few Masses in a few different parishes, finding a local order and speaking with sisters, speaking with priests (good luck finding them!)

As another poster said, you do not have to convert and take vows before you can help and teach children. The idea that nuns all are teachers is a stererotype, also.

As a former Catholic (I left when I no loger accepted the idea of the divinity of Jesus) who very seriously for years contemplated joining an order, I have to tell you that I think joining as a nun (or priest for that matter) at this time of crisis in the church is not a good idea more because you are not joining a healthy institution. If you are not even Catholic at this point, your thought of becoming a nun will take years to happen anyway. Go through the conversion process first - that will be enough to keep you busy for some time.

May Dame Fortune illuminate your way.

You can even become a priest AFTER you have children.

Well, I am married so I don't think that I am going to become a nun anytime soon if ever. If my husband died, I might convert to Catholicism to become a nun. It is funny that I never though about it until I was already married and out in the world of work. It reminds me of my coworker being suprised that his niece was becoming a nun because she gave up a good sales job where she made close to a six figure salary. Like his niece, I think that being a nun would be much more meaningful than any other work in the market economy that I could do. There are many jobs that nuns do but many focus on helping people. I've never been big into materialism and money so the poverty wouldn't bother me as they live it, simply but with all needs met. I would think that the obedience thing might bother me, but on the otherhand I feel like that in my current job so I could learn to live with that. I'd know that I'd always have the other sisters to be there for me and I for them. As far as celibacy, I'd go through sex withdrawal but I've found that when my husband goes away on trips that my drive actually declines after about a week. I think I'd want to be a nun depending on what else was going on in my life. I'm married though so I'll keep that committment instead.
You can become a nun if you are not a virgin but if you have children, I think that you have to wait until they are 18.

but not virginity.

My age will take care of that.

know that you've been fornicatin' cause he'll tell you that you're going to hell!