Policy and World Ideas
Sister Cristina the YouTube nun is a gift from heaven
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By Cristina Odone
The sun is out, the clocks have changed and spring is in the air. The Christian spring, that is: the Churches and their followers are bursting with a new exuberance.
The personification of this joyful new mood is decked in a modest dark veil and clod-hopper shoes. Sister Cristina Scuccia is a 25-year-old Ursuline whose singing on Italy’s The Voice has become a YouTube sensation.
The bespectacled young nun belted out the Alicia Keys song No One, and brought the studio audience to their feet. The lyrics are schmaltzy (“I just want you close / Where you can stay for ever / You can be sure / That it will only get better”) and Sr Cristina is not, she will forgive me for saying this, Monica Bellucci. I watched the video and, two or three seconds in, feared a pious pastiche of Gangnam Style, with rosary beads replacing the Korean’s shades.
But I, the doubting Thomas, was soon converted by my irresistible namesake and her foot-stomping, heart-thumping pop song. The audience chanted “So-rella! So-rella!” (the Italian for sister). The four judges laughingly admitted that they were pinching themselves to check if Sr Cristina were a dream. Four of her fellow Ursulines stood in the wings, cheering their sister on. Simon Cowell couldn’t have hoped for a more engaging spectacle.
Little wonder that the video of the audition has gone viral, racking up more than 30 million views on YouTube already. As the makers of The Sound of Music might say, what is it about the naive young nun singing a love song that has millions smiling? It’s proved a box office hit many times before: Julie Andrews as Maria, Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, Sally Field in The Flying Nun.
But Sr Cristina is no gimmick. She is that old-fashioned figure, the evangelist. Her method – singing on a TV programme adorned with tattooed rappers and half-naked starlets – may sound unorthodox. But step into a church in one of the lively Caribbean parishes across this country and you’ll find Gospel choirs in flowing technicolour robes swaying in the aisles as they roar the chorus of Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.
Like those singers, Sr Cristina draws energy from her faith: “God,” she told her cheering audience, “takes nothing away, but gives us always more.” She preaches this message to the world outside her convent; and with her boisterous singing, trumpets the new-found wellbeing and confidence of her faith. This upbeat mood draws its inspiration from the new popular Pope, Francis – whose congratulatory phone call Sr Cristina is expecting.
Pope Francis’s appeal has been widely recognised; Sr Cristina fuels it with her fresh and feminine presence. Their duet (I wouldn’t put it past them) couldn’t come at a more opportune time: Christians face increased persecution in the Middle East and Africa; and condemnation as homophobes and apologists for paedophile priests in the West. In Britain, the Rev Paul Flowers, a Methodist minister, had to be cast out of his church for allegedly buying illegal drugs. Only a few days ago, the novelist Ian McEwan told a literary festival that religious people were scientific illiterates who were “perverse” in their hostility to progress.
The young Italian nun would not recognise Christianity in this grim description. Nor can anyone watching her sing detect a molecule of negative emotion. Sr Cristina’s faith, like her voice, bubbles over in unbridled optimism. As she clasps that microphone to her bosom, and shuts her eyes in heartfelt concentration, the young nun looks as if she could make the walls come tumbling down. Armed with her holy fervour, Sr Cristina looks invincible.
Sceptics may carp about a one-hit wonder. But this nun will run and run and run.
By Cristina Odone
The sun is out, the clocks have changed and spring is in the air. The Christian spring, that is: the Churches and their followers are bursting with a new exuberance.
The personification of this joyful new mood is decked in a modest dark veil and clod-hopper shoes. Sister Cristina Scuccia is a 25-year-old Ursuline whose singing on Italy’s The Voice has become a YouTube sensation.
The bespectacled young nun belted out the Alicia Keys song No One, and brought the studio audience to their feet. The lyrics are schmaltzy (“I just want you close / Where you can stay for ever / You can be sure / That it will only get better”) and Sr Cristina is not, she will forgive me for saying this, Monica Bellucci. I watched the video and, two or three seconds in, feared a pious pastiche of Gangnam Style, with rosary beads replacing the Korean’s shades.
But I, the doubting Thomas, was soon converted by my irresistible namesake and her foot-stomping, heart-thumping pop song. The audience chanted “So-rella! So-rella!” (the Italian for sister). The four judges laughingly admitted that they were pinching themselves to check if Sr Cristina were a dream. Four of her fellow Ursulines stood in the wings, cheering their sister on. Simon Cowell couldn’t have hoped for a more engaging spectacle.
Little wonder that the video of the audition has gone viral, racking up more than 30 million views on YouTube already. As the makers of The Sound of Music might say, what is it about the naive young nun singing a love song that has millions smiling? It’s proved a box office hit many times before: Julie Andrews as Maria, Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, Sally Field in The Flying Nun.
But Sr Cristina is no gimmick. She is that old-fashioned figure, the evangelist. Her method – singing on a TV programme adorned with tattooed rappers and half-naked starlets – may sound unorthodox. But step into a church in one of the lively Caribbean parishes across this country and you’ll find Gospel choirs in flowing technicolour robes swaying in the aisles as they roar the chorus of Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.
Like those singers, Sr Cristina draws energy from her faith: “God,” she told her cheering audience, “takes nothing away, but gives us always more.” She preaches this message to the world outside her convent; and with her boisterous singing, trumpets the new-found wellbeing and confidence of her faith. This upbeat mood draws its inspiration from the new popular Pope, Francis – whose congratulatory phone call Sr Cristina is expecting.
Pope Francis’s appeal has been widely recognised; Sr Cristina fuels it with her fresh and feminine presence. Their duet (I wouldn’t put it past them) couldn’t come at a more opportune time: Christians face increased persecution in the Middle East and Africa; and condemnation as homophobes and apologists for paedophile priests in the West. In Britain, the Rev Paul Flowers, a Methodist minister, had to be cast out of his church for allegedly buying illegal drugs. Only a few days ago, the novelist Ian McEwan told a literary festival that religious people were scientific illiterates who were “perverse” in their hostility to progress.
The young Italian nun would not recognise Christianity in this grim description. Nor can anyone watching her sing detect a molecule of negative emotion. Sr Cristina’s faith, like her voice, bubbles over in unbridled optimism. As she clasps that microphone to her bosom, and shuts her eyes in heartfelt concentration, the young nun looks as if she could make the walls come tumbling down. Armed with her holy fervour, Sr Cristina looks invincible.
Sceptics may carp about a one-hit wonder. But this nun will run and run and run.
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