The institutional Roman Catholic Church is going to the proverbial hell in a handbasket as a result of the documented and widespread abuse of children in countries around the world, most recently in Ireland, and yet Vatican authorities have seen fit to initiate the nitpicking of active congregations of women religious without so much as the courtesy of first communicating with those who are the elected leadership of the majority of those communities.

Other then the speciousness of innuendo have there been any specific charges leveled against any religious congregation in the United States?

Not to my knowledge.

Against all odds, women religious have worked and flourished in this country for centuries since the Ursuline Sisters first arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1727.

A trip to the Cincinnati History Museum to view the current show, “Women & Spirit, Catholic Sisters in America,” is a real eye-opener especially for those unfamiliar with the major congregations of women in the church and visiting that exhibit should be required of every bishop in the United States.

The Holy See, the Vatican, the Congregation of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office for the Inquisition, Cardinals Franc Rodé and William Levada would do well to look instead at themselves and their brother bishops around the world.

The hierarchy has previously tried to blame the presence in the priesthood of those with a homosexual orientation for the tragedy of childhood sexual abuse. That hasn’t worked so they are now attempting to deflect attention from their own moral turpitude by attacking the sisters.

That will be as ineffective as actually trying to blame them for the rampant sexual abuse of minors that has gone on in this country.

I agree with what Tom Fox has been quoted as saying in the New York Times recently, “Next time, let’s have our women religious study the quality of life of our male clerics.”

Better yet, let’s be more specific: refine that objective and find some funding so that the Leadership Council of Women Religious could initiate a study of the recent actions of American bishops, say over the last fifty years, that enabled such widespread sexual abuse of children, young men, women and vulnerable adults as well as the quality of life of the hierarchy.

Now, wouldn’t that be a worthwhile reversal of roles?

Catherine Mary Henry
Havertown, Pennsylvania
In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Anne, I hear what you’re saying, but you’re approaching this from a Western/American point of view, as if men and women are in all ways equal. The Catholic view is anything but: women and men are NOT equal. And if nuns are stepping outside the dictates of dogma, they need to be reined in.

What do you EXPECT from a rigid patriarchichal hierarchy? As was stated elsewhere, Catholicism is not a democracy.

Do I agree with this? Of course not, I find the church ludicrious, which is why I’m now an atheist (raised Catholic). But you’re starting from a faulty premise; rememeber that they’re coming from the position that an imaginary sky being told them the Ultimate Truth. Any deviation from that is, from their point of view, endangering “souls”.

Chesire11, he should have been kicked into prison, not “upstairs”. Just stating that it wasn’t a reward doesn’t make it so. A criminal who belongs in prison got an excellent position a few blocks away from the seat of his organization’s supreme power. How is that NOT a reward?

Too many people are losing their sense of Charity here.. for Heaven’s sake, just let the Church do its thing! We all need check ups now and then. Wait until the results before we start guessing, generalizing, and criticizing anyone’s intentions.

Love to all.

Please don’t continue the spread incorrect information that the Catholic Church in 1492 taught that the Earth was flat. That idea came about from a playwright in the late 1800’s that used that idea in a comedic play. The church has always taught as the Jewish tradition that the Earth was round. The pope in 1492 was concerned that the Earth was too large for the ships to actually complete the voyage. In fact he was correct with the exception of that a huge continent was smack in the middle of the ocean.
The issue that people of hate use to try to disprove the only logical conclusion that the Catholic Church is a divine institution established by Christ, is the old Galileo issue. While in fact the pope told Galileo to only teach his theory as only a theory until further evidence could be developed. Galileo went so far as to use his findings to try to prove that holy scripture has errors. Galileo did not understand that while Christ referred to the four corners of the Earth. That Christ was referring to the four corners of the Holy Alter. Just as the Jewish tradition used the Alter at the temple to represent the Earth. That is why after two thousand years a Catholic Church is still styled after the original Jewish temple.
I hope this helps dispel old lies that keep on spreading.

One can’t understand the “worldview” of many
women religious WITHOUT looking at various
activist coalitions and organizations which
began in the 1970s.

What some fail to remember is that their consecrated lives which are supposed to be lived through their vows means they are at the service of the Church as are priests . If they aren’t alright with that then they need to reconsider their commitment.

Vatican II asked religious orders to renew not change the fundamentals of religious life and one of those fundamentals is loyalty to Rome and chair of Peter.

The Church is only as strong as its people.

There would be no Catholic Church without women. No doubt about it. Women do not have the same rights as men in the R.Church. As lay people or of the order. Christ loved women. The Bible reads that women always sat in a position of power and rank when he spoke, while in the home or out in ‘the field’.

True the R. Catholic Church is a club. And true one does not have to belong. But if a person is a member, then that person has every right to speak out against what is happening. The lack of respect that women have in the Roman Catholic Church is wrong. It is wrong to prevent women from a role equal to the one men have.

God chose a woman to foster him on Earth. End of story.

I am an Associate of the IHM {Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” Monroe, MI}

I’m still laughing at the fact that priest take only TWO vows, Chastity and Obedience, and most fail miserably at both. Nuns must take THREE vows, Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. Catholic schools have all but disappeared due to declining enrollments. Is this because the nuns have been working tirelessly out in the community, without wearing a habit, ministering to the sick, poor, and outcast of society, or is it because they no longer trust that the priest won’t objectify their children and once caught, be relocated to do it again.

Nuns work with no financial gain, and little or no recognition. They spend their time, effort, and love of God serving the Beatitudes, while the priest are on sojourns to who knows where, (since they feel they are unaccountable to anyone, man or woman), it is the nun, dressed in her bland secular clothing, administering the host to the sick and dying. I have never met a nun, and my sister has been one for almost 40 years, that is not accutely aware of her vOcation. And to nuns, it is just that, a vOcation, a calling from God. Somehow priest bought the wrong vow from Vanna. They bought an “A” when they should have bought an “O”. The call from God to do his service is not a vAcation, get it right Vatican. Maybe we should spend the next century with priest and nuns switching rolls. I’d love to see how much more would get accomplished, WITHOUT breaking Canon Law, or their vows.