Vatican: US Religious Women Should Shut Up

As a Catholic who was cared for in a hospital staffed by nuns and received an excellent education in a rural school staffed by nuns, I am dismayed that the Vatican finds it necessary to launch "an inquiry" into the adherence of US Catholic women religious to Catholic doctrine.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, based in Silver Springs, Md., is made up of 1,500 nuns in leadership positions and represents 95% of the country's 67,000 nuns. Apparently, these leaders have held conferences at which speakers have voiced opinions contrary to the policies of the Vatican,  and now the Curia wishes to put a stop to it. Granted that the nuns have always known that the Church is not democratic and that free speech and open discussion, cherished by Americans and protected by the Bill of Rights,  worries the Pope and his cohorts in the Vatican, they nevertheless had reason to believe that,  after the Second Vatican Council, their church had moved beyond the days of Inquisitions and the Index of Forbidden Books. But they may have failed to realize that,  after the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I, the Vatican has been trying to take our church back to the Pius XII era.

According the The National Catholic Reporter, Cardinal Levada cited three areas of concern: 1) promoting the ordination of women, 2) salvation - or lack thereof - through Christ alone, and 3) "the problem of homosexuality." Is the Vatican suggesting that US Religious Leaders -women or men- should not be able to discuss these three issues? Or should the male clergy discuss them and should the women just shut up?

The week after Easter, the Vatican announced that Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, OH, was chosen to lead a doctrinal investigation of LCWR. His appointment was opposed by the national Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It rubs salt into already deep and still-fresh wounds, of both victims and Catholics, each time the Pope gives more responsibility to a bishop with a terrible track record on child sex abuse and cover-up," said Barbara Dorris, SNAP's outreach director.

Perhaps, the Vatican does not see the irony of a male-dominated hierarchy investigating the discussions of Female Catholic Religious Orders. While these women were teaching the young, caring for the sick, serving the poor, fighting social injustice, and observing their vows, their male counterparts were covering-up child sex-abuse perpetrated by priests.

Once again, the only conclusion is that Pope Benedict and his allies in the Vatican wish to slam the door on that "breath of fresh air" generated by Pope John XXIII's Second Vatican Council.