Decision for Happiness, the true story of a young nun

[FamilyRosary]

I've never seen this video posted here before but if everyone has already seen it I apologize:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2pDxuipbG0&list=PLXiBPHG0vRl7DgWw1I_b1Gi2couCSKvQ5&index=8&t=349s[/yt]

It's the story of a young postulate to the Sisters of St. Agnes in 1959, her call to the vocation and her experiences as a young novice.

[Maximilian]

Thanks for posting this video.

Here is the unfortunate sequel:

The Sisters of St. Agnes were so embarrassed by the re-release of the 1958 video by the National Film Preservation Foundation that they created a counter-film to show that they have entirely repudiated everything that they stood for back then.

"This film was created in response to the re-release of Decision for Happiness (https: //youtu.be/N2pDxuipbG0) to show the many changes that are a result of Vatican II."

[Lynne]

Thanks for posting this video.

Here is the unfortunate sequel:

The Sisters of St. Agnes were so embarrassed by the re-release of the 1958 video by the National Film Preservation Foundation that they created a counter-film to show that they have entirely repudiated everything that they stood for back then.

"This film was created in response to the re-release of Decision for Happiness (https: //youtu.be/N2pDxuipbG0) to show the many changes that are a result of Vatican II."

Wow. 2019. 

[Maximilian]

Here is another video from the same time period:

[FamilyRosary]

Thanks for posting this video.

Here is the unfortunate sequel:

The Sisters of St. Agnes were so embarrassed by the re-release of the 1958 video by the National Film Preservation Foundation that they created a counter-film to show that they have entirely repudiated everything that they stood for back then.

"This film was created in response to the re-release of Decision for Happiness (https: //youtu.be/N2pDxuipbG0) to show the many changes that are a result of Vatican II."

I wasn't going to show that but I knew that sooner or later somebody would.

I have to ask a question that I'm posing on the Austrian chancellor thread and which is also being debated on the Iran thread.

Were those nuns faking it? It doesn't seem likely you would renounce husband and children in favor of the rigors of the convent if you didn't have some firm belief.

So if they were sincere at that time, what made them change? The collapse of Western Civ and return to tribalism of the 60's? Vat 2? Bishop Happy-Clappy? The changes in the liturgy?

And if those things made them change, how solid was their faith to begin with? How solid is any of our faith if we can so easily be persuaded to abandon it? And why did others never abandon it? Why did some abandon it and then later return to it? The Grace of God? Predestination? Circumstance?

If we are a remnant that has been favored by God to keep the faith, does that mean that God no longer desires Christendom? Are Christians supposed to be a tiny persecuted and ridiculed minority? What is the sense then of building a Catholic society? A society where the majority, damned to Hell, are just going through the motions, all so that we faithful few can live in a better place to raise our kids?

Or is this all just part of a cycle? The faithful few survive tribulations, construct a decent society which produces Godless self-indulgent hedonists, only to collapse again so that the faithful few can rebuild it? What am I missing here?

[Jayne]

Or is this all just part of a cycle? The faithful few survive tribulations, construct a decent society which produces Godless self-indulgent hedonists, only to collapse again so that the faithful few can rebuild it? What am I missing here?

I have been wondering if it is a "bookend" pattern.  We seem to be entering a time of being a persecuted minority in a hostile and immoral society.  It has far more in common with the earliest centuries of the Church than with Christendom.  I have been wondering if the last days are echoing the first days.

[FamilyRosary]

Or is this all just part of a cycle? The faithful few survive tribulations, construct a decent society which produces Godless self-indulgent hedonists, only to collapse again so that the faithful few can rebuild it? What am I missing here?

I have been wondering if it is a "bookend" pattern.  We seem to be entering a time of being a persecuted minority in a hostile and immoral society.  It has far more in common with the earliest centuries of the Church than with Christendom.  I have been wondering if the last days are echoing the first days.

Those first days produced a lot of martyrs and saints. I don't want to be a martyr. I just wanted to be the guy that goes to work, has a little house, a wife and kids, and goes to Mass on Sunday morning. I never wanted to be rich, or famous, or Number One in anything. I feel like Jonah or Bilbo Baggins, that God is calling me to be or do something that I'm not up to.

[Jayne]

I feel like Jonah or Bilbo Baggins, that God is calling me to be or do something that I'm not up to.

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

[Jacob]

So if they were sincere at that time, what made them change? The collapse of Western Civ and return to tribalism of the 60's? Vat 2? Bishop Happy-Clappy? The changes in the liturgy?

They probably had some Carl Rogers-influenced psychologist show up and put them into encounter groups where they were told to express their feelings.  Cf. the IHM sisters of California.

[Christe Eleison]

Welcome to the forum, Family Rosary!

Thanks for the thread & video. I am in shock to see what has happened....

I've never seen this video posted here before but if everyone has already seen it I apologize:

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2pDxuipbG0&list=PLXiBPHG0vRl7DgWw1I_b1Gi2couCSKvQ5&index=8&t=349s[/yt]

It's the story of a young postulate to the Sisters of St. Agnes in 1959, her call to the vocation and her experiences as a young novice.

[FamilyRosary]

So if they were sincere at that time, what made them change? The collapse of Western Civ and return to tribalism of the 60's? Vat 2? Bishop Happy-Clappy? The changes in the liturgy?

They probably had some Carl Rogers-influenced psychologist show up and put them into encounter groups where they were told to express their feelings.  Cf. the IHM sisters of California.

You could very well be right on that although I haven't seen any evidence one way or another. I think their collapse was not as dramatic and sudden as the Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters in LA, who went from the largest convent in the US to a handful in just one and a half years.

Rogers's assitant, William Coulson, later repented of what he had done and in an interview with EWTN says that

we did similar programs for the Jesuits, for the Franciscans, for the Sisters of Providence of Charity, and for the Mercy Sisters. We did dozens of Catholic religious organizations, because as you recall, in the excitement following Vatican II, everybody wanted to update, everybody wanted to renew; and we offered a way for people to renew, without having to bother to study. We said, we'll help you look within. After all, is not God in your heart? Is it not sufficient to be yourself, and wouldn't that make you a good Catholic? And if it doesn't, then perhaps you shouldn't have been a Catholic in the first place. Well, after a while there weren't many Catholics left.

Abraham Maslow, Rogers's colleague and another founder of humanistic psychology, warned Rogers and Coulson that their programs would have a disastrous effect on the religious because neither one of them believed in the existence of evil, which Maslow did believe in. Even Rogers later admitted that the whole program had been a mistake.

Oops.

[FamilyRosary]

I feel like Jonah or Bilbo Baggins, that God is calling me to be or do something that I'm not up to.

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

Gandalf is correct, of course, but like Jesus in the garden I still reserve the right to ask God to take the cup away, although in all things may His Will be done.

[FamilyRosary]

Here's the link to the interview Dr. Coulson did with EWTN if anyone's interested: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/story-of-a-repentant-psychologist-11932

It's a terribly depressing read. It would have been better if those religious had invited in Mr. Rogers instead of Dr. Rogers. Even Captain Kangaroo would have been a superior choice, he was at least Catholic. And a Republican too. The truth is I really like Captain Kangaroo. He had a lot of wisdom.

(I made a mistake. The interview was with Latin Mass magazine, EWTN just republished it.)

[Jacob]

I am familiar with it.  I wrote the first version of the IHM article at Wikipedia based off that interview and an article that used to be available at E. Michael Jones' site about the IHMs along with a lot of archived Time Magazine stories about the sisters from the sixties.

I wish Coulson or Rogers had written a book on the subject.  A few interviews and articles on the Web don't do the tragedy justice.

[FamilyRosary]

I am familiar with it.  I wrote the first version of the IHM article at Wikipedia based off that interview and an article that used to be available at E. Michael Jones' site about the IHMs along with a lot of archived Time Magazine stories about the sisters from the sixties.

I wish Coulson or Rogers had written a book on the subject.  A few interviews and articles on the Web don't do the tragedy justice.

Well, you seem to be a writer, and there seems to be a book that needs writing, and you seem to have the subject knowledge...I'm just saying...

Seriously, I would love to read a well-researched book on that subject. That's exactly the kind of thing that interests me, a macro big-picture look at something of transcendental importance that really hasn't gotten the justice it deserves.