I was joking yesterday that I was only slapped once by a bishop, while every nun who taught me hit me at least once -- and so it might seem strange for me to want to defend the nuns. But, it's not. While the bishops have adopted a Nixon-like "circle the wagons" defensive posture during their disgraceful "defend the institution at all costs" approach to the pedophile scandal, making us wince in shame at their outrageous behavior, it was our women religious figures who held high the social gospel, in word and deed -- reminding us why we could still be proud of the Catholic church and its teachings.
Instead of "silencing" nuns who support health care for all, the dignity of all life and have been in the forefront of the movements for peace and social justice, the bishops should be focusing their wrath on their peers who have spoken so shamefully about the President, behaved with such intolerance toward gays and lesbians and criminally mishandled the sex abuse scandals.
The church's hierarchy may have turned their back on the reforms of Vatican II, but in doing so they ignore the fact that, for my generation, it was the breath of fresh air created by those reforms that gave an exhausted American church new life. The sad fact is that it was the nuns who internalized the reforms of Vatican II, while many in the hierarchy recoiled, feeling threatened. In reasserting their heavy-handed control, slamming shut the windows of reform, the bishops are putting the church back on life-support.
With each new outrageous act of control, the bishops are looking more like desperate old men, obsessed with their narrow interpretation of one of God's Commandments, attempting to hold on to the last vestiges of their fading authority by defending their power over the institution while ignoring the gospel.
Most Catholics only know there are bishops, but they personally know the nuns -- they teach their children, run their hospitals, and carry out the gospel injunctions to feed the poor, clothe the naked, etc. The bishops may want to convert the church, transforming it into a "corpus Santorum," but when they pick on the nuns, methinks they may be over-reaching.
Follow James Zogby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AAIUSA
Paul Gorrell, Ph.D.: The Vatican's War on Women
Brother Louis DeThomasis, FSC: The Subversion of Vatican II
Mary C. Johnson: American Nuns Will Not Be Bullied
Michele Somerville: Gunning for the Nuns
as I keep saying the Vatican may be in for quite a surprise. Who knows, maybe the power of public opinion in support of the nuns would be enough to force at least a subtle compromise by the Vatican.
Its easy to adopt a "principles before people" approach when you don't have to see the consequence this has on real people.
I need to make an editorial suggestion--
"With each new outrageous act of control, the bishops are looking more like desperate old men, obsessed with their narrow interpretation of one of God's Commandments, attempting to hold on to the last vestiges of their fading authority by defending their power over the institution while ignoring the gospel."
The phrase "obsessed with their narrow interpretation of one of God's Commandments" is extraneous to the arguement. Without the phrase, the sentence makes clear the correct position--that the bishops are ONLY about "holding on to the last vestiges......."
Indeed, “Ratzinger set himself to disciplining all purveyors of false doctrine. The consummate enforcer,” the Toronto Star wrote. “Under his encouragement, the Vatican adopted policies whereby dissent was forbidden
If the Vatican wants to investigate nuns, why not investigate how and why hundreds of them have committed and concealed child sex crimes?
For at least six years, we’ve tried repeatedly to meet with the Leadership Council of Women Religious, to no avail. We’ve asked to speak at their conferences, but have been rebuffed.
There are hundreds and hundreds of orders of nuns in the US. Virtually none of them have been open about child sex cases. We suspect there are hundreds of men and women who have been sexually violated by Catholic sisters and are still suffering in shame, silence and self blame.
What nuns believe and who they associate with might trouble some bishops. But what nuns do about child sex crimes should trouble many church officials and members.
"On June 25, 2010, Bishop Blair presented further documentation on the content of the
LCWR’s Mentoring Leadership Manual and also on the organizations associated with the
LCWR, namely Network and The Resource Center for Religious Institutes. The
documentation reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR
promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine,"
As did Jesus.
"it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public
debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States."
So was Jesus.
"Further, issues of crucial importance to the life of Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church
teaching."
Jesus asked followers to leave family. His teaching did not focus on human sexuality.
Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or
challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and
morals, are not compatible with its purpose."
The Church is the People of God. Bishops are their servants.
I'm a bit of a fan of Cardinal John Henry Newman (now the Blessed John Henry) who refused to attend the right wing Vatican I, and was known as the father of Vatican II. He even has a society named after him in the US to promote Catholic campus life (he was an academic theologian).'
So while controversy was raging a couple of months ago over the Sandra Fluke testimony I visited their website, only to find the comments full of bilious attacks. So I attempted to post a couple of quotes from JH Newman himself which called on Catholics to moderate their language, and spelled out the strong role that he felt the laity had in the conscience of the Church - basically correcting the bile.
The moderator simply refused to approve them, and let the vileness roll on. Just to shame them, this is the link http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/.
And this is not just happening in the US. I live in Australia where a number of priests and one bishop have been forced into retirement. Those clergy shared a number of things in common: they were all immensely popular in their communities, they all had strong social justice agendas - and they refused to be quiet.
Uh, what?
I think the author needs to 1, learn what he's talking about, and 2, learn how to write...this is just a bunch of insults slung at the Church in the guise of criticism about the investigation...an investigation he clearly knows nothing about, or else he would have mentioned some details, any details.
The CDF sending the protector and mentor of child abusers (one already convicted for his sex crimes against children) to punish true servants of the Christ, doing His work on earth for the poor and marginalized as His hands and His heart, is astonishing and deeply disturbing to any sentient person, save those conscienceless apologists for the latter-day Magisterium, which is intentionally blind and deaf to the crimes committed and criminals protected on their watch.
And I'd rather give my money directly to the Sisters as well. Cheers! I mean, Amen!