Another day, another blockbuster from Rome: Vatican drops the hammer on liberal...

[Michie]

...U.S. nuns


For US Nuns, A Vatican Shake-Up -- LCWR Ordered to "Reform"

While no shortage of today's news-cycle is being devoted to a possible Vatican breakthrough in the long-sought return to the fold of the Society of St Pius X -- even if nothing definitive is in the offing for some weeks -- this noon hour sees another blockbuster Roman move hitting the wires.

Citing "serious doctrinal problems" found over the course of a four-year study of the umbrella-group representing the majority of the US' communities of nuns, the Holy See has announced a thoroughgoing shake-up of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), naming Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle as its delegate to conduct an overhaul of the group.

Among other concerns raised in an eight-page summary of the doctrinal inquest released today, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cited addresses at LCWR conferences that, it said, manifested a "rejection of faith," protests of church teaching on homosexuality and the ordination of women by officers of the group, and a "prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith" in some of the conference's events.

Continued- Another day, another blockbuster from Rome: Vatican drops the hammer on liberal U.S. nuns.....

 

[isshinwhat]

Thanks be to God! A reform of monasticism and religious life in the US would Bring about untold good!

 

[Michie]

Liberal nuns "stunned" by Vatican crackdown on "serious doctrinal problems".....

 

[Michie]

Let's be sober about the LCWR Assessment...
While I don’t think we should be cheering this assessment, the fact is that we should find some deep joy that the Holy Father and his CDF and our U.S. Bishops care so much about women religious in our country that they are willing to take on such a politically charged issue in the name holding together the communion of Catholics.

 

[Fantine]

Here's the skinny minus the yellow journalism:

Vatican Names Archbishop Sartain To Lead Renewal Of LCWR

 

[Michie]

Here's the skinny minus the yellow journalism:

Vatican Names Archbishop Sartain To Lead Renewal Of LCWR

Never thought I's see the day you called the NYT yellow journalism. It helps to read the contents as well as the links.

 

[Fantine]

"I’m stunned,” said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby founded by sisters. Her group was also cited in the Vatican document, along with the Leadership Conference, for focusing its work too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping “silent” on abortion and same-sex marriage.

I think that similar criticism could be leveled at groups like Priests for Life and National Right to Life for focusing their work too much on abortion and same-sex marriage while keeping silent on poverty and economic injustice.

St. Paul said it well when he spoke of the different talents that are needed in the Body of Christ.

God bless all those who see where advocacy is deficient and work to close the gap.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

Opps I just posted this in the political forum. My Headline was a little more salacious. LOL

 

[Fantine]

From what I have heard, the cardinal and priests who initially called for the apostolic visitation of American sisters were upset that so little of concern had been found, and that the report was overwhelmingly positive.

Therefore they are grasping at straws in a desperate attempt to salvage their self-respect and knock the sisters down a peg or two.

 

[Memento Mori]

I pray that LCWR will humbly submit to correction, and that five years will not be too few.

 

[Fantine]

I pray that LCWR will humbly submit to correction, and that five years will not be too few.

I am confident that the bishop who has been charged with this responsibility will find that it is groundless and complete his report in a year or less.

 

[benedictaoo]

alright, so I shudda known Michie would have already posted this.

so Its "LCWR"? Okay.

 

[Michie]

Well of course!

 

[Michie]

"The Vatican is taking control": Canon law experts say LCWR faces stark choice to reform or disband.....

 

[benedictaoo]

Is this a risk to the health clinics the nuns/Catholic charities run?

 

[Michie]

Is this a risk to the health clinics the nuns/Catholic charities run?

If they promote things that go against Catholic teach..it's possible.

But I would think they would be reformed the same as the order.

People on both sides have been asking my opinion about the LCWR situation. What I think may surprise you...
People wondering what “side” I am on should know that I distrust any story that runs on the cheap and inefficient fuel of emotionalism; they generally become all about sound, fury and heat and once that happens, the realities become victims to the distortions of agenda. My thoughts are not in tune with either “side.

 

[Michie]

Why are so many older sisters liberal? Because in the sixties, they fell under the spell of Carl Rogers and William Coulson...
The Sixties was a time of great social turbulence. Our country was at war in Vietnam; rock and roll was king; the sexual revolution lured youthful heads away from traditional morality toward a new permissiveness. In that “anything goes” climate, in 1966-67 Dr. William Coulson embarked on a mission to change the Catholic Church. With his mentor...

 

[Fantine]

Since the LCWR was criticized for remaining silent on the issues of abortion and gay marriage, I decided to look at the website of Priests for Life to see whether they remained silent on any other issues outside of their narrow focus.

Way down in the left-hand column, buried between about 50 other links, there was a link called "Consistent Ethic."

And so I thought, "I was wrong. In this tiny, hard-to-find corner of their website, they are going to acknowledge the existence of other issues."

But I was wrong about that, too. Instead, Fr. Pavone ripped apart Cardinal Bernardin's "seamless garment" and ignored other issues.

He also has an invitation out to the LCWR inviting them to stand side-by-side with him, but if they were criticized for ignoring 5% of the issues and he's ignoring 95%, what good will that do?

 

[isshinwhat]

Fantine, you might be right if that was the only reason they are being reformed, but it's not. Among other things, a radical feminism that is incompatible with the Catholic Faith, and corporate dissent from essential Catholic teachings on human sexuality, etc.

II. The doctrinal Assessment
The decision of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to undertake a doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) was communicated to the LCWR Presidency during their meeting with Cardinal William Levada in Rome on April 8, 2008. At that meeting, three major areas of concern were given as motivating the CDF’s decision to initiate the Assessment:

o Addresses at the LCWR Assemblies. Addresses given during LCWR annual Assemblies manifest problematic statements and serious theological, even doctrinal errors. The Cardinal offered as an example specific passages of Sr. Laurie Brink’s address about some Religious “moving beyond the Church” or even beyond Jesus. This is a challenge not only to core Catholic beliefs; such a rejection of faith is also a serious source of scandal and is incompatible with religious life. Such unacceptable positions routinely go unchallenged by the LCWR, which should provide resources for member Congregations to foster an ecclesial vision of religious life, thus helping to correct an erroneous vision of the Catholic faith as an important exercise of charity. Some might see in Sr. Brink’s analysis a phenomenological snapshot of religious life today. But Pastors of the Church should also see in it a cry for help.

o Policies of Corporate Dissent. The Cardinal spoke of this issue in reference to letters the CDF received from “Leadership Teams” of various Congregations, among them LCWR Officers, protesting the Holy See’s actions regarding the question of women’s ordination and of a correct pastoral approach to ministry to homosexual persons, e.g. letters about New Ways Ministry’s conferences. The terms of the letters suggest that these sisters collectively take a position not in agreement with the Church’s teaching on human sexuality. It is a serious matter when these Leadership Teams are not providing effective leadership and example to their communities, but place themselves
outside the Church’s teaching.

o Radical Feminism. The Cardinal noted a prevalence of certain radical feminist
themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in some of the programs and presentations sponsored by the LCWR, including theological interpretations that risk distorting faith in Jesus and his loving Father who sent his Son for the salvation of the world. Moreover, some commentaries on “patriarchy” distort the way in which Jesus has structured sacramental life in the Church; others even undermine the revealed doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the inspiration of Sacred Scripture.

 

[Mikey123]

Fantine only sees what she wants to see.