(RNS) The brothers have come to the sisters’ defense.
Leaders from seven Franciscan provinces in the U.S. publicly backed a group of American nuns on Thursday (June 7), calling a Vatican crackdown on the women “excessive.”
The Franciscan friars are believed to be the first Catholic religious order to voice support for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious since the Vatican announced a full-scale makeover of the group in April.
The Vatican said the LCWR, which represents most of the nation’s 57,000 nuns, does not adequately advocate against gay marriage, abortion and women’s ordination.
The Vatican’s “doctrinal assessment” also faulted the sisters for sponsoring conferences that featured “a prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
Noting that many members of LCWR belong to female Franciscan orders, the friars pledged solidarity with the sisters and called the Vatican assessment “excessive, given the evidence raised.”
The sisters have been wrestling with complex contemporary issues, the Franciscans said, and those deliberations should not be equated with disobedience to Catholic doctrine.
“The efforts of LCWR to facilitate honest and faithful dialogue on critical issues of our times must not result in a level of ecclesial oversight that could, in effect, quash all further discernment,” the Franciscans said.
Catholics since the Middle Ages have disagreed about how to apply church doctrine to public policy, the friars argued, and seldom were those disputes deemed “equivalent to questioning the authority of the Church’s magisterium."
Many church observers suspect the Vatican crackdown was at least partially a response to prominent Catholic sisters' support for President Obama’s health care overhaul, despite bishops’ objections.
“Rather than excessive oversight of LCWR, perhaps a better service to the people of God might be a renewed effort to articulate the nuances of our complex moral tradition,” the friars said.
There are approximately 1,400 friars in the seven provinces represented by the letter's signatories, who lead the Order of Friars Minor, one of the largest Franciscan groups in the U.S.
The LCWR itself has called the Vatican’s assessment “unsubstantiated” and a source of "scandal and pain."
LCWR leaders will meet on June 12 in Rome with Cardinal William Levada, the former archbishop of San Francisco who now heads the Vatican’s doctrine office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
KRE/AMB END BURKE
Old Roman Collar | Jun 8, 2012 | 12:13pm
I must say, the Franciscan’s of long ago, were true followers of St. Francis, but for the last 40 years, now they have not had very few intering the orders. So why not back the NUNS? they have nothing to lose now,
Its a real shame, the sisters/ Nuns were the back bone of the Roman Catholic School system, they really ruined it since 66. I really blane the sister/nuns for this, they dont want to teach, they want to wear sun dresses, want to priests, and they took a VOW. If they do not want to follow Roman Catholic teachings of the church, get out!!
As one siste said to me, “we want to be like you and be among the people” I said, Sister, please, you took a VOW, I didnt, please go back a wear a habit. I have more respect for the “Habit wearing” sisters. Like policeman, nurses, and other profession’s who have to wear there uniform, I have more respect for them.
I was asked my a Sister of St.JOseph to come up to HER apt? wow, how she get the moeny for that, and 4 nun’s were there in wind brakers drinking beer and other drinks, I was so ashamed, I left. All they want is to be FREE as one sister said to me, WOW, get out of the church, I would rather have a smaller good church than one evil one.
as one Sister said, who left the church, “well, all those priests molested the boys” and I said, Sister, many sister’s did the same. my best friend was molested my a sister, yes, with sex. I spoke to one old nun, 93, and she still wore the habit. she said to me, “I really hope that our order closes, since we are not getting any vocations, it was our own sisters who ruined our order”. thats from a real nun.
Shar | Jun 8, 2012 | 7:27pm
I would appreciate it if this article could be clearer. There are many Franciscan Orders. To which Orders do those seven provinces belong?
Daniel Burke | Jun 8, 2012 | 10:22pm
Shar, they belong to the Order of Friars Minor, which is in the article, but probably could have been made more clear.
bpbuckley | Jun 9, 2012 | 6:14pm
I am more than disappointed in my brother Franciscans, I am angry. As a fellow Franciscan (Capuchin Franciscan) I believe that we should show obedience and respect to the authority of the Church as St. Francis commanded us.
Rather than ‘overlooking’ the serious problems and the scandal caused by the LCWR, a better service to the people of God (on the part of the friars) might have been seek a renewal of their own efforts to articulate the ideals of St Francis and fidelity to the Church and our Holy Father. Instead they have added scandal on top of scandal. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Fr. Brendan P. Buckley, OFM Cap.
T Marie | Jun 10, 2012 | 10:25am
This does not surprise me. There are probably 30,000 Protestant denominations. These nuns are only Catholic in name. The priests defending them are only Catholic in name. The confusion started when the post Vatican II kumbaya, mumbo jumbo emphasized that WE are the church. The misinterpretation was that “WE” did not mean us and our personal beliefs. The Church has had a clear picture on what is right and wrong for 2012 years. So, Sista Isa Protestant and the Franciscan priests backing this heresy are too. Why don’t they just go out and start Protestant denomination number 30,001? Please quit sponging off of the Catholic church.
TracyYoung | Jun 12, 2012 | 10:37am
Reading these comments reminds me that change can be uncomfortable. Fortunately for these nuns the Inquisition is a thing of the past and the Sun doesn’t revolve around the Earth.
Lis Carey | Jun 14, 2012 | 11:28am
How sad and pathetic that people who call themselves Catholics and our Brothers in Christ have forgotten, or never learned, the long history of open discussion and debate in the Catholic Church. The nuns are a “scandal” because they focus on Christ’s message of love, and Christ’s injunction to care for the sick, the needy, the young, the afraid—rather than on the current obsessions with fringe issues Christ never spoke about.
The nuns are, we are told, a “scandal,” but a worldwide problem with bishops protecting pedophile priests and moving them around without warning their new superiors and parishioners so that they are free to prey again on more children—that’s not a scandal. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is a disgrace, but but Bernard Cardinal Law holds a place of honor and respect in the Vatican—in the Vatican, of course, because of the risk that if he remained here in the US, someone would find a way to prosecute him for child endangerment, conspiracy, and aiding & abetting.
The Vatican needs a major house-cleaning, but the people with the power are the people who need to be cleaned out.
John A. Lutz, Maysville, WV | Aug 23, 2012 | 11:06pm
I agree 100% with the actions of the Sisters, disagreeing with the Vatican & Pope. Catholic Nuns in all the orders, have been put down by the Vatican since as long as I can remember, which dates back into the 1950s.
I am a lifelong Traditional Catholic, who enjoys listening to the Traditional Latin Catholic Mass on a 4-record 78RPM record and only use Catholic Mass Books given or bought by me in the 1950s. It amazes me, why a need exists to rewrite the words and change the Bible so many times in the last 10 years by the Pope and his goons. Let’s go back to the old traditional Latin Mass and say “the Hell” with all this modern crap..