On August 15th, 2005 Spero News writer Julianne Davis pulled together research about the existance of a web-nun, a cyberspace concept called Mary Ann Collins and wrote an article entitled: "Will the Real Mary Ann Collins Please Stand Up".
The story of the elusive Mary Ann Collins and her copious web writings and books became one of Spero News most searched articles and wiki entries. Ms. Davis and Spero News continue to get emails like the one below.
Dear Ms. Davis,
My name is ____ and I'm a 28-year-old Catholic. I'm still somewhat new to the Catholic faith. I was baptized when I was 26 years old. The reason I'm writing you is because I've been to the catholic concerns website that is I guess run by Mary Ann Collins. The first time I went there I was reading a lot of what she had to say and the different chapters in her book. But the funny thing is the more and more she was trashing the Catholic faith the more it made me want to go to Mass and be in my beautiful church.
She has a section on her website called New Age Catholicism. On it she describes many things but the one thing that really upset me was she was talking about the Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. If you haven't heard about the play it's about different stories that were told to Eve and some that she wrote herself, a lot of them dealing with rape and abuse of women. Ms. Ensler has an organization that tries to stop the violence against women. By doing the play women around the world are getting the message across to many people.
Ms. Collins stated that the whole play was about women saying Vagina and other words used for the female anatomy and that it wasn't a play that should be performed at Catholic Colleges. I wrote Ms. Collins my thoughts and she emailed me back saying that "the play degrades women. We are human beings made in God's image. The play degrades women."
I was wondering your thoughts on this matter. As I told Ms. Collins God doesn't like that we suffer here on Earth and I believe He would be happy that someone was trying to stop the violence. Also, is it against the Catholic Church to do a play like this in a Catholic college or even for Catholic lay people.
I'm sorry this email is so long if you have the time to answer me back that would be great, if not I'll understand also.
Thank you and God bless,
Anonymous
Dear anonymous,
You may well be one of the few people that have ever received a response from Mary Ann Collins. Forgive the sarcasm.
Ask yourself these questions: Isn't it interesting that an ex-nun who would be in her seventies, if her biography is true, would be tuned-in and hip to pop-culture? Would most 70-something ex-nuns be attending "The Vagina Monologues" or pouring over "The Da Vinci Code"?
Ask yourself this: Isn't it interesting a 70-something ex-nun has the energy to trash Catholics so vigorously?
Even Jack Chick of Chick Tracts has help.
Ask yourself this: Isn't it interesting a supposed woman of God would say the correct use of anatomical language in a play degrades women? The Mary Ann Collins response didn't really address your concerns, did it?
Check out Julie Davis' article and the wiki entry on Mary Ann Collins, and also the history of fake nuns.
Spero News eventually did get a response from Mary Ann Collin's websites. It's a bit like writing Betty Crocker.
Although the responses aren't auto-generated, they share one thing in common: an agenda of hate and mistrust toward the Catholic church. And we suspect that the people behind the Mary Collins URL's and
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