What wrong have I committed bishop?” “You own a car!” And that is the wrong a religious body feels a nun has committed. Enough to sack her. Having sat on a few boards, I see how wrongly we look at necessities and classify them as luxuries. I remember a principal of a school having a conversation with me a few years ago, and telling me how his committee was very angry with the air-conditioner he had fixed for his office.
“Why?” I asked. “Because, they feel it is an unnecessary piece of luxury I want to enjoy!” he told me wearily. “How would they feel if you told them that from tomorrow you were going to double the amount of productive work you normally do?” I asked. “They would be very happy,” he smiled and joked, “They might even sack the vice-principal and save on his salary!”
“Well that is exactly what will happen as you work in comfort!” I said, “Your efficiency will go up and you will be able to get much more work done while looking after your health!”
Coming back to the car the nun purchased, does the church actually feel the same amount of work can be done by her travelling by bus or train? I have seen priests and nuns administering far off places spending a whole day, sometimes two traveling to and fro, whereas this sister with a car could have covered double the locations and arrived and done her work with a lot more concentration then one who had risked her life hanging from the second class coaches of a train.
When will we realize that good healthy food, doesn’t show a person a glutton, a soft bed doesn’t make a person worldly and that a few comforts helps towards an increase in professionalism? Such comforts are an investment to better service. I see showrooms and shops fully air-conditioned attracting hundreds and thousands more customers than government shops, humid and sweaty with irritable staff, hot under the collar, literally shooing away potential buyers. A cool solution, would have brought in more business but such thinking does not exist here.
Another organization where the secretary does thousands of miles of road travel, had the same gentleman asking his local board for better tires for his vehicle so he could have a comfortable ride. Knowing what difference tires make I was able to convince the other members but our proposal was shot down by the national board. Reason? Ask those who fired the nun for her car?
And if the reason for the sacking is something else, then are they any different from any government which uses tax evasion charges or false accusations to harass those who stand against it?“What wrong have I committed bishop?” “You own a car..!”
