The Vatican’s nun ‘inquisition’
Is the Vatican’s delegation to investigate America’s nuns a crackdown or a much-needed correction?
The Vatican is launching two sweeping investigations of America's nuns.
(Reuters/Corbis/Carlos Barria)
The Vatican has started “two sweeping investigations of American nuns,” said Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times, and many sisters are bracing for a “doctrinal inquisition.” The church usually only launches such “apostolic visitations” when a church community has “gone seriously astray,” but this seems more like a move to “reel in American nuns” who have moved from the convent and Catholic institutions to academia, social work, and activism.
A nun “inquisition”? said Rod Dreher in BeliefNet. It’s about time. The Vatican has turned a blind eye to “heterodox nuns” for decades, letting them preach about moving to a “Post-Christian” spirituality and the like, without “so much as a peep from Rome.” If that’s what these nuns think Catholicism is, it’s no wonder the only growing Catholic women’s religious orders are those practicing “fidelity and orthodoxy.”
What growth? said Tim Carmody in Snarkmarket. There are only about 60,000 nuns left in the U.S., down from 180,000 in 1965. So now “the Vatican wants to start an inquisition into what’s left of the orders, ’cause some o’ them ladies just maybe ain’t been doin’ what they’re told”? Thanks a lot, Pope Benedict.
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16 Comments
Posted by Grace, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 1:41 pm Assuming Benedict has the right intentions, to revitalize important parts of the catholic tradition that have been forgotten I am happy about this. Many Catholics these days practice their faith and maintain values in direct opposition to laws the Vatican has always upheld. Much of this is in my opinion due to the teachings nuns and priests alike have moved towards. It has become more important now to be contemporary and popular than to teach correctly. The result is a lackluster parish, with shallow beliefs. Hopefully this is the remedy.
Posted by Michael J. Gorman, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 2:06 pm A misogynistic crackdown on modern women who are nuns would be the worst mistake the Vatican can make. Women are revolting in Muslim nations and they will revolt against any regressive restrictions on the use of their talents and abilities. The Jesuits have it about right, and the Church should follow their lead and allow priests, nuns, religious brothers, etc. to develop all their skills and talents and stop the nonsense that faith, humility and obedience are everything. An intelligent God expects everyone to use and develop all her talents
Posted by Tracie, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 2:25 pm Let me get this straight...Priests have been documented in court doing the most horrendous things imagineable to children, no sweeping investigation. Nuns are not following dogma to the letter in modern times so of course there is a sweeping investigation! Misogynistic is only one adjective. And Rome thinks THIS is the way to try and regrow a dying church??? Works for me! But then, I'm an athiest.
Posted by Tom, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 3:54 pm Hopefully this will lead to the dissolution of of such institutions and ultimately organized religion itself. The Catholic Church has been squandering human potential for long enough it's time to move on.
Posted by Ted Clarke, Thursday, July 2, 2009, 7:59 pm The nuns teaching ecospirituality concepts in their retreat centers are being told that they must shut their retreat centers or their pensions will end and their properties will be confiscated leaving them wards of the state. I don't care about the religious issues, but I want the goverment or courts to intervene when the properties are sold. The money from selling these assets must be held in trust to provide for the retirement care of the nuns rather than having the taxpayers pay all their bills.
Posted by McMichael Newby, Friday, July 3, 2009, 7:19 am ...who have moved from the convent and Catholic institutions to academia, social work, and activism.So, the Vatican is cracking down on nuns who are choosing to be proactive with their faith through evangelism and compassion? Why would the Vatican do that?Control.The Vatican is scrutinizing these nuns because they aren't limiting themselves to the prescribed Catholic dogma i.e. they're not blindly obeying the Pope's will. They're acting on their beliefs and following the commandments of their true leader, Jesus Christ.
Posted by Dwayne, Friday, July 3, 2009, 8:02 am My aunt is a nun and so was my great aunt. I believe most nuns to be authentically seeking truth. The unfortunate part is that the many whom I have known and worked with have thrown off all Church authority and authoritative teaching as being oppressive to women and medieval. The only true church they accept is the local parish or diocesan office where they hold power of a sort. The sad thing is that if you are trying to live out your faith according to church teaching, you are treated as a simpleton and naive or as part of the problem.
Posted by Jason_M, Friday, July 3, 2009, 5:23 pm Provocative, aside from the partisan/ideological snarking. Wonder if logic of Mahatma Carter's action was so uncogent, why haven't subsequent Republican administrations reversed this policy? Replacing coal seems a very good idea, even if it takes a long time to build additional facilities. Stuart Brand, late of Whole Earth Access not late Stuart Brand said somewhere that nuclear has to be part of the climate change solution.
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