Get thee from a nunnery: Italian Sister in illicit affair

"A mystical crisis," said the mother superior, "that has obliged the nun to remove herself for an indefinite period and stay with her familiars." That was the explanation for Sister Pompea disappearing from her convent in Montevergine, east of Naples in Italy.

"A mystical crisis," said the mother superior, "that has obliged the nun to remove herself for an indefinite period and stay with her familiars." That was the explanation for Sister Pompea disappearing from her convent in Montevergine, east of Naples in Italy.

Her absence was noticed when she failed to arrive for teaching duties at a nursery last week. But rumours claim Sister Pompea has run off with a monk, about 10 years her junior, from the Abbey of Montevergine.

Ottopagine, the local paper, claimed: "The two religious people seem to have chosen to live this urgent and overwhelming love affair without subterfuge and without secrecy ... on holiday, like two ordinary lovers."

Mother Ildegarde, mother superior of Convent di Loreto, told the Corriere della Sera paper: "I spoke to Sister Pompea and I found her worn out. She is still one of us, a sister with all that entails, and waiting to give us her decision. She still wears the habit."

It must be the air in Montevergine. The abbey made headlines in 2002 when Abbot Tarcisio Nazzaro sacked Father Vitaliano della Sala for going on a gay pride march in Rome.