Nuns' leader decries church environment of fear
http://www.kfvs12.com/story/18813071/us-nuns-say-vatican-crackdown-has-broad-effectPosted: Jun 18, 2012 7:51 AM CDT
Updated: Jun 18, 2012 9:41 AM CDT
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - The leader of the group representing most American nuns challenged the Vatican's reasons for disciplining her organization, insisting that raising questions about church doctrine should not be seen as rebellion.
Sister Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, said Monday that Catholics should be able to search for answers about faith without fear.
"I don't think this is a healthy environment for the church," Farrell said in a phone interview. "We can use this event to help move things in that direction - where it's possible to pose questions that will not be seen as defiance or opposition."
Farrell's remarks are her first since she met last week in Rome with the Vatican orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which concluded in April that the group had strayed broadly from church teaching. The Vatican has appointed three American bishops to conduct a full-scale overhaul of the organization, sparking protests globally in support of the sisters.
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There idea is to bring back the Latin Mass so that the people do not know what is going on so that there is an air of mystery to it. The vatican tells nuns that they are spending too much time on the poor and not enough time on doctrine. how dare they take care of the poor. Do you think Jesus would spend his day with deadbeats?
I was appalled when the vatican said that. They want to loose all of the liberals in the church, close 25% of their churches, and have control on those who stay. I left this church almost 16 years ago for the Episcopal Church, and I never look back.
When I was a child in the Catholic Church it was always give, give, give: money for the parish, money for Catholic Charities, money for this, money for that. To be sure, some of it goes for building maintenance and good works, but a lot of it ends up getting kicked up to the diocese, and then to the Vatican. (read Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church, by Jason Berry, for an account of cash flow in Catholicism). In my parish there were periodic food drives for the nuns, who in addition to teaching school also did most of the church cleaning, but the priests were each supplied with late model cars (for their pastoral duties, y'know, visiting the sick and all ) and a housekeeper. And of course, one must always show respect for priests because they're special.
Pope John Paul II fooled a lot of people, I think, because he came across as a genial grandfatherly figure, but he reminded me of the old-school and old-country priests of my youth, who firmly believed that their words were the only opinions worth listening to. JP2 was the one who appointed the current hierarchy, along with his right-hand cardinal, Ratzinger. The current Church acts like it wants to go back to the days when cardinals and bishops were literally Princes of the Church.
