Intro: "Last week, the order came down from the Vatican. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization that represents 80% of the nuns in the US, was chastised for 'focusing its work too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping 'silent' on abortion and same-sex marriage.' The LCWR is having none of it."
Last week, the order came down from the Vatican. American nuns will have none of it. (photo: Addicting Info)
American Nuns Reject Vatican's Orders
23 April 12
ast week, the order came down from the Vatican. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization that represents 80% of the nuns in the US, was chastised for "focusing its work too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping ‘silent' on abortion and same-sex marriage." The LCWR is having none of it. In a statement Saturday, the LCWR said,
"We haven't violated any teaching," Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, told AFP, insisting the group would not stop "caring for the least among us on the margins of society."
"It was a total shock for many reasons, no one talked to us" during the inquiry, Campbell said.
"We are a political, not doctrinal, organization: we don't teach theology."
After the report was published, Campbell said it was "painfully obvious" the Vatican leadership was "not used to having educated women form thoughtful opinions and engage in dialogue."
"We will keep doing our mission," she insisted in a phone interview Saturday, saying the group was founded to "lobby, organize and educate" in the name of social and economic justice.
"There seems to the major disconnect, where (the Vatican) seem to think that faith can only lead to one political approach," Campbell said. The Network group, she said, "speaks for our members, not for a church. Helping others is at the heart of our faith."
The Vatican is right in that the LCWR is a liberal organization. Their website addresses income inequality with documents like this, in support of the Occupy movement, or this, in support of families of immigrants. These sisters are free-thinking women, an idea that goes against the grain of the "modern" Catholic church, which refuses to budge from the 16th Century.
The nuns aren't alone in Catholics that are at odds with the Church hierarchy. The majority of American Catholics support same-sex marriage, a change from just two years ago. The church, however, is taking a very political stance against same-sex marriage.
In March, (Archbishop) Nienstedt was one of 13 bishops from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota who met with Pope Benedict XVI to report on affairs in their diocese. According to The Catholic Spirit, "Archbishop Nienstedt told Pope Benedict that ‘all the bishops are resolved to take this opportunity that we have in the political area to catechize in the religious area, to catechize about the meaning and the sanctity of marriage.'
The Catholic church has also taken a strong political stance against the Affordable Healthcare Act (aka Obamacare) for its policy that all health insurance companies must cover hormonal contraception. The LCWR has come out in favor of the Affordable Healthcare Act, but not because of its contraception mandate, and only after being assured that abortions will not be covered. The group sees affordable healthcare as a necessary step in battling poverty. The nuns have been silent on issues of same-sex marriage and on birth control and that is where they have been at odds with the church.
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Is it possible the nuns realize many of the hungry children they feed will someday come out of the closet? Do they realize that some of those same children may have been abused by members of their church? Perhaps they too are tired of the politics of sex and the manipulation of morality by the Vatican. Perhaps.
JH Gordon
Smashwords.com
Good for them taking a stand.
Kris
Thank God for Nuns. They do more good for the world than the Pope!
Seems that the Catholic hierarchy says more or less the same thing.
Thanks for an informative post. I hope I can be as HERTICOL as these women.
then you just go to confession, do your hail mary's and go back to whatever is was that you were doing secure in the knowledge that your sins have been and will be forgiven.
Sounds like you would be quite happy if the church brought back the Medieval Inquisition, Roman Inquisition and Spanish Inquisition all rolled into one. Does not say much for your kind and loving God. I prefer the true work done by these brave women who have challenged Rome to walk the talk rather then sit in condemnation of others. I also ask the question have you not learned anything from the teachings of Christ.
"American" you're joking, right? It is funny, satire. You're NOT being satirical? You're serious? NOOOOO. You are very funny. Johnathan Swift. That's going to be your nickname, Swifty.
"AN INFINITE GOD OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO PROTECT HIMSELF, WITHOUT GOING INTO PARTNERSHIP WITH LEGISLATURES."
--ROBERT INGERSOLL
If they are supposed to be anti-abortion, won't there be many more poor children to take care of, and if the nuns are not allowed to take care of the poor, then what?
It is the Roman Catholic Church that encouraged abortion in the island of Sardinia where many children are born with thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder similar to sickle-cell anemia; they would test pregnant women for this condition and strongly encourage abortion if the fetus had the condition; paid for by the church. Things change when they foot the bill; the holier-than-tho u attitude is a right-wing attack on America, nothing to do with being religious.
old issue of celibacy to deny wives any claim to the Vatican
wealth. All the anti-comments sound like Borowitz Reports.
The Catholic church has mandated for centuries, that women have child after child--their collective health and well being be damned.
Without contraception and abortion care, women cannot control what happens to their own bodies, and cannot be autonomous human beings--the nuns are hardly radical--only by their masters' patriarchal misogynistic, and hypocritical "standards."
And it was Ratzinger who covered up sexual predators in the church hierarchy.
Why would anyone listen to a thing he says? The nuns are right. I hope they keep going on. They are the real church.,
Never happened. Except for exceptions the Christian and Catholic churches have totally ignored Christ's message. You could say that Christ has been something of an embarrassment -- like these nuns who it seems refused to be f---ed with.
Well Daniel1 and Yachtsman, there are lots of other options than abiding by the rules or leaving the organization. Yacht's Martin Luther example actually makes a point opposite of what he intended. Luther was not trying to start a new church to oppose Rome. His era was called The Reformation because he (and others before and after him) were trying to REFORM The Church. They were doing that because they felt The Church had strayed from true Biblical Christianity and needed to be led back. They felt that The Church had to stop being the dictatorial mouthpiece of the privileged classes and return to its mission of showing God's love to the world through its actions. (Sound like anything that's going on today?)
These courageous nuns are the Reformers of our era. They are risking everything to speak truth to power in the name of God, justice, and love.
The world would be a better place if more people were driven by a higher moral standard than by fear. The Catholic Church just might survive the 21st century if more people stand up to the ignorance like these nuns.
OH!! By the way why is it that Vatican City has an age of consent of 12? The lowest of any European country.
I hope that Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich don't find out about this!
The closeted, all male, church hierarchy clinging desperately to their bigotry while it looks like the majority of Catholics are ready to move on. I'm sure the majority support the equal treatment of women also. Twisted.
You three epitomize why the churches in our country are loosing parishioners/re levance at an ever quickening pace. Please, keep up the good work. It is much appreciated!
I would be much more inclined to have respect for organized religion in our country if they were represented by people with the same convictions as the women in this story. Bless them all!
Usually these positions were filled by older men who's children were grown, wife passed away and they were getting old. Sort of like a retirement home. for Nuns it was the same way. One became a nun if their husband had died and they had no means of support or a way to make a living. A sort of woman's retirement home. I think that all changed in the late 16th century with the Catholic Church.
For more information on the LCWR, check out http://ncronline.org/node/29998 (and no, I am not a Roman Catholic).
You sound like a couple of really angry ultra-conservat ive Catholics with I would guess no formal religious education past your confirmation class, if that. As such, you see things as black or white.
It is correct to say the Bible does not say a woman can be a priest. The ONLY references to priests in the New Testament are to Jewish priests of the Temple in Jerusalem and to pagan priests. There is no reference to anyone like a Catholic priest. So, I say to you, "Show me in the Bible where it says a man can be a Catholic/Christ ian priest." This is why it might have been helpful for your parents to insist you continue to study theology past the sixth grade. You both have a child's understanding, attempting to deal with adult issues in a church that is at once fascinating and frustrating. No wonder you're both so angry! May I humbly suggest you talk to a sympathetic and very patient nun or priest (or minister) for a better understanding of the many complicated issues facing Roman Catholics and other Christians in the modern world. My words may anger you, but please try to receive them in the spirit I offer them. My good thoughts, wishes, and prayers are with you.
By the way, St. Paul, an Orthodox Jew, a Pharisee, found it impossible to follow all the requirements of the Levitical Code (The Law). And Jesus, who came to fulfill the Law, asked us only to love God and each other. That's a great place to start.
And unfortunately, by rebelling against the Holy See ("the Vatican" as you call it) they voluntarily put themselves out of the Church, such that they cannot call themselves Catholic anymore, because they are not in communion with the Church. Or at least they must admit that what they uphold as valid and true is not part of the Catholic doctrine.
Moral truths are not decided by majorities, as you seem to suggest in this article, even if those majorities amounted to 100%.
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