Communist
11th February 2010, 19:10
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Vatican Probe of U.S. Nuns Moves Quietly Forward
-------------------------------------------------
By Claire Bushey
WeNews
February 10, 2010
http://www.womensenews.org (http://www.womensenews.org/)
The Vatican's investigation of U.S. nuns is expected to
be completed in 2011. Many think the probe amounts to
an examination of the initiatives of the 1960s that
revolutionized the life of nuns, allowing many to leave
convents and pursue careers.
(WOMENSENEWS)--The Vatican's investigation of American
nuns enters its second year, with few nuns willing to
openly discuss what they think about it.
Numerous requests for interviews by Women's eNews were
declined, both by nuns who oppose the investigation and
those who support it.
But if the Catholic press is any guide, most leaders of
religious orders are opposed to the investigation that
a church authority in Rome has said concerns
irregularities or omissions in American religious life.
In November, Cardinal Franc Rode, head of the Vatican's
council on religious life, told Vatican Radio what
prompted the probe. "Most of all, you could say, it
involves a certain secular mentality that has spread in
these religious families and, perhaps, also a certain
'feminist' spirit."
Many Catholics take comments like that to mean that the
process is meant to examine how religious orders have
interpreted Vatican II, the prominent church council
convened by Pope John XXIII in the 1960s that
revolutionized the modern church.
After Vatican II, many nuns stopped wearing habits,
left convents to live independently and pursued careers
in academia and social work to the exclusion of their
traditional work in the church's hospitals and schools.
In the decades that have followed, some nuns have
replaced the traditional daily prayers, known as the
breviary, with one that mentions more women. Some have
opposed the church hierarchy's teachings on
controversial issues such as abortion, same-sex
marriage and women's ordination.
The Vatican's three-part investigation involves
interviews with the heads of the religious orders, a
questionnaire that covers many aspects of an order's
religious life and on-site visits at certain orders.
Connecticut native Mother Mary Clare Millea, superior
general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
heads the operation. Though the order's leadership
council is headquartered in Rome, it has branches in 12
countries.
Loaded and Open Question
There are 67,000 nuns in the United States, according
to the Leadership Conference for Women Religious,
representative of about 95 percent of them.
How many oppose the investigation?
With both sides of the investigation wanting to say
they speak for the majority of American nuns, that's a
loaded and open question.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at
Georgetown University, one of the main sources of
statistical information on Catholic life, has not
surveyed nuns on their attitudes toward the visitation,
said the center's executive director Sister Mary
Bendyna.
Accounts in the religious press suggest the majority of
the leaders of the 1,500 orders that compose the
leadership conference have not complied with the
Vatican's requests for information.
"We cannot, of course, keep them from investigating,"
wrote Sister Sandra Schneiders in a private e-mail,
which later became widely circulated when published by
the National Catholic Reporter. Schneiders is a
professor at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley,
Calif. "But we can receive them, politely and kindly,
for what they are, uninvited guests who should be
received in the parlor, not given the run of the
house."
However, the comparatively conservative Council of
Major Superiors of Women Religious, which is based in
Washington, D.C. and represents about 100 orders, is
complying. And the visitation does have some
supporters.
"Things have gotten to the point now that many of the
women's orders are not following church guidelines for
religious orders," said Ann Carey, author of the 1997
book "Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of
Women's Religious Communities" and the moderator of a
Yahoo discussion group for nuns who support the
investigation. Carey says the people who've joined the
group worry that "their leadership is moving away from
the church."
Group to Connect Sisters
Those who favor the investigation say members of the
leadership conference do not speak for all the nuns
within their orders. They argue that conservative nuns
are marooned within the ranks of more liberal religious
women. Carey said she started the Yahoo discussion
group in December to connect these sisters with each
other. As of late January, the group had 101 members.
Several conservative nuns also spoke at a symposium
held in 2008 at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, a
gathering that Rode later said was influential in his
decision to launch the investigation.
The social upheavals of the 1960s made the decade
"exactly the wrong time for the (Vatican II) Council to
have occurred," said Sister Elizabeth McDonough, who
teaches canon law at the Pontifical College Josephinum
in Columbus, Ohio, in a paper delivered at the
symposium.
Sister Sara Butler, a professor of dogmatic theology at
St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., said U.S.
religious life has been split over church hierarchy's
authority. "On the one hand, there are the
'conservatives' who accept the church's hierarchical
structure, teaching authority and jurisdiction," she
said in a paper also presented at the symposium. "On
the other hand, there are 'liberals' (or perhaps,
'radicals') who distinguish between the church as 'the
People of God' (whom they profess to love) and the
'institutional church' (from which they feel
alienated)."
Later in her presentation she asked, "Is it time,
perhaps, for a formal 'visitation?'" She didn't grant
an interview to say whether she supports the
investigation.
The investigation is scheduled to conclude in 2011 with
Mother Mary Clare Millea making a report to Rode's
council on the status of the country's religious orders
and her recommendations.
How the results will affect the lives of U.S. nuns is
anyone's guess.
"That's the $64,000 question," Carey said.
Claire Bushey is a freelance journalist based in
Chicago. She writes about workers rights at Hard Labor,
found here: http://www.trueslant.com/clairebushey. Her
Web site is http://www.clairebushey.com (http://www.clairebushey.com/).
For more information:
Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious
in the United States
http://www.apostolicvisitation.org (http://www.apostolicvisitation.org/)
Stories About the Apostolic Visitations of U.S. Women
Religious, National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/apostolicvisitation
2008 Stonehill College Symposium on Apostolic Religious
Life papers
http://www.stonehill.edu/x14963.xml
Sisters Supporting Apostolic Visitation Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sisterssupportingapostoli
cvisitation/
http://www.womensenews.org/story/religion/100209/vatica
n-probe-us-nuns-moves-quietly-forward
Copyright 2010 Women's eNews.
_____________________________________________
Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.
Vatican Probe of U.S. Nuns Moves Quietly Forward
-------------------------------------------------
By Claire Bushey
WeNews
February 10, 2010
http://www.womensenews.org (http://www.womensenews.org/)
The Vatican's investigation of U.S. nuns is expected to
be completed in 2011. Many think the probe amounts to
an examination of the initiatives of the 1960s that
revolutionized the life of nuns, allowing many to leave
convents and pursue careers.
(WOMENSENEWS)--The Vatican's investigation of American
nuns enters its second year, with few nuns willing to
openly discuss what they think about it.
Numerous requests for interviews by Women's eNews were
declined, both by nuns who oppose the investigation and
those who support it.
But if the Catholic press is any guide, most leaders of
religious orders are opposed to the investigation that
a church authority in Rome has said concerns
irregularities or omissions in American religious life.
In November, Cardinal Franc Rode, head of the Vatican's
council on religious life, told Vatican Radio what
prompted the probe. "Most of all, you could say, it
involves a certain secular mentality that has spread in
these religious families and, perhaps, also a certain
'feminist' spirit."
Many Catholics take comments like that to mean that the
process is meant to examine how religious orders have
interpreted Vatican II, the prominent church council
convened by Pope John XXIII in the 1960s that
revolutionized the modern church.
After Vatican II, many nuns stopped wearing habits,
left convents to live independently and pursued careers
in academia and social work to the exclusion of their
traditional work in the church's hospitals and schools.
In the decades that have followed, some nuns have
replaced the traditional daily prayers, known as the
breviary, with one that mentions more women. Some have
opposed the church hierarchy's teachings on
controversial issues such as abortion, same-sex
marriage and women's ordination.
The Vatican's three-part investigation involves
interviews with the heads of the religious orders, a
questionnaire that covers many aspects of an order's
religious life and on-site visits at certain orders.
Connecticut native Mother Mary Clare Millea, superior
general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
heads the operation. Though the order's leadership
council is headquartered in Rome, it has branches in 12
countries.
Loaded and Open Question
There are 67,000 nuns in the United States, according
to the Leadership Conference for Women Religious,
representative of about 95 percent of them.
How many oppose the investigation?
With both sides of the investigation wanting to say
they speak for the majority of American nuns, that's a
loaded and open question.
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at
Georgetown University, one of the main sources of
statistical information on Catholic life, has not
surveyed nuns on their attitudes toward the visitation,
said the center's executive director Sister Mary
Bendyna.
Accounts in the religious press suggest the majority of
the leaders of the 1,500 orders that compose the
leadership conference have not complied with the
Vatican's requests for information.
"We cannot, of course, keep them from investigating,"
wrote Sister Sandra Schneiders in a private e-mail,
which later became widely circulated when published by
the National Catholic Reporter. Schneiders is a
professor at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley,
Calif. "But we can receive them, politely and kindly,
for what they are, uninvited guests who should be
received in the parlor, not given the run of the
house."
However, the comparatively conservative Council of
Major Superiors of Women Religious, which is based in
Washington, D.C. and represents about 100 orders, is
complying. And the visitation does have some
supporters.
"Things have gotten to the point now that many of the
women's orders are not following church guidelines for
religious orders," said Ann Carey, author of the 1997
book "Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of
Women's Religious Communities" and the moderator of a
Yahoo discussion group for nuns who support the
investigation. Carey says the people who've joined the
group worry that "their leadership is moving away from
the church."
Group to Connect Sisters
Those who favor the investigation say members of the
leadership conference do not speak for all the nuns
within their orders. They argue that conservative nuns
are marooned within the ranks of more liberal religious
women. Carey said she started the Yahoo discussion
group in December to connect these sisters with each
other. As of late January, the group had 101 members.
Several conservative nuns also spoke at a symposium
held in 2008 at Stonehill College in Massachusetts, a
gathering that Rode later said was influential in his
decision to launch the investigation.
The social upheavals of the 1960s made the decade
"exactly the wrong time for the (Vatican II) Council to
have occurred," said Sister Elizabeth McDonough, who
teaches canon law at the Pontifical College Josephinum
in Columbus, Ohio, in a paper delivered at the
symposium.
Sister Sara Butler, a professor of dogmatic theology at
St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., said U.S.
religious life has been split over church hierarchy's
authority. "On the one hand, there are the
'conservatives' who accept the church's hierarchical
structure, teaching authority and jurisdiction," she
said in a paper also presented at the symposium. "On
the other hand, there are 'liberals' (or perhaps,
'radicals') who distinguish between the church as 'the
People of God' (whom they profess to love) and the
'institutional church' (from which they feel
alienated)."
Later in her presentation she asked, "Is it time,
perhaps, for a formal 'visitation?'" She didn't grant
an interview to say whether she supports the
investigation.
The investigation is scheduled to conclude in 2011 with
Mother Mary Clare Millea making a report to Rode's
council on the status of the country's religious orders
and her recommendations.
How the results will affect the lives of U.S. nuns is
anyone's guess.
"That's the $64,000 question," Carey said.
Claire Bushey is a freelance journalist based in
Chicago. She writes about workers rights at Hard Labor,
found here: http://www.trueslant.com/clairebushey. Her
Web site is http://www.clairebushey.com (http://www.clairebushey.com/).
For more information:
Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious
in the United States
http://www.apostolicvisitation.org (http://www.apostolicvisitation.org/)
Stories About the Apostolic Visitations of U.S. Women
Religious, National Catholic Reporter
http://ncronline.org/apostolicvisitation
2008 Stonehill College Symposium on Apostolic Religious
Life papers
http://www.stonehill.edu/x14963.xml
Sisters Supporting Apostolic Visitation Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sisterssupportingapostoli
cvisitation/
http://www.womensenews.org/story/religion/100209/vatica
n-probe-us-nuns-moves-quietly-forward
Copyright 2010 Women's eNews.
_____________________________________________
Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.