Pope crackdown on nuns in US continues. Why?

[Kelvin Mace]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0505/Pope-crackdown-on-nuns-in-US-continues.-Why

The Vatican official overseeing the crackdown on the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns is pressing forward with the overhaul under Pope Francis.

Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog, reprimanded officers of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for planning to honor a theologian who had been criticized by U.S. bishops and said the sisters must show more willingness to cooperate.

Mueller made the remarks in a meeting last Wednesday with the group's leaders in Rome. He apologized repeatedly for speaking so bluntly, while reminding the sisters their organization held its status within the church only through Vatican approval.

The reform order was issued in 2012 under now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, after an investigation concluded the nuns' group had taken positions that undermined Roman Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality while promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." Investigators praised the nuns' humanitarian work, but accused them of focusing too much on social justice and ignoring critical issues, such as fighting abortion.

The nuns' group rejected the Vatican findings as "flawed" and based on "unsubstantiated accusations." Some sisters had hoped for a new approach under Pope Francis, a Jesuit who has stressed mercy over morals and has made social justice issues his top priority.

In last week's meeting, Mueller, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said he supported the conclusions of the Vatican review.

Please note that the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" is the more Orwellian name for the Inquisition, or more accurately, the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition".

It would seem that despite the rhetoric, little is really changing in the RCC.

[theHandpuppet]

1. Ah yes, don't you just love the smell of change in the morning?

Tell those uppity wimmen to just shut up and sit down.

I told folks months ago about this planned crackdown but it was greeted like a turd in the holy punchbowl. Can't spoil the delusion, y'know.

[Kelvin Mace]

7. To be fair,

(Yeah, I know, what am I thinking?) it's the Fox Mulder paradigm: They want to believe. The want to believe things have changed. That way, they can continue with the rituals that make them feel good, and don't have to deal the reality that as long as they keep warming the pew AND giving money, THEY are colluding with the evil the Church perpetuates.

[closeupready]

9. +1000. It really is that simple.

Nothing else to say.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. The image of Francis aggressively promoted on DU is a fabrication intended to assist

the continuity of the bigoted, sexist dogmas. A glace at the positions and actions of Francis and his direct subordinates in and about the Ugandan anti gay pogrom defines the real Francis and his actual agenda.

[Kelvin Mace]

6. Agreed

Magicians call it "misdirection".

[PeaceNikki]

3. Why? We know why. Because he's the pope and the RCC is the RCC.

Your last line is why.

[msanthrope]

4. Meet the new boss.....nt

[theHandpuppet]

10. But you have it all wrong!

Pope Francis Pursues Sinner Across Vatican City Rooftops
News in Brief

VATICAN CITY—Numerous onlookers confirmed that His Holiness Pope Francis could be seen Thursday sprinting along the Holy See’s rooftops, darting between the chimneys and marble sculptures of the apostles atop St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel as he attempted to chase down a suspected sinner. After deftly scaling an exterior fire escape on the Apostolic Library, the pontiff is said to have raced across the pitched roof of the Vatican Museums while closely trailing the fleeing commandment violator, who according to eyewitnesses looked back over his shoulder multiple times during the pursuit to find the white-clad Vicar of Christ just a dozen paces behind him. Reports indicate that the pope lost track of the transgressor against God on top of the Palace of the Canonicate, causing him to pause for several seconds and frantically scan the horizon in all directions before suddenly spying the man on the adjacent roof of the Church of Santa Maria della Pietà, at which point the Bishop of Rome is said to have dashed at full speed to the building’s ledge and leapt the 30-foot gap separating the two structures. Sources confirmed that after a tumbling landing, the pope quickly picked himself up, returned his mitre to his head, and immediately resumed the chase. At press time, Pope Francis had reportedly taken a shortcut around the Tower of Nicholas V and tackled the unnamed blasphemer from behind, sending them both crashing through a 15th-century stained glass window and directly into a confessional booth below.

(from The Onion)
http://www.theonion.com/articles/pope-francis-pursues-sinner-across-vatican-city-ro,35923/

[theHandpuppet]

5. The warning I posted 5 months ago

Excerpts from a thread I posted some 5 months ago, which apparently so offended some folks that it was locked. The thread in its entirety may be viewed here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024009872 But by all means, if any of the FACTS I posted have changed or have been proven to be false, feel free to offer corrections.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57604023/
September 21, 2013, 1:40 PM
Pope keeps cleric who leads crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns
(excerpt)
In another important decision, Francis left Archbishop Gerhard Mueller in the powerful role of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Mueller, originally appointed by Benedict XVI, directs the Holy See's crackdown on nuns suspected of undermining Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality. His office also shapes policy dealing with clergy who sexually abuse minors.
Under Mueller's tenure, critics of the Vatican's strategy have so far been frustrated in their lobbying for Vatican and other church hierarchy to be held accountable for policy that for decades left pedophile priests in their ministry, merely shuffling them from parish to parish when complaints emerged....

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/lets_face_it_pope_francis_still_aint_that_great_20130921?ln
In April, Francis reaffirmed his predecessor’s censure of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella organization that represents 80 percent of Catholic nuns in the United States. These nuns were penalized by the Vatican, and continue to be penalized, for focusing on poverty instead of stoking moral panic about the existence of gay people or sexually active teenagers — exactly the kind of community-centered work that Francis just declared sorely missing from the church.
In the report admonishing the sisters, and stripping them of the independent authority to develop their own charter and conduct their own business, the Vatican said they were undermining “issues of crucial importance to the life of Church and society, such as the Church’s Biblical view of family life and human sexuality” and promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”
Francis’ censure places these women under the full authority of the Vatican and its “program of reform,” which includes the appointment of three male bishops to manage the rewriting of the nuns’ conference statutes, review its community-based programs and otherwise ensure the group “properly” follows Catholic teaching.

Edited to add one more excerpt...

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/08/opinion/cahill-pope-francis/
Francis' comments on the appointment of bishops suggest that his criteria has less to do with loyalty and orthodoxy and more to do with pastoral experience and compassion. But in his first American appointment, one that was not in the pipeline before his papal election, he named Bishop Leonard Blair as the new archbishop of Hartford, Connecticut.
Blair is a true believer culture warrior and former Vatican official who led the charge against the Leadership Conference of Religious Women last year and earlier joined in the condemnation of Notre Dame University for having President Barack Obama as a speaker. And in light of Francis closing the door on female priests, many women theologians and lay leaders are wondering about his emphasis on a new role for women in the church...

[Dawson Leery]

8. People want to look past the history of this evil institution

and continue the Constatinian rituals that make them feel good.

The RCC's time has past, no meaningful change should be expected.

[theHandpuppet]

11. Pope Francis is throwing nuns under the bus for sharing his own beliefs

Pope Francis is throwing nuns under the bus for sharing his own beliefs
The pontiff's silence, while nuns are censured for not focusing on abortion and same sex marriage, speaks volumes
Sadhbh Walshe
Thursday 8 May 2014

In the earliest days of his tenure, Pope Francis became one of the world's most admired religious figures – due in large part to his vocal support and actions on behalf of social justice. So, to many Catholics, there is more than a little disappointment that he is turning a blind eye to the Vatican's ongoing crackdown on America's nuns.

The really disheartening thing about the pope's unwillingness to end the nuns' censure – indeed, about his unwillingness to openly support them – is that his stated values are no different than the ones the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is being punished for carrying out...

...At the very least, women in the church – and women everywhere – should not have to question whether a pope who can speak so eloquently about the scourge of inequality is incapable of recognizing the very unequal treatment of women and men by his own church. Last year, 60 Minutes compiled a comprehensive report on the Vatican's standoff with the nuns. Among the many issues raised in the segment, the program noted the incongruity of the women's alleged doctrinal misdemeanors being treated as a "crisis" that required swift action, while it took decades for the church to seriously address the infinitely more serious crimes of pedophile priests – about which the Vatican only this week began issuing comprehensive data. For example, in 2007, when the church finally faced up to the sex-abuse scandal and began making reparation payments to victims, some archdiocese tried to evict nuns from their convents to fund the out of court settlements...

...Whatever this week's censure of nuns – who are in trouble precisely for stressing social justice issues over abortion, gay marriage and birth control – says about the pope's dedication to his stated mission, one thing is more clear than ever: if the church continues to pressure an already-dwindling population of nuns to abandon its social justice work, Pope Francis may undermine his own agenda, just as much as some power players at the Vatican hope to undermine the nuns on and off the bus.

MORE at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/08/pope-francis-nuns-catholic-crackdown