Feminist Agenda in the Catholic Church

[qui_est_ce]

I received this email today from a parishioner who is our parish nurse and a CRHP (Christ Renews His Parish) participant. As I write this, I am shaking with fury.

Lent is fast approaching…maybe these words on community by Joan Chittister will give you some ideas for reflection in the weeks ahead…

a Joan Chittister “reflection”
Life is not about isolation. …

Her comment

…makes a parish community, and a CRHP community seems worth all the effort…God’s peace,

This was my response, and I copied our pastor in

Please do not send me any “reflections” from Joan Chittister or her ilk. CRHP is a Catholic organization who’s agenda is to to draw people closer to Christ through the fullness of the Catholic Church. As Father Nick often says, “We are called to pick up our Cross of Obedience.”

I cannot in good conscience respect the “reflections” of a person who calls our Holy Catholic Church “Evil.”

Notes on Joan Chittister"

Joan Chittister disloyalty as obedience
By Fr. Alphonse de Valk, c.s.b.
Issue: January/February 2002

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“With their elegant clothes and gray coiffures, the women who gathered in the quiet, tree-lined grounds of University College Dublin in Ireland…hardly looked like a fighting force. But as they sipped chardonnay by the lake, they were drawing up battle plans to defy the Vatican by demanding an end to its prohibition against women priests in the Roman Catholic Church.”

So described Time magazine’s Lucy Fisher the participants in the first Women’s Ordination Worldwide Conference of June 30, 2000, under the title “Sisters of Defiance.”

Among the 345 participants, mostly “middle-aged and older,” there were 30 nuns. Two of them had been asked by the Vatican not to attend: the chief organizer, English Sister Myra Poole of the Notre Dame de Namur Sisters in London, and keynote speaker American nun Joan Chittister. Sister Myra was in the vicinity of Dublin’s but stayed away from the conference, though she did make a brief appearance near the end. Sister Joan, on the other hand, gave a rousing address on what is wrong with the*** evil Church*** which refuses to ordain women.

Did I overreact? She sends stuff like this all the time.

I loved CRHP. I am truly on fire for Jesus. CRHP changed my life and my relationship with God in a very profound way.

I am very offended that CRHP is being used to promote the feminist agenda with dissident Catholics.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[qui_est_ce]

The woman’s husband is a Deacon in our parish.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Did I overreact? She sends stuff like this all the time.

I loved CRHP. I am truly on fire for Jesus. CRHP changed my life and my relationship with God in a very profound way.

If someone regularly sends me e-mail that I don’t want I either ask them to take me off their list or I create a filter that automatically deletes their mail.

I’m not a Joan Chittister fan either, but honestly, saying that you are “shaking with fury” is a problem. Being furious is neither healthy nor Christian. Why are you allowing a woman you don’t even know to have that much power over you?

 

[qui_est_ce]

If someone regularly sends me e-mail that I don’t want I either ask them to take me off their list or I create a filter that automatically deletes their mail.

I’m not a Joan Chittister fan either, but honestly, saying that you are “shaking with fury” is a problem. Being furious is neither healthy nor Christian. Why are you allowing a woman you don’t even know to have that much power over you?

I know her, and I need to stay on the email list because that’s how information and prayer requests are disseminated. I’m furious the parish nurse is quoting these kind of people. Joan Chittister can do what she pleases, but she shouldn’t be quote in a parish newsletter.

 

[Rence]

If someone regularly sends me e-mail that I don’t want I either ask them to take me off their list or I create a filter that automatically deletes their mail.

I’m not a Joan Chittister fan either, but honestly, saying that you are “shaking with fury” is a problem. Being furious is neither healthy nor Christian. Why are you allowing a woman you don’t even know to have that much power over you?

Because it’s irritating her

qui est ce, just delete it and filter her to trash. I’m not sure you’re going to make any headway by trying to rationalize with her. But when she gets you upset like that, pray to St. Michael…And count to 100 backwards. That works for me when I’m real real upset.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

I know her, and I need to stay on the email list because that’s how information and prayer requests are disseminated. I’m furious the parish nurse is quoting these kind of people. Joan Chittister can do what she pleases, but she shouldn’t be quote in a parish newsletter.

You think she shouldn’t be quoted and the nurse thinks she should. What choices do you have?

• Stop receiving the newsletter
• Ask that prayer requests be sent separately from other information and remain on one list but not the other
• Work on changing your response to things you don’t like
• Have a charitable conversation with the nurse about the content of her newsletter while recognizing that even if she eliminates Sr. Joan she may include someone else’s opinion you don’t like
• Some other option I haven’t thought of

 

[qui_est_ce]

You think she shouldn’t be quoted and the nurse thinks she should. What choices do you have?

I forwarded my objections to the Pastor and to the entire email list. Anti-Catholic writings should not be given space in a Catholic newsletter.

 

[manualman]

I know how you feel. My local parish has a staffer much like the one you refer to. For example, she took it on herself to put out a “voters guide” this last fall made by the people behind Sojourners magazine. Naturally, it completely ignored the issue of embryonic stem cell research funding and only addressed abortion in language that like “reduce the factors that lead to abortion” type.

Instead of confronting her directly, I wrote a nice polite letter to the pastor noting the presence of the voters guide and requesting his review and suggesting that a guide holding the imprimatur of our local bishop or the USCCB at large be distributed instead. Prompt action ensued! I was impressed.

Perhaps instead of getting angry, write her a letter explaining to her why you believe that Sr. Joan’s spiritual emphasis and focus isn’t healthy, provide some evidence of Church censor (if any) and conclude with a request that she be careful not to polarize the CRHP group into opposing factions by choosing writers and quotes by people not opposed to authentic catholic teaching. This only works if you have good examples of Chittister being censored by legitimate authority. I’m only vaguely familiar with her work, so you’ll have to verify if this is the case before proceeding. If she’s in good standing then you’re sadly not going to have a leg to directly stand on and the best you can do is to explain why YOU find her ideas contrary to the faith. In either case, do so politely and respectfully. Good luck with that!

 

[qui_est_ce]

I know how you feel. My local parish has a staffer much like the one you refer to. For example, she took it on herself to put out a “voters guide” this last fall made by the people behind Sojourners magazine. Naturally, it completely ignored the issue of embryonic stem cell research funding and only addressed abortion in language that like “reduce the factors that lead to abortion” type.

Instead of confronting her directly, I wrote a nice polite letter to the pastor noting the presence of the voters guide and requesting his review and suggesting that a guide holding the imprimatur of our local bishop or the USCCB at large be distributed instead. Prompt action ensued! I was impressed.

Perhaps instead of getting angry, write her a letter explaining to her why you believe that Sr. Joan’s spiritual emphasis and focus isn’t healthy, provide some evidence of Church censor (if any) and conclude with a request that she be careful not to polarize the CRHP group into opposing factions by choosing writers and quotes by people not opposed to authentic catholic teaching. This only works if you have good examples of Chittister being censored by legitimate authority. I’m only vaguely familiar with her work, so you’ll have to verify if this is the case before proceeding. If she’s in good standing then you’re sadly not going to have a leg to directly stand on and the best you can do is to explain why YOU find her ideas contrary to the faith. In either case, do so politely and respectfully. Good luck with that!

I did both. I like the way you wrote her reflections were “polarizing.” That’s much more to the point than the “controversial” I used. I’m ANGRY, but I used the anger to write polite letters to her and copied the pastor. I quoted from an article where Sr Joan defied the Vatican and called the Church “evil”

 

[chaunceygardner]

I have no idea (until now that is) who this person is, but have a question:

Was there anything wrong with the reflection itself?

If it had been sent without attribution or had been authored by a non-controversial person, would it have bothered you so much?

In other words, someone like me receiving the newsletter might have read it and thought “nice reflection” and moved on.

 

[BillP]

I have no idea (until now that is) who this person is, but have a question:

Was there anything wrong with the reflection itself?

If it had been sent without attribution or had been authored by a non-controversial person, would it have bothered you so much?

In other words, someone like me receiving the newsletter might have read it and thought “nice reflection” and moved on.

Right, I mean if we refuse to listen to EVERY SINGLE WORD that a person says because they express an opinion in some area that we are at odds with, at the end of the day we will only be listening to ourself.

 

[mfj]

Why did Jesus chase the money changers out of the temple.

"Zeal for my Father’s house will consume me.!"

 

[1ke]

Perhaps walking away and coming back to calmly compose a response would have been prudent… but, I think confronting the issue and getting dissenting and censured authors OUT of your parish newsletter is quite appropriate.

Perhaps it would have been charitable to discuss it privately and then go to the pastor if the lady didn’t change her newsletter contents. Sending it out to the whole list of people may have been a little bit of public humiliation for this woman, and I don’t think that’s very charitable.

 

[centurionguard]

Perhaps walking away and coming back to calmly compose a response would have been prudent… but, I think confronting the issue and getting dissenting and censured authors OUT of your parish newsletter is quite appropriate.

Perhaps it would have been charitable to discuss it privately and then go to the pastor if the lady didn’t change her newsletter contents. Sending it out to the whole list of people may have been a little bit of public humiliation for this woman, and I don’t think that’s very charitable.

I certainly support the OP’s frustrations and sentiments. But what does one do except to pray when you have your own Archbishop who says nothing about Joan Chittister’s vast number of liberal books in our diocese Catholic book store. This really is terrible.
These kind of books filter their way all through Catholic dioceses across United States and Canada.
…
mfj
Re: Feminist Agenda in the Catholic Church
Why did Jesus chase the money changers out of the temple.

“Zeal for my Father’s house will consume me.!”
…
Gee; I wonder if Jesus took His whip through many Catholic parishes throughout North America and indeed the world and see how many of true faith Catholics would be kneeling in the pews.

 

[qui_est_ce]

I certainly support the OP’s frustrations and sentiments. But what does one do except to pray when you have your own Archbishop who says nothing about Joan Chittister’s vast number of liberal books in our diocese Catholic book store. This really is terrible.
These kind of books filter their way all through Catholic dioceses across United States and Canada.

You forget, we had Archbishop Burke here who worked at rooting out this type of thing. You can imagine what our parish faced! We would have CRHP meetings and the Burke bashing would begin. He Excommunicated a dissident Polish parish, condemned a womenpriest ordination at a Jewish synagogue, and more! Satan was hard at work under Archbishop Burke! I had to get up and leave a CRHP meeting because no matter how hard I tried to steer the conversation back to the topic, this person would reintroduce the topic of women priests.

…
Gee; I wonder if Jesus took His whip through many Catholic parishes throughout North America and indeed the world and see how many of true faith Catholics would be kneeling in the pews.

The Pope is doing this by investigating women’s religious groups in America. It’s not being well received.

"Apostolic visitors should be treated as uninvited guests who should be

received in the parlor, not given the run of the house."

…Sister Sandra Schneiders

remnantnewspaper.com/Archives/2009-0815-alessio-news.htm

 

[qui_est_ce]

Perhaps walking away and coming back to calmly compose a response would have been prudent… but, I think confronting the issue and getting dissenting and censured authors OUT of your parish newsletter is quite appropriate.

Perhaps it would have been charitable to discuss it privately and then go to the pastor if the lady didn’t change her newsletter contents. Sending it out to the whole list of people may have been a little bit of public humiliation for this woman, and I don’t think that’s very charitable.

I had thought of sending it privately, but I decided everyone who got the email should know this. I have kept my mouth shut on many occasions. This isn’t an isolated incident.

 

[mfj]

All it takes for evil to triumph in this world,
is for good folk to lay down and do nothing!

There is such a thing as righteous anger.

But there are people who would even have trouble with Christ cleansing the Temple.