When considering the story of the investigation of U.S. women religious and their recent acts of noncompliance in the face of a Vatican questionnaire seeking information on life in their communities, it is easy to think the story is about women.
The presumption that the episode is primarily about the women is easy to make, because women are the target of the twin investigations by the Vatican, with the not-so-subtle implications that they are not living out their vows as faithful Catholics. Keep in mind we are talking about not a handful of women, but tens of thousands who have given their entire lives to our church over many decades.
In opening the investigations, one into “the quality of life” within the communities of U.S. women religious, the other into the “doctrine” allegedly not being upheld by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents more than 90 percent of the U.S. women religious communities, Rome is saying something has gone wrong with our women religious.
Oddly, both investigations came as surprises to the women and the wider church. Our religious women were never consulted before the studies were announced. Not a hint they were off track. Keep in mind that the U.S. women religious leadership travels to Rome each year to make themselves available to any and all Vatican congregations willing to spend a few hours with them. They’ve done this since the 1970s, placing high value on keeping doors and communications open. Most other religious leaders travel to Rome every other year -- or less.
One would have thought that the men in Rome who had problems with the lifestyles or faith commitments of the women involved might have wanted to sit down and discuss the issues out loud. This never happened. Instead, they chose to go through an apostolic visitator, Mother Mary Clare Millea, who was appointed to carry out a three-year, minimal $1.1 million investigation of some 340 religious communities.
It is stunning to think the men could conceive this in the 21st century without any involvement whatsoever of the women who were to become the objects of their study. It is even more stunning -- mind-boggling -- to think the men’s plan could be enshrined in secrecy. The women’s congregation leaders at no point would play a role in shaping the report. They would not be able to see it before it is sent to the Vatican for recommendations. And there is no platform or arena in which they will be able to defend themselves from false assertions.
The study, as envisioned by the men, calls for the women to answer some 150 questions, dealing with all elements of their religious life. Many of the initial questions were quite personal in nature, including requests for individual ages, ongoing ministries and prayer lives. Others requests focused on recent congregation financial statements and property assets. Demeaned and angry, the women’s protests grew until three questions were canceled. But the rest of the questionnaire and ill-conceived process remain in place.
It is an understatement to say that the vast majority of our women religious continue to be appalled by the lack of faith shown toward them by clerics in Rome, and continue to be bewildered by Vatican disregard of their pleas to make the process of the investigation transparent.
It is within this context that many women religious congregations have said “no” to the investigation process, one they believe to be unjust, intrusive and unwarranted. By sending their orders’ Vatican-approved religious constitutions to the apostolic visitator, instead of sending detailed answers to questions posed to them, they hope to make a statement about their abiding fidelity to the Gospels and the church in a way that does not further play into a process that takes all of us deeper into a dark divide.
It is by no means clear the message they are sending will be received as they intend it to be. If reasonable, two-way discussions, based on mutual respect and good faith, can somehow emerge from this muddle, much good can come from this moment.
What has happened here is the result of decades of advances by women in all orders of life and of education that has revolutionized women’s self-identities and self-aspirations. It is the result of many years of women religious in all parts of the world once again asserting themselves, as they have periodically throughout the histories of their religious communities, to become more active agents of their own visions and missions.
This has happened in the face of continued intransigence by men who refuse to accede to these realities and who refuse to allow these women into any serious leadership circles. The result has been catastrophic for our church as disillusioned young women -- and men -- have walked away because male authorities have been blind to essential gender issues.
So the investigations are fundamentally a story about men, not women. Only when this is understood and the men change their ways are we likely to break through the impasse and get on, as we need to, putting our energies into building the reign of God on earth, as we are called to do.
