If you grew up Catholic decades ago – or even if you didn’t – you probably know the rumors.

Nuns, those mysterious beings draped in layers of black cloth who stalked the halls of your Catholic school – were not like the rest of us.

They wielded rulers like samurai swords. They wore clothes in the shower. They stayed in the convent, eating bean soup and suffering.

“Or torturing children,” says Mary Govert, a sister and assistant to the president for mission and ministry at the University of Saint Francis. “I especially can’t stand those ‘the-sister-that-beat-me-to-death’ stories. That was never my experience.”

In the media and popular culture, these stereotypes still exist. Calendars of “wacky nuns,” wearing habits while waterskiing, for instance. The idea being that nuns don’t go to the beach and they definitely don’t wear bathing suits.

So, allow us to set the record straight right now.

“Those are false representations,” says Marilyn Elert, a sister at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. “We certainly have a lot of fun, but if I was riding a moped, I’d certainly be dressed in appropriate clothing. And we’re not angry and dour, either. Those that answer the call to religious life are very happy.”

The image of a nun is often just the thing advertisers need to make a point, Govert says.

In a recent Nationwide Insurance accident-forgiveness commercial, a man is in a traffic collision with another car. A nun comes out of the car, carrying a yardstick. She taps the man’s car with the stick, and then the car is struck by lightning.

The tagline: Not everyone is as forgiving as Nationwide.

“I hate these kind of things,” she says. “It really trivializes it. It doesn’t reflect what our life is truly about, which is prayer, vowed life and ministry.”

Inflated or absurd stereotypes of nuns and sisters can lead to negative views of sisterhood, Govert says.

“People are very influenced by what they see in the media,” she says. “Occasionally, someone will portray a sister as intelligent and healthy, but that isn’t usually the case. The habits you see them wearing on television shows, for instance. They’re so over the top.”

Prayer is first and foremost in Elert’s life, but the rest of her day probably resembles yours. She works – running the religious education, marriage and funeral preparation and Rite of Christian Initiation programs – and rarely finds time for lunch before 1:30 or 2 p.m. In the evening, she exercises, watches “Wheel of Fortune” and occasionally catches a football game.

“I’m a big Notre Dame fan,” she says. “But I root for the Bears and the Colts, too.”

Stereotypes of religious life date to before Vatican II in the mid-1960s, Elert says.

“I can remember growing up as a small girl,” she says. “The sisters would teach us, and you wouldn’t see them after that. Often you weren’t allowed in the convent and living quarters. It made everything seem very mysterious.”

Joan Arnold, one of Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters in Huntington, joined religious life 60 years ago.

Occasionally, she still encounters people who actually prefer to think of nuns and sisters as though they were characters in “The Sound of Music.”

“There are some people out there who would like us to behave as if it were years ago,” Arnold says. “We don’t wear those ancient habits, where you are all boxed in around the neck. We drive cars. We go to movies and plays. And on Friday nights, we’ll watch DVDs. Of course, we’re not renting anything X-rated, but we do have entertainment.”

In the United States and Puerto Rico, the number of sisters has decreased considerably – from 90,809 in 1995 to 59,601 in 2009, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

And in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Roman Catholic Diocese, there are 489 women in religious life. Last year, there were 503, according to Vince LaBarbera, spokesman for the diocese.

But Elert doesn’t think stereotypes are responsible for the lack of vocations.

“Our young people are so caught up with everything in the world there often isn’t the quiet time you need to really hear the call,” she says. “And in my own experience, there’s been a shift in what is available to women in their careers.

“At the same time, there may be a lessening of vocations here, but not in other communities around the world. It’s all part of God’s plan.”

edowns@jg.net