Convent protestor ends siege

ONE of five women barricaded in the infirmary of a New Jersey Carmelite monastery has left because of health problems caused, she claims, by the stress and pressure of the six-month protest.
Nicole Prescott, who was called Sr John of the Cross when the protest began in October, left t he Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Morristown just before Easter. Miss Prescott was suffering from migraine headaches and recently had been hospitalised with an optic nerve problem.
28-year-old Miss Prescott, whose temporary vows as a contemplative nun ended while in the barricade, left more than two weeks after the Vatican ordered her and another nun whose temporary vows had expired to leave.
The five locked themselves in the infirmary to protest changes made in their contemplative lifestyle by Mother Theresa of the Trinity Hewitt, the prioress since 1987.