c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Popular art has often imitated religious life in the last 60 years, offering some glimpses into the changing habits of American nuns.
In 1945, Ingrid Bergman portrayed a sympathetic but more authoritative religious superior going back and forth with Bing Crosby in “The Bells of St. Mary’s.”
The joyous smile of Sally Field in the television show “The Flying Nun” captured the optimism and youthful vitality of religious life in the mid-’60s, when the number of nuns was at an all-time high.
It was also a time when Julie Andrews’ musical portrayal of a caring novice in “The Sound of Music” helped that film surpass “Gone With the Wind” as the all-time box-office champ and had lots of young girls considering life in the convent.
In more recent times, films such as “Sister Act” with Whoopi Goldberg and “Dead Man Walking” with Susan Sarandon as death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean show sisters moving out in the community and working for social justice.
KRE/PH END RNS
Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for photos of Andrews, Bergman, Goldberg and Field to accompany this story. Search by slug. Accompanies mainbar, RNS-YOUNG-NUNS, transmitted July 28.
