Several of the women evicted from a convent in Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, on last Wednesday (October 10) evidently tried to re-enter the building on Thursday night.Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin, in whose jurisdiction the embattled convent lies, reported that 6 of the nuns who had been ousted from the convent made an attempt to regain possession.
The eviction of the former nuns came after a lengthy battle in which the women had defied orders from their religious superiors, the local archbishop, and the Vatican.
The defiant women had been expelled from their religious order even before a Polish court authorized their removal from the convent building.
A locksmith had opened the gate to the walled convent in the eastern Polish town of Kazimierz Dolny and police in riot gear pushed forward, encountering an onslaught of verbal aggression from some of the former nuns.
Several hours later the women, in black habits and each escorted by two policewomen, began filing out of the building. Some carried musical instruments, while others bore simple backpacks or carried large blue garbage bags.
The women walked calmly out of the convent, through a tree-dotted courtyard, and on to one of three buses, the last of which finally pulled away more than six and a half hours after the operation began.
Polish news media have reported that Mother Jadwiga was a charismatic figure who had had religious visions, and was attempting to transform the convent into a contemplative order.
The Vatican formally expelled the nuns in 2006, but they refused to leave the building, cutting themselves off from the outside world.
The church eventually sought legal action to remove them, and a court ordered the eviction - a step they had previously resisted.
The convent's electricity was cut off earlier this year, but local residents sympathized with the ex-nuns' plight and secretly funneled them food in the night.
Archbishop Zycinski had placed the convent under interdict, barring the administration of the sacraments there.
The archbishop lifted that order after the women were removed from the building.
More than 100 police officers were involved in the October 10 eviction, which was ordered by a local court after the occupants-- former members of the Sisters of the Bethany Family-- defied an earlier court order demanding that they vacate the premises.
The eviction - which was ordered by a Polish court after the nuns refused a May order to vacate the premises - is the latest development in a running battle that began when the Vatican ordered the removal of a mother superior.
The ousted superior refused to accept that order, and took up residence in a convent in Kazimierz along with some members of the congregation.
Since that time the women have continued to occupy the convent despite a series of judgments against them in both ecclesiastical and civil courts.
Among the 65 people removed from the convent were a former Franciscan priest, Roman Komaryczko, and a woman with a 2-month-old child. Komaryczko was removed in handcuffs.
The mother, who is said to have arrived on the scene two weeks ago, was not a former member of the Sisters of the Bethany Family.
A spokesman for the local archdiocese, Father Mieczyslaw Puzewicz, who was present for the eviction, described the group occupying the convent as a sect.
Father Puzewicz clarified that women involved in the occupation who have not made perpetual vows with the Sisters of the Bethany Family remain free to join another religious order.
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