California bishops offer support to U.S. women religious

Excellent! This Californian is proud of our Bishops.

Did bishop Cordileone of the diocese of Oakland sign it? He is after all a confidante of archbishop Burke and an uber conservative. Remember, he wanted to ban catholics from communion if they practiced artificial birth control effectively eliminating 90% of all catholics of reproductive age from communion.

FYI

After reading this: for the first time, past the confusion and anger, the tears came, .. Thank you Brothers. Sister Kathleen

Thank God, some men of official authority have come to the defense of the women religious! I wish these same California Bishops would encourage other Bishops to do the same not only on this matter, but on other matters of ridiculous proportion. At some point, those leaders who truly care about "the flock" need to stare Rome down!

Cardinal Mahoney...you ought to start reading Kaiser's
"Cardinal Mahony"...God bless, aidan licari

I find it incredibly difficult to accept that Cardinal Franc Rode
was elected to such a stately office when he blatantly appears to have
an agenda with such vindictiveness against religious women when he
should moreso being promoting the well being and sanctity of women
religious. His lineage of vehemence roots back with Pope Benedict
as well. This will all go down in History books as a very dark
time. There will be unthinkable divisions of the human spirit
as a result of their uncharitablness.

Three cheers for the Bishops of California ! Let's hope that other Bishops follow suit and do the same.

Three cheers for the Bishops of California. Let's hope other Bishops follow suit and do the same.

This is more like it --- what one expects of our U.S. church leadership. Let's hope and pray that this will open up a dialog on this issue between the U.S. church (including the nuns, the people, and the bishops) and the Vatican.

The statement is entirely appropriate, and welcome. The investigation is not concerned, however, with the heroic Sisters in the past (whom the statement deservedly praises) but with the present situation. The Sisters' congregations who tell us they are the most thoroughly renewed and enlightened have few vocations at all; while the traditional Sisters' groups are growing rapidly. Young women are voting with their feet -- and they are not going to the groups who are loudly protesting the visitation, but to those who have no problem with it. I have yet to see a single critic of the investigation taking note of this significant fact.

It is about time that bishops start speaking what they believe instead of parroting the party line. The church in the United States, as the Cardinal points out, would never have flourished without the labors and accomplishments of women religious.

How brave of the bishops...hopefully more bishops will come forward with words and actions of support...as long as they aren't secretly funding this fiasco!

As a lay woman with many mentors and friends among women religious , I would like to say that I appreciate any support shown to the sisters. It is especially welcome from members of the hierarchy, where too often it's been, "My,my, it means so much." And that's the last we hear of that.

I believe American religious women have done an heroic job of transforming themselves and their mission to share Christ in accordance with Vatican II and the current socioeconomic realities of our nation and world. It hasn't been
easy. We have seen the struggle as they have gone back to college, mastered new disciplines, and sometimes taken lowly jobs just to help support the community. We have seen their loyalty to their communities, in and through all the changes of habitat and habit.

We also have seen their faithfulness to the needs of the laity--the love and respect they have given us. They have been Christ to us and have seen Christ in us.

Blessings of gratitude to the bishops of California. It is good to hear from you in the event of the investigation. Speaking for myself, I do not see this as a help from the Vatican. I really don't know how they can help, except to respect who we are and what we have done for centuries. All of you face difficulties in your ministry. We pray for you.

All women and Women Religious will only fulfill Gods requirement of them when their allegiance is to Him first and not mortal man. They can accept guidance from those who also follow Gods dictate and ignore mans, when such is in conflict with Gods.

It needs to be said that many if not all religious women who have left religious life for the secular was not disenchantment with religious life itself but the institution's ( congregation's) hestitancy or refusal to implement the ideals of Vatican 2 in the 60's. Frustration, lack of the abiltity to even discuss possible changes, "blind obedience" etc.

I would wager to say that the mojority if not all of those women have continued to contribute to the life of the church in the secular sphere as single or married women. Many have retained fond connections with their religious sisters.

I know, I am just one.

Is the Cardinal in good enough financial position to support these elderly ladies when they no longer can work? They don't seem to be doing anything for themselves.

well...sounds 'nice', but, will they bend and finance the
investigation???? they should say directly that they believe in the investigation and support it, or they do NOT support it and will not
pay for it.....??? it sounds like a nice pat on the back, then still
let the 'knife' stab the heart of our nuns......i will never give a
dime to any diocese i live in who finances this attack on nuns....
i always give my name...no anonymous to hide behind....and if any
bishop or archbishop wishes to call me, he may.......dolores crowley

Great. It less than $ .25 per Catholic for this historic event. Much can change in America if Catholics are so inclined. One Catholic Brother characterized America as an airtight cultural vacuum. Guess what he meant?

It's about time.

While pleased that Cardinal Mahony and the bishops of California have come out in support of the sister, the good Cardinal bishop did not say whether the bishops of California plan to support the Vatican's request for financial assistance in conducting the investigation. We (in California) hope they do not offer any financial assistance and wish they would come out with a statement to that effect.

Dear Bishops,

Thank you so much for your support of women religious at this crucial time
of the investigation.

Peace and all good,
Margaret Holden, FSP
Franciscan Sister of Peace

That's just wonderful. We have to wait for three years to learn what we already know. Perhaps the vatican can also investigate why there are so few priests. Perhaps this is where the big move concerning Anglicans is coming from.

Cardinal Roger Mahoney's letter of support to the women religious on behalf of the California bishops has been needed and perhaps will send a message to the vatican that the religious sisters in the United States do not need to be the focus of an Inquisition-like investigation, but rather should be lauded for the remarkable work they have done in our communities.

I am grateful that the Cardinal has been willing to reach out to the women religious with his prayers and support. The difficulty these women have faced as they have witnessed the deep cultural shifts in American society can not be overstated. These shifts have had a deep and devastating effect on their congregations. Yet, they have remained true to their call and should be commanded for it.

Our society has changed dramatically from the enrollment peak of the 1950's. And no matter how much some may long for those times, I don't believe that there will ever be a return to those days of high enrollment. Both the women's and gay movement are here to stay and both have affected the numbers entering women and men's religious communities. Instead of insisting that the low numbers of women entering religious life as contrary to God's will, something that must be fixed, I can see it as in accordance with it. The low enrollments may be a call to explore considerations of evaluating what the fullness of women's gifts to The Church are. And to see the different ways of using these gifts in service to The Church.

Clearly, I am not saying that there is no place for triditional ways of women living religious life. But I believe that there are other ways as well and that we should not see low numbers or even a lifestyle all but dying out as necessarily a bad thing.

Peace and prayers

Hurrah for the California bishops and Cardinal Mahoney for calling it like it is! Our women religious need the love and support of all of us and to know that the male leaders of the Church here in this state of ours is of considerable inspiration.

Praise God! At long last Religious Women in the US are receiving some support from their BROTHERS IN CHRIST. Dare we dream that the archdioceses/dioceses in the other forty-nine states will follow? To even think of a Church in the US without the services of the Religious Women who built the educational (don't forget that in most instances, the schools built and became the very backbone the parishes) and health care ministries (serving the poorest of the poor); the Religous who are at the very heart of social services built on true peace and justice and a myriad of other apostolic commitments defies the imagination. May God bless the courageous bishops in California!

Thank you Cardinal Mahony and the California bishops for their support of American nuns and sisters and their acknowledgement and praise for the good works done and being done by the nuns and sisters.

Cardinal Rode, priests numbers are very much less, far fewer men are becoming priests too, as well as fewer sisters and nuns. The Roman Catholic church at the level of the Vatican appears to not respect women, denies women full dignity and vocation in the church so most women do not then wish to become a nun.

Women become doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, secretaries, police officers, emergency paramedic officers, and other professions to serve the community and God too. The RCC puts too many limits on women which Jesus did not do.

How special to read of Bishops lauding the work of Sisters ... and how true what they say. It's not actually the visitation that is the problem in the US, it's the manner of it that saddens. I'm sure there are aspects of religious life that may not be quite what the Vatican would approve ... but the negativity that has surrounded this visitation cannot but damage relationships. As usual the real question is, How would Jesus have approached this?

Fewer Women Religious
"...find out why the numbers of women religious have decreased during the past 40 years..." Are they kidding? It doesn't take an investigation to figure that one out. The Roman church denies women the opportunity to exercise their calling as priests. Therefore, women are leaving the misogynistic boys' club and finding other ways, and denominations, to express their spirituality. They're going to spend three years of congregant donations on this "investigation?" If every woman, and gay man, stopped supporting the church with their time, money and talents, the institution would fail completely inside of six months.

Many thanks, Cardinal Mahoney. We women religious appreciate your statement and that of your fellow bishop supporting us as we face the Vatican investigation. Your voice is one that we know we can count on as a leader of the American Church.

This is a welcome development. Thanks to Cardinal Mahony.

The most puzzling thing about this is

The Vatican says.... "the intention is to find out why the numbers of women religious have decreased during the past 40 years."

All they need to do is look in the mirror. Investigate yourselves for declining vocations among women religious communities.

Why are Cardinal Mahony and the rest of the California bishops the only hierarchical voices lifted against this awful visitation? Where are the bishops from NY, Texas, etc. who likewise would not have any services had there not been sisters who stepped up and worked for virtually nothing. And who didn't rape any children, either.

It will be interesting to see just what the good Cardinal means by "support."

It will be interesting to see just what the good Cardinal means by "support."

The article reports: He praises “the historical presence” of women religious in California beginning back in the 1800s.

I cannot of course question the far more knowledgeable Cardinal, but might we not unearth an earlier presence of Roman Catholic religious women in the Californian territories, from Spain? In any case, must we not examine more closely the interesting history of California through the 1800's mentioned, and the provenance of religious women throughout that troubled century, and must we not finally recognize the Roman Catholic Church in the Americas has Spanish origins, eminently unworthy of the present segregation and arrogant relegation to second class citizenship in our anglo-dominated modern Church, whose most traditional roots here within these Americas are Spanish.

More relevant to our present discussion of course is the Cardinal's correct indication, in the sixth paragraph: The cardinal goes on to write that women religious in Los Angeles “opened the first hospital, established the first schools, and provided the first social services to those most in need.” He added that our “church’s history of outreach after the example of Jesus Christ and the Gospels would not exist today without your initiatives and creativity.”

Opened the first hospital, established the first schools, and provided the first social services to those most in need, and this some two hundred years ago?

I thought we continually read umbrage upon these pages that it was a misreading of the documents of the Second Vatican Council which turned nuns into social workers. How good to read the truth here, and that this mission, this "history of outreach," is based upon "the example of Jesus Christ and the Gospels."

reaching out I too remain
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)

Bravo Cardinal Roger Mahoney:
Better late than never, we can never repay the debt that is owed to the Sisters.

Vatican politics can be found in the 12th century as well as the 21st. The Roman institution, founded in the days of Constantine, remains at its core a huge corrupted monopoly business under the pretence and name of Christianity. I wonder not about the corruption of the leadership. I'm with Lord Acton who said "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". In 1059 c.e. Pope Urban 2 preached the first crusade with his slogan "Deus vult" or "God wills". The horror and the evil of that statement is alive today as military minded humans kill for the glory of their god. Where do we find today the humble preacher from Nazareth, teaching the crowds the value of the beatitudes? Who teaches morals today?( from catholica.com,au)
Cardinal Mahoney should send Rome the message he sent the good Sisters of USA.

Who cares what this heretic with his theology of the Assembly has to say anyway? He had the pay off the abuse victims to the tune of $600M. Maybe he should have been minding the store during his reign in that moral desert called LA!