Organizers of a rally to support Catholic nuns say between 200 and 250 people gathered near the Vatican Embassy Tuesday, where they heard speeches and stories of inspiration, according to this report on the "Solidarity with Sisters" website. Two from the group then met with the papal nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.
Who would believe it? When a group of protestors supporting the Leadership Conference of Women Religious showed up at the Vatican Embassy on Tuesday, the papal nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, welcomed some of the group into the embassy. Two people were actually invited to sit down and chat with him.
A reader emailed NCR the following article from the parish bulletin of the Blessed Trinity Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio. We're posting it with the permission of the author, Fr. Doug Koesel:
Many of you have asked me to comment on the recent investigation into the US nuns. Here goes. In short, the Vatican has asked for an investigation into the life of religious women in the United States. There is a concern about orthodoxy, feminism and pastoral practice. The problem with the Vatican approach is that it places the nuns squarely on the side of Jesus and the Vatican on the side of tired old men, making a last gasp to save a crumbling kingdom lost long ago for a variety of reasons.
One might say that this investigation is the direct result of the John Paul II papacy. He was suspicious of the power given to the laity after the Second Vatican Council. He disliked the American Catholic Church. Throughout his papacy he strove to wrest collegial power from episcopal conferences and return it to Rome.
In the United States, there are two canonically approved organizations for leaders of congregations of women religious. The majority (80 percent) are members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, headquartered in Silver Spring, Md. The remaining congregations belong to the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, based in Washington, D.C.
I have pleasant enough memories of Cardinal William Levada who, as a young worker bee in the hive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, helped me find my way through the dim warrens of the old Holy Office when I was questioned there more moons ago than I can now count. I cannot erase my gratitude despite his persistent efforts, now that he runs the whole waxworks of the congregation, to make me, along with millions of others, wonder if he lets his right hand know what his left hand is doing. Or perhaps that is exactly what bright young clerics must learn to do if they are to reach their career goals.
Cardinal Levada -- I would call him Darth, but NCR's editor won't let me -- has, of course, also had to master a straight face when issuing, as he did this week, updated norms originally drafted when Paul VI was pope "regarding the manner of proceeding in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations."
In one of the latest grassroots efforts to show support for the nuns criticized in a recent Vatican report, a group of Catholics from Cincinnati, Ohio, has collected about 650 signatures – and more than $6,500 in small donations – for a one-page ad scheduled to run in Sunday’s (May 27) Cincinnati Enquirer.
“The mail’s been arriving, with very sweet notes that we’re trying to save,” said Chris Schroeder, one of the project organizers. Accompanying the $10-$25 checks are words of gratitude for the work of sisters, Schroeder said, but also messages that show people’s anger at the situation.
I was at a fundraiser the other night for my state representative, a Democrat. He's a criminal defense lawyer, listens to my concerns about prison reform, gives me sound advice about the ways of the Missouri legislature, and follows through on his promises.
I was introduced as a Catholic sister to one of the state party leaders. He asked me right away about the Vatican investigation of nuns. I gave a vague comment about not worrying too much, that we nuns were all continuing our work. He, the Democrat, said it appeared to him the bishops were tough Republicans and that Missouri is likely in the next few years to grant nonpublic school scholarships, which would take even more money from the education of poor children and children with disabilities.
The two bills promoting scholarships did not move along in the Missouri bill process. But The New York Times ran a lengthy analysis of this movement last Monday.
Prayer vigils were held in several cities around the country Tuesday, as protesters gathered in front of local churches - for the third consecutive week, in some cases - to pray and show support for Catholic sisters criticized by the Vatican in a recent report.
Read about the protest in front of New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral here, about the protest in Seattle here, and the one in Toledo, Ohio, here.
For more photos from around the country, go here.
From Alaska to South Texas, to Washington, D.C., people gathered outside Catholic churches and cathedrals in about a dozen cities earlier this month to pray, sing and show support for the American nuns criticized in a recent Vatican report.
Organizers of the vigils say they hope these acts of solidarity will inspire the Vatican to rescind the document that places the Leadership Conference of Women Religious under the authority of an archbishop -- a move that has left many bewildered and angry.
Eileen Ford, of Rockport, Mass., mailed the following column and cover note to Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
She has sent it to NCR, for publication:
I hope you will read the following article in the spirit in which it was written - as a tribute to those who have served the Church faithfully.
When will you investigate the bishops who have never been held accountable for their negligence and are still in positions of power and honor?
Catholics are watching this abuse of power by the Vatican and the Church will continue to implode if you continue to persecute sisters and protect bishops.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Eileen M. Ford
Ford, a contributor to The Gloucester Daily Times, writes a monthly column titled Insights and Outbursts. (A similar version of this column appeared on the newspaper's website.)
Eileen Ford
"Institutions that claim power over our nature will have to pay nature's denied due, and will end by abusing their flock."
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