Nuns on the Run...

My friend Zann saw this in the news-

Nuns on the run as their big knitting debts unravel
January 30, 2007

FIFTY-FIVE nuns have fled their convent in northern Greece after running up more than $1,000,000 in debts when their in-house woollens factory went bankrupt. Unknown to the rest of Greece’s monastic community, the nuns of the Saints Kyrikos and Ioulite convent at Sidi-rokastro near the Bulgarian border had been doing a brisk clothing trade since installing six large knitting machines in the convent ten years ago. They sold to some 25 clothing chains around Greece and often travelled to European capitals to keep an eye on fashion.

Dionysios Pelekis, the nuns’ lawyer, said that they intended to move south, to another convent near Athens airport. They have asked their ecclesiastical superior, Metropolitan Makar-ios, to settle the debt out of the Church’s own resources — by selling 16 convent-owned properties, worth at least 750,000 Euros. But the Metropolitan has refused, saying that the nuns must pay off their debt in full before being given release papers that would allow them to move to a new convent.

Although Mr Pelekis appears to be in touch with the nuns, he is not disclosing their whereabouts. There are no legal proceedings against them at present, but they could face action if the debts are not paid. They could also face church sanctions if they are eventually found guilty of wrongdoing.

Mr Pelekis said that the nuns carted off their knitting factory equipment and furniture in three lorries days before their own disappearance.

“They are entitled to keep anything they have purchased with their own money, which includes furniture, equipment and automobiles,” he said. His clients also had a candle-making and icon-painting business on the side.