February 21, 2012: The Oscar night at Hollywood in this year will have an unusual
guest -- a cloistered nun. She will be walking the red carpet at the Kodak Theatre
where a documentary on her, "God is Bigger Than Elvis," is up for an Academy Award. "I'm
always excited by Hollywood," said Mother Dolores, a Benedictine nun who was a Hollywood
actress alongside Elvis Presley 47 years ago. She went on to perform in several more
films in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1961 she played St Clare in Francis
of Assisi. That year she met Pope John XXIII. She told him: "I'm Dolores Hart, the
actress playing Clare." The Pope said: "No, you are Clare!" Those words were prophetic,
as a few years later Dolores entered the Regina Laudis Benedictine Abbey in Connecticut,
USA and took her final vows there in 1970. The nun said her excitement is “even
bigger now because I'm not looking for a part." She said her archbishop and abbess
encouraged her to participate in the film because they felt this was part of her mission. Mother
Dolores Hart became Prioress of the Abbey in 2001, but she remains a member of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, having in recent years become the only
nun to be an Oscar-voting member.