Philadelphia Hosts Consecrated Virgins

By JEFF GAMMAGE, The Philadelphia Inquirer, San Antonio Express-News: World
Thu, 07/31/2014 - 7:55am

In the era of The Bachelorette and Dating Naked, of Fifty Shades of Grey and Snoop Dogg's "Ain't No Fun (If the Homies Can't Have None)," a woman who chooses to live in reverent chastity can seem a curiosity. Stegman, 58, is president of the U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins, dozens of whom gathered Wednesday at the Philadelphia Archdiocese's offices to talk about their lives in advance of a formal convocation in Malvern. The national conference, taking place from Tuesday through Friday, is expected to draw virgin candidates, bishops, priests, spiritual directors, and others interested in a vocation that's making something of a comeback. In simplest terms, a woman who becomes a consecrated virgin becomes a bride to Jesus, a devotion that includes her permanent physical virginity. Some women said they realized that in modern society, drenched as it is in sexual imagery, it might seem unusual for someone to intentionally remain a virgin. For decades, Caroline Blaszczyk, 65, lived a dedicated single life, taking care of her sick mother and working a government job. The woman "comes forward and says, 'I offer this gift of the virginity that Christ has given to me, I offer it back,' " Stegman said. In this country, they work as teachers, social workers, nurses, and physicians. Stegman, a certified public accountant, ran her own firm in Michigan, leaving it recently to devote more time to religious study.

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Topics:  ain   t have none),       grey   malvern   michigan   the   stegman   woman   offer   

 

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