An interesting report by Rachel Zoll, Associated Press Religion Writer. I find it somewhat baffling that the Vatican is castigating progressive nuns for their attempts at modernization, given all the priest sex abuse scandals of the last decade.
NEW YORK (AP) — A conflict that has entangled the Vatican, American
bishops and the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns may seem to have
erupted suddenly, but it actually has its roots in decades-old disputes
over Roman Catholic teaching. The headlines came in April, when
the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, concluded that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had
strayed far from authentic doctrine and gave three American bishops the
authority to overhaul the organization.
The board for the nuns'
group responded by calling the Vatican's investigation flawed and its
conclusions unsubstantiated. Top executives of the sisters' organization
brought their concerns to a meeting Tuesday in Rome with Vatican
officials. The meeting was conducted in an atmosphere of "openness
and cordiality," according to a Vatican statement. But the church
insisted that the nuns LCWR must promote church unity by stressing core
church teachings.
On the face of it, the Vatican's timing is
baffling. America's religious sisters are far from the height of their
influence. Their numbers have plummeted from about 180,000 in 1965 to
56,000 last year, according to the Center for Applied Research in the
Apostolate. Their average age is now above 70. Many orders go for years
without any new candidates. But the contretemps can be explained
in the context of long-simmering differences that have also divided the
broader church into opposing camps of theological liberals and
conservatives — with many Catholics caught in between. Each side is
acting consistently according to long-established priorities.
THE VATICAN:
Pope
Benedict XVI is on a course correction. Benedict has been trying to
restore Catholic traditions he believes were lost 50 years ago in the
modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. As he presses for a
more conservative Catholicism, the pope has been vigilant about ensuring
that groups and individuals that operate in the name of the church are
adhering to core Catholic teaching.
Benedict recently approved new statutes for Caritas Internationalis, a global consortium of Catholic humanitarian aid groups, giving the Vatican more authority over the association's work. He dedicated much of his Holy Thursday homily this year to chastising a movement of Austrian clergy seeking women's ordination and optional celibacy for priests. Last week, the same Vatican agency that rebuked the U.S. nuns' group sharply criticized a book on sexuality written by a prominent American nun, Sister Margaret Farley, saying its author had a "defective understanding" of Catholic theology.
The nuns' conference is accused of taking positions that
undermine church teaching on the all-male priesthood and homosexuality
while staying mostly silent on abortion and promoting "certain radical
feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."
THE U.S. BISHOPS:
American bishops are struggling to reassert their teaching authority, even as fewer Catholics are listening. Less
than a quarter of U.S. Catholics attend Mass every week. Most reject
church teaching on artificial contraception and a majority support
same-sex relationships. About one-third of Americans who were raised
Catholic have left the church, according to the Pew Forum on Religion
& Public Life. These trends were already shaping Catholic life
when the scandal over clergy sex abuse erupted in 2002, further eroding
the bishops' standing. Still, church leaders have been newly
assertive. They have stepped up public condemnation of individuals and
groups who call themselves Catholic while dissenting from core beliefs.
According to officials involved in the review of the nuns' group,
religious sisters are among those who need correction.
"What are
the church's pastors to make of the fact that the (nuns' group)
constantly provides a one-sided platform — without challenge or any
opposing view — to speakers who take a negative and critical position
vis-a-vis church doctrine and the church's teaching office?" said Bishop
Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, who conducted the doctrinal review for
the Vatican. After Blair began his inquiry, relations between U.S.
bishops and the nuns worsened over the Obama administration's health
care overhaul. The bishops said the changes would increase government
funding for abortion; the Leadership Conference and other prominent
sisters' groups disagreed and said so publicly.
THE U.S. SISTERS:
After
the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, many religious sisters shed
their habits and traditional roles as they sought to more fully engage
the modern world. Many were better trained than ever to carry out
the changes. The sisters' formation movement of the 1950s had emphasized
advanced education for the nuns. As a result, sisters started taking on
higher-level professional work such as running colleges and hospitals. Over
the decades, the women's religious congregations focused increasingly
on Catholic social justice teachings: fighting poverty and the nuclear
arms race, advocating for civil rights and creating AIDS ministries,
while continuing in their jobs as social workers and educators. The
Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which the Vatican had created
in 1956, became a platform for ideas fueling this activism. The group,
based in Silver Spring, Md., represents the leaders for about 80 percent
of U.S. sisters. But as the nuns' advocacy increased, so too did
the criticism from theological conservatives. They argued that the
sisters' congregations had become secular and political, while
abandoning traditional prayer life and faith. The nuns insisted prayer
and Christ were central to their work. This dispute continued as
Pope John Paul II defended Catholic orthodoxy and appointed bishops and
Vatican officials who shared his concerns about the proper direction of
the church.
In 1992, the Vatican created a separate group for sisters with a traditional approach to religious life and church authority. The Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious is significantly smaller than the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. But a recent study found the traditional religious orders are having greater success attracting new candidates.
Then, under Benedict, the conflict reached a turning point. Around
2008, the Vatican announced the doctrinal review of the Leadership
Conference and also launched an Apostolic Visitation, or investigation,
of all U.S. women's congregations. That inquiry looked at quality of
life, the response to dissent and "the soundness of doctrine held and
taught" by the women. Results of the wider inquiry have not been
released. But for the next five years, the Leadership Conference will effectively be under Vatican receivership. Seattle
Archbishop Peter Sartain and two other U.S. bishops will oversee
rewriting the statutes of Leadership Conference, review the groups'
plans and programs, approve its speakers and ensure the women properly
follow Catholic prayer and ritual. And despite the nuns'
complaints, and the protests around the country organized by Catholics
who support them, executives from the Leadership Conference acknowledge a
hard reality: As a group created by the Vatican, they have few options
for persuading Rome to reverse course.
___
Leadership Conference of Women Religious: https://lcwr.org/
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-062e.cfm
And here's a video clip (about another recalcitrant nun) from The Sound of Music:
No comments:
Post a Comment