APwa 09/03 1936 Island Nuns SHAW ISLAND, Wash. (AP) -- One of three small groups of nuns

APwa 09/03 1936 Island Nuns


   SHAW  ISLAND,  Wash. (AP) -- One of three small groups of nuns
that broke away  from  a  mainstream  religious  order  has  been
criticized  by  neighbors  and  called  a  cult  by  some  former
associates.

   "Excepting that it's not in the jungles  of  Guyana,  it's  as
dangerous as  Jonestown," said the Rev.  Robley Whitson, a priest
in Bethlehem, Conn., who once had close ties to the nuns.

   His reference to the mass suicides by followers of  Jim  Jones
was  included  in  a story in Wednesday's editions of the Seattle
Times.

   The Seattle Catholic archdiocese  has  investigated  the  Shaw
Island  nuns,  and  Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen's report on the
Religious Sisters of Mercy from Alma, Mich.,  has  been  sent  to
Pope   John  Paul  II's  representative  in  the  United  States,
Archbishop Pio  Laghi.    The  report  will  not  be   disclosed,
archdiocesan officials say.

   The other two groups are the Benedictine Nuns of the Primitive
Observance,  based  in  Bethlehem,  Conn., who farm and wear long
habits;  and  the  Franciscan  Sisters  of  the  Eucharist,  from
Meriden,  Conn.,  who  reportedly  run  counseling centers and an
adoption agency.  The Sisters of Mercy are professionals who  run
homes for the poor, mainly in Michigan and Minnesota.

   A  Saginaw,  Mich., probe was begun at Laghi's request after a
series of newspaper articles in Michigan detailing  criticism  of
the  orders,  said  Sister Janet Fulgenzi of the Saginaw diocese.
She would not  comment  on  the  scope  of  the  inquiry  or  any
complaints about the nuns.

   The Rev.   Thomas Barry, secretary to Hartford Archbishop John
Whealon, said the archdiocese has received a few complaints  over
the  years  from  people  who felt the nuns put undue pressure on
relatives who  joined  the  orders.    But  Whealon   found   the
complaints unwarranted, Barry said.

   Members  of  all three orders, whose nuns are accountable to a
Vatican commission in Rome, refused to comment on their  work  or
on criticisms of them.

   The  orders once were progressive communities that anticipated
many of the changes of the Second Vatican Council in  the  1960s,
which  called  for  a greater role for laity and other changes in
the Catholic church, Whitson said.

   However, added Whitson, a theologian, under the Rev.   Francis
Prokes'  guidance,  beginning in the late 1960s, the three orders
began to exhibit traits of a cult: strict control over followers,
isolation from family members, paranoia  and  preoccupation  with
money, sex and power.

   Prokes'   teaching  is  marked  by  "an  extreme  pathological
preoccupation with female sexuality," Whitson said.

   Among the critics of the orders are Tom and Mathilda McMackin,
who were involved with the three orders for more than  10  years.
In  1980, one of the Sisters of Mercy asked the couple to give up
the child they were expecting for adoption.  The  couple  refused
and left the community, McMackin said.

   Mrs.  McMackin said she has been cut off from any relationship
with  nine  of her siblings, one a Benedictine nun and the others
lay members of the community, and from friendships with others in
the orders' community.

   Together, the three orders have about 200  members  and  about
100  lay  followers, who often live near the nuns and whose lives
are closely tied to the nuns' activities.

   Only about nine nuns actually live on Shaw Island;  about  six
Benedictines,  and  three  Franciscans, who run the ferry landing
and manage the island's only store.

   Many of the island's 120 residents have argued  in  court  and
before  county  officials that a building the nuns erected should
be torn down, saying the nuns should abide by the  land-use  code
that keeps Shaw rural and residential.

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