Why is this controversial?! Mary Magdalene was likely NOT a virgin when she encountered Christ, but is believed to have led a consecrated life of singleness after becoming a follower.
A lot of early Christians were prostitutes in their former lives. And to this day GOD has called His people from among the most sexually broken and abused.
But they were never considered to be virgins and they never called themselves virgins.
Francischurch has become a joke.
My thinking here, is that the members of an Order of Widows are widows And the members of an Order of Virgins, are virgins.
Doesn't that make sense?
And some religious orders include women of all sorts of backgrounds, such as the Daughters of Charity, which was founded by a widow, St. Elizabeth Seton.
My point is that there's room for a variety of different kinds of consecration. Any Catholic woman, no matter what her sexual or marital past, can be a consecrated woman.
But she can't be a consecrated widow if she's not a widow, and she can't be a consecrated virgin if she's not a virgin.
Those are just two specific niches. They don't comprise the whole of consecrated life. OK?
Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute. That is tradition not based on scripture.
A virgin is a virgin, but not always physically. Rather like circumcision as the Apostle Paul wrote about it.
St. Mary Magdalene was possessed by I believe ten demons. She was NOT a prostitute.