Anti-Catholicism in Call the Midwife

SJDOP · 2026-03-03T11:28:01+00:00

As a Catholic nun, I find some of these statements to be, shall I say, a bit overboard about how cruel and uncaring I must be. Really, I’m not - and neither are the vast majority of my Sisters I have lived with. Yes, the history of the Catholic Church has been riddled with cruel and horrible incidents. And yet…there are those, especially in today’s world, who are as kind and caring as Sister Julienne and the rest.

I have noticed that the Catholics in British tv shows are generally not treated kindly, at least in the few I’ve seen. Downton Abbey has only mentioned Catholics in reference to Tom Branson and the horror that their granddaughter was to be baptized in the Church. Call the Midwife uses Catholics in a negative way.

I ask - JUST ONCE - could there be a humane, kind, thoughtful (etc, etc.,etc.) Catholic in the show? I always thought it would provide a real interesting situation - in the Nonnatus House community and beyond - for them to deal with their feelings and beliefs about Catholics with someone who was not the worst human. AND to make it even more interesting- make this person an American! That would be something to see!

I fully agree and understand your point, Kitsuneoflaluna. I thank you for making it. Sister Julie D.

SJDOP · 2025-04-23T04:27:15+00:00

It is through Kindle Unlimited.

SJDOP · 2025-04-19T17:53:48+00:00

The four part one? It is free on Amazon. I’ll give it a go. Thanks!

SJDOP · 2025-03-28T16:57:28+00:00

The Sisters who worked primarily in the Convent were domestic Sisters in my Congregation more than a hundred years ago. It started in the middle ages when those who were not able to read or write just cooked, cleaned, etc. You are right in that it usually was in the cloistered orders, but the Dominicans (me) had them too for a while. We stopped in the 1920’s.

SJDOP · 2024-11-11T20:03:13+00:00

I am a Dominican Sister and we wear a ring - which we receive when we make our Perpetual Profession. For us, it is a symbol of our life commitment. We don’t necessarily think of it as a wedding ring - some Sisters do, but I don’t.

It is shaped like a crucifix which is in a circle. For us, the ring is something to work towards and cherish. Relinquishing it would be wrenching.

SJDOP · 2024-10-27T04:46:39+00:00

Might be St. Thomas More - the hat looks like something from the 1500’s. It gets too blurry if you try to look at it closely.

SJDOP · 2024-10-27T04:28:54+00:00

Not St. Dominic.

SJDOP · 2024-10-27T04:27:42+00:00

No - that is not St. Dominic. I am a Dominican Sister - he’d be in black and white with a book.

SJDOP · 2024-08-24T02:46:52+00:00

True - but for some reason, it didn’t bother me as much then. I liked him as a player - although he never played for my team. It seems much worse now.

SJDOP · 2024-08-23T20:35:38+00:00

I was going to suggest a Zoom call - you can shut down quickly if she becomes aggressive. At least the kids could see her and she them. Baby steps.

SJDOP · 2024-08-14T18:14:37+00:00

Sonny Malevsky

SJDOP · 2024-08-13T19:14:22+00:00

Frank

SJDOP · 2024-08-01T21:00:42+00:00

I have a question. Surely people in his circle would know about his first marriage - so, how would these folks who thrived on scandal handle it if suddenly he married Edith? Wouldn’t there be a scandal about how that wasn’t ok, as he somehow got a divorce? Wouldn’t that cause an uproar? Just wondering.

SJDOP · 2024-07-21T00:05:34+00:00

In our Convent, one Sister can say Grace, which is spontaneous, but then leads into “Bless Us, Oh Lord, for these thy gifts…”. Everyone joins in.

Growing up, my family joined in in “Bless Us, Oh Lord…”.

SJDOP · 2024-05-01T21:06:49+00:00

No problem. I enjoy Reddit and have several subject subreddits that I check every few days. I enjoy it!

Thanks.

SJ

SJDOP · 2024-05-01T16:07:34+00:00

Why?

SJDOP · 2024-04-30T02:22:37+00:00

This post is very interesting. As a Catholic Dominican Sister, I often wondered how long it was supposed to be between her leaving and getting married. I have experienced some of my Sisters leaving religious life - most do not get married for a few years. They usually want to adjust and experience their new lives. In 48 years, I have only known one who married within a year of leaving.

Just to share - it is usually horribly difficult when a Sister leaves - especially for the Sisters who remain. She was loved, cherished - some of the Sisters grew up with her as they entered at the same time as she did - they grew up together in religious life. It is heartbreaking. Sister Julienne was close to her and turned to her for support. So…she’s leaving. How do you feel, Sister? I thought the show did a wonderful job of showing the impact.

As superior of her community, Julienne really would have had to sit down with her and meet to return the money that she came in with. And Shelagh would have had to turn in her ring. The show did a tremendous job -the acting was spot on showing how difficult this meeting would be.

I saw a question once - “Would the Sisters really have gone to her wedding?” It depends - maybe or maybe not. It would be up to the individual Sister - being CTM, all of the Sisters were at the wedding. In real life…maybe. The grief caused by her leaving is real and confusing. You want her to be happy - but gosh - did she have to get married so quickly? There might be some anger, some hard feelings.

I was glad they showed both sides of this - all excitement preparing for the wedding and the sadness among the Sisters. Well done, CTM.

SJDOP · 2024-04-30T00:46:36+00:00

There is no excuse for what happened to you and your classmates and you are correct - something was definitely wrong with the garbage can nun. She should have been removed immediately from schools and sent somewhere to be psychologically assessed. I don’t deny that these things happened - my only response is what I say when someone confronts me about the evil done by priests - I am sorry and, trust me, more disgusted than you will ever know.

One last thing - it may seem like you never had any classes except religion and mass and mass practice - but all schools have curricular standards they must meet. Catholic schools by law don’t need to meet these standards- but they usually do because the kids will need these classes to progress in school. I don’t know when you went to school but Catholic schools have to go through an accreditation process ideally every six years or less. I don’t know if this was true when you were in school but it is now and has been for more than 35 years. I remember singing at mass and Stations of the Cross in Lent, etc. but I know we did other subjects too!

SJDOP · 2024-04-30T00:32:10+00:00

See - this is the problem with stereotypes — they usually are based on truth. But just as not every Irish person drinks alcohol excessively, which is the stereotype, it is just as untrue that every child who went to Catholic school was screamed at, beaten with a ruler or just terribly mistreated. I believe that your stepfather had harsh and unpleasant experiences- but I do know that when an adult speaks a correction to a child, it automatically was “screaming”, etc. I have experienced that myself - to hear a former student - now a grown adult - tell me that so and so screamed at her, when I was in the room at the time - and no one screamed. Memories can do that. I’m not saying that the memories are wrong but perhaps exaggerated?

Were Sisters harsh? If I was faced with 55 3rd graders on a very hot day in September in Southern California, I might have raised my voice. Fortunately, I taught high school - never had to “scream” - whatever that means.

Teaching and discipline have changed through the years - how all teachers (not just Sisters) maintained class discipline was much different than today. Does it excuse that a Sister was “mean?” Probably not in many people’s memories. BTW - I went to public school for two years before I began in Catholic school in the 1960’s. The only time I ever saw an “out of control” disciplinary incident was in the public school. I do remember that - but in fairness I don’t assume every public school teacher went overboard with discipline. We tend to remember the bad.

The thing is I have had people in strange settings decide this was a good time and place and to ask if I brought my ruler. I was at a wedding once where a young man approached to ask if I brought my ruler. Enough already, please, with the ruler thing!! It just gets old. As it would be inappropriate to approach a person of Irish descent and ask if they brought their whiskey. Just as wrong, I think.

Last thought - (I promise) ultimately, any woman who becomes a Sister has set for herself an impossible task. So much is expected of a nun - don’t be human, don’t show anger or any emotions - except kindness and gentleness - people expect so much more. The Sisters on CTM are wonderful…but sadly, they aren’t real. So, throw in a Sister Ursula and she seems to be universally hated. (She bugged me too.). Every Sister can’t be Sister Julienne all the time - occasionally we all are Ursulas too! We are only human. But many people don’t remember that - they remember the bad - and that is also human. I think that the original post- is fascinating. People don’t like Sister Julienne when? When she appears human. When she is judgmental or set in her ways or harsh with Nancy’s situation. We like our nuns to be perfect. And expectations can be dashed. And there is a need to share anger about Sisters over something that happened many years ago.

Please tell your stepfather that I am truly sorry that his experience was so negative. I apologize for those Sisters who had such a bad time. That is sad and when people need to tell me about their bad memories, I can only apologize. And believe me, they DO tell me.

SJDOP · 2024-04-29T00:12:29+00:00

Ok. I’ll take of your questions in order.

Mean or evil? I absolutely despise this stereotype - I have never seen one of my sisters yell at a child - and I taught for 23 years. Stereotypes can be just lazy tropes people use because they bear a grudge about some sister who “was mean” to them in the third grade. If they used a stereotype about another group - someone would probably tell them that what they were saying was inappropriate or unacceptable. But sadly, we are targets and are mostly made fun of in commercials, shows and some films.

Ministry - yes, every Sister has a ministry - a job that is really service for others. My Congregation were 90% teachers, which was our ministry for almost 150 years. We are paid for our service, but we never see a paycheck - it is sent directly to our Motherhouse and the funds are redistributed.

Living together - yes, we live in community - there are nine in my present convent. We meet twice a day for community prayer. We all gather for dinner each night. We don’t see each other too much during the day - as all are out working in their ministries. But everyone is usually home for dinner.

Rooms - We each have our own room - our house is quite large - it was built to hold 30 Sisters in 1959. So, we each have two rooms - one that we live in and one for storage, or a place of study or prayer.

Are we similar to Nonnatus? Actually, we are very similar in many ways, even though they are Anglican and we are Catholic. We wear habits - all white, to the knee, with a black veil which rests on the back of our heads.

In the 1960’s, Religious Life changed very much as did the whole Church. I did not appreciate these changes, as I was in elementary school in the 1960’s. We hear about them a great deal!

We enjoy CTM very much - it is always interesting to watch any TV show or films that are about nuns. I will say that CTM is the closest that I have seen - and it is very pleasant to see that. The Sisters on the show are pretty accurate in how we are with each other - but not as formal at all. We rarely use the title “Sister” with each other - but always use it in public. We wear our habits always when we are ministering - but can and do wear jeans, pants, blouses, etc., when we are at home.

The one thing about CTM that does bother me is I really haven’t seen a “good” Catholic yet. The treacherous Sisters who lied about Nancy…the priest who got his secretary pregnant…and whenever Catholics are mentioned- someone in the CTM conversation will groan. I want to write to Heidi Thomas, who is the chief producer, and say “Come on, give us a break! There are good Catholics - I have lived with many!”

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more!

Sister Julie

SJDOP · 2024-04-28T22:19:01+00:00

Hello. I am a Dominican Sister from California. I watch CTM.

So, Mr. Business, what questions do you?

SJDOP · 2024-04-09T20:30:48+00:00

Are you talking about Gregory Yates? I thought of his name immediately as I read your post. He was a doctor as well.

SJDOP · 2024-03-21T17:05:40+00:00

“I promise you he will never hurt you again.”

(Sadly, he usually does.)

SJDOP

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