Ah the dear US Conference of Catholic bishops – how it does love itself a chance to tell people to obey it. The same of course goes for the dear Inquisition, now thoughtfully renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was Ratzinger’s part of the organization until he got the top job. The Inquisition has issued a new Obey Us, which the UCCB has kindly shared. It begins with – well, with Obey Us, of course.
The context in which the current doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States of America is best situated is articulated by Pope John Paul II in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata of 1996. Commenting on the genius of the charism of religious life in the Church, Pope John Paul says: “In founders and foundresses we see a constant and lively sense of the Church, which they manifest by their full participation in all aspects of the Church’s life, and in their ready obedience to the Bishops and especially to the Roman Pontiff. Against this background of love towards Holy Church ‘the pillar and bulwark of truth’ (1 Tim 3:15), we readily understand…the full ecclesial communion which the Saints, founders and foundresses, have shared in diverse and often difficult times and circumstances. They are examples which consecrated persons need constantly to recall if they are to resist the particularly strong centrifugal and disruptive forces at work today. A distinctive aspect of ecclesial communion is allegiance of mind and heart to the Magisterium of the Bishops, an allegiance which must be lived honestly and clearly testified to before the People of God by all consecrated persons, especially those involved in theological research, teaching, publishing, catechesis and the use of the means of social communication. Because consecrated persons have a special place in the Church, their attitude in this regard is of immense importance for the whole People of God” (n. 46).
Obey Us. Obey. Obey obey obey obey. Do what we tell you. Obey. Submit. Obey obey obey. Ready obedience to the Bishops and especially to the Roman Pontiff. Resist the particularly strong centrifugal and disruptive forces at work today. Allegiance of mind and heart to the Magisterium of the Bishops. Their attitude in this regard. Obey obey obey obey.
But the women in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious haven’t been doing it. They haven’t been obeying enough.
For instance they sent letters to the Inquisition saying they disagreed with things.
The Cardinal spoke of this issue in reference to letters the CDF received from “Leadership Teams” of various Congregations, among them LCWR Officers, protesting the Holy See’s actions regarding the question of women’s ordination and of a correct pastoral approach to ministry to homosexual persons, e.g. letters about New Ways Ministry’s conferences. The terms of the letters suggest that these sisters collectively take a position not in agreement with the Church’s teaching on human sexuality. It is a serious matter when these Leadership Teams are not providing effective leadership and example to their communities, but place themselves outside the Church’s teaching.
Right; because that’s not obeying. They’re supposed to obey.
And not only that, but – they are (brace yourselves) Radical Feminists!!1!
Radical Feminism. The Cardinal noted a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in some of the programs and presentations sponsored by the LCWR, including theological interpretations that risk distorting faith in Jesus and his loving Father who sent his Son for the salvation of the world. Moreover, some commentaries on “patriarchy” distort the way in which Jesus has structured sacramental life in the Church; others even undermine the revealed doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the inspiration of Sacred Scripture.
I take it the Inquisition is trying to get a mention on Manboobz.
They got a US bishop to look into it, and what the bishop found is a pervasive failure to obey.
On June 25, 2010, Bishop Blair presented further documentation on the content of the LCWR’s Mentoring Leadership Manual and also on the organizations associated with the LCWR, namely Network and The Resource Center for Religious Institutes. The documentation reveals that, while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States. Further, issues of crucial importance to the life of Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes Church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.
They’re also not compatible with the fact that the bishops are men while the people in the LCWR are women (that’s what the W stands for), so obviously the latter don’t get to disobey the former. Any fule kno that.
Is the Vatican/Roman Catholic Church officially on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list of hate groups yet? And if not, why not?
I am rather proud to say that I was taught by two groups of these nuns that are now under scrutiny. They taught me to think and that’s why I became an atheist. Probably not the outcome they anticipated for me, but more power to them for questioning.
In that last quote, this leapt out at me: “the right to life from conception to natural death”. I thought Catholics don’t see that as a right but rather a requirement. Rights can be waived.
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I love reading your blog. You write so well and pick such great things to bring to light. Thanks!
Of course child rape and buggery ARE perfectly consistent with catholic doctrine so no troubles there and no punishments handed out! The Rattenfaenger seems determined to eradicate whetever there is in RCC that is good…….who was it said something like “by their fruits you shall know them”? I forget now.
Just imagine, there are still millions of people who can’t see through this type of naked power trip.
Of course the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is right, feminism and making your own moral judgements are incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
I would have though the implications of this were obvious, but apparently not.
Stephen, it’s not that they can’t see through it, they accept it. The church is based on sex and sadomasochism. There’s no easy understanding of why some people want to be humiliated but you can’t deny that it’s a real psychological phenomenon.
The problem with Razi et al is that they insist on ruling the lives of those of us who don’t have that particular fetish.
I wasn’t familiar with the word, but it sounds right.
Kevin Alexander #7
Exactly. And Benny Ratzi et al haven’t forgiven Western civilization for deciding that burning heretics at the stake is not a good thing.
BBC has a nice interview on this. The speaker says she thinks that not being accustomed to being with women is part of the reason that the
patriarchypapacy comes up with these stupid things. (She says it more eloquently.) I have to agree with her on that.“…[insert title of authoritarian bureaucracy here] does love itself a chance to tell people to obey it.”
The modern Catholic Church does like to present itself as being in favour of… well tolerant of… well no longer opposed to… democratic practices and institutions. But it is lumbered not only with its own antidemocratic history, support for feudal and fascist regimes all over the planet, but also its own present pretensions to infallibility and authority. These constantly get in its way.
Adolf Hitler was born, baptised and raised through his boyhood as a Catholic. At no point in his bloody career, not even after the Holocaust and his own death, did the Catholic Church decide to excommunicate him to take any measures in terms of its own conceptualisations to have him pitched into the fire of eternal damnation.
Instead, its apologists are into denial.
http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2012/04/was-hitler-a-catholic
I dissent. This is srta much ado ’bout nuthin’
These women knew the rules before they took their vows, three of which are chastity, poverty AND obedience.
All nuns, no matter the order, must commit to those vows and must agree to embrace Church doctrine.
Let’s be honest here…those are the conditions for the job.
Failure to respect those conditions means you no longer have the job.
Having been raised Catholic, and knowing what I know about nuns, I must say I’ve a rather negative view of these women.
They’re not always that reliable and can be somewhat flakey.
In the mid 60s the Singing Nun was all the rage.
By the early 70s she left the convent.
By the mid 70s she announced she’d become a radcial feminist.
By the late 70s, she came out as a Lesbian.
By the early 80s she was in a relationship with another women and had become an advocate for gay marriage.
By the mid 80s both she and her partner were dead, having committed suicide by ingesting barbituates with a bottle of whiskey.
I personally know of three other nuns who went through exactly the same tragic degringolade and ended up killing themselves.
Boomer, I really hope you’re not implying that feminism and lesbianism somehow inevitably lead to suicide. Because that’s how your comment reads.
OMG, I forgot that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was really the Inquisition. That makes this story even more fucked up…
Boomer, I really hope you’re not implying that feminism and lesbianism somehow inevitably lead to suicide. Because that’s how your comment reads.
No, lesbainism doesn’t lead to suicide anymore than eating vanilla ice-cream.
It’s the moral anomie that pushes people to suicide. When there is a breakdown in what was once generally accepted as right and wrong, that confusion can become too much to bear for some.
Emile Durkheim’s study on this is one of the few papers in the entire field of sociology that comes even close to being scientific.
What a bitter and twisted immoral egotistical imbecile you are. No one wants your obedience, they would prefer your absence, permanently. No doubt you’ve found yourself a comfortable little billet where you can open your big mouth as wide as you like as often as you like with impunity. Bully for you. Lesbian narcissist. Go back to kissing your reflection.