Vatican Action Against U.S. Nuns; New Ways Ministry's Response
The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has announced that it will appoint an Archbishop Delegate to oversee the activities of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the national association of the heads of nuns’ communities throughout the United States. An Associated Press article about this action says the Vatican cited the organization
” . . .for using materials that ‘do not promote church teaching’ on family life and sexuality, for sometimes taking positions in opposition to the nation’s bishops and for being ‘silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.’ ”
You can read the full text of the CDF document here.
Because support for New Ways Ministry was mentioned in this document as one of the factors leading up to this doctrinal investigation of LCWR, Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director of New Ways Ministry issued the following statement today:
“For all of our 35-year history, New Ways Ministry has been strongly supported by Catholic women religious in the United States. This support, manifested by so many generous and courageous acts, has, indeed, been the backbone of our bridge-building ministry for lesbian/gay Catholics and the wider church community.
“So, it was with great dismay that we learned that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) today released a document on the recent ”Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious,” (LCWR) in which the Congregation announced the appointment of an Archbishop Delegate to oversee LCWR’s activities. We are even more deeply saddened that support of New Ways Ministry by women’s religious communities and by LCWR leaders was singled out as one of the reasons that a doctrinal assessment was undertaken. From the document:
“ ‘Policies of Corporate Dissent. The Cardinal [William Levada, CDF Prefect] 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.’
“In 2007, many leadership teams of women’s religious communities wrote to the CDF to express their concern about the CDF’s directive to the Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, to deny permission to our organization to celebrate the Eucharist at our national conference in that archdiocese. As far as we are aware, the content of these letters questioned the Vatican’s denial of the Eucharist without addressing the other issues of pastoral care of lesbian and gay people or Catholic teaching on human sexuality.
“The CDF’s criticism of receiving letters seems intended to silence discussion of important issues in the church. Why are Vatican leaders afraid to hear what women religious think on topics such as homosexuality that is being so widely discussed in all other quarters of society? The Catholic faith is a living faith that requires dialogue and discussion, not only to thrive, but also to be a viable witness of God’s love in the world.
“If the leadership of the Catholic Church is unwilling to listen to the idea of the leaders of some of its most dedicated members, then our Church will never be able to grow or to respond in a Gospel way to the needs of our world. The CDF’s repressive action towards LCWR further erodes Catholicism’s ability to be a vital force in the world.
“New Ways Ministry, in gratitude for all we have received from women’s religious communities, pledges our prayerful support to LCWR and all its members during this period of trial. We know that our God, who has graced these women with gifts of justice, fortitude, and wisdom, will guide and sustain them at this critical time. “
Stay tuned for news and commentary as this story develops.
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry
“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.’” I guess protecting and hiding clergy who abuse children and are otherwise sexually irresponsible is showing good leadership? Bishops – look to yourselves first and then you might have the credibility to challenge others.
JUST MORE HYPOCRACY IN THE CHURCH!
Thanks be to New Ways Ministry for your courage and leadership in dealing with these issues that are so important to our families.
Karyn Jacobs, blessed with a gay son
I know the Jacobs family and they are all wonderful loving people as well as committed catholic christians trying to make their way in this world and to help others deal with some of the problems and conflicts that come our way in a loving and Cristlike way. Judy Grillo
As a retired Methodist cleric, I am heartbroken by the recent action of my communion, and equally heartbroken of the Vatican action because “gay” people are…BORN that way…and there is no change that can be used. Perhaps we ought to kill the BORN gay people? Or the BORN gracious nuns of Catholicism?
May God bless Karyn Jacobs and her family.
Rev. Frank A. Halse, Jr. (ret)
United Methodist Church
The Catholic Sisters in the United States and in the world have been at the forefront of the dangerous and exhausting work of Social Justice for as long as they have existed. That is the very reason they came in to being, to serve the needs of the underserved and the marginalized in every way. Why punish them for sacrificing their lives in this same service today? I think it has a lot to do with creeping infallibality and the feeling the Vatican has that they are not in total control of every aspect of their lives and BUSINESS’S. I am deeply saddened by this act of betrayal by the Vatican. I pray the Sisters reply with strength and dignity and are not “complicit in their own abuse”.
Barbara, You very succintly expressed my feelings. I wonder if the church could survive if all the women stopped practicing their faith and stopped doing much of the work(much of it sometimes considered menial) that actually keeps the church in existence. Thank Goodness my faith is in God and not the church.
Judy Grillo
Did Mary start the Church at the Annunciation?
i agree with judith grillos sentiments
Who will investigate the CDF?
“Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.”
The bishops handling of the abuse crisis clearly proves that they are not ‘authentic teachers of faith and morals.’
They constitute a power structure in which discussion, disagreement and dissent are not tolerated. They were unanimous in shunning Bishop Gumbleton for his testimony on statutes of limitation.
Amen, Amen!!!
Maybe the only way to let the Vatican know how offended the faithful are about the antiquated heavy-handedness of the hierarchy is to flood the hallways of the Apostolic Palace with mail opposing these kinds of tactics. It would be quite a demonstration of UNITY to make Benedict dig his way out of his papal apartments to get to the Sistine Chapel!!!
one address is:
[email protected]
I wrote a letter to my dear Brother
It is shameful the way the Vatican has treated religious women, but Pope Benedict is not the first pope to engage in this kind of ecclesial smack-down. Speaking as a Catholic priest, it is only the religious women of the Church who are keeping the flame of Vatican II alive, and they are being punished for their audacity. Courage, good Sisters! There are many ways to be Catholic.
Wow! Thanks for your courage in speaking out. I have some friends who are priests–good men but wary of speaking out. I also appreciate your comment that there are many ways to be Catholic.
I totally agree and also thank this honest and courageous priest.
Judy, I am humbled by your courage and more hopeful than ever for the Chuch because of people like you. What a shame that the Church leadership would abandon the women religious who work so hard to be the social justice in the world that is far too often neglected and abandonded by those with the power to create change. You remind the Vatican and its leadership that the Church is also its lay people and its wonderful women religious, calling all of its members, including its leadership, to live the Gospel of Jesus. Amen, and thank you!
When I woke up this morning and my husband told me the news, I was as taken aback as he. This is totally unacceptable. Our Church leaders are so adept at pointing fingers and pulling strings to get everyone in line behind them, that they have completely forgotten the mandates of the Gospel and living the Beatitudes!. We all know the consequences of living in glass houses located too close to rock piles.
When are they going to do a self examination of the sexual abuse that they have been complicit in? When are they going to come out of their McMansioned residences, give up the amenities of their privileged life, put aside their elegant purple robes and stand with us, talk to us,and most of all, understand us? Not anytime soon, I think.
I am the mother of a beautiful, young, intelligent woman. My daughter is a lesbian. These men tell me she is inherently disordered. *I tell them*, she is a child of God, made in His image and likeness. I also tell them, *I am the Church*, *I am* one of the people of God and *I* will stand and speak out and reach out with the wonderful Sisters who are living the Gospel and the Beatitudes, and who accept my daughter and the LGBT community.
God help our Catholic Church! I stay, I pray, but I sure don’t pay. My money goes to the Sisters and organizations that love and work with ALL!
Judith E. Navetta
(former religious sister)
Very well said.
So well said. I am left with the central question of our lives as Christians; “What would Jesus do?”I believe He would befriend the homosexual and help to develop a doctrinal and liturgical reality within the church that accepted homosexuals as His Father’s children; as his brothers and sisters. I believe He would find a place for them, at HIS side, at the table of His most holy sacrament. I believe He would try to engage in the very challenging work of understanding and accepting and honoring the complexity of love. I cannot believe that he would DISALLOW DISCUSSION of any issue, How could a Son who understood his Father expect His brothers and sisters to not use their full complement of God given abilities in the service of his great mystery of life? I do not believe that the hierarchy of the church can be right in this. I think that it is a crucial element of being a good Christian to work to understand, using one’s mind as best one can. Perhaps Jesus never intended that the rock upon which he built his church should solidify into such a unbreachable, unquestionable, hierarchy. I believe that each of us stands before God, responsible for our decisions, thoughts, actions, beliefs, and that this individual packaging with which we are endowed by our creator clearly evidences that our critical responsibility is to God, not to a hierarchy of an organization. I am a ‘struggling back Catholic’ who pulled away from the church initially due to conflicts with what I perceived to have been an overemphasis of narrow doctrines instead of a broader embrace of understanding Jesus’s teachings about love and about ceding judgement to God. I am glad to be back in the church and find more good than bad here, and so I stay. I look forward to getting to know more about these nuns who have an almost “Quaker” sense of moral responsibility. Perhaps that is the central effect of this Vatican attempt to ‘whip’ American nuns into doctrinal shape, to increase attention to them, and to increase their allies.
Beautifully written. I am so proud to call you my sister-in-law and so proud of our girls!
Smooches to you Judith! Our children learn from us and you are a leader in the “us” group!
Hope for our Church has been exemplified by our nuns for quite some time now. They’ve dared to discuss, to question, to think honestly. During this important time, may our good sisters continue to follow their consciences boldly, no matter the threatened consequences. With the greatest of respect that a gay man can muster, I say, “You go, Girls!”
LOL!
“I don’t know any more holy people,” Cafardi said of American religious sisters. “I see a lot more holiness in the convents than I see in the chancery.” Ain’t that the truth. This is just one more pharsaic legalistic attempt by the Vatican of men who fear women and refuse the chance to dialogue with them. We are Imago Dei just as much as they are and we have a voice of our own and it will no longer be silenced by the irresponsible, abusively, misogynistic Roman patriarchal sructure that they contiue to try to uphold. The action of the spirit is much stronger and it will eventually prevail where all are included at the table that has been denied so many for so long and is and has never been the true message of God and Jesus!! Those on the margins are all God’s children–our female religious clearly know this and know it with love and compassion. It is time for a paradigmatic shift in our Church or schism!
I, for one, join Judith Navatta, am withdrawing all my support $ to the Church as of now!! This is an outrage!
There is so much more to say, by I will stop here as those above have also stated it so beautifully!!!
As a Catholic Convert of 33 years which cost me dearly, I saw the writing on the wall a couple of years ago when we were ‘blessed’ with a traditional, backward-looking, arrogant, self opinionated cleric, appointed by a Bishop who is either very stupid or very clever, for appointing him to a innovative Methodist Catholic Congregation in partnership. This exemplary union is now being taken apart, I have ‘jumped ship’ and now attend the Methodist services with a woman minister who is compassionate, sensitive and willing to listen. I will keep a toe in the Catholic Church in order to be an irritant:sad but necessary and useful. I am fortunate that as an independent woman I can say what I want, I am not important enough to excommunicate! If I am ” bring it on”. I know many sisters in USA and think that what is happening is despicable: not that any forward looking Catholics should be surprised; control freaks in red, back or white dresses can’t cope with strong, good, women of integrity. If a reformed Catholic Church emerges GREAT!!
Vena Eastwood Obl OSB
Lancashire UK
Go Vena! Reform is sorely needed. This IS a SAD day!! I have cried!!
I did not write this, but 3 beautiful nuns did in their book–The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed: Uncovering Liberating Possibilities for Women:
“Feminism does not seek to replace men’s’ exclusive privilege with women’s, but seeks a vision that gives advantage to both. Within a Christian theological context, it gives a lens with which to focus experience and sharpen attention to the ways the Spiritual Exercises function for women.”
This IS the message of true feminism!! How can these men not see it?
I wish there was a “Like” button here too! Your comments give me hope for the future.
I write with a sad and broken heart and in loving and fierce support for the nuns in the US and around the world who are greviously hurt by this unChristian action on the part of the CDF. This is unquestionably the harshest blow to be delivered by these men, who are panicked about losing control, since JP2 announced that there would be no further discussion of women’s ordination.
It has become apparent that a different kind of wind is blowing from the Vatican. In line with several statements made during Benedict’s papacy, this latest is clearly designed to alienate. To whom are these provocative statements addressed? It is clear they are addressed to all Roman Catholics who do not share the narrow “pre-conciliar” notion of the church. Think back to Benedict’s bizarre pronouncement about Islam early in his papacy. The current statement and proposed actions that will follow against LCWR are designed to drive a wedge between “true Catholics,” as they see themselves, and the rest of us. Plainly they want us to “leave the Church” so they can have it all to themselves. We will not leave our sad, beleagured, dear Church. We are the leaven in the mixture. The change that is revitalizing the church comes not from the top, but from the bottom as it always has. We are putting our Church’s feet to the fire about the clergy sex abuse and episcopal cover-up scandal; we are cleaning house and the house will not be clean until we see that it is so. So, “pre-conciliar Catholics,” be on notice: we are in it for the long haul: supporting our dearest women religious and victims of persecution everywhere.
We are hopelessly Catholic–there’s no other place to go because th egood side of the coin is soooo good — the true message. We who stay live that out, or at least try.
Yes, Janice, we are hopelessly Catholic, members of the one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is important to remember, however, that Rome does not have a corner on Catholicism. When staying Roman becomes too great a burden to bear, there are other, true, and exemplary Catholic congregations to consider looking at that do not resort to tactics such as those that the CDF has exhibited here against our U.S. nuns. John Paul II legitimized these congregations, while at the same time recognizing that they were not in full unity with Rome, by approving a wonderful document known as Dominus Iesus, approved in a Plenary meeting of the CDF, and ratified by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger on August 6, 2000 while he was still, interestingly enough, the Prefect of the CDF.
Do not forget that Christ had to leave the church of his day. Sometimes, we must stand for truth even when it means forging a new way. “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain”.
To all those who have written in support of the women religious of the United States, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am a Sister serving in South America for almost 30 years and I have worked with many dedicated and hoy priest who incuded as , as much as possible, in the ministry to God´s people. They listen to us and share with us the tremendous challenge to share Jesus with all those with whom we come in contact. They give me hope in spite of “official documents” from those who know are quite distant from the people of God, their joys and sorrows and their struggles to live as Jesus did. I have shed a few tears as I have read your responses and I believe we womern religious, in spites of our faults and failings aver the years, are the “heart and soul ” of HOLY MOTHER CHURCH. If they would only listen to all the people of God , and not just to a “few” who believe they have a corner on the Holy Spirit, how different OUR Church (emphasis on “our”) woud be. Thank you again for all you comforting words. Sister Joan has writtten such inspiring and challenging spiritua books. God bless us all! Sister Eileen
Sorry, I just noticed I have quite a few typing errors in my comment. Please know I am an educated woman, but, I wrote in a rush and I did not edit. I’m sure I´ll get a detention for the poor spelling! S. EIleen
🙂 No worries Eileen!
Enough of repression and more of open communication. Question: “What would Jesus say?”. Answer: He speaks through people and the people are fed up with Rome’s control issue and we think – especially about human dignity. Rome might want to google it.
Now is the time, Sisters, to stand united against a male-dominated worldview that has the entire world on the brink of destruction and annihilation. God gifted humanity with the precious REALITY of two genders for life-giving and life-saving reasons because each gender has a UNIQUE viewpoint only KNOWN by those who share in that gender. Genuine wisdom can only be attained by organizations and the world if both genders speak their OWN truth, which is actively honored and sought after by both genders like a true family.
Assemble you own list of requirements for continuing to have communications or relations with the Vatican. If they insist on the destructive path of one-sided belief in wisdom as a male-dominated worldview, then know that your own path is clear. Do not follow down a wrong road headed in a dark direction. Those who choose this path not only walk toward the dark of error, but they advance further and further away from the light of truth. Christ chose 12 male apostles because he needed preachers. No woman of his day would have been allowed to speak or preach, or even be seen in church. Sadly, 2012 years later, forces still try to prevent the FULL truth from being heard. Women are gifted with one-half of the world’s wisdom. They have been silenced long enough; too long has the world languished without it. It is time the world heard the wisdom of the sacred feminine – in fact, the world is starving for it. Might should no longer be equated with right. A new day dawns. Please, do not be afraid to enter into it. Walk confidently toward the fullness of true love; you already know what that is. But, the world in order to recognize it must hear the truth spoken.
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’
Beautifully put. Yes, I feel that day coming. It is long overdue. We have been missing at the table plenty for those 2012 years!! The world has been cheated by patriarchy of the he other half of the picture. Mary has hled all this in her heart for too long. Many of us have foundour voices and we cannot and will not remain silent, anymore. The men have screwed up for far too long because they have only had half the picture. We now must stand and demand that the other half be added. Her eis the review I wrote on the Womanpriest movement which looks at the inequalities of which you speak:
“The Buddha and Jesus have to meet every moment in each of us. Each of us in our daily practice needs to touch the spirit of Buddha and the spirit of Jesus so that they manifest…It is like cooking, if you love French cooking, it does not mean that you are forbidden to love Chinese cooking…You love the apple, yes, you are authorized to love apple, but no one prevents you from also loving the mango.” Thich Nhat Hahn
I came across this quote from Thich Nhat Hahn in his book, Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers that appeared in We Walk the Path Together by Brian J. Pierce OP because in viewing the documentary, Pink Smoke over the Vatican, along with about eighty other interested, faithful, and involved Catholics, analogies surfaced to describe the bravery, courage and hope that women bring to our Church and how for over two thousand years, they have had to walk in silence and without an equal voice or as equal participants at the table of plenty. Where in this quote do we find any reference to the other half of humanity; although ‘we walk this path together’? Half the story is missing, or is it? Half the voices of truth are missing, or are they indirectly couched in the analogy of cooking and fruit? Although ‘we walk this path together’; it is direct vs. indirect. The indirect silence is deafening and is too loud to ignore anymore because ‘we must walk this path together’. Indeed, since Vatican II, the indirect part of this story has been emerging in small, but distinct ways. More and more women theologians are out there writing the other half of humanity’s story, filling in the blanks with our direct experience and our direct spirituality that can no longer be silenced or couched in metaphoric analogy by anyone and certainly not an all male clergy and hierarchy who see women as a threat. We are not a threat. We want equality. We want the other half of the table to be populated with us, the whole table that all people of faith have been cheated of for two thousand years!
How long will it take for our Church to stop cheating us of the other half of humanity that needs to share the table and partake in real co-celebration of the Mass next to that all male clergy; so we truly can walk this path together? How long will the all male hierarchy of our Church prevent us from taking our rightful place as sisters in our own Imago Dei next to our brothers who serve at the table sharing with them in the joyous offerings and thanksgiving of our sacraments? How long will they make us wait to walk this path together?
Well, we have already waited too long; and so as action in service is part of the mission of our Church, there are women who have courageously begun a movement within the Church by becoming Roman Catholic Women Priests. Historically it has been women who have had to take matters into their own hands in order to institute societal change and so once again, this movement has done just that. This important documentary, Pink Smoke over the Vatican, beautifully and truthfully tracks the movement from its inception up to the most recent ordinations. There are now over 100 womenpriests in the United States alone and the number is growing. The Vatican has tried to squelch these prophetic voices, but it cannot. Women have their own voices and no longer need the frightened approval of a disordered and distorted hierarchy that will not admit guilt in covering up sexual abuse of minors, but wants to excommunicate women for hearing and responding to Christ’s and God’s call to them to become the priestly people ad verum that they have been called to be, many have had this call for decades. As demonstrated in the film, their calling is as genuine as any males’ and why should it not be considered such? We are all equal anthropological products of half the gene pool of our Mothers and half the gene pool of our Fathers. How can the Vatican claim that a woman’s call to lead and be in persona Christi is less valid than her equal male counterpart? Aristotelian anthropology needs to be thrown out and real facts brought to bear as truth. These men must realize that we are not refuting tradition, it is our tradition as much as theirs; we want updated truths wanting our part to be inserted because it has been missing for far too long. Women’s deafening silence has become so loud that it now must be heard.
It strikes me as quite interesting to be witness to the idea that all these men who have spoken for so long have now been silenced by the actions of a few women who have dared to stand up to the Vatican and that our numbers are growing. No, the Vatican has no control over this. It will move forward in grace, spirit and service to those who need ministering, filling a spiritual void because so many ordained men do not know how to minister well. Their own lack of knowing and having contact with real women makes them cling to idealized versions of women of their own invention, primarily modeled on their mothers, thus keeping them in a perpetual state of fear of a female coup d’état from which they believe they will never recover.
There are many malepriests who support us, but are sotto voce because they fear hierarchical retribution. They are imprisoned in another form of silence. Bishop Zavala’s situation has come to light—albeit differently; but along with Roy Bourgeois, we hope and pray the support will grow because priests need to begin to stand up in solidarity with women because in the end it is the only way to heal the unhealthy nonsensical rhetoric against women as evil Eves and aborted males that this Aristotelian/Thomistic/Augustinian/Chrysotomian construct has created in our Church and society. What is wrong must be made right, now, because apples and mangoes can walk the path together as they must.
“Feminism does not seek to replace men’s’ exclusive privilege with women’s, but seeks a vision that gives advantage to both.” in The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed. Sisters, we stand with you!!
Married priests, whether male or female, are also needed in our sad and troubled world today. The Holy family is, and will also be, sacred.
i am grateful for the faithfilled, courageous sisters that have a handle on the needs of the people of GOD sisters you are very brave and we need you. the old mens club must feel that they are losing control i think its time for inclusivity and not exclusivity.cant we all work together for the body of Christ? Those who live in glass houses…