Apostolic Visitator details on-site visit guidelines

"Millea stated that up to 8 persons who are not vowed members of the community will be invited to take part in a 90-minuted focus group session with team visitors. Sisters of the visited community will not be present at the meeting, an accompanying guideline stated."

What does that mean?

"The letter stated that all visitors are religious with at least 20 years of profession and will have taken part in a weekend orientation process before they arrive."

In spite of 20 years with vows, these religious must take an additional oath to . . . Rode? Millea? Whom? And that oath brings a special grace, Millea claimed earlier. How does she know that?

Suggestion to NCR:

Invite the nuns to record their meetings with the intruders and then send them to you to be published on the web site, in the newspaper, and ultimately, in a book.

Suggestions to the nuns:

Install cameras and tape recorders in the meeting rooms and bug the phones. Get computer experts to scour the computers and retrieve all data from the computers used by the inquisitors.

Invite your friends, relatives, alumnae, former members, students, etc., to attend the liturgies, meals, and recreations at which the intruders will be present. Invite them to sleep in the rooms next to the intruders. Fill the place with visitors who love you to counteract the bad vibes from the intruders.

Millea stated that up to 8 persons who are not vowed members of the community will be invited to take part in a 90-minuted focus group session with team visitors. Sisters of the visited community will not be present at the meeting, an accompanying guideline stated.

And how will these persons be chosen? Are these the people who instigated the "investigation"? Does the religious order know who these people are & do they have any way to comment on their relationship or lack thereof with these people?

And since when does an uninvited guest all but command that their travel, meals, & lodging be paid for??? Does an uninvited guest command a private room? a copier, computer, printer? Complete contact information for every person of the community (this is private information...who knows how it will be used and by whom)?

It is Lent, but this still has an awfully fishy smell to it...

Can you give more information on the statement:"Millea stated that up to 8 persons who are not vowed members of the community will be invited to take part in a 90-minuted focus group session with team visitors. Sisters of the visited community will not be present at the meeting,an accompanying guideline stated." How will these persons be selected? The phrase "persons who are not vowed members" can often refer "canonically" to the associate ralationship.

Will Millea be in charge of burning at the stake nuns who do not meet her idea of compliance?

I hope that no religious community will choose to pay the travel expenses of these uninvited gueasts!

How can the Vatican ask the Congregations to absorb this cost? So many are fighting just to keep their finances in the black.

All I can say....is they have got to be joking. Who are these people??

"Reiterates request of visited communities to pay travel, accomodation costs"

Visit? I say Inquisition...

Shame on them for sending uninvited guests and expecting room, board, and travel expenses... Add to this the fact that the religious communities submitting to the questioning have no right to hear the results of the report to determine if the statements being submitted to Rome are accurate...

I have been part of a school accreditation process where a group of educators spent several days interviewing administrators, teachers, school board, and parents... The school welcomed the team because it wished to be able to advertise its program as accredited... The school received a detailed report stating the positives and negatives... How else would we improve on any deficiencies?

I fail to see any benefit to any religious community being "visited"...

Secret, secret, secret...the Church hasn't changed much since I was a nun. And asking the communities to foot the bill...oh my. So glad I have moved on. Far from the convent and far from the Church. When the sisters take over Rome I will be back!

Looks like the troops require ten star accomodations and free transportation! Why would any thinking, caring individual place additional financial burdens upon already struggling Religious Communities?

WHEN COLLEGE ACCREDITING TEAMS VISIT A MEMBER INSTITUTION, THERE IS AN EXIT INTERVIEW IN WHICH THE TEAM'S FINDINGS ARE SHARED. THEN THERE IS A WRITTEN REPORT FROM THE TEAM TO THE ACCREDITING AGENCY AND THE COLLEGE. EVERYTHING IS OUT IN THE OPEN AND THE VISITING TEAM IS EXPECTED TO PUBLICIZE ITS FINDINGS AND, IF NEED BE, TO VALIDATE THEM. WHY THE SECRECY HERE ? WHY SHOULD A VISITOR HAVE THE RIGHT TO FORMULATE A FINDING AND NOT SHARE IT WITH THE VISITED COMMUNITY ? THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY WAS ONE OF THE LOW POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. IT WAS AN AGE OF SECRECY AND SECRET ACCUSERS. WHY REPEAT THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST ?

Outrageous. I think all the sisters should call in sick and/or place a quarantine sign on their front doors. As well, they need to report that their shredders, computers, copiers, etc. are all out of order and are not available for use.

Dear Sisters,

Please do not pay for any expenses related to the Vatican's investigation. Encourage the Vatican to budget better.

Arlene

Sounds much like the governments' unfunded mandates!

How about asking Cardinal Rode to take care of the bill for his visitation of the women religious? Do you really think the communities are going to pay for this imposed visitation?

If the Vatican initiated this inquest, they should cover all the expenses. I will not give any money to the diocese where I live until they publicly state if they will finance these visits. The religious communities are struggling to remain vibrant. They have a commitment to their oldest members to support and care for them. The monetary request is ridiculous. The Vatican should channel their money to the starving people of this world. These men have no moral right to initiate this inquest. What would Jesus do?? No place in the Bible did Jesus just pick on women. The Vatican is just digging itself into a deeper hole as time goes on.

This is so typical. The Vatican calls for a visitation....for which it has yet to prove grounds....and then asks the congregations chosen for the official visit to "reimburse the cost of travel" for the visitation team??? This staement was softened with the phrase..."if the congregation is able." Yet the call for reimbursement came again towards the end with "...discussions for possible reimbursement of visitation team's room, board and travel expenses." How many are on a team? If the Vatican is requesting this visitation the office of Cardinal Rode needs to pay for all expenses. Oh that's right...the Vatican is broke from paying for all the settlments connected with the Clergy abuse cases. Now there's a group that REALLY needs to be investigated.....of course with the layity picking up the tab!

Since the Vatican decided to initiate this Visitation process, why isn't the Vatican picking up the expenses associated with the visits instead of imposing that on the various religious communities -- many of which are struggling to pay for the costs of caring for their retired and infirm members?

The manner in which the apostolic visitation is being carried out reminds me of what happened in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Professor Umbridge begins teaching at Hogwarts. In fact, Mother Millea has a bit of an Prof. Umbridge look to her. It seems somewhat insulting and overbearing that the communities being visited are being asked to reimburse the visitation team for travel expenses. How ridiculous. Surely the Vatican can afford this aspect of the study.

All this wasted effort for what? Perhaps it's time for more of our religious communities to consider going non-canonical. Jesus reads the heart, not the 'officialdom' of their service.

It seems to me that not only is the lady causing emotional and Faith distress, she is now trying to make our good Sisters pay for there own Inquisition. What possible good, sensible, reasonable use is the Slovakian Cardinal Rode' making of this outlandish, un-American attack trying to accomplish. He has succeeded in lowering the general American person's respect for him and his fellow Vatican Curia members. Those who do evil give up their right to respect. They who are notified of their sin and continue are relying on hope rather than Faith that their death will be to a better end.
The Mother in charge in the US, and the American bishops are violating our culture, our sense of right and wrong, and all together our confidence in those who seem now to be violating good sense and the interests not only of the American local churches, but of their own consciences. They cannot be so ignorant of the real nature of the life of Christ as embodied in Christianity, as to move the Catholic Church off its foundations. It is appalling that this Balkan red hat is so ignorant of social mores that he is having his agents invade the Sisters' homes, uninvited and unwanted, and ask them to provide the luxurious accommodations to them. For shame. And please use your great public influence with the people and with our failing leaders to bring them back to reality, great and good American reality.

Oh Brother, Mother Mallea! Don't you get it that our Religious Women in the United States are POOR????? You want them to provide your Inquisitioner's with all the benefits that many of the poor in the United States cannot even afford. Boy, you sure have money to WASTE !!!!

Don't you realize that some of who have left, do send monies to these communities, because we love our Sister's, even though we left for personal reasons. Like not wanting to do the VOW of Obedience or Celibacy?????? I have not minded living the VOW of poverty, because while earning a good income after putting myself thru a Master's in Social Work I gave much of my money to those who had less than myself.

Sorry, some of us are intelligent, can think and budget for ourselves and we like SEX. I am convinced more and more, that many younger women, like myself, entered the convent when we were YOUNG and vulnerable to get away from boys who wanted to marry us, or to be SAVED from our emotional and sexual attraction to other women, ever since we were very young girls.

And that many entered to get away from the NIGHTMARE of having been molested by priests, uncles, fathers, grandfathers ... and even RAPED in College.

Yes, I am outrageously angry at this INQUISITION of the heroic women who remained in community, communities those of us who left, did so with deep pain and loss.

This is the 21st Century. Or are you still stuck in the 19th let alone the mid-20th Century?????

Shessh!!!!

This entire affair is outrageous. The visitors come uninvited; ask for room, board, and travel expenses; and the community they visit will never see the report given to the Vatican. It defies all courtesy, graciousness, and human rights.

Everything mentioned is pretty much standard in any field for these kinds of visitations. I remember being involved in Middle States School Accreditation visitations, twice; once, on the faculty of a school facing accreditation and once as a member of an accreditation team. I don't recall how the costs were handled (actual costs or Middle States fee) but the school facing accreditation, paid and made all the arrangements. It was a pretty thorough and demanding process as I recall. The "feeling/tone" that comes across in this report is also exactly how I remember it being in my experience with Middle States. It was very professional. (My department got a rather poor evaluation!) The religious who are objecting to this whole thing come across to me as rather immature. Perhaps they have been unaccountable for too long and are of the opinion they can't learn and profit from the experience.

I'm so glad to know that Sister Milea's has all those possibilities for a "team" when they visit her congregation; or so I assume since she so easily demands this of the congregations visited. (By the wat, that report on her congregation ought to be interesting since the visitors cannot discuss--even in writing--anything with the superior). What she probably doesn't know is that not all congregations have those "private" possibilities for each member of a team--not to mention all the equipment they "need".

My God My God Why has the Vatican Forsaken Us.
Have we forgotten that a religious Vocation is pure gift.
Why are we using so much money energy on such visitations?
What about all priests and Bishops being visited?
All this energy money use it to assist the cries of the poor and the suffering peoples in the world. This is where the sisters are on the very edge But who really cares?Only their love of God and committment to the poor that keeps them there.Is this not so?
Can you not see it? Can you not see that the best is yet to come. Where is our trust in Divine Providence.
I'd be happy to know what the Holy Fathers thoughts are on this imposed visitation.

Bernie You say Perhaps they(congregations to be visited)... are of the opinion they can't learn and profit from the experience."
How on earth do you learn or profit from a visit when those visiting have taken an oath to tell no one but Rome what they have concluded from their visit. If there was any idea that the nuns could benefit from the exercise surely a report or better still a discussion face to face about what the visitors have observed or been told would be much more likely to bring about positive results. It is obviously not so much about any possible improvements as giving more power to those at the centre of operations in Rome.

It all smells of deception and collusion with the most dysfunctional and double crossing power grabbers in Rome. I would encourage the sisters to have witnesses to every minute Milea and her minions are inside of their institutions. I am persuaded they are up to no good and the only way to expose these posers is to have witnesses. I agree with one of the posters in this thread, the LCWR may have to resort to EVERY modern technology to insure that every action by these nefarious shills of Rode are recorded and if need be, EXPOSED to the world. A "Spanish Inquisition" mode describes Rode and his ilk and we must protect the sisters and expose them all to the world. It is the height of arrogance to expect these sisters to pay the room and board of the interrogators. I say RESIST by using every legal maneuver that is available. None of the methods of this "investigation" they call a "visitation" should be trusted. This is all UNACCEPTABLE and MUST BE STOPED at all costs, including the step of becoming non-canonical. We are with you sisters! Do not fear!

I am thankful and grateful for the visitation. Thy will be done! All things work for good for those who love Him! Alleluia!

Dear sisters, don't pay for the visitation! Your money is needed for the ill and poor people in your neighbourhood. In Christ.

Dear sisters, dont' pay! Your money is better needed for the ill and poor people in your neighbourhood.

Lord have mercy...How can Mother Millea participate in this hideous travesty. I pray for her.

Our Sisters have educated children, established educational systems throughout the world, nursed the sick, opened hospitals and clinics where there were none, stood up for social justice - teaching black children when bishops opposed it, opened co-educational institutions when the Vatican prohibited it and refused to leave dioceses because the bishop didn't want them there -- hello Mother Francis Cabrini and Mother Caroline Friess.

Remember, many of the foundresses of our largest and most serving congregations butted heads with with the Vatican and bishops who wanted to control them. But, they were on a mission to serve. And serve they did and they continue to serve.

And, when pedophile protecting prelates where covering up sexual abuse among their priests it was our Sisters who spoke up and many suffered the consequences.

And now, we have a 'good sister' in veil and habit and the title of "Mother" doing the dirty work of self-righteous men who want to put our Sisters in their place and probably grab their assets.

Maybe when Millea (I'm sorry, Mother) and her storm troopers come for their visitation and inquisition they should be met with sweet little nuns wearing veils, telling the inquistors what they want to hear and then throw them out.

And of course, let the Vatican pay for it.

I offer myself to be one of the eight visitators who is not vowed. And, I will cover my own costs.

Here, on the old side of the Atlantic, throughout the West of Scotland we speak, read and write English. Is that true of the USA?
The anonymous author of the first comment quotes from the article: "The letter stated that all visitors are religious with at least 20 years of profession and will have taken part in a weekend orientation process before they arrive." Thereafter this commentator writes: "In spite of 20 years with vows, these religious must take an additional oath to . . . Rode? Millea? Whom?"
I have heard of imaginative writing, but imaginative reading? Give me a hauf of what she's been drinking! Where is an oath mentioned anywhere in the article?
Rachel, the author of the second comment observes: "Millea stated that up to 8 persons who are not vowed members of the community will be invited to take part in a 90-minuted focus group session with team visitors. Sisters of the visited community will not be present at the meeting, an accompanying guideline stated."
She then asks: "And how will these persons be chosen?" And then wonders: "Are these the people who instigated the "investigation"? Does the religious order know who these people are & do they have any way to comment on their relationship or lack thereof with these people?"
Could someone please read the article back over to Rachel, carefully underlining each word with an index finger, slowly pronouncing those words which have more than one syllable as poor Rachel seems not to understand English too well. For it is written: "Millea stated that if the community wishes up to 8 persons who are not vowed members of the community can be invited to take part in a 90-minuted focus group session with team visitors."
Got that? "CAN BE INVITED..." That is BY THE COMMUNITY!
If this is the intellectual quality at the disposal of those who oppose the visitation then it is clearly long overdue.

As an English teacher, I found it most enlightening to read and analyze Mother Millea's own writing style and use of language in her recent "Review for Religious" article about the visitation. I wonder what a trained psychologist would make of it as well:
http://www.apostolicvisitation.org/en/materials/ReviewforReligious.pdf

Particularly striking to me were these passages:

"In open and honest dialogue with the universal church, the visitation is a means for congregations to evaluate their present reality with courage and truth, to rediscover their founding charism, and to live it in a more authentic manner appropriate for the present time." (page 10)

"The grace of the apostolic visitation can only occur in a climate of prayer and docility, open dialogue, and collaboration, with a sincere desire on the members' part to examine the congregation's strengths and weaknesses and to effect changes which would enhance the expression of its charism and ecclesial identity." (page 10)

"The canonical model of religious life which underlies the questions does not fully correspond to the lived reality of certain institutes. The questionnaire extended an invitation to those communities which appear to be evolving into a new form of consecrated life to describe their emerging expression of vowed living. Honest and respectful conversation between the institute and the Apostolic See could predictably lead to greater clarity of purpose and identity." (page 12)

And finally, as evidenced in the FOOTNOTES to her article, John Paul II's Vita Consecrata is given hierarchical privilege and status over Vatican II's foundational Perfectae Caritatis - which isn't even cited once. This is one of the major methodological flaws in the entire visitation process and unfortunately, indicative of the real, not-so-hidden agenda of the Vatican.