Reading most press accounts of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, one would think that the Vatican is attacking all of the world’s nuns.
A more correct read of the situation, however, is that the Vatican hasn’t attacked all of the Church’s nuns, but rather it has disciplined a select group of them in the U.S., and it has done so out of love for the Truth. For the past 40 years, some leaders within certain female religious communities - such as some Benedictines, Dominicans, and Franciscans - have wandered increasingly further away from Christ’s Church and her teachings.
The assessment revealed what it described as “serious doctrinal problems which affect many in Consecrated Life. … On the doctrinal level, this crisis is characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration which leads, in turn, to a loss of a ‘constant and lively sense of the Church’ among some Religious.”
Recently, Washington Post writer Lisa Miller brought the Virgin Mary into the discussion. While that is a correct approach, Miller did so in a peculiar way. Miller paints Mary as a kind of primal radical feminist.
Miller compares the imagined fury of the men of Galilee with a young, unmarried, pregnant Mary to that of the ordained men of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith issuing the doctrinal assessment and calling for reform.
“Mary was a poor girl from nowhere, living in a culture in which men made all the rules and owned all the property and women had nothing,” writes Miller. “For more than a thousand years, women like Mary have entered religious life hoping to find a safe place where they might receive an education and protection from the oppression of marriage and the dangers of child-bearing.”
Miller demonstrates an utter lack of understanding about the role of religious women and Marian femininity. Most religious women enter religious life not out of some fear of marriage or child-bearing. Rather, they sacrifice physical marriage to become the spouse of Christ. They forgo natural children to become spiritual mothers to many.
Miller further says that the Church’s contemporary view of women is that “they are equal, but inferior.”
Let’s examine how the Church views, esteems, and even exalts women, particularly through the example of the woman par excellence — Mary.
Marian Femininity vs. Radical Feminism
For all of the rhetoric about the Church being against women, in reality, the Church is the only institution that truly advances the dogma that there is no “glass ceiling” for women.
In 1854, Blessed Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception, the doctrine that Mary alone among all men and women was conceived without original sin. Nearly 100 years later, Pope Pius XII defined the doctrine of the Assumption, that Mary was assumed, body and soul, into Heaven.
The Church is the only institution that recognizes, teaches, and advances these truths about Mary’s place among humanity. These doctrines emphasize what God did for Mary. One safeguards her from the corruption of original sin; the other preserves her from the corruption of death.
Is there any human being whom the Church esteems more than Mary? She, as a woman, is the pinnacle of humanity. She is “blessed among women.” She is “full of grace.” She is the prototypical Christian, a model for us all.
What is it that Mary models through her actions?
She models perfect humility, perfect obedience, receptivity, and a profound “Yes” to the will of God.
What of Marian femininity is found in nuns who do not abide the Church’s teachings, but advance other doctrines?
Where radical feminism reigns, Mary is degraded and dethroned.
Some female religious orders proudly proclaim that they’ve been founded in “rebellion.” What in Mary’s actions speaks rebellion?
Hearing female demands to be ordained, one is reminded of the story of Korah’s rebellion in the Book of Numbers. Korah and his men grumble against Moses because only select Levites are chosen from the 12 tribes to be priests. Korah and his men could not serve in the Tabernacle as priests. In response to their rebellion, God opens the earth to swallow them and all of their possessions.
Would Mary, like Dominican Sister Laurie Brink, say that she was "moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus?”
Would Mary, like billionaire foundation co-chair Melinda Gates, suggest as so many religious sisters apparently did to her, that she should question “received teaching?”
Unlike Zechariah, when Gabriel tells Mary that she will bear a Son, she answers with belief.
Mary is the daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the spouse of the Holy Spirit. How is it that Mary has the three highest positions achievable in the faith? Mary did so through her complete submission to God and what He asked of her. It is for this reason that she is both hated and opposed by Satan and radical feminists.
“Let it be done unto me according to your word,” she responds, not “Let it be done unto me according to my word.”
A Trust Betrayed
As the doctrinal assessment noted, the Church is grateful and thankful for the myriad contributions of thousands of religious sisters. Many have profoundly given of themselves sacrificially, laying down their lives for their students, the sick and those in need. Many people have been touched by many faithful sisters.
Still, others have gone astray in their teaching, their service, and their way of life.
Pope Paul VI said following the Second Vatican Council, “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.”
That smoke has been manifested in a variety of ways, including: bishops and priests who not only publicly dissented from the Church’s teachings, but also abandoned their vows and abused others; formerly Catholic powerhouse institutions of learning, higher education, hospitals, and charitable organizations caving into secularism; lay men and women who neither know the faith, nor teach it and pass it along to their children; and men’s and women’s religious orders that have lost their charism and ceased to be life-giving.
Witnessing the damage done to the Church and religious orders over the past 40 years, one cannot help but wonder if radical feminism wasn’t part of that “smoke.”
The CDF’s call for reform is the kind of correction that is most needed at this time.
Too many good religious women have been betrayed.
I recall a now-deceased older nun — a friend of our family — who belonged to an order that had discarded the habit. She, however, continued to wear it. I cannot forget the time she lovingly shared with us how she felt exiled, bullied even, by others in her community for her decision to live out her vows of poverty, chastity, and yes … obedience.
Or another older sister who was dismayed that her order’s religious shop was selling “holy” cards depicting secular “saints,” “sacred snakes,” sorcery, and New Age imagery.
A Benedictine order in Wisconsin reconstituted itself as an ecumenical community outside of the Church, while retaining the property and institution they had acquired over the years as members of the Church.
There has been a generational hijacking. How many dying religious orders continue to hang on to the property and money obtained through previous social capital while betraying the charism of their founders?
While fomenting dissent, many continue to hang on to the property and institutions paid for by previous generations, and they are provided prominent platforms from which to speak.
Many female orders have lost their charism. They are neither motherly, nor fruitful. They do not attract novices. They are not attracting young women because they do not offer something significantly different from what the secular world offers.
Clearly, corrective discipline, performed in love, is in order. That is the purpose of the doctrinal assessment and the call for reform.
Pope Benedict XVI, in Light of the World recalls that after the mid-1960s ecclesiastical penal law was no longer applied.
“The prevailing mentality was that the Church must not be a Church of laws but, rather, a Church of love; she must not punish. Thus the awareness that punishment can be an act of love ceased to exist,” said the Pope in his 2010 interview.
“Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been harmed are correctly balanced if I punish the sinner in the form that is possible and appropriate. In this respect there was in the past a change of mentality, in which the law and the need for punishment were obscured. Ultimately this also narrowed the concept of love, which in fact is not just being nice or courteous, but is found in the truth. And another component of truth is that I must punish the one who has sinned against real love.”
The world is in search of the Truth. Christ said, “I am the way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to Father except through me.” Instead of being a bride of Christ, those individuals that divorce themselves from Christ, “moving beyond Jesus” himself, cannot possibly lead His people to the Truth.
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The Blessed Mother, in one of her apparitions, warned us that if we continued to live sinful lives, and didn’t pray enough, Satan would enter the Church and cause havoc. I would say he has entered! Some priests ignore their vow of celebacy, some nuns have discarded their habits and live in apartments instead of Community. The Church says one thing, and then does another-such as attacking the Gay minority. Did Our Lord teach us to spread hate for any group of society? Islam is about to take over Europe-and the Church does nothing! As if we haven’t “Suffered” through enough senseless changes, confessionals have been removed in some churches, and the Blessed Sacrament is moved to an isolated spot! The sins and sensless changes in the Church have driven many Catholics away!
The lady sporting the curious sweatshirt in the photo is a Sinsinawa Dominican who used to work at an Illinois abortuary. Her motherhouse is in Wisconsin, just two miles away from our Nativity BVM parish in East Dubuque, Illinois. We continue to search for just ONE Sinsinawa Dominican who is pro-life and loyal to the Magisterium and to our Holy Father. If you know of ONE, please let me know. We would like to invite her to our parish, to find out what is going on in her community and how we might help. Many thanks.
Yes…it’s certainly tiring. In this Diocese of Kingston, Ontario,
right in our midst, is a spirituality centre rife with New Age and it’s
proponents…nuns who speak of the spirit…not the HOLY SPIRIT. Why does our Bishop allow this? The Bishop in Peterboro would boot them out
very quickly.
A nice article, but it does not reflect reality except in describing the hijacking of many religous orders.
The church refuses to discipline those who mislead . Religous leaders and politicians continue to misrepresent Catholic Belief and Teaching and are considered to be Catholic. The Church refuses to take a publice position to discipline them and gives them credibility to non-catholics and Catholics who have never been taught the true beliefs of the Church and most Catholics today have not been properly educated in the beliefs of the Catholic Church.
I must add more. In the 70’s, I watched as the nuns moved out of St. Joseph’s College and into apartments…habitless. And further…the Priests at Scollard hall in North Bay were left rudderless. I couldn’t believe what was happening right before my eyes. Before that, while living in Great Falls Montana, we kids were taught by Real nuns. Thankfully I retained much over the intervening years of apostacy.
Thanks be to God
Rich said, “The Church says one thing, and then does another-such as attacking the Gay minority. Did Our Lord teach us to spread hate for any group of society?” I reply, Whaa? This is pure nonsense. The Church in the face of a massive onslaught to normalize a perverted act has simply restated its teaching. Homosexual acts are wrong, but even so, no one may persecute or unjustly discriminate against homosexuals. There is nothing hateful about that, it’s the truth.
Again,let me shout from the roof tops: LaSallete—LaSallete—LaSallete! Those children were telling the TRUTH & fearful clergy supressed the messages! Our Lady, however, will not be thwarted in her desire to save souls! There is great hope, that the tide of evil will soon turn. From a more well known aparition: “and in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph”
I thank God every day for the good nun’s of Saint Joseph who gave me a solid foundation of Catholic dogma in St Christopher parish grammar school in Baldwin, Long Island. “Nuns for choice” is a sign of dementia.
The ruling from the Vatican means nothing until the offending religious communities both MALE and female are suppressed. Among the male communities you have provinces that should have been suppressed twenty years ago. But nothing has been done until this small step with regard to liberal/leftist/wiccan women religious. There plenty of male communities that deserve the same as the LCWR if not more.
Very well written defense of the correction some nuns need at this time. I cringe when I see Catholics and especially priests saying these rebellious, disobedient nuns are being unjustly disciplined. Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!
Thanks Tim, for another well-done article; it is sad that Miss Miller is so confused as she called Mary an unwed, pregnant girl, when Mary was indeed married by the Jewish customs, and on today, Mother’s Day, we not only honor our mothers, but especially our very Holy Mother, Mary. It is so sad that so many mothers-that-were, decided to kill the baby that God had given them, and now, will not receive a card, etc. from what would have been living child, now gone, but, not forgotten. RICH DYKSTRA, what planet did you come from? The Church does not attack ‘gays’, only the sins of their homosexuality actions, along with the sins of all the normal people. These people are NOT GAY, just confused and most of them are not truly homosexual, and this group of people are the ones that are attacking the Church and everything that is Holy. One of Obama’s favorite people is Don Savage, the one with the filthy, hateful mouth and no love or brains. GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED!! +JMJ+
The heads of Jewish families lost their capacity as priests due to worshipping the golden calf, the Levites were the only tribe that did not worship the golden calf, they became the priests for the tribes.
The feminist nuns have built their own golden calves and have been worshipping them ever since. It is time to offer them a choice: excommunication or obedience to the Truth.
An Excellent article. You have hit on many points which are right on the truth. Thank you. Ann E.
PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!!!
BISHOPS!!!!
REVIVE THE ACT OF EXCOMMUNICATION!!!
That nun with that goofy shirt should join the sisters of st. goofy.
Mr Drake
I feel I must put in a comment re your reference to Sr Laurie Brink’s article, because I believe that you are seriously misrepresenting her ideas and beliefs. Nowhere did she say that SHE was “moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus”. In fact, in reference to that stance taken by SOME she specifically says on P 18 that this is “a whole new way which is also NOT Catholic Religious Life” ((my emphasis). The whole thrust of her talk on that occasion was to present an outline of the various ways in which Sisters have chosen to respond to their vocations in the circumstances in which they find themselves.
Whilst it is perfectly legitimate to take issue with ideas and actions which you believe to be erroneous, surely it is important and only fair and just that people engaging in this kind of discussion have been very careful to check their sources.
By the way, I hold no particular brief for Sr Laurie. I happen to be English and I live in Spain. I have never met any Sinsinawa Dominicans. However, when I came across references to her talk some time ago I made it my business to read the transcript of her talk. If she had indeed made the statement you and others have attributed to her, I would certainly have been very troubled.
In addition, having read many responses to the situation concerning the Vatican and the LCWR, it does seem to me that many people have already made their decision well ahead of any discussion by the parties involved of the precise issues on which the Vatican has concerns.
Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/tim-drake/when-reverend-mothers-cease-being-motherly?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register#When:2012-05-13#ixzz1ulJb0j1rreference
Mr. Drake, I would like to add that our Blessed Virgin stands as an example to all of mankind, men & women, in how we are to be obedient to God’s will.
Our seminaries were infiltrated years ago, and many good men were denied the opportunity to follow their true calling because they were men of faith, not Catholic community organizers, fostering rebellion within the Catholic Church. At the gates of many of these infected seminaries were nuns who had forsaken their vows as religious to promote a secular agenda under the guise of being religious. Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops must summon the courage of our faith to excommunicate those in prominent positions (religious, political, business,etc.) who have given their souls to Satan, living blasphemous lives that contradict the five absolutes of our Church’s dogma. Their errant lives provide sanctuary for those outside of our faith to attack our faith.
Just a few clarifying points:
1) Sr. Laurie Brink DID NOT advocate “moving beyond” Jesus and the church. She advocated the route of reconciliation in her talk. She described, diagnostically, some strains of thought out there, but at the end of the talk, placed herself firmly in the church. (And she continues to exercise a mandatum to teach at a Catholic seminary.) I think her talk is pretty good, myself. I think that the Vatican action is not because her talk was horrible, but because she analyzed truthfully what is happening and they agreed that some issues should be resolved. https://lcwr.org/sites/default/files/calendar/attachments/2007_Keynote_Address-Laurie_Brink-OP.pdf
2) I bemoan the fact that ‘feminism’ gets such a bum rap. Feminism means the belief that all people are equal. For all to be equal means that established social structures may need to be overturned. Mary’s song, the Magnificat, speaks exactly of that - ‘the mighty being cast down from the their thrones.’ Obedience to God’s will means submission to God, but not necessarily submission to the powers that be, especially if those powers are in violation of what God wills.
3) Which brings us those founders of religious orders. Many of them ran afoul of a bishop or two or three. That seems to be a common pattern - fights, excommunication, then canonization. :) I submit to you the examples of Mary McKillop, Mother Theodore Guerin, and Bonifacia Rodriguez y Castro (just canonized this last year.) It is true women have seen that they have needed to move beyond what the church was doing and where the church was doing it in order to bring the Gospel to those who needed to hear it and experience it. I’m just now reading a book on Catherine McAuley’s Mercies, for example. This is very different than ‘moving beyond the church.’ It is taking the Gospel seriously enough to be willing to engage in the struggle to move the church to where it needs to be.
4) Is it true that some sisters have ‘moved beyond Jesus and the church’? Yes. Have some stopped going to mass? Yes. Is the speaker for the upcoming LCWR assembly just slightly crazy? Perhaps.
I just hate to see it all lumped together. One can be a feminist and a Catholic and a believer in Christ and continue to celebrate the Eucharist with the church. (I am. I’m not alone.) At the same time, one can recognize that perhaps the institution needs to be pushed and prodded to continue to carry the Gospel forward. (Isn’t that what the New Evangelization is all about? Doing it differently, so as to be effective in the here and now?)
Dear Curmudgeon, God created us with equal dignity, that’s where it stops. He made us male and female - including a multitude of differences, according to His will. I put my trust in Him; I don’t know more than God! There is also a difference between genuine feminism and radical feminism. Have you ever seen a radical feminist who was at peace? No! They’re all angry….that’s a pretty sad way to live.
It is so sad how things are changing.Dear Jesus help us! I could not take all the contradictions and disobedience. I am saddened by the immodesty in the church people, the lack of separation from the world (the sisters and priests). That is why I went with the mennonites-not perfect, but much fruit in their lives because of their faith. They ‘walk the talk’.
Everyone must read the definitive book about feminist nuns in this country and how it started and why we are in the terrible situation we are in now with these women who refuse to submit to God and to Church authority. They serve someone other than God. The book is Ungodly Rage by Donna Steichen. I read it a few years ago and was appalled. God help us all! Pray, pray, pray!
On this Feast Day of the First Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima we ask her powerful intercession for all our religious and consecrated, but especially for the errant ones who have lost their way and have led and continue to lead so many Catholics astray.
I find it curious that since I have returned to the church as a women after 45 years, that there is or appears to be a fair amount of unhappy women in the Catholic Church. I have yet to figure this out given the beautiful history of the church, the sacraments, the spirituality or our faith and the work the church does throughout the world to bring souls to Christ. If anyone is being treated unfairly right now, it is those of the faithful in the church who chose to adhere to the principles of scripture, tradition and the catechism of the Catholic church. I recently read an article called “Five Hard Truths That Will Set You Free”. One of those truths is “Your Life is Not About You”. A quote from that particular ‘truth’ is: “In this age of “nobody tells me what to do” it is important to be reminded that our true happiness come not from getting what we want but what God wants.” Perhaps these unhappy and complaining individuals need to take a long hard look at what God wants of them rather than what they want. It is called humility.
The leading ‘mainstream” feminist group in America, the National Organization for women said in its 1966 state of goals that it would settle for nothing less than, “a sex role revolution for men and women which will restructure all our institutions: childrearing, education, marriage and the family, medicine, work, politics, the economy, religion, psychological theory, human sexuality, and the very evolution of the race.”
These ideas came from a 1884 treatise, “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, by Karl Marx’s best friend and co-author, Fredrich Engels, who asserted that the “bourgeois” family with its division of labor—men working, women raising children—was one of the
greatest obstacles to the achievement of a socialist society.
My own sister was in a Discalced Carmelite monastery for nearly ten years, and made her final profession there. They then brought in a Dominican sister whose job it was to help them reform their constitution. She was a secular sister with no habit, and they allowed her into the cloister. It went downhill from there. At the end of her visit they were talking about homosexuality and the “male dominated clergy”. The superiors chose a new path, one that was contrary to my sisters vows according to St. Theresa of Avila. At the same time their new vocations ceased, and my sister eventually left to wander in the “wilderness” for several years. She has still not found a permanent home, but she is perhaps closer to Christ than ever before.
GREAT article. Thank you for putting it out there. I find the whole Nuns for Choice phenomenon disturbing. This attack on our institutions has been happening for a long time, but it seems to be speeding up. In “Rules for Radicals,” Saul Alinsky mentions that he served as a consultant for seminarians at Mundelein. Talk about a smoking gun. Every once in a while, I get into a conversation with a hard-core dissenter who threatens to leave the Church. I wish they would have the backbone to do so…they’ve already excommunicated themselves. They can at least spare us the hypocrisy of trumpeting their “Catholic identity” while undermining the tenets of the Faith.
These radical nuns are nuns in name only. They are not in anyway representative of the Catholic church or brides of Christ. They are brides of another entity and sadly, if they do not repent and change their ways will be judged harshly when it comes their time to leave this earth. How sad that they are betraying Our Lord under the guise of being His servants.
Miller, if you had interviewed Mary about her role in society, here’s what she’d tell you: “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy: As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.” Luke 1: 46-55.
Rich Dykstra: I agree with much of what you said, but please know the Church is NOT “attacking the gay minority.” We in the Church respect all people, as Jesus teaches. What we oppose is any LIFESTYLE not in accordance with Jesus’ (and so the Church’s) teachings. Sexuality was created for marriage between a husband and wife. Just as we oppose adultery and fornication for heterosexuals, so we oppose a homosexual lifestyle; certainly not the people involved, all of whom have been created in Jesus’ image.
It’s the nature of religious orders. Yes, people sin, divide in all vocations. BUT “religious orders” (an innovation which caught traction mainly in the 7th century) lends itself to group dissent. They rise faithful and before long need reform. Hence, all the “schisms” in orders over the centuries, much like Protestantism. It’s the Catholic version of (internal) schism. They separate from the main group to be “holier” (separated, rules, habits, devoted, focus on an area(s) of ministry), but before long they are “independent” (leaders, property, $$, mission), divided, disobedient, etc. No one seems to question the entire idea or model of “religious orders” simply because of the history (baggage?) of the Church finding some gems in their work. As though these gems would not emerge w/out the separate groups. However, despite all the arguments for, I am voice crying out in the desert asking “why”? A big Church is permitting different paths to satiate people and their desires, whims. It seems to be human nature to start their own “group” (and we have many in the Church). It’s time we called them and ourselves simply to discipleship and unity in the Church as Christ did and not allow the faithful to form their own fraternity and sororities. You will find that most of the Church’s problems stem from these internal schisms of groups w/ their own leaders, authority, system, etc. that challenge when their demands or desires are not met.
Great point, Anita!
It’s about time.Things have gotten out of hand. I was so glad that our nuns had been interviewed and were able to say what they thought about the way their communities lived up to their expectations. At one time in my life, I myself thought of entering the convent. However, God had other plans. When my children were ready to enter school, I chose to send them to public schools, because the nun that I was to talk to was bleach “blonde” and high-heeled. The thought of such a nun teaching my children in a catholic school turned me off. I thank God that I had the courage to stay catholic. At present, I am being rewarded by the Lord. He has guided me to a third order Carmelite community, whose charisms are true to the Faith and the Magisterium. I pray for all the nuns and religious orders to stay firm in their faith and the true charisms of their orders and communities. The Lord is cleaning house. There are many cobwebs to clean and as Our Mother Mary states she “will triumph in the end”. Thank you Holy Spirit for the wisdom given to Pope Benedict; for the courage to speak out for the truth of catholic teaching. At one time or another, a parent must take action to guide their children on to the right path.
I think when the wrong person heads up a order is when it gets in trouble. I don’t think being lead to a particular ministry (education, feeding poor, missions, etc) is a whim either. The vocation of the order is a good thing, it is when a leader within shirks on the vow of obedience sin comes in, and schism occurs. It is the nature of sin, not the nature of religious order.
We are all free to choose to break the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”, but we must be prepared to face the consequences, physically, emotionally and spiritually. All catholics, including nuns should be pro-life or not call themselves catholic. We should all (catholics) be trying to help pro-choice people to understand this.
\\Just as we oppose adultery and fornication for heterosexuals, so we oppose a homosexual lifestyle;\\
What does “homosexual lifestyle” mean?
Did you really write:
“PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!!!
BISHOPS!!!!
REVIVE THE ACT OF EXCOMMUNICATION!!!”
Remember John 8:7 “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” If Christ drove from Himself everyone who sinned against Him we are all lost. We should pray for those involved and each other, not feed festering anger.
Posted by EHM on Monday, May 14, 2012 12:24 PM (EST):
Remember John 8:7 “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” If Christ drove from Himself everyone who sinned against Him we are all lost. We should pray for those involved and each other, not feed festering anger
Why do people always omit the second half of the quote? Is it because they are only looking to justify sinful behavior and not teach the truth?
“and Jesus said: Go and sin no more”
That’s the killer, isn’t it? People want the lovey-dovey-huggy Jesus but not the just judge Jesus.
The Church must take a definitive stand to suppress the nuns and priests who have re-written Catholicism to their own progressive views. Their open rebellion and constant statements as well as the never-ending pedophile trials have severely challenged the laity worldwide. It’s pathetic to leave the laity to do apologetics and try to evangelize in this climate of heresy among the religious.
Very informative and well written. This is the best post I’ve read on the subject. Thank you.
The Scripture passage of 2 John 1:7-9 is “spot on” for our times:
“Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist. Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense. ANYONE WHO IS SO “PROGRESSIVE” as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.
Voice, you make some very cogent points. A few years ago, Steven Kellmeyer and Bridegroom Press published “Designed to Fail: Catholic Education in America.” It was a breakthrough moment for me because it addressed some issues that had distressed me for some time and for which there did not seem to be some definitive solution. I recommend the book for every Catholic. At its essence, “Designed to Fail” reveals how well-intentioned American bishops in the 19th century overreacted to encroaching secularism and Protestantism in the emerging public school movement by replicating the family-dividing model of schooling that was being implemented (and now is firmly entrenched) in communities across America and adding Catholic decorations to it (nuns imported from Europe to teach, crucifixes in classrooms, Catechism taught during the school day, etc.). Yet it was still the same model—children separated from their parents, who are the God-ordained educators of their own offspring, for several hours a day, five days a week, for the most formative years of their lives.
Indeed as Pope Paul VI would say a century later, “As through some fissure, the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.” Moving away from the sound and consistent teachings of the Catholic Church, even slightly, winds up having major impact.
More to your point, Voice, what I learned in general is that, as you suggested, revisiting a well-intentioned idea—in and of itself— sometimes is necessary for the growth of the Church.
Once again, the media has largely made it clear it is against God’s church. I have a hard time finding news sources which are sympathetic or even truthfully explaining this situation with some of these religious orders. The church is certainly at odds with mainstream contemporary culture instead of being incorporated into it, as it was at one point in history. Let’s just remember that ritual and theology is not a democracy and shouldn’t sway with the times, especially at a time when the culture has plunged into sinful permissiveness which seems to have no bounds.
If the church wants to continue to limit the clergy to males, as it has since its very foundation, the faithful should accept it and not view it as chauvinism. Or was Jesus a chauvinist or cowardly (for not ordaining females) for selecting 12 male apostles in the culture he was in? That is the implied message.
I just think it’s sad to see people wanting the secular culture to dictate what a church believes and practices, and mischaracterizes its views.
I think that the sisters/nuns of the United States ahve ruined the Catholic School system of the church. They are not interested in teaching any more, but they want to play in the world as one nun said, ” We want to be like you” and I said, you can’t, you too a VOW and we the lay people didnt.
They want to wear flowered dresses, not habits and show no type of religious attitude, but new hair do’s and earlings, I say now, PLEASE leave the church and get the Sisters and NUNS back into the habits and convents instead of Apartment living as they do here in St. Louis and other places,
I am sooooo tired of meeting a Sister or nun with out a Habit. when I asked them “why not wear your habit” almost all say, “Oh that old thing, that never made us sisters or nuns”. and I say, yes, I can see, but WE the people have more Respect for any religious who wear the habit. Humm, why do the police wear one, or nurses or doctors?? we higly respect them?? yes, but I have no use for any Sister or NUN out of habit.
I must say also, these Sisters/Nuns who want to be priests, and are hating the church for this, First of all the Holy Father can not change this at all, Christ is the one who made this rule and not the church or a Pope. Please leave the church, I would rather have a smaller church of good holy priests and sister/nuns than what these nuns are asking.
as one 95 year old Sister said here in St. Louis, and wears her habits FULLY too, she said, “the way that my order is going now, I would rather have it end now, than to see it end THIS way in how the currents Sisters/Nuns are acting towards the Holy Father and the church in whole,
If the people are wrong in how they feel towards the sister/Nuns and not care how they dress, as the current ones are saying, please look at all the negative comments here about the Sisters /Nuns out of habit, the LAY PEOPLE do not like it, so please you so called Sisters/Nuns in flowered dresses, LEAVE the church, WE DO NOT WANT YOU!! please go now,
The Gold-Standard was St. Faustina. She did everything under the radar, in humility, suffering, pursuing Jesus’ Mercy. She was a Sister with a capital “S” (as in saint) and should be person these nuns aspire after. Instead, they choose a much different path that will undoubtedly end in facing Jesus’ Justice.
A. J., it looks like you read the book “Goodbye Good Men”. If these radical nuns could just be like Mother Angelica, they wouldn’t have to be investigated. I hope something is really done because it seems the liberals get away with everything and the faithful priests and nuns always get punished. It’s so disheartening for me but my consolation is that God is in control and justice will be done when he allows it.
Let’s not forget the O.T. story of Eli and how he neglected to adequately reprimand his sons for what they were doing in the Temple. God then sent Samuel to set him straight and remove him (and sons) from his position. Eli’s neglect in attending to the wayward behavior of his sons was his downfall.
I think you misrepresent Miller’s comments—her claim is not that all current nuns chose religious life because they are cowering in fear of childbirth and marriage. In an age of such good medical care, being a mother doesn’t have to be frightening. But Miller is making reference to a thousand years, and as recently as just a hundred years ago (and less, in many places), bearing children was like rolling the death dice—maybe you’d die, maybe you wouldn’t. It *was* terrifying, and literally dangerous. Likewise marriage is different now than it used to be. Very recently in terms of human history, men were allowed and even expected to physically punish their wives. Miller may overstep in her thesis, but you overstep in yours when you accuse Miller of intending a meaning that her actual words do not actually convey.
As a relatively new Catholic, I would like to know why it has taken forty years to address these problems?
Catholics don’t change with the times. They give their hearts and their minds to the Church, and it is not in them to be angry at the sins of men or the mistreatment of women. That is blaspheme, and the nuns who support choice are blasphemers. How dare they presume people have free will?
Feminism should accentuate the differences between male and female; we’re created unequal, each with our own strengths and weaknesses that we might complement one another! My wife can’t hold a candle to my many various prowesses. Neither can I hold a candle to hers (which are more plentiful). But she lights my way when I’m in the dark, and I light hers, and it’s beautiful.
Beatrice.
We do have free will but the question is are we using it to be friends of God or of the world and of Satan?
our two old bishops did nothing about the New Age Problem; so I wrote up the priest involved and sent it to the Congregation For the Clergy and they took care of it. This time to our new bishop in my letter; in the closing remarks, “My mom and I prayed for a faithful bishop who will be faithful to the Pope and listen and do whatever he says about the Liturgy and everything concerning faith and morals. Also to make sure the New Age Occult does not come back into our Diocese.”
I have yet to come across an article on priests along with other male religious on their disobedience to the and note their disobedience is on far graver matters than that wich is mentioned in article above in fact the gravest of matters-such as molesting children is there really anything more repulsive than this and this is just one of many… Many. Sure I have read articles but none have been laced with the condescension of the articles on female religious and on female issues in general. I am catholic and would love to totally abandon myself to it-and maybe I should be a little stronger but I am in a real struggle with what I and many others percieve as somewhat veiled but very present scornful attitude towards women by the catholic Church and furthermore by those who as mentioned above commit the most despicable crimes known to humanity and perhaps when I state this last fact and it is a fact-I am just a tad stereotypical but most horrific, cruel and downright depraved things done in the world since beginning of time are done exclusively by men!
It’s high time we stop calling “nuns for choice” ‘nuns’.. they aren’t nuns , they aren’t friends of the human race,, they put their choice, self, above life and the Creator of life.. no friend there. THey have been this way for years, no surprise,, when I picketed and demonstrated against abortion 30-40 years ago, there was seldom a ‘nun’ in sight,, very very few defended the unborn. They should hang their heads low in shame as their founders had a very very different agenda. Finally , only ‘money’ could account for them being in ‘irreligious’ life. WE live in very strange times.. time to remain faithful,, strong and prayerful.
Thank God the Vatican is taking these pro-abortion, sometimes lesbian nuns to task for their clearly errant ways. Had these type of nuns taught me when I was in Catholic grade school, I would not have the faith I do today. Let’s root out the rotten wood—if there is only one nun who is faithful to the Church, then let’s have just one nun. These pro-abortion nuns are far worse than having no sisters at all.
Like others posting here, I wish to say that I and many other Catholics I know are totally sick of these so-called nuns who are morally bankrupt, supporting abortion, gay marriage, one “nun” even writing about “self-pleasuring”. They completely disgust me. They are not worthy of the name “Christian” that is followers of Christ, when they appear so totally morally bankrupt. They might as well face the facts that the Church is never going to change for them and it’s time for them, dissident priests and their supporters to leave and join the world that they so obviously embrace. Time for sorting the wheat from the chaff is long overdue.
The problem with pedophile priests is a completely different thing - that concerns a group of perverts who have entered the Church, solely with the aim of molesting children. Anyone who wants the truth of the situation should read the book “Goodbye Good Men” and see how the seminaries in the United States were taken over by a homosexual clique and how good Catholic men upholding the Church’s teaching could not get into the seminaries. You didn’t get in if you didn’t conform. I could only read a few pages of that book as it was so sickening to read even the disgusting material given to young men to read in the seminary. All of this is the fruits of Vatican II ... a rotten spirit that has moved through the Church which has certainly not been the Holy Spirit ...
Great insight. A vocation can only grow if the gift of who we are is fully accepted. Thanks to God for all the strong and feminine motherly figures I had to witness!
The letter Mulieris Dignitatem by JPII is an uplifting view on the role of Mary in the church and the role of women: http://goo.gl/V4oGp
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