So much for an 'objective' investigation by Cardinal Rodé

Cardinal Rode "doesn't get it?" Perhaps his critics need to visit the same optician who worked on looking glasses in "Alice in Wonderland." Religious orders are aging and imploding, the infrastructure of Catholic education has been abandoned by and large by religious, vocations have plummeted, and the critics call this "normality." A few religious in adolescent rebellion, abandoning the tradition, their usual ministries, and their habits, began running some soup kitchens before they left the religious life, and this is proclaimed as reading Vatican II's "signs of the times." Up is down, down is up ......

This might be true of some religious but many lost their way and continue to do so like the recent situation of a nun accompanying a woman to an abortion clinic.
The Church's teaching on abortion is crytal clear-it is a great moral evil.

Thanks for this piece. More and more it seems our church is being led by old men from the forties and fifties (of the last century). While ensconced in their glorious home in the Vatican they peer out into the outer world. They see horrible forces in the world threatening them and their old way of life, especially when it comes to women. How frightened they are of independent women (not Mother Millea). Their equation is modernity=unafraid women. How close their thinking is to Sharia Law.

Jesus taught we are to go out into the world and feed the hungry, heal the sick, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, help and love one another.

The modern secular world is our business too. We are to be Christ to the world, not withdraw and insulate ourselves away from the secular world.

Rode needs to read the New Testament.

Amen.

Ms. Fiedler state that following Vatican II, sisters, "adopted a sense of expansive mission that moved beyond church institutions in a holy and healthy way, embracing the downtrodden wherever they were found, joining movements for liberation as sacred causes that furthered human dignity. They opened themselves to the modern world to bring alive the gospel message of justice and peace". Unfortunately, what Ms. Fiedler and others like her do not understand is that Vatican II was a council of, by and for the Church.

Vatican II was meant to renew the Church, to inspire a "new springtime" of the Faith. It was not meant to drive people "beyond church (sic) institutions". It was meant to renew those institutions and encourage people to use those institutions to evangelize the world. Everything was supposed to be done within the context of the Church and her Magisterium.

The people who just don't "get it" are those who suggest that the reform of the consecrated life after Vatican II was anything but a dismal failure; an example of what happens when sisters forget that they are supposed to be "in the world, but not of the world" and just become "of the world".

Cardinal Franc Rodé is the "Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life" in the Vatican. Anyone who masquerades as a follower of Jesus with a title like that is obviously a fraud. One would have to be totally immersed in the institution of the Holy Roman Catholic Church not to be repulsed by such a title. Christian common decency cries out against such institutionalization of what is meant to be camaraderie and friendship with Jesus. Rode speaks nonsense.

God help us and save us. As Churchill once described a woefully arrogant fellow British politician: "There but for the grace of God goes God". Ipse Rode!

If Benedict XVI does not fire Rode and send him to peaceful retirement with his like-minded racist, creation hating misogynists and recant his view of church and world one really has to wonder why (in addition to sexual abuse of children; pastoral, theological irrelevancy; misogyny...etc, etc.)one remains with such an institution.

Nor does he want to "get it." It's all about getting what he wants now, and that's just an ideological struggle, not a Christian one.

Agreed, and the numbers may also reflect a different dynamic. Up until the Second Vatican Council, lay participation, and thus opportunity, was limited. Someone called to ministry had only a few avenues, including orders. But now we can share our gifts within the ministry of the church much more profoundly, and we have! Has the Cardinal examined the number of lay people, paid and volunteer, working in catechesis, in liturgical ministries, in adult faith, in diocesan offices, etc.? This has risen greatly since the windows were opened at Vatican II.

I worked in ministry for upwards of 15 years, first as a Youth Minister, then as a Pastoral Worker, and finally as Director of Liturgy for a diocese. Oftentimes people would ask me: "If they would let priests marry, would you have become a priest?" And my answer was: no. I was called to ministry, but not the priesthood. Many, even most, religious orders came to be because of a need that had surfaced, and faithful men and women respondd to that call and served. Many faithful men and women continue to repond to that call, just not all always to religious orders.

Exactly! Modern life is changing to the fast pace of the internet. We interact with others in ways we never did before. The hierarchy says "stay the course" rather than adapt and they are likely hurrying the demise of the formal Catholic Church. Jesus said he and his spirit would be with us always but he did NOT say the church needs to stay the same and it has not and will not no matter how afraid these men are of change.

Causes aren't sacred, souls are.

Acceptance of a downward trend in religious fervor by those in consecrated life as "the new normal" is incompatible with our obligation to evangelize.

Ms. Fiedler's comments evidence the symptom that has caused the investigation in the first place.

The sad thing is, she does "get it."

It is one thing to suggest that the large number of religious immediately before the Second Vatican Council was an abberation; it is quite another to suggest that the present numbers are a return to "normality." Many institutes have had very few new vocations in the last 30 years; many more are on the verge of extinction. If this is a "movement toward 'normality'," God help us!

Frankly, there are variety of variables, at work since the Council (and even before), that have caused such a decline in religious numbers. Rodé is correct to observe, however, that there has been a great deal of experimentation in religious life and not all of it has been successful. Perhaps this is the new "signs of the times" that religious must seriously confront.

Unfortunately communication and transparency are not virtues of the Catholic Church. Why did Cardinal Rodé not discuss his concerns in a dialogue with a gathering of American religious women? Why did he not seek their input when designing the inquisition-questionaire? The Catholic Church does so many things to shoot itself in the foot these days. Perhaps if clerics were allowed to marry, their spouses and children would ground them in reality!

But you gotta hand it to Rode:

"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."

He sure knows his Leo XIII (1878-1903):
http://catholicforum.com/saints/pope0256ac.htm

As well as his Pius X (1903-1914):
http://forum.stirpes.net/catholicism/2953-pope-st-pius-xs-oath-against-m...

And the more he talks, the more he confirms his assertion that he learned little or nothing during his studies at the Institut Catholique de Paris!
http://ncronline.org/news/man-center-storms

I suspect even Jesus would've flunked Rode's test of orthodoxy.

Why, heck, the Lord didn't even wear a capa magna, much less a hierarch's pumpkin hat! He even hung around social outcasts!

Imagine that!

Shame on you, Jesus!

Next time, Lord, take your cues from this prince of the church.

Cardinal Rode is trying to preserve the corrupt and decaying system of the previous and present papacy. He is exactly their kind of man. A second Reformation will happen as a result of the current elements which have seized the power levers since autumn 1978. The Church has been held captive by right wing reactionaries in other centuries and the result was the first Reformation. We almost succeeded in creating a Church that reflected Christ and His ministry on Earth, but the very men who fought hard to destroy the Second Vatican Council hijacked the process of renewal in favor of the old imperial triumphalist model which makes the Church a personal fiefdom of a few. The Holy Spirit is at work to expose these men and to empower The People of God so they can present a truly Catholic Church to the modern world. Cardinal Rode and his ilk do not reflect Christ in either action or words. They are on so many levels, the anti-Christ.

On being both, Subject & Object: everything in nature is both, subject and object. What this says is that everything affects everything else, and everything is acted upon by everything else. It is this relationship that makes us enablers and disablers; this relationship is “the relationship of reciprocity.”

It is within our power to choose to affirm and confirm each other, but also to bring havoc on all other. Awareness of this relationship is awareness of morality and virtue. The way of virtue is the way of morality and conscience that chooses to understand and to be an asset to nature and others, not a deficit. This moral distinction of consciousness lets us choose to be “symbiotic” in the pattern of natural evolution, and “Eucharistic” in the Plan of divine expectation.

The Eucharistic contribution of nature to human relationships is the “divine option.” The divine option does no willful harm to another and it willingly takes on suffering and self-diminishment in the interest and wellbeing of other. It understands that greed and exploitation are direct offenses against others and divine intentions. Mindless greed and exploitation cannot go unnoticed for hurt and injury come to others because of them. Violence provokes further violence. Cultural history documents the devastation of people and nature that comes from the colonial, corporate exploitation of people and nature.

The repeat violence within the families of Abraham’s inheritance stands out in history for its persistence and inhumanity. Christian patriarchal dominion and overreach of Jewish and Islamic peoples are equally persistent sins. The victim of cultural violence is nature for its impact is ultimately on nature’s eco-social structures.

The theology of Abrahamic dominion endures in Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions. It’s the continuum of fixation in the biblical worldview of direct creation and divine electionism as opposed to the theology and worldview of cosmic evolution. The theology of moral equivalence equally obliges, not in top-down dominion but in bottom-up evolution, co-dependency and continuity. Relational accountability is equally obliging on all irrespective of ideology and status.

The egalitarian “theology of evolution” awakens us to the reciprocity of subject/ object relationship. In mindfully living the divine option all relate to each other not in the presumption of dominion but in the expectation of mutual liberation. Liberation Theology sensitizes all equivalently to reciprocal subject/ object relationship. We will be intolerant of violence when we recognize that the violence we project on others blows back on us and accomplishes nothing but more havoc.

Moral relationship really matters because it affects all, who we are, what we become, what we cause others to become. Except for relationship, nothing exists. The essential continuity of evolving life advances on mutuality, complementarity and subsidiarity — these are the bases of authentic living. “Religious living” is secured in these. Dominion theology and patriarchal ecclesiology alienate women from essential contributions to communal integrity. Institutional Christianity is frustrated by fixation in patriarchal culture; the People of God are frustrated by institutional fixation. Life moves on. Old institutions either change and adapt to cultural evolution or collapse and disintegrate.

here we go again..an old man trying to understand women..

Why is it that Rome can't seem to find any other reason for the decline in vocations than the encroaching "secularized culture":

"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."

Could it be that there are issues WITHIN the Church that make a vocation less appealing - like failing to address child abuse by priests, and treating women like second-class citizens?

"Everything was supposed to be done within the context of the Church and her Magisterium." I love when they refer to the Church in feminine terms. I know what they mean, but the irony is too much not to giggle.

Anyhoo...Dont let the teachings of Jesus and the movement of the Holy Spirit get in the way of a pathological following of a dying archaic institution. Mother would not be pleased! (Paging Dr Freud)

The evolved women religious got it right! (Can we same the same for their male counterparts?) They looked at the misson under the veil and followed it without reservation, even if that meant a radical fresh look at the institution from where they sprung. I admire them for not being a slave to the structures and "old habits" but instead following God's call unreservedly. Talk about radical following of the Gospel!

Rock on Sisters! You continue to inspire and challenge us by your witness to the Gospel

The investigation was occasioned, I believe, by speakers invited to LCWR conventions that took issue with Catholic faith and morals.

In my opinion, this investigation is a first step in a process to withdraw canonical status from congregations who belong to the LCWR.

The uncooperative attitude of LCWR member congregations towards the Roman questionnaire is laying the grounds for such action.

The investigation bears similarities to the Roman processes against Archbishop Lefebvre and Father Feeney also took a defensive, uncooperative attitude towards Roman investigation of them prior to their excommunications.

It would seem a typical historic pattern that is being followed.

Seems to me that Cardinal Rode has it exactly correct. Anyone who thinks that American religious and especially women religious are not completely secularized is either blind and deaf or simply chooses not to see. We have to get these houses in order before we can have any hope of converting the secular world. God bless Cardinal Rode and may he direct his every move.

It is true that the orders have diminishing numbers, it is also true that much of the work done by Sisters in the past is now done by lay persons. The laity is more educated at the present time than at the time of the great immigrations to the US, when European congregations sent their personnel to work with the colonies of immigrants. The descendents of these immigrants have been educated, both professionally and in the Faith, they are able to share what they have learned with the congregations within which they live. This is the result of the Sisters work, but now it´s the turn of the laity to contribute to the parishes and schools and hospitals. So naturally there are fewer Sisters. They now are on the ¨front lines¨working to bring about the Kingdom, the Church is in the world to work for the Kingdom, not for itself the Council was not just for the Church, it was to make the Church able to bring about a better aproximation to the Kingdom of God in the world. The people taken up with the Gospel are to bring the Kingdom INTO THE WORLD, the real world, not the Church, The Church is the servent of the Kingdom- The GOOD NEWS, is what Jesus taught us, to feed the hungry to console the suffering, to bring about a world (kingdom) of justice, that is what He did, and this is the Good News, the Sisters are using what is left of their lives to bring about this KINGDOM, the world that God wants... OUR FATHER; not MY Father, THY KINGDOM COME, The world of Justice, where all of us are equally God´s children and share equally in the good things He has given us. Let us let the Sisters use the rest of their lives opening doors to those who are outside, let the Sisters in their last years bring closer to us the Kingdom, the world where Justice exists, where those who have been neglected are embraced, where the forgotten are remembered. God wants the Kingdom in the world, a place of justice, of peace and fellowship, let the Sisters do their work before they are called to their eternal reward, and let us lay persons pick up the work, and become truly followers of Jesus.

God bless Cardinal Rode, and all the good nuns out there that welcome this visitation as a chance for renewal and reaffirmation of their dedication to Christ's one true church in communion with the See of Peter.

The "dismal failure" moniker that Clint Green (whoever you are, you are a right wing reactionary, be you a member of the hierarchy or just another one of their shills), places on women Religious of the Vatican II Renewal period, really belongs to people like Clint Green. They truly are the people who "Don't get it" and they reflect it in their vile and hate filled comments. Mr. Green, why do you come to the NCR to post such garbage? Perhaps you know all too well that the present imperial structure in Rome does not remotely reflect the teachings of Christ. You certainly are working overtime to state your opinions that always lead to one road and one road alone: Imperial Triumphalism. Sorry, dear Clint, but that is NOT what Jesus and his disciples taught nor is it a model that The People of God embrace. Yours is a model of the elite and it seems you exist to defend and protect the status quo. Is it any wonder that so many people who post in these threads believe you are a member of the hierarchy, or at the very least, one of their shills? Maureen Fiedler is correct in her appraisal of Rode and very few people are buying the bill of goods that you are trying so hard to sell on behalf of Rode and his ilk.

I'm reading the very readable, very well-researched text, "A Concise History of the Catholic Church" by Thomas Bokenkotter (Doubleday, 2005). History repeats itself. Take a huge step back and try to see the big picture here. What exactly are we experiencing? It is all on the time-line of Church history. What's the bottom line for me? The Holy Spirit goes where it/she/he will. Is any of us bigger or stronger or [insert word to describe supremacy here]than that?

I don't think that Sr. Maureen gets it. Her religious community is being investigated and might be targeted by the Vatican. It seems to me that this is the beginning of the end of many of these progressive communities. Sr. Maureen has just lost her relevance to the institutional church. What a pity! After these reports are submitted and edicts are pronounced, it appears that only those sisters in traditional communities will represent what constitutes religious life. As for the other progressive and unApostolic communities, they will become part of the institutional church's history and will probably join the Episcopal Church or the women priest movement.

And people like me say "finally." At least they won't be teaching in our institutions anymore or masquerading as Roman Catholics when in fact the only thing that they really cared about is their theology and their way of doing things at the expense of the entire church.

It was never about them but the people they served and those whom they vowed to serve include the Magesterium of the Church. But they don't really care about the Magesterium, do they. That was their message for 40 years and now the Magesterium is asking why and they refuse to tell them why. And they speak about dialogue. Instead they protray themselves as victims when the real victims are those who have been abused by both priests and sisters. Their anger has no comparison.

Oh, dearest Cardinal Rode, you need only look in the mirror to see why young women like me decided not to follow the call to a vocation as a woman religious. IT IS THE SHAMEFUL WAY YOU TREAT THEM.

The women religious (sisters) get an "investigation" and the male brothers get a position paper justifying their existence. It appears you have already defined the "problem" from your gold lined, ivory tower far away from the real world.

Go out into the world like Jesus did and be with the people for awhile and see if your opinions, activities, and entire life won't change.

My guess is that Mother Theresa is the most revered religious person of the last 50 years. What percentage of her time was spent outside of a church building ministering to individuals not of the Catholic tradition? Did Jesus not befriend the "outcast" Samaritan woman? It was written that she brought people to Jesus. "At that they set out from the town to meet him." John 4:26

What a wonderful process!