American Nuns Reflect on the Future, without Forgetting Rome

Vatican Insider
August 7, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/stati-uniti-estados-unidos-united-states-suore-nuns-monyas-17332/

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After the executive Council sent the accusations back to the sender, after a long period of silence when it was just the lay people who chose to take action with public demonstrations, after influential testimonies and shows of support by male clerics and after a radio sparring match between president Pat Farrel and bishop Blair, a member of the commission sent by Rome, tomorrow 7th of August the nuns will gather at their yearly assembly in St. Louis, Missouri.

The traditional August week-long gathering of the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which includes 80% of American sisters, mostly over 70) will centre around the subject “Mystery Unfolding: Leading in the Evolutionary Now”. The keynote speaker will be Barbara Marx Hubbard, a lay woman born in 1929, who studied at L'Ecole des Sciences Politiques at La Sorbonne in Paris and who is a prolific futurist author.

This gathering, says the website, provides members with opportunities for education, reflection on issues pertinent to religious life leadership, networking, prayer and celebration. The assembly also provides time for the members to vote for officers and on resolutions.

Many read between the lines a reference to the “Vatican issue”, which sister Farrel recently reiterated to journalists should not be considered a “challenge”.

In the meantime news spread about thirty odd “Sister City” vigils being organized everywhere across the country, from Anchorage in Alaska to Myers in Florida, in order to show support to the nuns. The Catholic Action Network is getting ready to welcome them at St. Louis airport.

“This is a historic moment in the lives of Catholics,” said Jim FitzGerald, executive director of Call To Action. “As faithful people we have been called to work for justice—a message that Catholic sisters in this country have taught us for decades but are now being criticized for doing so by the Vatican.”

Patrick T. Reardon, the nephew of a Dominican Sister who died at the age of 93 last Autumn, likened the Vatican’s attitude to that of Hollywood producers, in both cases one can only notice their misunderstandings and misconstructions. In cinema nuns are usually portrayed as being somewhat naive: they are shown to be gullible women ready to help, opposed to consumerism and, thanks to their vow of chastity, also against the materialistic aspect of sex. But they actually also represent a challenge to the male dominated structure of the Catholic Church, a recurrent theme in lay newspapers. They can be seen as a danger, which in turn causes them to be under attack. E. Reardon does not mince his words and accuses the Church of slowly “grinding the subjects down into submission” until they “wear the sackcloth of “orthodoxy.”

Meanwhile PeterJ. Sartain, archbishop of Seattle, president of the commission sent to settle the matter, keeps quiet. According to the Seattle Times, Sartain, who is 60 years old, from Memphis, did now react at all when whole parishes (the Cathedral itself leading the movement) refused to gather signatures against the law that allows homosexual unions in Washington State, but at the same time he declared “I cannot change what the Gospels say and the teachings of the Church”

He is considered a good mediator and this might make a difference. Friday 11th of August the Assembly will release its decision.