Cokie Roberts tells sisters: Be proud

OH GREAT! Go Women Religious go. I can't support them enough.

Thank you, Cokie Roberts. The religious sisters have led the Catholic Church into the future a number of times. Elizabeth Seton began Catholic education as a truly new and American institution. After Vatican II, the sisters took the initiative to release the Spirit from the shackles of manipulative power. Now those same fearful and, therefore, dangerous forces are seeking to repress the work of the Spirit revealed in the work of religious sisters--"By their fruits..." The sisters produce abundant harvests while the hierarchy settles for sterile pontification and dogmatism.

Stay strong, sisters, for yourselves, for us your brothers, and for the family of humanity which need your vision and your love.

With great affection and gratitude.

Bob Sauerbrey

Thank you, Cokie Roberts. The religious sisters have led the Catholic Church into the future a number of times. Elizabeth Seton began Catholic education as a truly new and American institution. After Vatican II, the sisters took the initiative to release the Spirit from the shackles of manipulative power. Now those same fearful and, therefore, dangerous forces are seeking to repress the work of the Spirit revealed in the work of religious sisters--"By their fruits..." The sisters produce abundant harvests while the hierarchy settles for sterile pontification and dogmatism.

Stay strong, sisters, for yourselves, for us your brothers, and for the family of humanity which need your vision and your love.

With great affection and gratitude.

Bob Sauerbrey

This investigation activity seems to be a typical reaction of the Vatican to the threat of any Catholic individual or organization remotely suspected of thinking or acting without specific prior approval from the Vatican. This may be a survival instinct of self defined power and authority. Thank God that's not how the Holy Spirit seems to work.

"How will they know that we are your ddisciples?"
The sisters' lives speak for them.

Outstanding comments by Cokie Roberts. As a graduate of a parish grade school completely staffed by nuns I couldn't agree more. The teaching and model of the good sisters completely formed my Faith and gave me the foundation for its continuation and growth through my 70 years of life and 38 years of marriage (in the church, of course. I, in turn have passed that Faith on to the many adults I have sponsored in Baptism.

I greatly appreciate the call to sisterhood in service of God and people. While my background is different, I admire and love the women who I have met in retreat houses, soup kitchens, and houses of worship who serve and serve and serve whether it's a plate of food or a college lecture. Know there are many, of many denominations, who pray that your work may continue in peace and love.

Considering all of the members of the hierachy and the pastors and priests who are not raising a voice in support of these dedicated women, it might be a great idea for the sisters to stage a work stoppage at every level. Just leave the church in the hands of the men and see what we have left.

If all else fails, this would be the ideal time for the Sisters to break away and form the true Vatican II Church which Rome has been suppressing for decades. We'll have dedicated women priests, and hopefully some honest male priests who will drop the games and the rhetoric and rebuild this church with a place at the table for all.

How do I love Cokie Roberts? Let me count the ways!

Nice to hear that Cokie is saying all we believe about the work of our Sisters. If the congregations complete their questionaires and are then 'chosen for an apostolic visit', it would seem that all Catholics should be able to study the results. If there is no transparency, it will be just one more dark page in the history of our Church.

Cokie,

Thank you for your articulate presentation on why the church hierarchy should be honoring these special women, instead of investigating them. American nuns have given service with unstinting love to people all over the world and of all religions. They have been a gift from God in my life and the lives of many other women and men, who have been touched by them. It is easy to understand why our church hierarchy is so threatened by them. What has the hierarchy done for people? There is no comparison.

Your teachers, I am sure, are very proud of you, as are we THE CHURCH.

Rosie

I hope that Cokie and other supporters of the LCRW keep their voices loud and clear. The CUFF types will certainly shout loudly during this "visitAtion/Inquisition". You will know them by their fruits!
God bless the sisters that taught us, nursed us, and ran schools, hospitals, etc. for over 200 years without male support.
I'm a grateful product of the Srs. of Povidence and the Sinsinawa Dominicans.

This is a truly inspirational item. What is offered is an opportunity to give in greater measure and not worry about external opinions. I am persuaded that moving straight ahead is the appropriate strategy. As a non-Catholic, I am not discourage by the 'visitation.' I choose to look at the abundance. I would think that the involvement of non-Catholics at some point would be helpful.

Control! Control! Control! It's all about control! This pope is not about to give-up any control!

So what's new?
The concerted efforts of the traditionalists to turn back the clock, to discard collegiality, subsidiarity and a beginning sense of openness seem
to be winning the day.
As things are now going, we shall wake up soon to a complete Latinization of our rites,abandonment of all forms of ecumenism, and certainly NEVER a married priesthood. Discussion has disappeared: decrees are in vogue again.
What ever happened to the concept of "the servant of the servants of God?"

Thank you, Ms. Roberts, for noticing and for not being afraid to speak out on our behalf (I am a franciscan sister). I feel saddened by the investigation, as though certain members of the hierarchical structure are on a witchhunt, trying to pull us down (or maybe divert attention from other things?). Your comments, however, cause me to feel proud. "You raise me up," as the song says. Thanks!

God bless you, Cokie, for recognizing the value and promise of consecrated Religious Women. Your courageous support is uplifting and greatly appreciated. We are changing the world for the sake of the mission one person, one soul at a time. Thank you for believing in us and our mission.

"Every day they benefit thousands of lives in this country, whether it's through schools or through hospitals or through missions with the elderly, the poor or the prisons -- all of the things where they basically are taking the words of Jesus and acting on them."

Yes we know the sisters by the fruits of their works. God bless you sisters!

I truly hope the Vatican was listening to Cokie's inspiring words!! She spoke the true story! Her admiration should be included in the Vatican report!

Pax. Aristophilos

This well publicized apostolic visitation could prove providentially prophetic. Aware that in Christ there is no difference between male and female, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith authorities could loudly emphasize the unquestioned right of women, led by the Spirit, to exercise the same leadership roles in the Community of the People of God as men.

High profile people such as Cokie Roberts and others should take up the cause of defending these brilliant women of the LCWR in a very public way through television, radio, the press and most importantly, the Internet. This unjustified inquisition must be exposed for exactly what it is: a power grab by discredited and arrogant members of the hierarchy. 13

Bravo Cokie! If you read this please promise to keep an eye on things and use your God given position as a "bully pulpit". If anything underhanded happens will you bring it to light on national television and shed the light of Christ and truth on it? Nothing scares some clergymen "with a hidden agenda" than exposure. Christ was about the light, not hiding things in darkness. As Sister Sylvia of the Presentation of Mary used to say "Actions speak louder than words". Say you will for the Sisters sake!

I thought this was the Year of the Priest!

I second Cokie Robert's comments about the awe-inspiring work women religious carry out all over the world. Gone are the days of the "pointer" stories. While the numbers of women in religious orders are decreasing, women who are religious and serving the Church in all kinds of ministry are holding the Church together at the grass roots level. We can applaud the tradition of women in social ministry who are truly making a difference and are the face of Jesus for millions of people. Can that service be reflected in a survey? How about the many religous who are now confined to wheelchairs and beds and have made their ministry daily prayer for global needs? Can that be measured in a questionnaire?

Women religious are hallowed for the influence and impact they have had on the lives they have touched. Most of the religious I have met are humble about their influence. Many are highly educated, intelligent, energetic, and sincere. And they work way beyond the accepted age of retirement because someone has to take care of those who can no longer get around. Will those qualities come across in this survey?

And did any of the visitators or investigators even have the common courtesy to SHOW UP at this convention or at least send some kind of written communication? I should think Cardinal Levada and Bishop Blair's people especially would have been there to find out what's really going on, since this is the very organization they have chosen to investigate on "doctrinal concerns."

But no, in more typical Vatican (i.e. CDF, KGB, Stasi, Maoist) style, they will simply rely on 3rd person hearsay reports from their spies on what may or may not have actually taken place. Perhaps they simply couldn't relate to the working style of the LCWR: openness and transparency. NO closed doors, NO confidential reports, just everything out in the open - including their concerns and "PUZZLEMENT" as Cokie Roberts rightly observed.

Have no fear, Sisters, while "the fix" against you may already be in at the Vatican, American Catholics will no longer be duped... THE HIERARCHS are the ones with the credibility problem, not you! We've seen you both in action for too many years....

Thank you Cokie Roberts. As a lay person taught by the Sisters many years ago, I can attribute my commitment to church and social justice. You give me confidence in a church today that seems so against women. If I were a Sister, I would have some confidence and less fear at the impending interrogation. (oops, investigation, no "visitation") Silly me getting that mixed up.

If I could offer advice to these members of the LCWR, I would tell them:

Sisters--
1) carefully keep all correspondance from the Visitators, from the Vatican.

2) record any telephone messages from the Visitators or the Vatican.

3) poll your membership and find out if any of the Sisters have relatives in the FBI or the CIA---call these relatives in and inform them of the sitiation that you are in. The Vatican, being in the red, may be trying to make a grab for any assests that you have. The Vatican City is a foreign nation--and they have no right to anything you have on American soil--nor to your finances.

4) if you are called to the Vatican for meetings, you should electronically record everything that transpires during the meeting---maybe the FBI or CIA could help you with this. The Vatican should be dealt with like any other foreign extortionsists or blackmailers.

5) Most importantly, publish in secular media everything, everything that you are told, everything about this case---call in also the secular media from London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Berlin, Toronto, Sidney, and oh, yes, Dublin, Ireland. They would also be very interested in this investigation. Put all information on the radio, on the TV, on the Internet, on Facebook, Twitter, and in the newsmagazines. AND KEEP THE PRESSURE ON!

If there is anything that the Vatican fears and dreads, it is the American media. It has more widespread recognition than the Vatican does. Believe me, it is true. The American media can be and often is---ruthless. But, the media's work is also the symbol of a strong, open, and vibrant society---the very antithesis of the Vatican's methodology and its approach to the people it is supposed to be serving.

There is no place, no place in among God's people for secrecy. In fact, in the Book of Tobit (found only in Catholic versions of the Bible), we find St. Raphael the Archangel, revealing his true identity to Tobit and his son, Tobias. In Raphael's words (Tobit 12:7-8) "A king's secret it is prudent to keep, but the works of God are to be declared and made known."

The Pope is not a king, but the Servant of the Servants of God. The heads of the Curia and the various discasteries, are not feudal lords, but were enjoined by Jesus, to be servant leaders, as are the cardinals, arch/bishops,
But in this "investigation" as in so many other cases, all of these men have abdicated this mandate.

Sisters, never, never give up---no matter the pressure or the threats. In your service to the people of God, you have many, many friends in every walk of life, like Cokie. And go with God.

Congratulations LCWR members for having the wisdom to choose a keynote speaker who is not a member of a religious community. Now, you have plenty of experience in filling out questionnaires, right? So...tap into that Holy Wisdom once more! All is well. And all will be well.

Praying for you.

"Puzzlement is the word.... Sure there's concern" However, when these leaders and the others whom they represent come to grips with the realization that one of their number stated: that there are two worldviews/mindsets represented. And, of course, that's true of the entire church in the U.S. as well. It's our turn. We've finally come to the time when it has become obvious there are at least two eccesiologies operative on this globe. It was unavoidable. It happened first immediately after Vatican II with collegiality; the mandate to go back to roots, including and especially the Bible. It happened in the church of Latin America with the "preferential option for the poor" and all that entailed because Catholic christians took this to heart. It happened in Asia with the "triple dialogue" and inculturation. It continued with a year-long reflection during the Year of St. Paul. It's happening in Africa with another view of inculturation and of the church as a Holy Family and a very special kinship with nature. How can it not happen in the U.S.A.? Perhaps, as one eccesiologist phrased it, when we discuss the Marks of the Church perhaps we should reflect on the mark of "Universal" before that of "One" (Unity/oneness, then is enabled to take a very different slant. It's much easier to understand it as "harmony" rather than "uniformity). And of course, in Benedict XVI's parlance, our goal can truly become "Charity in Truth" and Hope. While 2009-10 has been declared the "Year of the Priest", in the United States of America and whereever women religious live on this globe (remember the internet?) it has also become the "Year of the Future of Religious Life Among the Pilgrim People". The friends are like the stars; the Spirit and faith will prevail.

One Sister remarked that "some good will come from this visitation." I await with great curiosity just what that good might be. Will it in the long run result in the tables being turned and the investigative spotlight being turned on the investigators? I hope so, for there will be found the source of the problems in the church. Whereas the works of the women religious of this country have indeed been the glue that has held together and strengthened Catholics for generations. That they are now the target of Rome"s "investigation" is ironic beyond measure.

I am so glad that I am a baptized lay person. I believe that all Christian committment comes from Baptism. I spent 20 years in a congregation and now 36 as a committed lay person. I now feel free from investigations, and I refuse to join a group called "consecrated lay persons¨ because I believe that the "consecration" is simply a step in ecclesiastical priviledge,I pray, I try to be aware of the Spirit´s call, and try to live a life as a disciple. I find the structures of the Church very limiting and causing "classes" to form in the Church: first class: Bishops,etc, Second class: priests, Third Class "consecrated" nuns and sisters, Emerging fourth class: "consecrated lay women" and lay deacons, and ultimately, the sheep, the people of God, the ones who have no say, the ones who have to be obedient to the above, the ones who have nothing to offer in the system, the ones who have to be spoon fed, the ones who are used to support the structure, and I prefer as a follower of Jesus if I belong to any part of the Chuurch to belong to the latter!!! But I pray for a disappearance of these opressive structures. Asi, no investigations for me, puedo seguir the Spirit, I´m not important to anyone, and the "structure" is not even aware that I exist, and I am glad!!! I hope that the Spirit liberates the Church from all of these classes, remnents of the Roman Empire, the serfdom of the middle ages, and the authority of the monarchies. Please forgive errors in my English, I´ve been living in Latin America for a long time.

Unfortunately, I have great feelings of trepidation about these visits. As one writer pointed out, the Pope has no qualms about keeping everything tightly in his control. Let us not forget that when, as Bishop of Munich, he came to the military post there to confirm our children and was not once seen to be talking to any female except the words of the sacrament to the confirmands. The entire meal was cooked and served by the women, the church cleaned and decorated with hand-worked altar cloths and of course, everything cleaned up afterwards by the women. We were the moms, the CCD teachers, the lectors and the choir members, yet our work and dedication, done in joy and happiness, by the way, was never once acknowledged by our visitor - now the leader of the church. I believe that this incident was a true indication of his attitude toward women. Which is sad because I know that without the women of the church - both religious and lay - the church dies. When will the Pope clear his heart and mind and begin to listen to the Holy Spirit who is probably trying very hard to penetrate that shell of discrimination?

Applicable folk saying: The fish begins to rot from the head. Re Benedict's Charity in Truth and his plea for respect for all individuals, where is his respect for women in the church? Where is his respect for the many pedophile victims in Boston and elsewhere by allowing Cardinal Law to remain in an honored position in Rome after his disgraceful conduct in Boston? Charity in Truth should begin at home in the Vatican! As to the need to conduct a dogmatic investigation of Sisters in the US: The hierarchy needs to read Matt 23. If anyone is living the Gospel according to Jesus, the various congregations of Sisters are doing so, moreso since Vatican II allowed them to move away from their former "incarceration" by the male clergy. This investigation may well be a starting point, with the Sisters' courage to face the Vatican the spearhead for women to join hands with them and stand up to the Vatican bureaucracy.

Amen, Cokie!

It's the 14th century all over again. I just finished reading Ken Follet's magnificent historical novel set in 14th century England. Today's investigation of women religious reminds me of the mind set of the Roman Church of that day. Pushing, shoving, taking, dominating, playing on the superstitions and fears of the clergy and laity. Among other things, Rome doesn't realize that the laity of the 21st century religious and laity are well informed, not superstitious, realize that the Holy Spirit speaks to the entire church, not only the heirarchy, realize that the heirarchy has no control over the fate of one's soul and are willing to work in the service of God's people. It has been said by the heirarchy for centuries that god gave us the "church" as a sacrament to tell "us" how to live. What has become lost is the critical sense of the word "church." The "church" IS "us." ALL of us, not only the "ordained". We simple laity have the right and responsibility to keep the clergy on the correct path, to define their, rights and responsibilities, to evaluate THEM.

I can truly say that in my 68 years as a cradle RC with 16 years of formal education at Catholic institutions, it has been the women religious whom I have spent time with that have shaped my adult relationship with God. I have yet to meet a parish priest who was able to treat me as an informed adult rather than an ignorant layman AND who could provide spiritual direction-- direction beyond and precepts and the articles of religion. Good men? Yes, almost all of them. Knowledgeable regarding scripture and church teachings? I suppose. Ability to teach a person to pray (I don't mean how to SAY some prayers)? Except for one, not a clue.

I truly appreciate what Ms. Roberts wrote, what LittleBear advises about record keeping, and Randy Kowalik's thoughts on a work stoppage.

I am grateful for all the S't'rs who have been and continue to be a part of my life.

Aldus

The problem, dear Cokie, is that this history is precisely that, HISTORY. There's no one to take the place of these wonderful women. And that is why the Apostolic Visitation is taking place. If religious communities are so vibrant and wonderful, why are they not attracting young women? (In fact, many of the religious orders which do maintain a common life, common apostolate, and some visible sign of religious consecration ARE attracting young women.)

This failure to re-generate themselves is the "elephant in the room" that few of these religious congregations are willing to face. This visitation may just invite them to take a good look at that elephant; I daresay that is its purpose.

Thank you Cokie. If more laity will come together and voice our suoort for women religious the less power the investigation will have. Now, the support of these good women depends on us. This is more than a women religious issue. It is a turning point for the American Catholic Church. Please lead us Cokie and keep raising your voice for these awesome women.

As an associate of a religious community, I cannot begin to detail enough the influence these sisters have had on my life and those of many other women. Our faith was planted by those bright sisters in grammar school and nurtured through high school and college.
Every week I volunteer withe sisters at a food pantry where they feed clothe counsel and love the poor. I might add that no chancery officials ever appear!
If the Bishops come after the sisters, there will be so many American women-and men-standing at their sides. I predict that these bureaucrats will turn and return to their Roman catacombs.
May God continue to bless these amazing women and the leadership of the LCWR.

Mary Ann Gerstle
East Amherst NY

I have read the communication from Rome thoroughly and have two reactions. I want to be gentle as I ask, "Where do the people of God in the United States have access to daily Eucharist?" I live in the Diocese of Albany, New YOur and feel really privileged that we, the Sisters of St. Joseph are able to receive Eucharist most days. We are the exception. Then, I recall the words of Thomas Merton on the occasion of his last public talk. He shared that "a monk is anyone who takes up a critical stance in the world". Sisters are those thousands of women first charged by Vincent de Paul, to go out into the world and bring the gospel. As a Sister I am overwhelmed by the numbers of persons sisters have mid-wived into leadership in the Church. Hospitals, Schools of Nursing, Universities through Pre-schools, preparation for sacraments, including priesthood, prayer and worship. As sisters continue to walk with the faithful as educators, counselors and spiritual directors, we cooperate in the building of the new and honor our roots in the many beginnings our foremothers birthed.

Are you aware of a congregation of sisters created some time in the 1990s for the specific reason of serving priests and seminarians (to cook, to sew, etc.)? Of course, they wear the long habits. This type of religious might be the standard model for what representatives of the Vatican investigation are looking for.
Perhaps in the distant future the institutional Church will "catch up" to where the Vatican II sisterhood is. As we know, it takes years before institutions undergo change.
Peace to all.

Where there is fear there is no love, and where there is no love there is no God because God is love. Why should religious women take these visitations with such anxiety? Are these visitations done for the first time in history. Why so much attack on the Pope?

Let us all come to our senses and see the visitations for what they are and continue with our lives. It is just sad and pathetic that we make an elephant out of such a small ant!!

Denyu