the nuns were not supported officially anyway–it was all community support and they run a day-care and kindergarten which has not changed. They just can’t call it Catholic anymore.
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Part1
Six Hot Springs nuns have been excommunicated for embracing a movement the Roman Catholic Church deems heretical, the Diocese of Little Rock announced Wednesday.
The nuns are involved with the Community of the Lady of All Nations, better known as the Army of Mary. Catholic authorities say the Quebec, Canadabased group elevates the Virgin Mary to the level of God and believes its founder is a reincarnation of the mother of Jesus.
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has declared all members of the Army of Mary heretical and automatically excommunicated all who “knowingly” subscribed to its teachings.
Monsignor J. Gaston Hebert, the diocesan administrator, said he notified the nuns of the decision Tuesday night after they refused to recant the group’s teachings.
Hebert said that, to his knowledge, this is the first such formal declaration out of Rome that the diocese has encountered in its 165 years of existence.
“This is a painfully historic moment for us and the church, ” he said.
Excommunication bars members from leading the church liturgy or receiving communion and the other sacraments.
The six nuns are associated with the Good Shepherd Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge and operate St. Michael Catholic Child Care in Hot Springs. Since they are excommunicated, the nuns can no longer call their day-care and prekindergarten center a Catholic organization, Hebert said.
He also has directed individual Catholics and parishes not to financially contribute to the center, he said.
Sister Mary Theresa Dionne, one of the excommunicated nuns, said the group still plans to live in the convent, which it owns.
“We want to do God’s will, and we believe we are Catholic, ” said the 82-year-old Dionne, the assistant superior of the convent. “Even though they say we are not Catholic, this is not true.”
The other excommunicated nuns are Sister M. Gerard Lalancette, Sister Marietta Fecteau, Sister Mary Ann Lalancette, Sister Theresa Marie Lalancette and Sister Mary Thomas O’Keefe.
The nuns plan to maintain the day-care center, said O’Keefe, the director of St. Michael Catholic Child Care.
She said most of the nuns became involved with the Army of Mary more than 20 years ago.
“It was very spiritual for us, ” she said, “and we felt that it would be an important part of our life to be part of a Mary movement.”
Marie Paul Giguere established the group in 1971 after she said she received visions from God. Four years later the Archbishop of Quebec recognized the movement as a pious association. But in 1987, the archdiocese revoked that designation after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now Pope Benedict XVI — ruled that two books that the group used taught “erroneous doctrines.” Since then, the group has been investigated for heretical teaching.
“When something comes up, particularly within the church, that contradicts or would add to or subtract from things which we believe to be the inspired word of God, we are going to be very vigilant, ” Hebert said. “Whether it is too liberal, whether it is too conservative, if it is opposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ as expressed through the Scripture and the church, that is heresy.”
Thank you, Ravyn, for providing valuable context concerning this story.
