Cleveland Priest Against Vatican's Investigation of Nuns

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It’s a great letter:
One might say that this investigation is the direct result of the John Paul II papacy. He was suspicious of the power given to the laity after the Second Vatican Council. He disliked the American Catholic Church. Throughout his papacy he strove to wrest collegial power from episcopal conferences and return it to Rome.
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One of the results of the council was that the nuns became more educated, more integrated in the life of the people and more justice-oriented than the bishops and pope. They are doctors, lawyers, university professors, lobbyists, social workers, authors, theologians, etc. Their appeal was that they always went back to what Jesus said and did. Their value lay in the fact that their theology and their practice were integrated into the real world.
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Please recognize that the Huffington Post is an extremely liberal blog and would tend to be anti religious. I would investigate other “authorities” as to what the full truth is behind any statements or articles posted by them. Furthermore, it chides our beloved Pope John Paul, which to me is very sad.
 
In my experience there are indeed many liberal feminist nuns in the various orders. The fact that they are clothing the hungry and feeding the poor does not change what they believe.

I also know that there are many orthodox nuns who are holy, clothe the hungry, feed the poor, and do great works, too.

So, reining in the liberal feminist nuns in terms of viewpoint and teaching is not a bad thing.
 
Here is another view of the same proclamation. I’ve found it wise to weigh the truths agains emotional rhetoric so that I can better frame my opinions. As a woman, I, too, want my opinions to be recognized and honored, but not at the expense of truth.

From “getreligion.com” :

Yes, way down in the story, there are voices that try to focus on what the Vatican document actually says:

Mary Ann Walsh, a nun who serves as spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said some protesters might have misinterpreted the Vatican’s action. Church officials demanded reform of the nuns’ leadership group, she said, but did not intend to criticize all 57,000 nuns in the United States.

There’s a simple logic behind this argument by Walsh — the Vatican document goes out of its way to focus on the leadership of some of these orders, as opposed to the rank-and-file members of the orders, in general. Thus, here’s the crucial question for the editorial team behind the story: Where are the quotes from the actual document? More on this point in a moment.The critical issue is this: Where are reporters getting the statement that the Vatican thinks the nuns have focused “too much” on poverty and social justice? The document does criticize the leaders of some of these orders for ignoring or undercutting the church on some critical issues, but that is not the same as saying that they have spent too much time on the care of the sick and the needy.

Let’s look at two chunks of the actual “doctrinal assessment,” sections that should have provided the background material for this section of the Reuters report — since it claims to be quoting material from the Vatican accusations (“The Vatican last month accused”) themselves.

The Holy See acknowledges with gratitude the great contribution of women Religious to the Church in the United States as seen particularly in the many schools, hospitals, and institutions of support for the poor which have been founded and staffed by Religious over the years. Pope John Paul II expressed this gratitude well in his meeting with Religious from the United States in San Francisco on September 17, 1987, when he said: I rejoice because of your deep love of the Church and your generous service to God’s people. … The extensive Catholic educational and health care systems, the highly developed network of social services in the Church — none of this would exist today, were it not for your highly motivated dedication and the dedication of those who have gone before you. The spiritual vigor of so many Catholic people testifies to the efforts of generations of religious in this land. The history of the Church in this country is in large measure your history at the service of God’s people. The renewal of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious which is the goal of this doctrinal Assessment is in support of this essential charism of Religious which has been so obvious in the life and growth of the Catholic Church in the United States.

While recognizing that this doctrinal Assessment concerns a particular conference of major superiors and therefore does not intend to offer judgment on the faith and life of Women Religious in the member Congregations which belong to that conference, nevertheless the Assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems which affect many in Consecrated Life. On the doctrinal level, this crisis is characterized by a diminution of the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration which leads, in turn, to a loss of a “constant and lively sense of the Church” among some Religious.

Later on, members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith note that their research 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, issues of crucial importance to the life of 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.

In other words, the social justice work has been done “in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine,” while work on the right-to-life and family issues have not been in harmony with those same teachings.

Once again let me stress that I am not criticizing mainstream — at Reuters, or anywhere else — journalists for quoting the claims of progressive Catholics about this document in stories in which voices on both sides are accurately covered. Their views, opinions and actions are a crucial part of the story.

I am asking a more basic question: Why do so many reporters insist on misquoting, or ignoring, the actual contents of the “doctrinal assessment” itself? Why not quote the actual document saying what it says and then go from there?

In particular, why do so many journalists keep insisting that all nuns are under attack because of they have spent too much time caring for the poor and the sick? Where does the document say that?

PHOTO COLLAGE: Portraits of some famous modern American nuns, care of the TraditionInAction.org website.

Written by: tmatt on May 28, 2012.
 
I didn’t think they were insults, why would they be? Like any Pope, he would have his preferences in what countries the faith most reflected his personal idea of what it should be. America is problematic at best for a man with his history. Speaking of his feelings about American Catholicism is hardly an insult, but, rather, an observation. Or at worst an opinion.
 
Julia_Mae said:
I don’t get it. They posted a letter with the author’s permission. Are you suggesting he didn’t write it?
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No, I’m saying the huffington post is not a reliable news source. It’s like expecting to read serious journalism in the national enquirer.

Also, I goggled the story in question, the only other “news source” was the national catholic reporter, and a few blogs.
 
if LIFENEWS is not a legimate nwes source, than HUFFINGTON POST is definitely NOT one either!

Find a better source…I don’t read anything on Huffington post…that site is RADICALLY LEFT and ANTI RELIGION!
 
reconman said:
No, I’m saying the huffington post is not a reliable news source. It’s like expecting to read serious journalism in the national enquirer.

Also, I goggled the story in question, the only other “news source” was the national catholic reporter, and a few blogs.
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I’m sorry, it seems quite reliable to me in that what they have published that I have read has been accurate. You might not like the tone of what they choose, but they aren’t unreliable. And I really don’t get why you’d include a reference to the NCR as unreliable. They’ve been around a rather long time and always been reasonably accurate as far as I know. I mean, it’s not like they are Lifesite and just make things up.
 
reconman said:
No, it’s basically a far left blog which publishes a few obscure left wing articles.
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It’s a website, and has been around for a while as an online news magazine. You know, if you hate the story that’s one thing, but as long as the letter was written by the person who it is reported to have written it, then attacking the publication is a red herring.
 
:
👍👍👍👍
IMHO I think that within the next few years American Catholics are going to find that our wonderful Bavarian Pope and his successer can and will put the tooth paste back into the tube!
He is on record as saying, on several occasions, that perhaps The Church should be smaller and more observant. I think we will see a return to a church in which un-authorized variences in the litergy and tolerances of anti-Catholic social norms will not be tolerated!
As far as I am concerned, any brother, priest, or nun who will or can not abide by this should find another line of work…and this includes the schismatic priests and Bishops of the SSPX!
 
It is a miracle so many have stayed. It reminded me of a woman who stays in a bad, abusive marriage for the sake of the children. The nuns have stayed for us. They have stayed for the illegal immigrant, the orphan, the prisoner, the young boy abused by the priest, the third grader that forgot her lunch bag, the adult that could not read, the lad that scraped his knee, the refugee that needed help with documents, the young woman who needed a midwife, the littlest among us and the rich and powerful.
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The LCWR crew stayed because their heterodoxy and outright heresy went unchecked. Our best hope is that they will leave and take their Marxist/New Age/Native American spirituality BS with them. They didn’t stay for any of the quoted reasons above. They stayed for their egos and the belief they had the Vatican completely buffaloed for fifty years. They add nothing to the treasury of grace by their dissenting, insidious agendas. They might as well be atheists handing out band aids and visiting the imprisoned. It adds nothing to the Kingdom of God on earth.
 
MaryAgnes said:
Fr. Doug Koesel, author of the letter in discussion, wrote a “Part II” letter to his parishioners this weekend. I find it very insightful.

ourdailythread.org//content/desk-fr-doug-what-nuns%E2%80%99-story-really-about-part-two
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Really? You mean like this “insight?”
It was the local pastor, the bishop or the Vatican that was portrayed as an abusive spouse. The investigation, the refusal to dialogue, the confidential reports unable to be seen or challenged, the surprise announcement, these are just a couple of things that scream dysfunction and abuse. It is a miracle so many have stayed. It reminded me of a woman who stays in a bad, abusive marriage for the sake of the children.
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“Our church’s priorities are in the wrong place”. “Stop with the attack on the nuns and stop with the narrow-minded focus on orthodoxy”. “Jesus did not give his followers a litmus test and neither should the Vatican”.
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For many the real issue is: The ‘church as institution’ is itself the problem. This oppressive structure must go. A new one must take its place. The lust for power and control hinders the Gospel. Simply put, a church continues the work of Jesus. Nuns do that. The Vatican sorely lacks. Our beliefs and the institution are not the same thing.
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