In 1846 in the city of Pittsburgh, a handful of the Sisters of Mercy
announced that they were going to open a hospital, the first in the
city, to care for the poor. A local newspaper, the Presbyterian Advocate, greeted the announcement by telling its readers that it believed the Sisters of Mercy were engaged in prostitution.
Religious orders of sisters have been a traditional target of the seamier side of Catholic urban legends—those falsifications of history that have become part of the cultural DNA of America. The animus against nuns persists today. It can be seen in such diverse places as the theater production Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and in unremitting attacks on Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta by the likes of comedians Penn and Teller and iconoclastic author Christopher Hitchens.
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/convent-horror-stories
Religious orders of sisters have been a traditional target of the seamier side of Catholic urban legends—those falsifications of history that have become part of the cultural DNA of America. The animus against nuns persists today. It can be seen in such diverse places as the theater production Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and in unremitting attacks on Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta by the likes of comedians Penn and Teller and iconoclastic author Christopher Hitchens.
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/convent-horror-stories
