Aspiring Nun Kept From Joining Convent by Student Loan Debt; Mary Beth Baker Fundraises $8,000
An aspiring nun is being held back from joining the convent by student loan debt. She hopes that by telling her story and appealing to people around the world, she will receive enough in donations to pay off her student loan and commit herself to life in a convent.
Mary Beth Baker, 28, wants to enter the convent for the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia in Nashville, Tennessee. However, she is struggling to repay $25,000 worth of student loan debt that the school says she must pay before she can leave for the convent. Even though her alma mater, Christendom College, has forgiven part of her debt, she has to repay the remaining $25,000.
Part of the problem is that she will not make any money while she is in the convent – nuns must take a vow of poverty that will prevent her from making any payments on the debt. She is supposed to enter the convent in mid-August and must have all of her debts paid off before then. Baker has turned to a crowd-raising website, FUNDLY, to help spread the word and raise money to pay off the student loans.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"Before I can enter the convent, I have to pay off my remaining student loans," Baker wrote on the site. "I ask that you prayerfully consider helping me reach my fundraising goal of $25,000. I have two months to get there. Please also consider spreading the word. More than anything else, though, please keep me and the other young women who will be entering with me in your prayers. God bless you!"
Baker has raised $8,027 so far and still has 57 days left to raise the needed funds.
"After a certain point I started meeting regularly with a priest who was getting to know me, and then he put me in touch with the sisters," Baker told ABC of how she came to know the Dominican Sisters. "On my second visit I was able to sit down and say, 'This is my story and I'd really like to enter.' It's a life of poverty and that's the beauty of it. You embrace it. I'm incredibly bless. Everyone has been very, very supportive."
