In her June 12 op-ed column “Sisters of strength,” Farah Stockman attributes the decline of American nuns to “the lack of respect” by the church hierarchy. This is patently false. The Catholic Church has long held the yeoman’s work of religious sisters in high esteem. What the Vatican has done recently is to put in motion a way to help reel in the wayward sisters who have mistaken their vows as one of social work. To deem this as a war on nuns is to misrepresent the issue.
If such a war is being conducted, how is it that there is no end to the sisters who welcome the Vatican’s statement as a way to help their fellow sisters? How is it that the more conservative orders are overwhelmingly receiving the lion’s share of new vocations? Indeed, there is no war against nuns in the Catholic Church, but this doesn’t stop those whose agenda blinds them.