Full text: Vatican report on US women religious

[otjm]

It’s nice to be polite. But one can be polite to a fault if one is so polite, that one’s points are never clearly made.

It’s a 900 pound gorilla situation in religious communities (men AND women) that most communities have withered while a select few flourish and explosively grow!

Does it seem pathetic to anybody else that a report like this doesn’t even seem to address this enormous disparity or attempt to identify and summarize consistent differences between the dying communities and those that are growing?

For sure there were demographic peculiarities that destined a decline in religious numbers. But I’m not remotely convinced that things needed to utterly collapse. That happened because the gospel was abandoned and betrayed in too many places. Anybody wondering what I mean by that can read “Ungodly Rage” by Donna Steichen (which focuses on women’s religious communities, but very similar things were happening in male religious communities and in the diocesan priesthood).

I think you misperceive the report which was released. What we got was a synopsis of the investigation. To begin with, how much do we need to know of what was found? We are not any of the players. Rome is a player; and the communities are players; but we have nothing to contribute to any serious discussion in terms of change. We really can do nothing but sit and watch (with the exception of donations, to support the retirement programs).

None of us are going to effect change within those communities. That will be up to the sisters, and assuming that the Church could intervene in any way, up to people in Rome, and bishops in the US.

There is undoubtedly a pile of material showing the good, the bad, and the ugly, but the investigation was not performed so we could see the issues; it was performed first to get a solid base of information, and then for the communities to use, should they wish to do so, to make changes if there was a need for changes.

I don’t see that there is any need for the public - you, me, and any other pew sitters, or for non-pew sitters, to have more information as there is nothing we can do with it other than to sit on the sidelines and go tsk, tsk!

Any community wishing to change practices, or direction, or problem solve will undoubtedly have access to way more material than you or I. And that is who it is for.

Sadly, the communities which might be most in need of the information are those who refused to cooperate, or who hedged their cooperation; but that problem will be self correcting. The old saying of leading a horse to water applies.

 

[KSU]

It’s hard to get a real understanding of the workings of a group without spending some time with them. See where they live and their routines. With a survey, you may not get an accurate picture of what’s going on. If a group isn’t in line with Church teaching, it’s not a stretch to think they might lie on a survey.

Good point.

 

[abucs]

I don’t get it. It seems, for the most part, this necessary info-gathering exercise could have been done in one year by a required-for-all, confidential survey, with a follow up confidential survey (focusing on issues uncovered in the initial survey) and a final report.

Why did it require three or four years of public fanfare–an open invitation for the Church-hating media to distort and conflate with the CDF’s investigation of the notorious LCWR?

The really interesting new aspects are, of course, the bolded words in otjm’s post#14.

I remember that when the investigation started some of the nuns were resisting it and stated defiantly that they would not co-operate. There were complaints in the media about Spanish Inquisitions, Orders independence and patriarchal interference… you know the usual rubbish.

I pray for all the loyal sisters of the Church and thank you for you witness and help.

 

[weller2]

The difficult part of it is going to be the new orders (and some faithful older ones that do remain) being able to garner the resources to house, feed and train new vocations and to carry out their missions. They really are “starting from scratch”.

That’s not a bad thing.

Hardship breeds strenght; comfort brings complacency.

The Church became complacent; only those who faced hardship can bring renewal.

 

[KSU]

That’s not a bad thing.

Hardship breeds strenght; comfort brings complacency.

The Church became complacent; only those who faced hardship can bring renewal.

I know what you mean, and would agree if by complacent you mean that the Church became less vigilant and less courageous to take corrective action. It seems to have been a general “No problems or scandals on my watch” thing across the board; regarding clergy as well.

In the late seventies, I traveled home to visit my family and stopped in at my old high school to see a teacher/friend–a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth. This good, close-to-God-soul surprised me because she was no longer the pillar of strength and happiness I remembered. She told me she was worried and had become almost angry when it became clear that nobody in authority was going to help stop what was happening. She opened my eyes to things I never would have believed possible. It went downhill from there, of course, and her old warrior heart gave out.

It probably is the remaining sisters like her that Ridgerunner referred to as “some faithful older ones” who will have to face difficulty. It would be a shame on the Church if Religious like that had to start from scratch. Mercifully, given the pace at which the Church moves, they likely will be taken home before that happens.****