The Nation - News from Oct. 9, 1988

Five Carmelite nuns, who locked themselves behind closed doors to protest the introduction of TV and other modern trappings to their monastery, are seeking help from Mother Teresa, a spokeswoman said. Betty Sutton, a worker at the Monastery of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel in Morris, N.J., acting as a liaison to the nuns, said she telephoned Mother Teresa late Friday and asked her to intervene with Pope John Paul II on the nuns’ behalf. Sutton said at Mother Teresa’s request she mailed information about the case to India. The nuns have written to the Pope and have vowed to continue their protest until they get a response, a spokeswoman said. The protest began Tuesday when four cloistered nuns locked themselves into a wing of the monastery. They were joined by a fifth nun Wednesday, following a 10-month dispute with a liberal prioress, Mother Theresa Hewitt, who brought television, music, newspapers and candy into the monastery.