Nuns reject Vatican charges of radical feminism

(CBS/AP) The leadership group of U.S. Catholic nuns charged by the Vatican with promoting radical feminism and being out of touch with church teachings rejected those charges Friday, asserting the Vatican had its facts wrong.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the LCWR, which represents 57,000 U.S. Catholics nuns said the charges were "based on unsubstantiated accusations and ... a flawed process." The nuns also charge that the Vatican campaign against them has "created greater polarization" in the U.S. church.

CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andews reports that this is not the most dramatic step the nuns could have taken. There had been internal calls for the LCWR to disband as a Vatican-chartered organization and to regroup later as a Catholic nonprofit organization. At the same time, this is not quite the prayerful discussion the Vatican had ordered the nuns to begin with a group of U.S. Bishops. The nuns propose instead to discuss the charges in Rome June 12 with the cardinal who wrote the charging letter earlier this year.

In April, the Vatican agency concluded an investigation of more than two years by concluding the group has "serious doctrinal problems," including taking positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the all-male priesthood, marriage and homosexuality.

The national board of the nuns' group issued the statement, its first since the Holy See ordered the overhaul, after a three-day private meeting.

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"Board members concluded that the assessment was based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency," the statement said. "Moreover, the sanctions imposed were disproportionate to the concerns raised and could compromise their ability to fulfill their mission."

The Vatican reprimand prompted an outpouring of support for nuns by Catholics and non-Catholics. Vigils, protests and prayer services defending the sisters have been held nationwide, including outside the U.S. embassy of the Holy See in Washington.

"The report has furthermore caused scandal and pain throughout the church community, and created greater polarization," the board said.

(Charlie Rose and Gayle King speak with "Interfaith Voices" radio host Sister Maureen Fiedler about the Vatican's accusation of "radical feminism" in a U.S. nuns group.)

In an interview before the group's formal response, Sister Pat Farrell characterized the mood at the board meeting as "one of deep, deep sadness about this document that has come from the Vatican, but there was also a spirit of deep prayer and reflection and sincere searching together," Farrell said. "It is a concern of ours that we would be faulted for what we don't say. I don't think we're talking about a matter of orthodoxy but a matter of emphasis."

The meeting in Rome is planned with Cardinal William Levada, an American who leads the congregation, and Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain, appointed by the Vatican to take authority over the group.

Sartain will oversee rewriting the group's statutes, reviewing all its plans and programs - including approving speakers - and ensuring the organization properly follows Catholic prayer and ritual.

Farrell has been a sister for 47 years. She said she was "stunned at the severity" of the reprimand.

"I didn't think I would ever see anything like this," Farrell said. "Truthfully, I'm glad my mother is not alive to see this unfolding. She would be heartbroken."

[SJames6621]

BTW didnt Jesus wear rags?

Isnt money the root of all evil.

Isnt love they neighbor all but missing from the pedochurch?

[jweaver]

No, no, we don't want nuns focused on helping people out of poverty. We want to turn them into political shills, especially right before an election. The old boys' march is this coming Friday, June 8, in Washington DC, so they are manipulating press coverage. If the Vatican wants to be a political player, that's fine. But it's time to end their tax exempt status and let THEM pay for it--not US taxpayers.

[pt100455]

~Quote:by 7luckyseven June 2, 2012 11:06 AM EDT - "Where have you been? Those problems have been being addressed for the past 2 decades to the tune of hundreds of millions."~
>SRSLY 7? The ONLY thing they have EVER addressed about their Pedophilia Clergy is where the Church can re-locate them to! Start addressing THAT! I don't care How Much they have 'supposedly' spent to paid off the accusers, I would think God would be more concerned about His 'servants' molesting children than He would be about how much money they spent to silence instead of addressing the seriousness of it, or what the Nuns have to say!<
--------------------------------------------------------------------
AND.....
~Quote:by 7luckyseven June 2, 2012 11:04 AM EDT - "One wrong never justifies another. Abortion is the taking of innocent human life. No different than shooting your neighbor. A person can devote their entire life to Christianity but if they support abortion, they can not, can not, can not, in fact BE a Christian."~
>So God has entrusted You to decide who can be a Christian & who can not? Last I read (in a little thing I like to call "The Holy Bible") God was the ONLY one who could Condemn/Judge, I must be mistaken since you seem to be so certain on the criteria it takes to be a Christian! I answer to God & will Always answer Only to God, the church did nothing but tell me I would go to hell if I broke 1 single commandment & that took me out of the church for 40 years. But 7 years ago God told me if I would come to Him and leave the abuse & addictive lifestyle I had lived for almost 15 of those years & as long as I'm sincere, and am Truly seeking His Forgiveness & willing to change, then I Will be Forgiven-I was & I am and I did it w/o the CC telling me what and how to do it.
So Please don't get all Sanctimonious on here....going to Church Does NOT, Does NOT, Does NOT make you a Christian, just as having a kitchen Does NOT make me a Cook!
>Sorry, got off topic... It's funny how the CC AND the GOP/TP are SO quick to profess the Moral Implications of Abortions-fighting for the fetuses (which in most instances I personally don't like the concept of abortions) BUT, isn't it funny that after saving these fetuses from death, the CC AND the GOP/TP are NO where around to help in the care of these children?!?!?!

[oldbutnew]

I think we have a bunch of old men in the Vatican that are afraid of women. When the church is saying that some foreign country is not giving the people egual rights, they should practice what they preach. If they cannot grow with the times, then prehaps they should go back to the earliest biblical times for all of the church. Without the Nuns serving in the church, the priests and bishops etc. whould have to do a lot more than they do now. I would urge all young women contemplating becoming a nun to really think how they would be treated. I am a Catholic since birth and raised in a very strict family. I spent a lot of time in church but now I am no longer going to church because of how women in the church are treated. I have several friends that are nuns, and I see how they are treated. They have to work a very long time after the time when most priests are retiring and able to travel.

[oldbutnew]

I want to add that one of my friends is 86 years old and still epected to work. True she has slowed down some on her many projects, but that is because she has health problems.

As for the male members of the church, some are fighting to allow priest etc. to marry. The church will probably allow that before they recognize the nuns to become priests see what all they do that the priests used to do.

[SJames6621]

Good for you. the church makes war on women.
little diffenent then islam.

And when women are not respected and male priests are forbidden of any sex , even masturbation.............

http://www.bartcop.com/nunrape.htm

[MissCissi]

Amazing!! Old (mostly white) men have taken down the Catholic Church's pulpit to stand on with their child molesting and cover ups but it's the NUNS who are in the wrong? Bill Donaghe (sp?) and his kind are a bunch of bloviating postulators who need to get out of the way of the part of the church that actually does GOD's work. The Catholic Church is slowly swirling around the bowl waiting for the last flush and when it has lost all vestige of respectability (we're almost there, BTW) the Nun's will STILL be doing what they do so well, ministering to humanity without prejudice and politics getting in the way AND with a BIG portion of common sense. The congregants stand with our Nuns and we know that GOD does too.

[MissCissi]

Gee 7, you sound just like a child molesting Cardinal! See how that works?

[SJames6621]

Miss cissi is so confused. Sure she's correct about the cardinals, but on the otehr hand she stands with them.

the church has had 1500 years to polish their messages. Most of which are sins - lies , misinformation and hiding of the truth.

Wonder how well she'd do, with the struggles the nuns and sisters go throuth to do their true vocation - teaching, curing the sick , feeding the poor etc.

[angelosdaughter]

acinom7,
Spoken by someone who probably had a fairly normal upbringing.
To each his own, but I grew up dirt poor in a home in which we were physically abused, and witnessed the abuse of our mother. Thanks, but I would not have wanted such a 'gift'. Life is no gift to a child brought into the world to suffer hunger, want, and abuse. For us, there was eventually a way out, but for too many children, deprivation and abuse are things they will never escape. Better that those births should be prevented. Abortion in some cases is a necessary evil, but birth control before there is even a child is preferable. Of course we all wish abstinence worked, particularly with teenagers, but realistically, it doesn't.

[angelosdaughter]

slownewsday_6000,
Some Catholic you are if you are, or prolifer. Guess you didn't know suicide is also a sin, and I imagine so is advocating it. I am not pro-abortion unless the life of the mother is at risk, or a woman or girl is being forced to bear the child of a rape, and even then she should have the choice to abort or not. I think birth control is preferable,and abortion should be the last choice, however, in cases of rape, birth control is not a choice the woman has.
Anyone who thinks kids should be carelessly brought into the world to suffer unrelievedly as so many are in third world countries is the one with the hardened heart, as is anyone who would suggest that someone commit suicide.
But your ignorant comment exposes the inconsistency of your thinking. More baloney from a mindless follower of dogma.

[SJames6621]

Miaaiaaippi ia rhw only only state in the union with only abstinence training.

its also just about #1 in illegitimate births

The church teaches abstinence because it knows it doesnt work. More minds to control and often corrupt.

[angelosdaughter]

7luckyseven,
Given your reasoning, it should be impossible to support war and be a Christian, but Christians have participated in and killed many people in war and in the name of religion. In my thinking forcing a traumatized woman or girl to be traumatized again by being forced to bear the fruit of a rape should be against Christian thinking. I don't like abortion, but I do think it is a matter of conscience, and only God, not you or any other human being knows how much a woman can bear. I don't know if you are a man or a woman, but until you or any man has to go through the pain and peril of childbirth, especially as the result of rape, I think they should keep their opinions to themselves as should those old white men in the Vatican.

[David_Tampa]

Ya might wanna re-think boasting to the Lord on judgement day that you supported a war.....

[SJames6621]

christians and wars

the hate of Jews that brought about the holocaust and 55 million died thanks to a nut catholic named Hitler

the tens of millions of the christian crusades (really catholic - the catholics of the time killed off et the cAthars, one of the first xtian non cath sects. No wonder some islamics hate us

the endless wars of Europe during the middle ages- the 30 years war etc.

Diederot put it right when he said, re the battle of the french to break free of the cabal of kings and church

"mankind will be free when the last king is strangled with the guts of the last priest"

Did a good job re kings, most are gone or only figureheads

Priests - long long way to go ,and ever more so the hierarchy of crimianls.

[angelosdaughter]

You go, Sisters! It's time right to life issues were addressed from the point of view of those who work in the trenches instead of a bunch of old celibate (and some of them see nothing wrong with contravening that particular rule) white men attired in rich robes playing politics in their ivory towers. Birth control is a necessity unless people think it's fine to bring babies into the world to suffer. Abortion, (a poor second, and never, I think, an easy decision), should be left between a woman and her God, especially in cases of rape and incest(the party line says that a woman or girl who is raped must under pain of serious sin, be violated yet again and bear the fruit of that rape). The Church is going to need women priests eventually or it will have to close up shop. And mothers have value. The current Catholic party line is that during the birth process if a choice must be made, the mother's life should be sacrificed leaving the infant and any existing siblings motherless. Women priests would bring a dose of reality to a church sorely in need of it. The Catholic Church is severely anti-woman. And please spare me the example of the mother of Christ. If she had had problems bearing her Son, she, too, as an obedient woman would have been expected to bow her head and sacrifice her life. Women in the Catholic Church (and many other religions) have value only as brood mares and handmaidens. I am glad to see the nuns fighting back. I was taught by some excellent ones.
I would also like to see some real New Testament scriptural references for the anti birth control/abortion stance, and for that matter about homosexuality (They, too have been around since the beginning of time, and the same God created them,)and artificially prolonging a life that has lost all dignity and wish to continue. I don't believe that in the New Testament, Jesus ever made a statement one way or another. Those taking the part of the Vatican are so hate-filled against any view but theirs that it's palpable. They have no understanding of tolerance and love for one's neighbor.
And, what do you think Jesus, who wore homespun and remarked that "the Son of Man has no place to lay his head', would say about multi-million dollar cathedrals churches, palatial mansions, and the trappings of wealth and power that religious leaders arrogate to themselves in His name?

[acinom7]

If I were given the choice to exist but exist as the poorest person or not exist at all I think I'd choose to exist and be very poor. Contraception is a rejection of Gods gifts if we reject one gift why would he give us another?
We all prayed "God please just provide a cure" God answered our prayers and a woman concieved a child, that child was aborted. God wept.

[SJames6621]

acinoom7 - contraception is a gift that prevents many abortions.

the church is trying to take away everyones right to contraception. Who do they think they are - trying to impose their bad values on others.

meanwhile the lies keep coming. the church finally had to fess up aobut rape of nuns , birth control forced on nuns and even abortions.

But they did a heck of a job burying it so none of us knew the truth .

Do as I say, not as I do - really "I do evil" sayeth the church.

http://www.bartcop.com/nunrape.htm

[aubfmet]

She wants to be first, but she will be last.

[aubfmet]

She wants to be first, but she will be last.