Chicago Nuns Sue Neighbor Strip Club For Inflicting 'Public Violence, Drunkenness And Used Condoms'

A group of nuns in suburban Chicago has filed a lawsuit against a strip club operating next door, claiming that the club's throbbing music ruins their time of pray, the Associated Press reported.

The Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo has accused Club Allure of violating a requirement of Illinois zoning laws to have a 1,000-foot buffer between adult entertainment facilities and places of worship.

The suit, registered on the nuns' behalf by the Thomas More Society against Club Allure and the Village of Stone Park, was filed in Cook County Circuit Town on Friday.

The sisters have seen "public violence, drunkenness and litter, including empty whiskey and beer bottles, discarded contraceptive packages and products and even used condoms," according to the lawsuit, which also mentions the "pulsating and rhythmic staccato-beat noise and flashing neon and or strobe lights" that disturb the nuns.

"Our sisters' sacred space has been invaded," Sister Noemia Silva told the Chicago Sun-Times. "At night now they hear the music when they're praying. That's uncalled for."

The nuns have a right to pray and work peacefully without interference, said attorney Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest law firm representing the convent.

Stone Park Village Attorney Dean Krone said the village has acted legally and reasonably, according to the AP.

However, the lawsuit's claims are not backed up by police reports, club representatives said. The club also denied being a nuisance to the nuns' place of worship.

"We spent an awful lot of money to make sure that this kind of thing would not occur," Club Allure manager Robert Itzkow told WMAQ-TV. "The whole thing is just a question of 'we don't like you; you don't conform to our religious beliefs."'

Itzkow said the club's dancers "aren't monsters. They're daughters; they're mothers, and some of them are Catholics too."

The nuns were joined by the village of Melrose Park and three of its residents in the lawsuit.

The convent is home to active nuns, retired nuns and novices considering becoming nuns.

"The Sisters have every right to pray and work peacefully without disruption from a strip club in their backyard," Peter Breen, attorney for the Thomas More Society, stated in a news release. "We are fighting for the rights of the Sisters, neighboring families, and people of Melrose Park. The Illinois state zoning law provides for their protection, and they deserve to have the law enforced."

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