by Amy Frykholm
The American Catholic Church has had some difficult years. With thousands of accusations of sexual abuse made over the past two decades and a widespread and well-documented cover-up of the problem, the Church has suffered psychologically, financially, culturally and socially. It has accumulated a great deal of legal debt while the number of parishes without priests is at an all time high. Thirty-four hundred U.S. parishes are currently without a resident pastor.
Given these circumstances, it seems warranted that the Vatican might take a closer look at the state of the American Church. What seems odd is where the Vatican has trained its lens: on American Catholic sisters. In the spring of last year, Slovenian Cardinal Franc Rodé announced an apostolic visitation of all uncloistered sisters living in the United States. Historically, apostolic visitations have been conducted in cases where severe misconduct is suspected. In this case, however, the Vatican is saying nothing more than that it wants to “look into the quality of life” of these women religious.
American sisters have responded to the visitation (a two-year process at minimum) with everything from resignation to paranoia to outrage. With the Vatican so vague in its statement of intentions, some have speculated that the hierarchy intends to appropriate sisters’ property and assets in order to pay off their brothers’ legal debts. Others wonder if Cardinal Rodé is uncomfortable with uncloistered, un-habited sisters and would like to return them to pre-Vatican II restrictions. Still others wonder if the motivation is political. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 95 percent of American sisters, has been singled out for criticism for insufficiently promoting church teaching on male-only priesthood, the sinfulness of homosexuality and the centrality of the Roman Catholic faith as a means to salvation. For nearly all, the whole thing smells a bit fishy.
Sandra Schneiders, a biblical scholar and sister of Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, has written openly about her concerns about the visitation. To her, what is most disturbing is the vague implication of wrongdoing. Her sisters are educators and nurses. They are the underpaid, unrecognized workhorses of the Catholic Church, serving in schools, hospitals, social services, missions and hospices across the country. To be investigated is like rubbing salt in old wounds. At the very least, she would like the Vatican to clarify its motivations. To say that they are investigating “the quality of life” gives American sisters little understanding of their footing. They deserve better.
Monday’s roundup
13 hours ago
5 comments:
The investigation certainly brings up some important questions regarding the so-called "traditionalist" pushes the Vatican has been making as well as how Catholic sisters in the U.S. have made some of the biggest contributions to American life while going virtually unrecognized, as you've cited in your blog post.
However, citing Sandra Schneiders' concerns (as most media outlets, big and small, have been doing) is somewhat misguided. Yes, Schneiders is an important voice in the American church, both as a biblical scholar and as a woman. But my understanding is that Schneiders has not lived formally in community in some time and therefore has not recently experienced the demands, frustrations, and strain of community life that many communities of women have been facing.
The visitation is an interesting and challenging thing. For one, the person doing the "investigating" is a sister. That it is not a member of clergy says something. Schneiders' immediatate response upon the announcement of the visitation was highly polemic. She did her own fair share of rubbing salt into the wounds of a broken and divided church.
The reality is that "religious life" in the U.S. has been experiencing dramatic changes in the past few decades and does need to be examined and considered in order to understand how it can flourish in the future.
That the sisters deserve better goes without saying. My opinion is that a visit from the doctor alone isn't going to make things better for them, nor is some outdated prescription. But this can be a real opportunity for some light to be shed on both the value of women religious in this country and the church. It can be an opportunity for all of us to hear the voices of women who know a thing or two about being real church in the real world.
These days of post-ecumenism fever, it is urgent for all Christians to cultivate an informed habit of using ROMAN Catholic to refer to the 1054 AD western break-away branch of European Christendom; irresponsibly, we in the west use the term 'Catholic' too offhandedly to the annoyance of branding several ancient Christian denominations who justifiably describe themselves as 'catholic' with no formal/informal ties whatsoever with Rome!
@Anonymous (the second one): I understand your point, but I don't think it's as clear-cut as you suggest. For one, there's a pejorative history attached to the Protestant use of the word "Roman" in this way. More fundamentally, I use "Catholic Church" for the same reason I use "Orthodox Church" or "True Jesus Church" or, for that matter, "Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood"--while I disagree with the name's exclusivist implications, it's still respectful and appropriate to call an established group the same thing it calls itself.
I think it is interesting that American Catholic Sisters are being visted in this way, when Priest who abused children did not have to undergo a smilar vistation. I think this points to the issue of sexism in the church, which is a global problem. The Catholic Church is having a hard time recruiting priest and may need to examine the role of women in the church to even survive. www.ecumenicalwomen.org
Actually, the Vatican did visit seminaries in the U.S. because of the sex scandal.
Post a Comment
We don't currently require registration, but we do prefer that you include your name. If you don't have any of the login types listed in the pulldown menu, select "Name/URL"--the URL field is optional, so leave it blank if you don't want to hyperlink your name to another site.