(Host) The Catholic Church has been looking into the activities of certain American nuns who devote their service to the alleviation of poverty and the promotion of social justice. Hinesburg writer and commentator Bill Schubart was raised Catholic so he’s been imagining what it might be like if the nuns began an initiative of their own.
(Schubart) Recently, a delegation of
American nuns composed of leaders from a variety of religious orders
left on a mission to Rome to explore and better understand reports of
religious and spiritual profligacy among their church’s male hierarchy.
"The
mission is not investigative, but exploratory," stressed Sister
Elizabeth of the Benedictine order. She cited reports of male clerics
tinkering with canon law, restricting how and by whom the Mass is
celebrated, arguing whether the Pope’s shoes should be red or white,
specifying what happens in the bedroom, and re-assessing the Vatican’s
priceless art collection. The nuns worry that their Vatican brethren may
have distracted themselves from Jesus’ directives regarding the poor,
respect for women and the care and teaching of children. She also cited
the nuns’ concern about the American bishops’ stated opposition to
President Obama’s effort to provide healthcare for 45 million uninsured
Americans.
According to Sister Irene of the Ursuline Order, the
nuns have decided to reopen a dialogue with their male brethren about
the meaning of Jesus’ brief time on earth and how His own parables might
better inform their behavior.
"It is not uncommon for male
religious authorities in various faiths to repurpose their deity’s or
prophet’s message for their own purpose," she says, "As sisters, we try
to live simply by Jesus’ teachings, which tell us to feed the hungry,
clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, comfort the
afflicted, ransom the captive, teach the children, counsel the doubtful,
bear wrongs patiently, forgive transgressions, and bury the dead… This
puts us in the difficult spot of having to choose between Christ’s
teachings or the doctrinaire mandates of our apparently busy confreres."
So
many clerics have been led away in handcuffs recently, either for
sexual abuse of children or elaborate efforts to hide such sins from
public or prosecutorial scrutiny, that it’s tempting to wonder why the
Vatican should decide to investigate the activities of nuns, especially
now.
But whatever the motivation, it reflects an internal schism
within the church regarding "liberation theology" as practiced in South
and Central America. It has been roundly condemned by the Vatican, which
tends to favor more expedient collaboration with wealth and power,
though this strategy did little to enhance Pope Pius XII’s reputation
for papal infallibility during the Holocaust; nor does it enhance the
reputation of Mexican priests and bishops accepting and justifying large
Church donations from the same drug lords who distribute heroin-laced
candy to Mexican children.
Sister Delano of the Dominicans sums
up their initiative this way: "Christ teaches us to ‘counsel the
doubtful’ and this is the spirit in which our mission to Rome is
conducted… We seek only to reunite men and women of faith in doing the
‘works’ that our Lord called us to do. I guess we miss the good old days
when ornately dressed men of the church sat around arguing over how
many angels could dance on the head of a pin."