Standing with our sisters

Some Catholic writers are claiming that the Vatican's attack on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is no big deal.

But it is. It is an outrageous very big deal. It comes out of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, originally known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition.

The LCWR represents 40,000 nuns in the US. They are being accused of focusing too much on the poor. (What in God's name is that supposed to mean?)

Our sisters are being called on the carpet (and being subjected to censorship) for what Vatican officials call "corporate dissent" over the ordination of women and homosexuality.They are considered contaminated by "radical feminism."

Here is a part of what National Catholic Reporter publisher Tom Fox has just written about the situation:

"For decades now, our sisters have been agents of their own destinies, living and working faithfully, attending to the needs of the neediest among us. They have done it with the scarcest of resources, living out the charisms of the orders, charisms renewed at the wishes of the bishops following the Second Vatican Council a half-century ago. They have labored largely without the financial assistance of their bishops, but in concert with them.

"These sisters are today’s objects of ecclesiastical abuse, but they will not in the end become its latest victims. This is because they will refuse to perpetuate the abuse. Products of years of prayerful discernment of purpose and mission, they know who they are and who they cannot become. They are at peace with themselves, a peace that draws from prayer, self awareness, community and the gospels to which they have given their lives."

Fox is right. Our sisters will refuse to perpetuate the abuse. They will stand firm. I am sure of that. And in the light of the gospels, we had better stand with them.