Posted on 04/18/2012 2:14:30 PM PDT by Morgana
WASHINGTON, April 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has launched a 5-year reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States representing more than 80 percent of the 57,000 women religious (nuns) in the country.
Based on a 2008 investigation into the nuns, the Vatican evaluation was candid, noting, “The current doctrinal and pastoral situation of the LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern.”
The CDF doctrinal assessment, released today, criticized positions espoused at LCWR annual assemblies and in its literature as well as the absence of support from LCWR for Church teaching on pro-life issues, women’s ordination and homosexuality.
The CDF said that the documentation “reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.”
“Further,” the CDF report said, “issues of crucial importance in the life of the Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.”
The CDF said, “The Assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems which affect many in Consecrated life,” calling it a crisis “characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration.”
The document listed the principal findings of the LCWR doctrinal assessment.
On LCWR annual assemblies, it said, “The talks, while not scholarly theological discourses per se, do have significant doctrinal and moral content with implications which often contradict or ignore magisterial teaching.”
On formation of religious superiors and formators, the CDF said, “Many of the materials prepared by the LCWR for these purposes (Occasional Papers, Systems Thinking Handbook) do not have a sufficient doctrinal foundation. These materials recommend strategies for dialogue, for example when sisters disagree about basic matters of Catholic faith or moral practice, but it is not clear whether this dialogue is directed towards reception of Church teaching.”
The Vatican said that it has appointed Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle as its Archbishop Delegate for the initiative. Bishop Leonard Blair and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki also were named to assist in this effort.
The Vatican is attempting to present the measure as a friendly renewal. However, even the initial announcement of the assessment in 2008 was greeted with severe hostility by leftist nuns in the U.S. The sternly-worded assessment document is not likely to be received with any greater enthusiasm.
The Prefect of the CDF Cardinal William Levada noted that the assessment is “aimed at fostering a patient and collaborative renewal.”
Archbishop Sartain commented on his new role saying, “I am honored that the CDF has entrusted this important and sensitive work to me, because the ministry of religious sisters, especially here in the United States, is deeply respected and paramount to the mission of the Church. Just as the LCWR can be a vital resource in many ways for its members, I hope to be of service to them and to the Holy See as we face areas of concern to all.”
The intransigence and betrayal of many of the women religious in the United states toward Catholic values have been keenly felt in recent months by Catholic bishops – particularly in the fight over religious freedom and abortion funding in President Obama’s health care law, in which religious sisters have played a key role, in Obama’s favor.
That betrayal has also been registered in the Vatican. Cardinal Raymond Burke head of the Vatican’s highest court - the Apostolic Signitura - in a speech earlier this year, denounced “the public and obstinate betrayal of religious life by certain religious.”
Burke asked: “Who ever could have imagined that religious congregations of pontifical right would openly organize to resist and attempt to frustrate an apostolic visitation, that is, a visit to their congregations carried out under the authority of the Vicar of Christ on earth, to whom all religious are bound by the strongest bonds of loyalty and obedience?”
“Who could imagine that consecrated religious would openly, and in defiance of the bishops as successors of the Apostles, publicly endorse legislation containing provisions which violate the natural moral law in its most fundamental tenets, the safeguarding and promoting of innocent and defenseless life, and fail to safeguard the demands of free exercise of conscience for healthcare workers?” he added
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Exactly. The sisters in my town were French (originally) and had a large head dress that required starching, pleating, etc. It obviously needed changing.
However, now they all stump along (they’re all elderly - there haven’t been any vocations there for decades) in their polyester pants and pastel tops with their hair cropped or curled by the same salon that does the hair of every other old lady in town. Nobody even knows they’re members of a religious order.
Again, except for a couple of them, they’re not raving heretics. But they sure can’t be very happy right now, nobody recognizes them as sisters, and I think they’d actually be relieved if the bishop ordered them back into habits (it’s a diocesan order, so he could do that).
There’s a lot of pride involved in this. Some of the earlier superiors drank the Vatican II koolaid, and even against their better judgment, did some things that were serious mistakes. And now they don’t want to back down and admit it.
So somebody else has got to intervene.
True. And thanks for reminding me, I need to pray. I look back (at age 60) at so much I did over the years that turned out to be part of the problem. It takes a long time to realize it, thud-headed as we are.
True. And thanks for reminding me, I need to pray. I look back (at age 60) at so much I did over the years that turned out to be part of the problem. It takes a long time to realize it, thud-headed as we are.
“However, now they all stump along (they’re all elderly - there haven’t been any vocations there for decades) in their polyester pants and pastel tops with their hair cropped or curled by the same salon that does the hair of every other old lady in town. Nobody even knows they’re members of a religious order.”
Oh man that puts it perfectly. Who would want to join when the current members obviously don’t treat it like a big deal? They are probably proud that that no one wants to join them, mission accomplished.
Freegards
I think a lot of them feel the same way. It was the times...
Actually, one of them did say to me that she was happy that nobody wanted to join because it meant that they had proved there was no longer a need for religious orders...go figure.
In my charitable moments, I think she was just trying to make herself feel better for her part in destroying the order. In my less charitable moments, I think the kool aid had destroyed her rational capacity.
Every neighborhood should have one
No, I am sure that many of them think that the Orders are of the patriarchal past and need to go the way of large and slow flightless birds. A visiting priest once said in his homily that the priest shortage is a blessing, as it provides so much more opportunity for the laity. After his vapid homily I was almost convinced he was right.
Freegards
They, and other Catholic charities, do 95% of all the down-and-out care in our city. That includes care for the elderly who aren't sick, unmarried mothers, the sick/dying in hospices...and they even pay for burial.
City coffers open up for them: 10% of CC operating costs. Catholic Charities picks up the other 90%.
At one time the city DEMANDED that they give homosexuals the same marriage perks as heterosexuals. :o) I laughed because the Church has been dealing with the Medicis for centuries and can handle little pimp mayors on a rampage.
The Catholic Church one-upped the pimp: they gave EVERY employee of theirs, married, single, whatever, BENEFITS +1. So, a straight man could add his mother, brother or uncle to his benefits...NOT just for homosexuals.
I knew how successful it was because the perpetrator of this farce SCREAMED and SCREECHED for weeks, SO pissed off at the Church for pulling one off on him. It was hilarious.
Well, put, as usual.
I went to the Holy Land last year, with Steve Ray.
At the hotel we were staying there was a LARGE contingent of Korean Catholic nuns. Amazing.
We were told that Asia is the new Christian frontier.
Weird, weird, weird.
I am so happy to hear this news. For too long, far too long, the Church has tolerated this defiant heterodoxy to the scandal of the faithful. I hope they land on these heretics and land hard.
Very true. There are lots and lots of enthusiastic, loyal Asian nuns and priests, and we will see more of them every day (including converts from those communities in the US).
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