Monday, February 06, 2006


Sometimes I try and give my blog a little humor, and I wanted to celebrate the Steelers superbowl win...but how to do that...Hmmm....what, a convent of Nuns who are Steeler fans. I'll just repost the story:


Nuns follow Steelers religiously

By Jim Ritchie TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday, February 6, 2006 A wooden statue of Jesus sits atop a shelf overlooking a common room in the Felician Sisters Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Convent in Moon. Hanging beneath Jesus is a newspaper poster of "Big Ben" Roethlisberger. Then there's the small Christmas tree, stripped of its ornaments and instead adorned with Steelers pennants, ribbons and even a yellow bus in tribute to running back Jerome Bettis.

Yep, the sisters are Steelers fans -- big time. "We love our Steelers," said Sister Mary Naomi Suba, who eagerly awaited kickoff of Super Bowl XL Sunday evening. "We've watched every game. It's so exciting." Suba and more than 20 other sisters gathered in the St. Felix of Cantalice Household common room to watch the game. Each suite, or household, is named after a saint. About 70 nuns live in the convent, including those who are semi-retired or retired, and others who are elderly or ill. Some work at nearby schools, such as Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School, which is attached to the convent.

The Felician Sisters are a Franciscan community of women. The Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Province has been in Western Pennsylvania since 1888. They arrived in black and gold, and not just their habits. There were Steelers socks, ribbons, players' jerseys and even black and gold eyeglasses. A few waved Terrible Towels after the good plays, and one brought black and gold pompoms. They gathered in front of a large Zenith television, sharing snacks as they watched.

"We have a lot of sports fans, including some Pirates fans and hockey fans," said Sister Mary Christopher Moore. "Part of it is pride in the city and part is the whole Pittsburgh mystique about our hard-working ethnic neighborhoods. We taught a lot of people from these neighborhoods." They cheered and jeered, rising to their feet with the good plays and sinking in their chairs with the bad ones.

Many enjoyed the pre-game introductions of past Super Bowl Most Valuable Players, cheering for Franco Harris and Lynn Swann -- heroes from the 1970s teams that won four NFL championships.
They said they would have preferred Bruce Springsteen for the halftime show than the Rolling Stones. And they enjoyed the Burger King and FedEx commercials. Their favorite Steelers player: Safety Troy Polamalu, who crosses himself before and after each play.


Favorite pass...wait for it...Hail Mary. You had to know that joke was gonna happen. So my real question: They are in Pennsylvania so are they Penn State or Notre Dame fans? I know it is not a picture of American football above but do you know how hard it is to find a picture of Nuns playing sports.

2 comments:

DavidNic said...

Wow..I'm sorry you have had such bad experiences with Nuns. Mine have been pretty good. Maybe they are different here. Sometimes they were a bit strict, but they were always kind. I went to Catholic shcool all of my life and they played with us in Gym.

Maybe it was because it was a girls school. Mine were mixed gender.

Anonymous said...

I think that's an opinion shared by most 14-year-olds about their teachers, no matter who or where they are. Didn't we all think we knew everything, at that age?

They didn't let us curse like that, though.

Love the nuns, Dave. :)