Meeting the Challenge
I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting Sister Doris Gottemoeller, R.S.M., when Cardinal Bernardin and Monsignor Philip Murnion began the discussions that eventually led to the launching of the Common Ground Initiative. She has been an ardent advocate of the Initiative in the years since, serving on its Board and contributing her time and considerable talents to its undertakings.
In the November 23rd issue of America Sister Doris has an article about the Vatican Visitation of Religious Communities of Women that seems to me a model of ecclesial discernment and charity. Here is its conclusion:
In “Vita Consecrata” Pope John Paul II wrote: “During these years of renewal, the consecrated life, like other ways of life in the church, has gone through a difficult and trying period. It has been a period full of hopes, new experiments and proposals aimed at giving fresh vigor to the profession of the evangelical counsels. But it has also been a time of tension and struggle, in which well-meaning endeavors have not always met with positive results” (No. 13). I have always been struck by the simple wisdom in those words, which apply not only to religious but to the whole people of God. Let us hope that a careful look at the endeavors of the past and their consequences will prompt fresh and wise new initiatives in the future
on November 13th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
I noted Sr. Doris offered a number (4) of recommendations to butress the hope she has, including involving those who work in ministry with the Sisters and also transparency -an issue that seems to disturb a number of critics thus far.
I weonder too what Sr. Doris would have to say about the Stonehill papers referred to in an earlier discussion of this topic and how judiucious she felt they were.
( A footnote on the current America: Fr. Kavanagh has a fine piece on “slander” of the president by Messr.s Limbaugh and Beck -struck me as worthy of some discussion here as sell.)
on November 13th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I also took her remarks about transparency to be very important. I hope her general optimism is warranted.
It has only just occurred to me to wonder why male religious orders were not included in the study. As I frequently remark, I was educated by the Christian Brothers (FSC, not CFC) whom I believe have dwindled dramatically in numbers since I graduated from high school in 1965. “Founded in 1960 by the Christian Brothers, La Salle remains consistent in its teachings that are based on the educational principles of St. John Baptist de La Salle” but, I note, without a single Christian Brother actually teaching in the school.
What happened, and what is going on with the Christian Brothers now? They don’t even make Christian Brothers Wine any more.
on November 13th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
It’s important to read the full text of Sr. Doris’s article. I take it that Fr. Imbelli endorses all of it and not just the final paragraph which, taken alone, is pretty bland.
on November 13th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
A remarkably poised, measured plea for a decent and useful process. I do not believe anyone in the Vatican could have written such a nuanced and seasoned statement. I doubt if the Vatican are capable of conducting the process along the enlightened lines here recommended. If they did show themselves capable of such constructive and multi-faceted dialogue, they would certainly radically redeem their current bad image.
on November 13th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
In fund raising letters Sister who say they are traditional orthodox flaunt that they still wear the habit. Such a dubious distinction it would seem. Just look at the garb of Middle Eastern women today and tell me if there is much difference between them and the nun’s habit. So it is only the contemporary garb of ancient times. Therefore it is acutely absurd to ascribe a religious value to habits.
Sr Doris has presented some daunting requirements for the Vatican visitation. If they are met we should welcome the event. Do you think they will?
on November 13th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
David–
Was that La Salle College High School on Cheltenham Avenue?
on November 14th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Bill:
Sisters volunteer to be Sisters, and all that goes with it. Women unfortunate enough to live in many Islamic cultures have no choice: Theymust wear the concealing garb. Perhaps you may want to incorporate some diversity in your outlook on Nuns’ clothing. You’d be surprise at how broad minded it would make you…
on November 14th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Bob,
My point is that the garb was the normal wear of women in ancient times. No need to stratify it and give it fake symbolism. But I am all for diversity. Nice to know you are too. Hope the reason you are up so late is you got up for Matins. LOL.
on November 14th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Bob Schwartz -
When Vat II was going on I was in grad school at Catholic U. in philosophy, and lived in a dorm which shared a dining hall with the nuns’ dorms, so I got to know many nuns well.
I assure you that 99.9 per cent of them were most grateful when they could get rid of those impractical, and distractingly uncomfortable garments that are so dear to some lay people and Hollywood producers. (You ever try to get into a bus carrying packages and wearing a habit in the summer?) The only reason reason the vast majority of them wore them was because they had taken vows of obedience and were told to wear them. True, thegenerally seemed fond of the garments’ symbolism, but they also took a great deal of care in deciding what distinctive garb, including suchthings as fpins and hats they would subsequently wear. Yes, they want to be known as nuns on sight. But there are other ways besides medieval dresses.
I’d like to hear from any nuns on the blog about what their thinking is now.
on November 14th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Sr. Doris describes with great care and thought an appropriate way to conduct the sort of visitation proposed. There would be sincerity and candor from the subjects under study, sympathetic understanding of what the nuns are trying to do from those conducting it, an effort to include some response from people affected by the sisters’ ministry, and a high standard of transparency of the sort necessary to assure proper accountability among professionals.
I think we don’t think we have to worry about the sincerity or candor of those being studied. It might be easier to hope for a sympathetic understanding of what the nuns are trying to do from those conducting the survey, if preliminary comments by Cardinal Rode and others had not seemed to pre-judge its outcome. But perhaps, aware that the world is watching closely, there will be more care taken to achieve fairness in the actual assessment of the data collected. (Recently, several controversial questions bearing on financial matters and the age of nuns have been dropped from the survey.) The call for response from students, patients, clients, of all sorts might be supplemented, I think, by a response from the American Bishops on behalf of these women who have served so generously under their direction. The Bishops have been rather quiet on this subject.
Immediately prior to the paragraph quoted by Fr. Imbelli in his post, Sr. Doris makes a good case for greater transparency than the protocols promise, and her quiet caution to the Visitators is worth taking very seriously:” Not to disclose its findings is to suggest that there is another agenda—some sort of sanction, for example against a congregation or group of congregations expected to be found deficient—that underlies this study. For any new Roman instruction to be received respectfully by women religious, we deserve to see the information on which it is based.”
Amen to that.
on November 14th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Ann Oliver:
I once had a nun in my first (and last!) course in advanced calculus, an experience (the course, that is) that I found sobering and utterly humiliating. The professor advised me to stick to engineering, which I did, but in a conversation with the nun, who sensed I was circling the drain, remarked that, “He[the professor] is so disorganized.” That made me feel better, and I think she knew that. I remember her as a friendly, cheerful, and extremely bright young lady, and she wore a moderately constrictive habit. Anyone who could get through that class wearing a habit has my profound and undying respect.
Bill: No I wasn’t up for Matins, and now you went and made me feel bad because I wasn’t. LOL
on November 14th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
The photo that accompanies the very thoughtful article was a little jarring. They looked like my 73 year old mother on vacation in Florida. I think the Habit is one of the reasons the old congregations are dying. Why? Because the Habit symbolizes many things, including a strict adherence to the teachings of the Church, which younger women seeking religious life are looking for. I once saw a Sister of Life peddling a bike through Central Park, fully Habited, with a big smile on her face. Which would a young woman seeking Christ’s service want to join. Her? Or a bunch of old women in Capri pants on the boardwalk? Anyone who watches Stacey London knows Capri pants for hardly ANYONE!
on November 14th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Because the Habit symbolizes many things, including a strict adherence to the teachings of the Church . . .
Eggloff,
Are nuns the only Catholics who adhere strictly to the teachings of the Church??? If your thinking is correct, perhaps all faithful Catholics should eschew modern dress.
on November 14th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
Forgive me for not being more precise. Because the Habit symbolizes many things for Nuns…(although i find nothing says Orthodoxy around the home more than a good Habit, perhaps with Capri’s underneath but that’s just me!
on November 14th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
All of which reminds me of the old saw about the order of nuns who disgraced thmselves because of their loose habits…
on November 15th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
I just want to add here that I think it’s kind of sad that the non-essential ( to my, and It hnk many other’s) mind(s)) of habits is where this discussion went to.
How our religious sisters are treatredm agauin after many years of loving and vital service, should stamp how we view the Roman kind of intervention.
on November 15th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I wonder whether some of the bishops are envious of the esteem in which the laity holds the nunas, and this is why certain bishops are trying to take the nuns down a peg or two,
on November 16th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
“I wonder whether some of the bishops are envious of the esteem in which the laity holds the nunas, and this is why certain bishops are trying to take the nuns down a peg or two,”
Hi, Ann, while that may be, I’d think that for the great majority of the laity, their day-to-day experience of religious sisters these days is nil. To the best of my knowledge, none of the parishes in my deanery have sisters resident on parish property. If there are any sisters teaching in Catholic schools in this area, they are very few and far between. (And this is in Chicago, in which a number of orders have provincial houses).
on November 16th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
First, I think many Catholics, especialy those of us old enough to have been taiught by nuns and who watched their work over the years hav ea real feel for thwem. i don’t thin kBishops are jealous of them – i just think a lot of hierarchy really don’ tget it !
Across my e-mail when I just got home was a note that NPLC, founded by Cardinal Bernadin and Msgr. Murnion, is closing.
I think that really speaks too the ugly divide in the Church today -a divide that I think many of the JPII Bishops and priests foster by their intransigent approaches on their side of the divide.