All those who teach what is contrary to church doctrine should be immediately excommunicated.

the catholic church is still better than other dinominations

I’m excited to see what happens. I believe the faithful sisters in the cloister faithfully pray for the wayward sisters, as well as an increase in orthodox vocations.  Let their prayers be answered through Benedict’s wisdom, and dedication to New Evangelization!

Thank you for this interview. It was very insightful.

The comment that struck me the most is that they were so upset with the all male leadership that they could not celebrate the Eucharist.  It is one thing to say that it is doctrinally unsound.  But There are other dimensions that also need to be examined.  The only other people whom I have heard say they are too upset to go to communion are survivors of clergy sexual abuse.  I would like to know just what exactly the sisters have witnessed from the same leadership that allowed the abuse to go on.  Control was one word that has already been used.  Speaking from a strictly psychological perspective, it sounds like they are being triggered.  This reform is well within the scope of the life of the Church.  I am not opposed to the results of the investigation.  And I support it.  But when the sisters are reacting in such a fashion and using those type of terms and crying out as if they had been victimized for years, I pay attention.  If indeed they have been at the trenches with the poorest of the poor in a way the male religious leadership haven’t, I do ask myself if the women are getting appropriate psychological care.  What resources are there for them to protect them from psychological wounds such as secondary PTSD suffered by outreach workers who may suffer trauma from witnessing the atrocities suffered by others.  Women the world over suffer at the hands of men be it in the home, the workplace and it seems only natural that abuse, especially excessive control, bullying, intimidation, and abject neglect of women in religious life would also suffer.  I do not believe women’s ordination is an appropriate solution to this.  Neither separation from the church, though if some sisters suffer that much then it would be in their best care to go back to being lay ministers.  I would like to hear from a reliable psychological expert faithful to the church with regards to the psychological hardships women religious face.  Fr. Benedict Groeschel comes to mind.

Thank you very much, Jim, for thie enlightening discussion with Ann Carey.  It helps me understand the background of the current crisis in female religious life in this country.  I was taught by nuns in the Catholic school system many years ago and have a great deal of appreciation for what they were able to accomplish at that time.  I, too, hope and pray that the religious by the represented LCWR will cooperate with the Church in implementing the mandated reforms.

In my opinion, it’s getting better in all ways.  The real crisis in women religious was in the 1990’s.  Behind the showy facade of the LCWR are new or growing congregations of women religious.

The Sisters are not “in crisis” but the Vatican certainly is.

Ana,

These groups of sisters do not represent all sisters.  They could not celebrate the Eucharist because they are die-hard feminists.  This is not one sided, since the crackdown on male orders has begun too.  Just look at Austria and Ireland. The abuse crisis would not have taken place if there was not such bad teaching for years together and moving away from sound theology. V2 did not promote pantheism and earth worship.  Why live a lie pretending to be Christians?

There is disagreement on even the basics now.  I do hope and pray for their conversion.

I also pray for those among them who do not share these views, but will be pressured to take sides.

It’s about time they are learning the True Catholic Way not there way.

I have witnessed serious deliberate dissent by women religious in my very own parish. I am also aware there are many wonderful and faithful sisters in the USA. However, the dissent I witnessed first hand over many years was so egregious that I was a bit stunned in the beginning.

Look, we have enough trouble evangelizing now. We do not need religious on the inside undermining the faith. This pattern was set by Judas Iscartiot. Lets move on! Praise God for our great Pope Benedict XVI.

The Sisters are not “in crisis” but the Vatican certainly is.

How so? In fact, therein lies my question. It is undeniable that the religious orders that prostituted themselves to modernism are dying out. So it makes me wonder why the Vatican should kick the hornets nest and not just let the tick-tock solution get rid of the dead wood. The only thing I can think of is that the Vatican thinks these orders are salvagable even in the face of massive corruption (see incident at Loretto High School in Sacramento and how Sr. Carole Keehan raked in a million dollars last year). In other words, the Vatican seems waaay more patient than I would be.

I echo “linda”‘s comment. I feel very enlightened. Miss Carey is an excellent interview, and I hope she does indeed update her book to bring the information and insight up to the present time.

Scott W - My sentiments exactly…  These renegade sisters should recall their vows, particularly obedience to the Magisterium of the Catholic church.  I hope the sisters who taught me, the SSND, are not part of the liberal wing…

I really think the Church need to listen to the thoughts of the Sisters!  The Church is a bit behind the times in certain situations.  At 69 yrs of age, it would be difficult for me to accept women priests, but how about women permanent Deacons?  They could do immense good for the Church and help to fill the priest shortage!  I would allow priests of a diocese to marry, if they wished-before their ordinations, same as our Orthodox Brothers!  We need more choices! The Church is too Rigid!  Allowing more variation is a good thing!  I would allow General Absolution at penance services, too!  Not too many Catholics go to Confession any more, for different reasons!  Isn’t that what Vatican Two was all about-letting fresh air into the Church!

Rich—there already exists an example of everything you want—the Episcopal Church—and people are leaving that denomination faster than if the buildings were on fire. Why? Because when your church is no different that the Leftist pablum you can get by just turning on your tv, why waste an hour on Sunday? Just get some extra sleep.

Rich,

You do bring up some important points.  My sources also tell me this could be an inside job, since not all the sisters share these views, and could be finally fed up of a noisy faction of their leadership, claiming to speak for everybody.

The thing is Rich, if these women want to move beyond Jesus, then there is no point in discussing these things, because they don’t even understand the basics of the faith.

You cannot move from point A to point B, unless you first understand point A.

The theological confusion is very deep.

Sad, but true.

I do thing we should all avoid broadbrushing and speculating until we have more details.

No Rich, sadly I must say, you and many more do not understand the “intent” or purpose of Blessed John calling for the council.  As did Pope Paul state later that the smoke of Satan has entered the Church.  What do you think he meant by making this public statement?

Send those nuns back to the convent. If they refuse to obey, cut them off. Poor nuns as victims? No. Jesus is the victim here, not them. Every time they reject male priesthood, they reject Jesus and His teachings, while driving another nail into His hands and feet. I’m tired of “let’s be sensitive to their plight” nonsense. They’re apostates, not mere distorters, beyond education and dialog. They’re confusing the faithful and dividing the church. They must go.

savvy said, “and could be finally fed up of a noisy faction of their leadership, claiming to speak for everybody” I reply: Perhaps, but the problem is those supposedly not sharing their view are not making any noise at all as far as I can tell. The ones that are aren’t LCWR. I’ll be happily corrected on this point, but here is the larger point—all of this brouhaha can go away EASILY. All any LCWR affiliated order need do is publically and explictitly affirm that abortion, contraception, and homosexual are evil, that women cannot receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and dump all the flirting with New Age practices. For any order that does that, they should be granted full immunity from whatever plans the Vatican has in store.

Correction. That should read “homosexual acts”.

Thanks, Jimmy.  That was a very informative podcast.  I hope you will consider incorporating more interviews into future podcasts.  (I do like your solo podcasts, but I think a mix of solo commentary and interviews would be even better.)

Precision is one of the hallmarks of Catholic theology. And so should precision be one of the hallmarks about Church teachings. [Cf. the distinction between homosexuaity and homosexual acts; it is like the distinction between the desire to steal and actual theft].

Mrs. Pelosi’s bill is not about health care: it s about health insurance. There is nothing in it about medical practice, medical education, and the like. It is about PAYING for medical care.

As Fr. Weslin always says, “Read the end of the book. WE WIN!” (And my hats off for “The Hat Lady.”)

I am so thankful that our Pope has directed Archbishop Sartain to assist in bringing back the erring nuns into the Truth of Christ centered Spirituality instead of humanistic spirituality.
Sadly, I was a cantor at a Catholic Church in a south end suburb of Seattle yesterday. The senior priest who said the homily first began with a quote from Jesus after the Resurrection. He repeated what Jesus said, then went on with ” well, I think He was “really” thinking that he was angry with the apostles…Then the priest started talking in a sarcastic manner with regard to our Pope in his wishing to reform the nuns. He was praising the nuns yet no reference to the truth of where there has been much error. He then went on to laugh about his superior, Archbishop Sartain’s being directed to reform them, in a disgusted tone of voice, he replied, “God bless him.” Next, he praised the congregation for being supportive of gays and lesbians. He said that he has heard 50 yrs of confessions with bad marriages and inferred that the gays lifestyle in a positive one and was embracing such a lifestyle as progressive and in communion with the universal Catholic Churches’s call for diversity.
Yes, we are all sinners yet we must promote what is good for us all. What God calls us to do. Our priests are called to be shepherds of the Truth not lead us into the death and destruction.May God forgive those erring priests and bring them home to His Truth.

Suzie,

Maybe you should write to the Bishop about this.

April 24th: the National Catholic Reporter is setting up a blog to defend the dear Sisters who are being unjustly treated by the Vatican and the dying papacy…how pathetic!! I have witnessed the National Catholic Reporter attempt to destroy those communities that have remained faithful to the Church and her teachings and they should have been mandated long ago to drop the title “Catholic” from their organization. Joan Chittister is one of their writers so that tells you how radically liberal they are. The do have one reporter who is fair and balanced and that is John Allen. He should move to this newspaper…

Fr. Z has a report on their activities through the years. The next time something complains that these nuns have done nothing, just show them this.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/04/nuns-gone-wild-a-trip-down-memory-lane/

It is our duty to tell most humbly to the sisters and all religious that if they are not willing to obey the teachings of the OFFICIAL CHURCH, they may start their own church. We shall pray for the required wisdom to understand Jesus and His Church.

I stand with the nuns.

Austin - Which nuns do you stand with?  First of all, nuns are cloistered religious women, while professed religious women who live in the world are correctly called sisters.  I doubt that any contemplative nuns are dissidents in the way of these ‘worldly’ sisters of the LCWR.
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I do not understand these angry liberal sisters who nominally belong to our Church.  I was once a (highly educated) know-it-all, liberal feminist, but then I grew up, got married and had kids, and life intervened to convince me of the wisdom and…  righteousness… and truth… of our faith.  I guess I am just lucky, (and members of the communion of saints and prayer helped me out as well, I am certain).  I am so happy and proud to be a Catholic, at this time and place in history.  Really, all we can do is pray for the dissident sisters - they must have had sincere vocations at one point in time, so maybe they will change - I did.
.

Austin

Based on your name, I assume you are a dude…As such, the LCWR sisters really don’t want you standing anywhere near them…given your gender and all the repressive, archaic, medieval baggage that comes with said gender.  The good nuns of the Church, however, would love to have you stand by them, support them as they support the Church, and they actually believe in the resurrection.

God bless the Bishops and the hard work they have to do.

Pray for a peaceful conversion for all involved.  Ultimately we will all answer directly to Jesus.  Dona nobis pacem.

A man (woman) is likely to mind his (her) own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, she takes her mind off her(his) own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.
The minding of other people’s business expresses itself in gossip, snooping and meddling, and also in feverish interest in communal, national and racial affairs. In running away from ourselves we either fall on our neighbor’s shoulder or fly at his throat.

I have had nuns for school teachers for 12 years of my life.  They were the best years of my life and I would go back and do it all over again.  It sickens me to see what they have done to themselves.  I am happy that the vatican is putting its foot down.  What is sad is the fact that it has been allowed to go on for all these years.  I attended the extra ordinary rite of the Mass and the order of priests that we have(under the holy father)have an order of nuns that look and act like nuns and they are flourshing.  Same goes for Mother Assumptua Long in Michigan, another order(Dominican) that is flourshing.  I am a Alcohol and other drug abuse counselor.  My office is in an old convent of an order going belly up.

I was trained for 12 years by nuns in Catholic School. Today I ask those nuns. When you taught me about the infallibilty of the Pope in matters of faith and morals did you believe it? When you taught me about the end doesn’t justify the means did you believe that? When you taught me that we can’t do evil in order to do godd did you mean that? From what I see by your behavior I don’t think so. I am making the decision to stnad by my church no matter what because of what you taught me. Did you lie to me? Many Catholics are making decisions that can affect our lives and you are out their undercutting us publically.

How I wish the general public could read some of these comments. The liberal, nasty voices against the Church are using these Nuns on the Bus to their own advantages and the media is happy to focus on all the negativity and portray these women as victims.

They are hurting the church but it doesn’t seem to matter to them as long as they get their own ideas across, from supporting abortion to same sex union. They have completely lost their way, into the land of , political correctness and in some cases, heresy and evil.

I am still waiting for one nun(generic) to answer the questions I asked here and on the websites of the 2 orders that taught me in school. Did you believe in the doctrine of papal infallibility as proclaimed in VaticanI when you taught it to me? Did you accept the decree on abortion as proclaimed by Pope John XXIII? Did you lie to me? Any nun with enough courage to answer me? Because I have made the decision to stand by my church no matter what based on what you taught me. Stand Up For Religious Freedom.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/liberal-activist-nun-im-thrilled-the-supreme-court-upheld-obamas-pro-life-healthcare-bill/

Further proof that the church needs to step-up its efforts in weeding out corrupting influences.

Can someone identify the desenting orders of nuns?

Matthew,

The Leadership of the LCWR is dissenting. Nobody knows how many others in the LCWR share the views of their leaders. I personally know those who do not, but are still praying that things work out.

That being said, holding your own private revelations in opposition to both scripture and tradition, is like creating your own religion. They can go on and on about sins of the church, but the sins of people are not being declared doctrine.

The evils of Popery do not compare to the thousands of wanna-be Popes invoking God for their personal conflicting doctrines and setting up their own Magisterium.

They bring up conscience, but informed conscience is based on examining the evidence. Refusal to look at it because God talks to you is an act of blind faith and not reason.  Even I can claim God talks to me to promote xyz.

I heard Sister Mary Hughes at the National Press club on c-span. Talk about trying to backpeddle. But the problem is by trusting the mainstream medai these sisters are either very naive or a tool of the democratic party. You cannot accuse the bishops of being political while you are running around on a bus paid for by a democratic superpac.

FYI the orders involved are the Apostalic orders not the Contemplative orders. The second group do not belong to the LCWR. The apostalic orders are the ones who teach, nurse, work in the world.

Nancy,

The CMSWR also has Apostolic orders.