Radical Nuns

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Clarissa

April 19, 2012

I swear I don’t have anything against Catholics but these funny quotes seem to make their way into my mailbox:

The Vatican has appointed an American bishop to rein in the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States, saying that an investigation found that the group had “serious doctrinal problems.”The Vatican’s assessment, issued on Wednesday, said that members of the group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, had challenged church teaching on homosexuality and the male-only priesthood, and promoted “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

When I imagined radical feminist nuns, I almost fell out of my chair because I laughed so hard. Does anybody have any ideas about the ways in which these brave nuns are practicing their radical feminism?

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12 responses to “Radical Nuns”

Spanish Prof

April 19, 2012

There is a French professor in my department who is a nun. Her speciality is Voltaire. I would say that is pretty radical.

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Fie Upon This Quiet Life

April 19, 2012

I went to an all-women college run by nuns, and they were totally radical. They used “her/she” when referring to the holy spirit. They would frequently preach after the gospel, instead of the priest. They promoted women’s rights, and though they were anti-abortion, they were pro-birth control. They also took in single mothers and offered them educations for free. They fixated on the Virgin Mary. They taught about inequalities in the bible. They were completely unlike any other Catholic nuns (or clergy) I’d ever encountered, and I adored them. But they are definitely not main stream. They would be the types of nuns this article seeks to ferret out.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  April 19, 2012
  
  Wow, these sound like amazing nuns.
  
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gudenuf

April 19, 2012

Mary Daly was a “Catholic” radical feminist.

**shudder**

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  April 19, 2012
  
  She was quite horrible.
  
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FD

April 19, 2012

I suspect it has more to do with the (since excommunicated) nun at a Catholic hospital who chose to support the doctors regarding a lifesaving termination of an ectopic pregnancy. And I seem to recall a group of nuns fairly recently, last autumn maybe, coming out in support of Occupy, sex-ed, contraception and generally saying that the Church had its priorities in the wrong order. Oh, and I think there a few chapters who are rebelling re ordination of women too. And the nuns who publicly condemned the church for attempting to defend their policy on child abusers.
I would imagine that the radical feminist doctrinal problem likely has to do with challenging the concept of woman as root of all evil yada yada.

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1. Pen
  
  April 19, 2012
  
  Just out of curiosity, what is the Church’s policy on child abusers?
  
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  1. FD
    
    April 19, 2012
    
    I’m no expert, but it appears that the ‘policy’ seems in the US to be similar to the ‘policy’ here and in Ireland. Namely: when allegations surface, cover it up, deny it, accuse the victim of lying (he’s a trouble child) move the abuser and attempt to threaten/discredit/pay off any family, if they exist. Repeat process for decades till open scandal and police action results, then deny, deny, deny, and go all the way up to the highest courts available in your attempts to evade responsibility, not pay compensation or even apologise. When that fails, try to shift attention, blame and minimise the harm, and complain about how people are fixated upon these minor, minor incidents and really it’s unfair to the church to keep harping on about them.
    
    Incidentally, the above is not just speculation; internal documents and correspondence have been found discussing what they would do about priests who have ‘issues’ and discussing how to handle fall out. All in the most genteel and obfuscated terms of course; god forbid that they ever acknowledge that the problems they are talking about are paedophilia and sadism.
    
    Incidentally, abortion is a mortal sin; child abuse, venal. Oh, and raping little girls is less sinful than little boys; I guess you get demerits for the gay. Shows you exactly where their priorities are.
    
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2. bloggerclarissa
  
  April 19, 2012
  
  Wow, with this kind of nuns there is hope for the Catholic Church yet. I think they should take over.
  
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  1. Paul
    
    April 19, 2012
    
    I haven’t been paying too much attention, since I haven’t been to a mass since I was in HS, but from what I’ve been hearing Emperor Palpatine… er, I mean Pope Benedict has been trying to undo a lot of the progressive (for the RCC anyway) steps that had been taken by JPII… and a lot of American catholics aren’t happy about it, and that if he continues there is a possibility of there being a break with Rome here in the states.
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      April 19, 2012
      
      Really?? A break with Rome?
      
      I’m happy I started this thread because I’m learning a lot of fascinating stuff here. Thank you for sharing this info!
      
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NancyP

April 20, 2012

In other news, a St. Louis nun well known for her work with homeless people was “fired” (Archbishop forbade her to speak publicly or work for a parish in the diocese) for a variety of offenses including participating in and organizing an ecumenical function at her parish church, and most importantly being present at ordination of female priests in other historical breakaway small c catholic denominations (the “Old Catholics”, Episcopal (aka Anglican in rest of world), and so on). I presume that the priest at that parish had his nutz put into a vise by the Archbishop. Parishioners were unhappy at the firing of the nun.

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