Bridget Mary's Response:
It looks like the Vatican is once again pushing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) to comply or face a hostile take over by the hierarchy.
You could hear a pin drop at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC when Sister Teresa Kane, former president of the LCWR stood before Pope John Paul 11 and asked him to open the door to the full equality of women in all ministries in the church. Talking about rocking the boat of Peter! I am so happy that I am a Sister for Christian Community, that is not under Vatican control!
Today we have the international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement rocking the boat of Peter with close to 200.
Now, the LCWR faces another opportunity to move the church forward by their prophetic witness.
I pray that the LCWR courageously challenges Cardinal Mueller's hostile take over as an abuse of power. The LCWR could also issue a public statement calling for gender equality in all areas of the church's life including women priests. Sisters, it is time to rock the boat of Peter again, just like Sister Teresa Kane did!
Bridget Mary Meehan, Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests www.arcwp.org.
Article by Tom Fox in National Catholic Reporter
"U.S. women religious leaders
face an uncertain future as they gather Aug. 12-16 in Nashville, Tenn., for
their annual assembly.
More than 800 elected
congregational leaders will discuss how they plan to react to continued charges
of infidelity leveled by the church's top enforcer of orthodoxy, the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as to the congregation's
plans to take over the organization after the assembly.
The Leadership Conference of
Women Religious, which represents nearly all the women religious congregations
in America, has been under attack by the congregation since 2012. The Nashville
gathering will be the third consecutive LCWR assembly in which church infighting
overshadows the business of the leadership conference.
The issues are multilayered,
involving disputes over the role of religious life, the relationship between
religious and bishops, questions of obedience, and differing visions of church
priorities and mission.
Beneath these is one more:
the role of women in a church that maintains a gender-determined authority
system. The conflict between LCWR and the doctrinal congregation has become the
most visible manifestation of this highly charged issue.
The congregation upped the
ante April 30 by setting a deadline to take control of LCWR. Prefect Cardinal
Gerhard Müller, in a harsh statement that reiterated Vatican charges of LCWR's
doctrinal breaches, said that beginning in August, LCWR must clear with a bishop
overseer future assembly speakers and honorees.
Glance
at history
It was in 2009 that the
congregation first announced a "doctrinal assessment" of LCWR. In April 2012, it
found LCWR had failed to represent church teachings in its assemblies, and it
placed the group under the authority of Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, who
was designated its "archbishop delegate," with a mandate to revise the group's
charter and to restore doctrinal fidelity.
Sartain and the women began
a series of closed-door meetings, which the sisters and Sartain have
characterized at various times as cordial but frank. Sartain has said he has
"developed a very good relationship" with the group's
leadership.
The leadership team's annual
visit to Vatican offices in April this year had gone well. The women reported
cordial receptions in various Vatican offices.
This was not the case at the
doctrinal congregation. The meeting was reportedly respectful but blunt, its
tone determined by an initial address by Müller, an appointee of Pope Benedict
XVI. He was highly critical of the women, charging them of errant theology and a
breach of good faith. He said the women had thumbed their noses at the U.S.
bishops by choosing to honor Fordham University theologian St. Joseph Sr.
Elizabeth Johnson at its upcoming August assembly.
Müller cited this as
evidence the women were not intending to abide by the 2012 Vatican-mandated
reform process, a five-year effort.
Though the proposed LCWR
honoree is a highly acclaimed theologian, in March 2011 the U.S. bishops'
Doctrine Committee took her to task for one of her books, Quest
for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God. Though
backed by her theological peers and colleagues at Fordham, the committee found
her work marred by "misrepresentations, ambiguities and
errors."
Müller's remarks to the
women revealed considerable frustration. In his address, he drew a line, saying
that LCWR would have to seek Sartain's approval of any future honorees or
presenters in LCWR programs...
Bridget Mary's Response:
It looks like the Vatican is once again pushing the nuns to comply or face a take over by the hierarchy. It is time for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious inform Cardinal Mueller that they must practice prophetic obedience to the Spirit, follow conscience on the hot button issues, and make decisions as equal partners in the Gospel. The age of domination by the hierarchy is over, it is an an abuse of power and is related to abuse, violence and discrimination toward women worldwide. I know many nuns who are called to serve their faith communities as priests. It is time for the religious communities to publically support their call. Bridget Mary Meehan, www.arcwp.org.
Question
of integrity
For women who both say they
want to stay at the table and yet maintain their integrity as they discuss
disagreements with the bishops, this deadline presents new pressures. An LCWR
assembly voted overwhelmingly in 2012 to work with Sartain but said it would
"reconsider if LCWR is forced to compromise the integrity of its
mission."
Sartain will attend the
Nashville assembly, and, once again, private talks are
planned.
It's been a difficult period
for LCWR, which claims some 1,500 leader members, who represent about 90 percent
of the more than 50,000 women religious in the United States. LCWR says it has
been forced to shift limited resources out of ongoing congregational support
activities into defending its reputation, if not its very existence as an
independent religious organization.
The psychological toll is
also evident. A group that once prided itself on fearless leadership and
modeling transparency is now more media restrictive than most other Catholic
organizations, including the U.S. bishops.
LCWR continues to embrace
setting a course that evolves from prayerful contemplation and discussion among
members. At the center of its stated mission is its desire to help women
religious understand how religious communities are to respond to the Gospels in
contemporary society.
To this end, through a
canvassing of its membership, LCWR leadership chose Franciscan Sr. Nancy
Schreck, a former LCWR president, to lead the organization through its
discernment process this year.
Coming out of six years of
community leadership, Schreck knows the LCWR-Vatican scene well. Her subject,
"However Long the Night," she told NCR, is aimed at inducing a contemplative
atmosphere in which the women can reflect on their future course together.
Schreck has spent some 20 years working among risk-prone youth in rural
Mississippi. She typifies the pastoral commitment that has come to characterize
LCWR in particular, and U.S. women religious in general.
She said the title of her
talk does not refer specifically to the LCWR-Vatican situation. Rather, she
said, she wants to explore mystery. "Great mysteries are revealed to us in
darkness," she said. "Night is not necessarily a bad thing."
Asked to elaborate, she
said, "A wise teacher once told me that mystery is not something unknowable, but
rather infinitely knowable."
While LCWR's entanglement
with the doctrinal congregation cannot be far from the minds of most of the
women who come to Nashville, Schreck said that lots of women "don't want to
focus on the [doctrinal] assessment. They want to get on with their
work."
Absence
of Francis
Many church observers had
hoped that Pope Francis would intervene in the quagmire. He has encouraged
church members to take risks. He jokingly told Latin American religious leaders
to take lightly directives they get from the doctrinal congregation. He has said
the work of the church must take place at the margins of society. He has told
bishops to focus less on abortion and contraception, and more on mercy and
service to the needy.
In each instance, he has
outlined a church very much like the one U.S. women religious committed
themselves to building some 40 years or more ago. This is why many church
observers find it mystifying Francis has not stepped in to lighten LCWR's
load.
The irony is that Francis
might otherwise have stepped in were it not that he is reportedly focused on
dealing with failed bishops who have enabled clergy sex abuse and the misuse of
church finances.
The women coming to
Nashville appear to be of at least two minds, though not necessarily exclusively
so. Some would like to call off the discussions with the congregation and
Sartain. They argue that despite good intentions, the two sides remain far
apart, with no signs they can overcome the gulf. This group feels that once an
outsider bishop has seized control of LCWR, the organization has lost its
integrity.
The other group generally
agrees that the picture looks bleak, but wants to give more time for Francis to
spread his influence within the Vatican. This group wants to be supportive of
the pope and feels he might be their only chance for serious church
renewal.
That both Schreck and
Johnson have been chosen to address the women represents the variety of opinion
and approaches among them.
LCWR celebrates a democratic
governance style. It is difficult to know what might come out of Nashville until
the last hour of the last day, after the talks are finished and votes taken.
This, however, appears clear: It's highly unlikely the LCWR saga will end in
Tennessee."
[Thomas C. Fox is NCR publisher.
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