tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1900800634479346046.post8093172546010043629..comments2023-12-18T09:55:42.480-08:00Comments on What Sister Never Knew and Father Never Told You: Destined for the Rise and the Fall of Many in Israel Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1900800634479346046.post-10383866081684095222015-04-18T10:46:03.286-07:002015-04-18T10:46:03.286-07:00I applaud your analysis overall and I am equally h...I applaud your analysis overall and I am equally happy to see the papal pitbulls called off. These curial cranks have had their day and, hopefully, will not be returned to their playpens once Francis no longer wears the (scruffy black) Shoes of the Fisherman. <br /><br />I do, however, think some honesty is called for in some aspects of the critique one might make of women religious in this country since the conciliar reform -- a critique that is in no way inspired by the lisping misogyny of clerical wags nor in any way dishonors the steady witness of so many American sisters in their tireless and manifold service. (I hale from a diocese that is honored still to have among us a number of the valiant Selma Sisters of St. Joseph and one, by the way, that until recently was in the forefront of promoting women in church ministry and leadership). <br /><br />The critique includes the questionable choice of speakers at LCWR gatherings and the seemingly muted emphases on a distinctively Catholic spirituality in favor of what strikes me often as loopy theological and liturgical agendas. (By the way, this does not imply any sympathy for those who have accused the nuns of heterodoxy for their continuing insistence that the church not foreclose continuing dialogue on the tendentious issues surrounding teachings on ordination and ethical issues). <br /><br />More vitally, however, I have always thought that three distinctive features of religious life prior to the Council, namely, the religious habit, an ordered community life, and a corporate apostolate, never found equally evocative and attractive alternatives where these were abandoned or minimized. I grant that the decline in numbers has been largely due to tectonic sociological shifts in the West, but somehow too little attention was paid to what, besides these three reliable features of their lives, could magnetize young women to embrace this calling. It's a matter of honest self-appraisal and discernment to ask if the absence of these things (and their presence in these neo-con orders with significant growth) is a factor to be revisited when looking at the paths of renewal followed in the half-century now past and where paths forward might still be identified as a very threatened future looms. <br /><br />It's either that, or these post-Tridentine communities should forthrightly acknowledge that their form of consecrated life was appropriate for one era of the church's history now over, and that other ones will emerge in a post-Vatican II milieu whose outline is only now becoming apparent -- and in my view is to be located mostly in the transposition of the charism of these communities into lay forms through associate programs so as to ensure that at least some of their legacy will survive their institutional demise. Other forms of vowed life more in line with conciliar ecclesiology will, in my opinion, continue to spring up as part of the (predominantly lay) new ecclesial movements.<br /><br />As for groups like Mother Angelica's nuns, the Nashville Dominicans, and other apparent "success stories" among the traditional foundations, time will tell. I take the Oedipal drama surrounding the foundation of the Sisters of Life to be a cautionary tale about their long-term prospects. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com