Nepal’s first local nun makes history

(Aug. 01, 2012) In Nepal, Marina Sharma made history on Monday when she became the first Nepalese nun to join the country’s largest congregation of Catholic sisters, the Congregation of Jesus. The 22-year-old took her vows at a simple Eucharistic ceremony at St Mary’s School chapel in central Kathmandu, as she joined the oldest congregation of nuns in the country, who have been there since 1955. In his sermon, Bishop Anthony Sharma – the first Nepalese Catholic priest in Nepal – had a special message for the new sister’s family, all of them Hindus from Nepal’s highest Brahmin caste. He said “In Nepalese culture, right after a girl marries, she leaves home for good to go and live in her husband’s home, but in your case she will remain your daughter forever.” Initiation into a congregation of nuns remains a practice that is unfamiliar to the majority of people in the predominantly Hindu country. However, several more women were scheduled to take their vows, said Regional Superior for the Congregation of Jesus, Sister Margaret Mary. Sister Sharma took her first religious vows alongside a young Indian woman from Tamil Nadu in India, Sister Josephine Rita.