Maureen Fiedler's blog

It made my day! As I ate breakfast, I was elated reading, "Listen to the Nuns," E.J. Dionne's column in the Washington Post this morning. He was reporting on the courageous stand that the leadership of thousands of nuns took in support of passing health care reform with the Senate language on abortion, not the highly restrictive (and much misinterpreted) Stupak language in the House bill.

I am truly proud of NETWORK (of which I am a member), the social justice lobby leading the effort, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Sr. Carol Keenan who announced a similar position for the Catholic Health Association.

I just read Fr. John Dear’s column on the documentary film/DVD called Pray the Devil Back to Hell. It’s the story of the incredible Christian and Muslim women of Liberia, who demonstrated and prayed publicly in concert, to bring an end to the horrific dictatorship of Charles Taylor in 2003. Their public testimony paved the way for the election of Africa’s first woman president, Ellen John Sirleaf of Liberia.

The Religion Communicators Council honored 14 secular media organizations with its 2010 Wilbur Awards last week. The winner in the radio category was "Interfaith Voices," the public radio show that I host. The Wilbur went to our series “The Soundscapes of Faith” by Laura Kwerel (writer/producer) and Katie Davis (editor).

The Religion Communicators Council has presented Wilbur Awards annually since 1949. According to the council's web site, the awards honor excellence by individuals in secular media -- print and online journalism, book publishing, broadcasting, and motion pictures -- in communicating religious issues, values and themes.

“The Soundscapes of Faith” series was created by Kwerel. It is based on the premise that distinctive sounds help make the holy real, and that major faith traditions have a distinctive “sonic signature.” These include, for example, the shofar in Judaism, the Hindu “om,” the call to prayer in Islam, Buddhist chant, hymn singing in Sikhism and “harp singing” in Christianity.

To listen to any or all of these, go to: http://interfaithradio.org/soundscapes

The Washington Post on 3/5/10 reports that the former chief operating office of Catholic Charities of Washington, DC, Tim Sawina, has called on the Archdiocese to reverse its decision to cancel health benefits for spouses of employees. He publicly called that decision “devastating” and “wrong,” and he said it is causing current employees to look for jobs elsewhere.

Earlier this week, Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington made the decision to eliminate spousal health benefits to avoid paying them to same sex partners now that the District of Columbia has legalized gay marriage.

Employees of Catholic Charities, speaking to the Post on condition of anonymity, said that many inside the organization were dismayed and upset by the decision. Others charged that it will deter recruitment, and that Catholic Charities is already losing respect in the District.

The law permitting same sex marriage goes into effect in the District of Columbia Wednesday, March 3. It prohibits any kind of discrimination against couples in a same sex union.

So, in advance of that, Catholic Charities of Washington, in order to avoid paying health care benefits to employees who may be in same sex unions, announced that it would no longer cover any spouse of an employee unless he or she is already enrolled in the health care plan. Employees got the news by e-mail March 1, and the policy is effective March 2.

The archdiocese could have done what the Archdiocese of San Francisco did years ago, namely, decided to cover “domestic partners” while expanding the definition of “domestic partner” to include a parent, sibling or someone else in a household. Instead, it eliminated benefits for all spouses.

Catholic social justice teaching has long advocated worker benefits such as health care. It is sad that this teaching was trumped in order to discriminate against a whole class of citizens. It is a decision the Archdiocese will someday come to regret.

I often chuckle out loud at some of the statements made in the current health care debate. Even yesterday, when the discussion at the “Health Care Summit” was at least civil, some Republicans continued to repeat their best laugh lines. For example, they talked about a “government take-over of health care.” As someone who wishes the government would indeed “take over” health insurance with a single payer system, I just laugh out loud when I think about the bill they call a “government takeover.”

And then there are the comic props. Like the 2,000-plus pages stacked on top of each other, as if one could do comprehensive reform in an abbreviated form.

But at the heart of all this debate is the quest for the common good. That’s a top value in the Catholic moral tradition, and many others. It means -- among other things -- concern for those with pre-existing conditions who can’t get insurance, for those summarily dropped by profit-gouging insurance companies when they get too sick, and for the 30 million-plus who have no insurance at all.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs yesterday issued a report urging President Obama to make religion “an integral part of our foreign policy.” The task force was led by R. Scott Appleby of Notre Dame University and Richard Cizik of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.

The report does not urge, of course, that U.S. foreign policy promote, or censure, any religious tradition, or play favorites. Nor does it suggest any union of church and state.

It's official, but it's sad. After generations in the business of facilitating adoptions and foster care, the Washington Archdiocese is transferring its entire program to a secular agency, the National Center for Children and Families. In doing so, Catholic Charities avoids following a new law in the District of Columbia, which will soon require that gay or lesbian couples be treated equally with heterosexual couples in the adoption process.

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana star in the animated movie 'Avatar.'With snow piled high, and a movie theater nearby, I headed out yesterday to see "Avatar." It's been praised for cinematography (and that definitely is great), but I also found it a deeply theological movie.

First impression: it's one of the best anti-imperialist films I've ever seen. Whether one believes in the "just war theory" or not, this shows a clearly unjust war waged by earthlings in search of a precious mineral on the planet Pandora. And the crude earthlings leading the military assault are ready to destroy the civilization of Pandora to get what they want.

Residents shovel snow at an apartment complex in Alexandria, Va., Feb. 7.(CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)For several days now, those of us who live in the Washington/Baltimore area have been digging out from at least two feet of snow! I’m a native of the Buffalo, N.Y. area, so this raises fond memories of childhood. But in my 40 years in Washington, I’ve never seen this depth before -- or this immobility.

If anyone actually entertained the thought that Cardinal Rodé was “objective” in launching an investigation of women religious in the United States, she or he need only read what he said in a talk on Feb. 3 in Naples, Italy to be disabused of that idea.

He said, for example, that "the secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world."

On the most recent "Interfaith Voices," I interviewed Dalia Mogahead, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. She reported on a new poll of Americans that found that 43 percent admitted feeling prejudice toward Muslims. And that’s the percentage who admit it. Not surprisingly, Islam registers a much higher negative rating than other religions. Given the negative media coverage of Islam, and careless political language used by some public officials, that’s not surprising.

I just received word that Sr. Mary Daniel Turner, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, long time executive director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), and one of the great leaders of the renewal after the Second Vatican Council, died peacefully this morning, Jan. 27, at 4 a.m.

As Jane Burke, also a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, said simply in her notice: “As with the dying of Mary Luke Tobin last year, a great tree has fallen.”

May their strong and courageous spirits live on.

Last Saturday, Jan. 23, the Washington Post ran an informative article about the quest for women's ordination in the Catholic church. The major photo featured Bridget Mary Meehan, one of the women bishops in the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. But the article was wide ranging, exploring many facets of the topic.

Sylvia Mulherin, 69, a former nun and music director at St. Leo's Parish in Fairfax, Va., was quoted as saying this: "Jesus was progressive in his treatment of women but, over time, men unjustly pushed women out. Maybe the women don't have to come in the back door, but we still have to sit in the pews."

The very next day, she was told to tender her resignation immediately!

In a message she sent to her choir members and colleagues, she said:
"My sole point is that I believe women have not achieved true equality in the Church and this fact deserves further consideration by the Church's leadership. This position is apparently unacceptable in the Diocese of Arlington."

I heard today from a parishioner who is appalled and saddened by this. His children were in her music class and loved her.

Occasionally, I listen to C-SPAN radio’s "Washington Journal" in the morning. It features call-ins from ordinary citizens that range from the brilliant and insightful to the ridiculous and insulting.

A few days ago, I was driving my car when a caller commented on U.S. aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti. The discussion had described the catastrophe on the ground, so the caller was not ignorant of the situation. Nonetheless, she said, “We’re sending aid to Haiti, but we need it a lot more aid here. We need it more here.” I was so stunned I almost went off the road. “We need it more here? More than people who are starving, homeless and injured without any medical care? More than people who have just lost everything they have in life, including loved ones?”

It was like coming home. Thursday night I went to the S. Dillon Ripley Center of the Smithsonian Institute for the opening of the exhibit, Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America.

About 200 women and men came to celebrate the history and heritage of Catholic Sisters in America over a period of almost 300 years. The exhibit is a magnificent testimony to the leadership of women in decades before most women even thought about being presidents of universities or administrators of hospitals, much less founding such institutions. It is a celebration of women dedicated to social justice, from the streets of Selma to Capitol Hill. It will be at the Smithsonian through mid-April.

Among the crowd was Mother Clare Millea, ASCJ, the sister leading the investigation of American women religious. I wondered what she was thinking.

Since I first heard new of the earthquake in Haiti, I could not get the people of that island nation out of my mind. I try to imagine what it must be like to be injured and bleeding – with no doctors in sight, and the hospital collapsed.

Catholics who care about social justice have lost a marvelous, dedicated friend and ally. On Jan. 2, Smith Bagley died from the complications of a stroke at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. He was 74.

About a week ago, a friend of mine handed me the copy of a blog by someone who calls himself the “Catholic Knight.” It was an article saying that Catholic women are “required” to wear veils or head coverings in churches or chapels. It was not nuns he was talking about; it was all Catholic women!

As I read his very long piece, I realized that he is well acquainted with pre-Vatican II theology and biblical imagery. He spells out the traditional “Eucharistic” imagery he says is behind men not covering their heads, and women covering them. Just one crucial problem he overlooks: this may have been meaningful imagery for St. Paul, but it makes absolutely no sense in today’s world or today’s church. And it certainly makes no sense for today’s Catholic woman. What does headdress have to do with reverence for the Eucharist?

He dismisses the idea that attempts to veil women are due to male dominance. But he doesn’t make his case at all. When do Catholic women ever dictate what Catholic men will wear? My Muslim feminist friends would add a few interfaith insights on the same subject.

The attempted destruction of Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day has raised new discussions about “profiling” passengers who are seeking to board flights. Some commentators want to single out all Muslims, or all Arabs (or all those who look like Arabs or Middle Easterners, I guess) – for special questioning or screening.

You know, every time I hear this, I wonder how we Catholics would feel if we were all “profiled” when liberation theology was popular… on suspicion that we might aid Latin American rebels somewhere.

This past Sunday, I worshiped with an intentional Eucharistic community in the DC area, known as Communitas. Those present customarily share their reflections on the Scriptures after the celebrant offers his reflections.

Sunday was, of course, the celebration of the Holy Family, and the celebrant raised up the Scripture passage about a follower of Jesus leaving family to follow him, even though that was not the gospel passage for the day.

I realized that I had never really warmed up to that passage. It juxtaposes values that are most often not in major conflict. Most of us work out the meaning of our faith in the context of family, not in opposition to it.

Every year, on Interfaith Voices, I interview leading religion journalists about the top religion stories of the year just past, and about the top religion newsmakers of the year. This year, I talked with Kevin Eckstrom, Editor of Religion News Service, and Kim Lawton of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly on PBS TV.

Both of these top-notch analysts named President Obama as the “Religion Newsmaker of the Year.” They cited his speech at Notre Dame University, his address to the Muslim world in Cairo, his faith-based outreach, and even his Nobel Peace Prize speech in Oslo, where he cited the just war theory, and for many, gave new voice to the theology of Reinhold Niebuhr. I agree with them. Whether you agree or disagree with the substance of what he had to say, he has become a consequential figure in the world of public religion and public theology.

On Dec.15, by a vote of 11 to 2, the City Council of the District of Columbia passed a law that legalizes gay marriage in the nation’s capital.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington had opposed that legislation, and had threatened to withdraw from its social service contracts with the District government if it, or Catholic Charities, were forced to pay spousal benefits to same sex couples, or to be involved in facilitating adoptions for same sex couples.

Last night, we at Interfaith Voices (a public radio show) sponsored a marvelous evening, a fundraiser, with many of the great Kennedy women: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Vicki Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy and Kathleen’s daughter Maeve McKean.

This week, in a major setback for religious freedom, about 57 percent of the Swiss electorate voted to outlaw the building of “minarets” in their country. These are towers near mosques, and in predominantly Muslim lands, they are used for the Call to Prayer, so it can be heard at a distance. Right-wing political movements in Switzerland apparently convinced a majority of voters that these minarets were some kind of symbol of political Islam, a notion that is patently ridiculous.

This is akin to outlawing church steeples, where the bells in the tower have often filled the same function as the call to prayer in a minaret. Remember the Angelus?

However, many places in the Muslim world are not open to Christian houses of worship. The first Catholic church (without steeple or even a cross) just opened in Qatar. Saudi Arabia, of course, allows nothing but its own form of Islam.

In the arena of religious freedom … there is a lot of work to be done.

I was both amazed and pleased to read Tom Fox’s story about the “almost universal resistance” among the leadership of women’s religious communities in answering the intrusive questionnaire from the Vatican about American nuns’ “quality of life.” These responses are no doubt rooted in years of prayerful, non-violent struggle against global human rights violations, injustice and war. Dorothy Day must be smiling!

I remember well the summer of 1970, when I worked in the “sea island” area of South Carolina. People lived in shacks, and lacked many of the necessities of life. I lived in a convent of the Oblate Sisters of Providence that summer, and they taught me how to behave in that predominantly African-American community in the rural South. I learned a great deal from them, and we had some great times together.

I have known several Oblate Sisters of Providence over the years, and they do wonderful work wherever they go. They were founded as an African-American community in the days of segregation, and are still predominantly (although not exclusively) African-American. Their ministries have focused on the urban poor, and their work is treasured in those communities.

But now, I discovered that they are need themselves, hit hard by the recession. Their story was in today’s Washington Post.

I just interviewed the noted theologian, Harvey Cox, on his new and provocative book, The Future of Faith. I strongly recommend the book.

Cox divides the history of Christianity into three "ages": the Age of Faith (the early Church up to Constantine), the Age of Belief (Constantine to about the mid-20the century), and the new Age of the Spirit (still emerging in the last 50-60 years). At the risk of oversimplifying, he says that the second age, the “Age of Belief,” emphasized subscribing to proper and orthodox teachings. It was pre-occupied with creeds, and statements of belief. Thus, it discovered heresies, inquisitions and other ways to exclude people from the community of “belief.”

The third age, which he says is still in formation, is the Age of the Spirit, which emphasizes – not what people believe – but how they live, how they treat one another, how they experience the divine through spiritual practices or ritual. It is global, and in many ways, interfaith, with practices being borrowed across faith traditions. His examples include a wide range, from the Community of Sant ‘Egidio to liberation theology to global Pentecostalism.

Does anyone else feel like the U.S. Bishops are living in the 13th century? They are actually spending time together – precious time – trying to decide whether or not to accept grammatically inaccurate and awkward translations of the prayer of the Mass. It’s time they simply told the Vatican that such culturally specific and pastoral issues are their province. English translations need to be done by English speakers who use the American idiom. (And the American idiom these days, by the way, is gender inclusive – although the U.S. Bishops themselves still have a way to go on that point).

Instead of arguing over nouns and verbs, the Bishops could be spending time on really pressing issues like climate change, hunger in the world, nuclear disarmament, or building an interfaith movement.

I’ve been watching President Obama’s actions in recent days, as they touch the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the military generally. Some have accused him of “dithering” over a decision about sending more troops to Afghanistan. And recent news reports make clear that he is getting conflicting advice from his national security team.

I am glad that he is taking his time. The image I see in Obama is that of a thoughtful, intelligent man weighing the options. He is also demanding an exit strategy, an “off ramp” for Afghanistan.

I also see someone willing to face the costs that will be incurred by his decision, whatever it is. He visited Dover Air Force Base in the middle of the night to meet the caskets of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. On Veteran’s Day, he took an unscheduled walk through Arlington Cemetery amid the tombstones of veterans of both Iraq and Afghanistan. He visited grieving military families in Ft. Hood, TX.