In 1899, a contingent of nuns journeyed into the malarial forests of southern Africa to set up missionary schools. They mastered the clicking language of the Ndebele tribe, baked communion bread in brick ovens they built themselves, and steered clear of the subject of monogamy so as not to enrage the polygamous local chief.
In 1911, another group of sister-pioneers set sail for the islands of Fiji to run a clinic for lepers. In 1929, nuns in black habits rode a steamship up the Yangtze River into the heart of China, braving insufferable heat, flying termites, and warring generals.
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Focusing too much on poverty? Well, I guess nobody ever accused the Vatican of being in touch. Send them Grover Norquist. He would fit right in.
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While there have been many, many truly saintly nuns, Stockman's spin leaves out the nuns that ran orphanages in Ireland and Canada, where inmates were as badly treated by the female warders as other inmates were at Catholic institutions for boy run by members of Catholic ordes of brothers.
You go, girls.
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Like all religious beliefs that are founded in faith the Catholic Church can brook no contrarians in its midst. If any one portion of this foundation of faith is breached then the entire foundation crumbles. The Nuns in question realize or must realize this so the action of the church should not be surprising to them. It seems to me that once one sees the fallacy of the teaching they should depart the faith. But the pull of tradition is strong. A tough position for both church and Nun.
Perhaps, just perhaps, they naively believe that it is THEIR faith and THEIR religion, and they are not of a mind to leave just because the RCC has been seized by an extremist, regressive, and reactionary group of men who do not represent their understanding of Jesus' message. I have not at times agreed with what my country was doing in my name and with my taxes, but that doesn't mean that I will renounce my citizenship. Religion, like nationality, tends to be a part of who we are (unless you are Jeff Jacoby or the other Facebook guy) and Americans tends to want to make things better than just walk away. God bless these women who do God's work in anonymity and grace! If torn on this issue, ask yourself what Jesus would do.
Ms Stockman is principally writing about the censure of American nuns by the current regime in Rome. Although there have been instances of abhorrent behavior by Catholic nuns in the past, mainly overseas, this piece had a different focus. Your comment is off-topic and totally irrelevant to the issue at hand. Sadly, I suspect that the predatory nuns to whom you refer would and have been protected by the Vatican in the same fashion as the monster priests which the Vatican has been protecting for time unimaginable. But, by all means, help to deflect attention and responsibility from the old men who run the show in the RCC.
So on point. Yes, the American nuns that Ms Stockman is writing about are all about fascism and race purity. Really? Is that your somewhat oblique allusion?
Ordinarily, I agree with your posts, but I feel compelled to argue the point. It is not Ratzinger's and his cronies' church to say who should stay and who should be evicted (oh, that charming term excommunicated). It is their faith and their church, and their decision to weather it out while this incarnation of God's word on earth plays out his tired hand. The white suit in Rome represents a dying proposition while the nuns that he tries to stifle represent a forward looking philosophy of what human beings really are (remind you of anyone? Initials JC). I left the RCC in the early 70s. Back then, they could overlook racism, an immoral war, (we didn't know then what they were doing to children) and a lot of other things but they were all about keeping my neighborhood white. I checked out then but a lot of people that I love and respect did not. I still think that it's the people's church, and the nuns', and I'm waiting for a time when I can come back. Jesus is just allright with me!
I know that it is true what you write about the Catholic priests in the Wehrmacht, and I can add that it was a priest, I think, that aided the safe transport of Hitler's top officials out of Germany and eventually out of Europe to distant shores. But, HHitchener, are there not, in all religions, those who do evil? Does this mean that so many nuns worldwide have not done great things in service of humanity? I know that they have.
Such an arrogant and ignorant post. Millions of Catholics, literally millions, are all too aware of the deep flaws in behavior and policy in the Church, but, you see, they know that these stem from a perversion of the true message of Christ.
Great article and fair defense of Catholic nuns. I am so surprised, however, that you didn't seem to know that our very own Emmanuel College on The Fenway is a well known school founded and still very much under the aegis of the same Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur who founded Trinity College in DC, now named Trinity Washington University. The President of Emmanuel College is a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, Sister Janet Eisner, SND (and Ph.D.). She lives on an income only derived from her order, having taken a vow of poverty, and is greatly admired for her brilliant and innovative leadership at the school, as well as a commitment to social justice and service. I am a graduate of Emmanuel, as were my mother, aunt and cousins. I am a graduate of Emmanuel, as was my late mother and a number of close relatives. Great school, great great order of sisters, always interested in social justice.