I know the congregations and the LCWR are not the same. I have made that distinction repeatedly. Whether they, or you, like it or not, they are lumped together by their own action, or lack thereof. There has been another option created by the Vatican for 20 years. The fact that many if not most, congregations of women’s religious have chosen to stay where they are is telling, regardless of whether they are in the news promoting dissent, or otherwise.
I don’t even waste my time with groups like that. My only concern with them is that by putting “OSB” after their names continuing to have Oblates, they are likely confusing the faithful in the area who come into contact with them. If they wanted to leave the Church, that is their decision. However, they should at least have the decency to stop pretending to be consecrated religious.
There’s one big, big thing that has to be recognized here that’s not being recognized.
The US has changed sociologically from what it was just a few decades ago. I don’t know how old you are, Jason. But not so long ago, the prevailing “commonsense framework” was, for the most part, one single thing and you could pretty well know what was going on simply from watching the evening news or looking at the evening paper. It was pretty much the same for everyone across the country. We all watched the same shows. We all played the same games. If you said something about Ed Sullivan or Laugh In, everyone knew what you were talking about immediately. We all had more or less the same take on many things. That’s all gone now. Mass media fractured along about 1975-1985 and the fracture has only deepened since then. Some people and organizations “get” that and some don’t.
Nowadays, there are levels of influence. Now, I’m speaking only sociologically here.
You can do something nationally or internationally from a vantage point at the top, but it doesn’t necessarily connect with peoples’ understandings or lives farther down because it doesn’t address the total reality on the ground. I mean, an idea can be completely true on the international or national, and be true on the ground too, of course because truth is like that, but it still might not connect in a way that resounds to people in their lives. Thus, you have to be aware of all the levels of influence that there are, to bring the idea across to people and indeed, to know what’s going on:
- international & national which are usually hooked in some way, but not always
- associated with a personality or celebrity who people may or may not understand or even agree with
- political - in terms of political action groups, lobbying, grants, persons of influence, etc.
- organizational - like a person’s school or doctor’s office or library
- technology communications - like the internet, iphone apps etc.
- personal communications - as in “I know this person or I found such and such” where i am
This stuff doesn’t work together in concert, so to speak “on the same page” like it used to work. People now expect to be exposed to a “flood” of information which they manage as quickly and efficiently as they can, and they usually apply things in an AD HOC personal manner even as they recognize the truth or falsity of some ideas and “bracket” them for themselves, as they come across them. [You hope Catholics bracket the Right Ones, correct?]
Thus, if an idea is to catch hold and prosper among people, all of these levels have to be worked. For instance, business in the US has caught onto this. That’s why they do national, regional and local campaigns. They have celebrity spokespersons. They spend vast amounts to monitor and manage the blogging world. They do focus groups and studies as well as surveys on all the levels and in-home research. They get it. It’s only business and that’s a limited thing by definition because it’s not about truth and people don’t usually consent to giving their lives for it, but it’s instructive anyway. They get it.
The Church writ large is catching onto this, slowly but steadily. We’re now seeing not only the old standby, the encyclical. We’re seeing books of real theology directed at the commercial market by the pope. We have celebrity popes and cardinals. We have a webpage. The Vatican recently hosted a blogger’s gathering and just recently we were exhorted to get out there and pitch in with blogs in the US. CAF is here (Yay!) We’re doing evangelism classes in parishes. Etc etc. However, some of the groups inside the church, like the LCWR, right or wrong, are marginally ahead of the church writ large on understanding this dynamic politically and on the ground. And many laypeople are even farther behind than the institutional church on understanding all this, even though they may be taking part in it in a phenomenological way.
NOTE: In a world like this, anybody can get away with calling themselves OFX or OSM or ABC or anything as long as they target their appeals correctly. Also they may try using OSB or OSF if they think that no one will come after them for whatever reason. They can not only do it, they can prosper. I give you exhibit A:
religiousresources.org/directory/cat.php?cat_id=39 Some are real orders. Some are not. Can you pick out the “fake” ones?
