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Vatican Crackdown on U.S. Nuns a Long Time Brewing
Reuters ^ | 4/20/12 | Stephanie Simon

Posted on 04/20/2012 7:40:01 PM PDT by marshmallow

(Reuters) - When Pope John Paul II arrived in the United States in 1979, the president of the nation's most powerful organization of nuns met him with a challenge. In a bold welcoming address, Sister Theresa Kane called on the pope to include women "in all ministries of our church," including the priesthood. The pope sat silent, his expression stony.

That moment did not change Vatican policy.

But it unveiled growing tensions between the Vatican and American nuns. The conflict would continue to mount for the next three decades, until this week the Vatican finally moved to reassert control over the aging but still ferociously independent conference of Catholic sisters.

In a stinging "doctrinal assessment," the Vatican accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious - an umbrella group representing most American nuns - of numerous grave breaches of doctrine and decorum.

The report, four years in the making, found that the nuns promoted political views at odds with those expressed by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops, "who are the church's authentic teachers of faith and morals." The Vatican chastised the nuns for airing discussions about the ordination of women, the church patriarchy and ministry to gay people.

The Vatican also rebuked the nuns for spending too much time "promoting issues of social justice" while failing to speak out often enough about "issues of crucial importance to the life of the church and society," such as abortion and gay marriage.

Determined to cleanse the sisterhood of "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith," the Vatican appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to effectively take control of the Leadership Conference, rewriting its statutes, supervising its meetings, and investigating its relationships with politically active groups.

Officials of the nuns' leadership conference said they were "stunned" by the crackdown. But Catholics who have........

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Theology
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To: marshmallow

Next up, “Catholic” Universities.


21 posted on 04/20/2012 8:23:36 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
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To: detective
Amen. What you said is absolutely correct. No one is required to follow the rules. But if they don't they are expected to leave.

And as I recall, the socialist organizations build walls to keep people in or killed them if they didn't toe the line.

/johnny

22 posted on 04/20/2012 8:24:03 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: marshmallow

Why do they even bother? It’s a free country, let them join another club. Or start their own. Why do they have to insist on being Catholics when they’re obviously not?


23 posted on 04/20/2012 8:30:25 PM PDT by Gluteus Maximus
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To: Shadowstrike

I think you are trying to compare apples and oranges.

I know of no one who condones pedophilia

I also catch a whiff of snarkiness in your post..


24 posted on 04/20/2012 8:38:17 PM PDT by basil (It's time to rid the country of "gun free zones" aka "Killing Fields")
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To: marshmallow

If you are going to align your organization with a religious institution, you should have to at least pretend to be in accordance with its values.


25 posted on 04/20/2012 8:43:10 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: marshmallow
Officials of the nuns' leadership conference said they were "stunned" by the crackdown. But Catholics who have studied the growing rift between the church hierarchy and American nuns said it was a long time coming. "This has been brewing for 40 years," said Ann Carey, the author of the book "Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities."

Only Leftist Feminists could be stunned by something that was coming at them for forty years.

What they mean by "stunned," however, is what a two-year old means when it screams itself purple with rage at the word: "No."

26 posted on 04/20/2012 8:45:05 PM PDT by Talisker (He who commands, must obey.)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Well, not really. In Romans 16:7, Paul praises Junia as “outstanding among the apostles.” Junia was a Roman woman converted before Paul.

In Acts 18:25-26, we learn that Apollo was tutored in the Gospel by Aquila and Priscilla. It has been theorized, but not proven, that Priscilla was the actual author of the book of Hebrews. We know Paul wasn’t the writer.

We find in Philippians 4:2-3 that Paul talks about two women, Euodia and Syntyche, who evangelized alongside him.

In Romans 16:1-2 Paul mentions Phoebe, whom he calls a deacon of the church.

In Colossians 4:15, Paul says to greet Nympha and the church in her house (KJV translators changed this to “Nymphas and the church in his house”).

In Acts 16, we find Lydia, who had a church meeting in her home, and in Corinthians are converts “belonging to Chloe” as a group or church.

Nor is this limited to Pual. John writes to a woman leading a house church in 2 John 1:1, and alludes in the closing to another woman, the Elect Lady.

So, in the early church, women acted as teachers, leaders, and apostles.


27 posted on 04/20/2012 8:49:02 PM PDT by Hootowl
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To: MichaelCorleone
The institutional church men forget that we are women who are educated, articulate, seekers of truth and very, very holy," said Quinn,

Humility is not her strength

28 posted on 04/20/2012 8:50:08 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: marshmallow
When Pope John Paul II arrived in the United States in 1979, the president of the nation's most powerful organization of nuns met him with a challenge. In a bold welcoming address, Sister Theresa Kane called on the pope to include women "in all ministries of our church," including the priesthood. The pope sat silent, his expression stony.

I was 11 at the time and I remember the press coverage of this event. In fact, I recall a photo of the late JPII resting his head in his hand with a "I'm so tired of this crap" expression on his face.

The sisters who taught me, jealous of their state in life, would've regarded this demand for female ordination as a knock against their sacred calling.

These women, these "mystical brides of Christ," need to be honest and declare whether they cannot or will not be faithful to their solemn vows.

29 posted on 04/20/2012 8:57:08 PM PDT by Oratam
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To: marshmallow

Nuns are very strong. They can lift a 200 lb student right out of his chair and drag him the principal’s office by simply grabbing a few short hairs above the temple. Don’t ask me how I know – being a child of the 60’s.


30 posted on 04/20/2012 9:01:54 PM PDT by vortigern
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To: SaraJohnson
The Church is Two Millennium old. It moves at it's own pace. It is nor now, never has, and never will ordain women as priests. End of story.

The reason is both biblical as well as practical. Men WILL NOT be involved in a church that is dominated by women. Without MEN there IS NO CHURCH. You can hold your breadth, stomp your feet, and cry all you want the Church doesn't acquiesce to extortion. They have ruled on this several times over the last 2,000 years.

The Vatican's doctrinal department, which the current pope then headed when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, ruled that the teaching on an exclusively male priesthood had been “set forth infallibly”, meaning it could not be changed. END OF STORY. Take it up with the Deity when you meet him! This is not a rant against you, I agree with your comment.

31 posted on 04/20/2012 9:21:39 PM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: marshmallow

The sisters seem not to realize that the Pope doesn’t have the authority to change the doctrine of the Church on this point. Take it up with St Paul, ladies.

I’m just trying to figure out what level of pride and vanity makes them think they’re exceptions to 2000 years of doctrine.


32 posted on 04/20/2012 9:23:27 PM PDT by ottbmare (The OTTB Mare)
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To: JRandomFreeper
I am not celibate, but have been married for over a decade have four children including infant twins, so it is almost the exact same as being celibate, except a lot louder!
33 posted on 04/20/2012 9:24:04 PM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: Hootowl
You'd be well served in not relying on an abridged, heavily edited, poor translation of Scripture that didn't appear on the scene until over 1200 years after the original.

Also, some verses you conveniently failed to include:

"Let women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be subject, as also the law saith. But if they would learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church." 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

"Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to use authority over the man: but to be in silence." 1 Timothy 2:11-12

34 posted on 04/20/2012 9:26:22 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: basil

no snark intended.


35 posted on 04/20/2012 9:32:35 PM PDT by Shadowstrike (Be polite, Be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet.)
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To: basil

Exactly I believe he is among a group that every time a Catholic three comes up is compelled to do this even though we all know that there is much more pedophilia in the Protestant churches than there ever was in the Catholic church except that the media never went after them.....


36 posted on 04/20/2012 9:33:31 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: basil

Exactly I believe he is among a group that every time a Catholic thread comes up is compelled to do this even though we all know that there is much more pedophilia in the Protestant churches than there ever was in the Catholic church except that the media never went after them.....


37 posted on 04/20/2012 9:34:02 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: marshmallow

“Convent” = “Lesbian Commune”


38 posted on 04/20/2012 9:39:34 PM PDT by DNA.2012
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To: A.A. Cunningham

Didn’t conveniently fail to include them. They don’t signify.

Verse 35 can be translated two ways.

1. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home;

or

2. These wives do not understand, so their believing husbands should teach them at home.

In Verse 26, the word translated as “brethren” is really the Greek word “adelfoi,” meaning “believers.” The translator chose a masculine noun, but the verse applied to men and women. This is confirmed by verse 31, where Paul says “all,” again indicating that both men and women may prophesy “one by one.”

The “everyone” used earlier in vs. 26 shows converted women could continue to participate in an orderly manner. The unconverted wives were not permitted to speak. The passage is about order, as Paul says, in verse 40, “Let all things be done decently and in order,” not about suppressing women’s participation.

In Timothy 2:11-12, the translators moved the Greek word “didaskein” (meaning “to teach”) completely out of verse 11, which originally read, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection to teach.” In plainer English, “Let the women listen quietly and respectfully as they learn how to teach.” The translators placed the period after “subjection” and moved “to teach” deep into the next verse. This completely changed the original meaning of these two verses.


39 posted on 04/20/2012 9:46:28 PM PDT by Hootowl
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To: vortigern

Don’t ask me how I know – being a child of the 60’s
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
My particular ‘terrorist nuns’ had a penchant for ear pulling, and while no where near 200 lbs (more like 120) a twist and turn on an ear, accompanied by the familiar yardstick - and, of course, one of my favorites, getting to know Jesus on the Cross up close, by way of Sisters Cross around her neck.
By the time I got to PS in my Soph year (1954) I admittedly was way ahead of my peers scholastically but I had absolutely NO fear of the ‘state hired teachers’, and had the ‘boldness/attitude’ which really carried me through Boot Camp.


40 posted on 04/20/2012 9:47:26 PM PDT by xrmusn (#6/98# Let's start from scratch by voting ALL incumbents out.)
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