Last edited Thu Apr 26, 2012, 10:59 PM - Edit history (1)
Eureka Street, the Jesuit site, has this article:
But if the church is to be judged by its commitment to reconciliation, it is hard to rejoice at this action. The Bishops may be able to establish an effective office for dealing with women religious, but it is hard to see how the religious themselves could see the revised institution as effectively representing them. Their communication will be increasingly through social networks and informal gatherings.
And their trust in the male leadership of the church will inevitably be weakened.
More broadly the Vatican action raises the same questions about respect and process as did the dismissal of Bishop Morris in Toowoomba. But its potential consequences are much larger because the women's religious orders in the United States are so involved in medical care and education.
If relationships between the Bishops and these institutions are marked by distrust the capacity of the Catholic Church plausibly to defend human dignity in the public sphere will be eroded. And the mistrust of the Catholic Church among Western women from a Catholic background will grow.
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=31071
On Edit: This was also covered on 24th April by The sydney Morning Herald:
WASHINGTON: While the US priesthood is battered by controversies over paedophilia and cover-ups, the Vatican has disciplined the country's largest organisation of nuns, prompting fierce debate within the faith.
The Vatican found the nuns' organisation had ''radical feminist'' tendencies and had not taken a strong enough stance in support of Catholic doctrine against women's ordination, ministering to homosexuals, and abortion and contraception.
In a statement, the presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents most of the US's 55,000 nuns, said it was ''stunned'' by the findings of the assessment, conducted by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Pope Benedict led before his election.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/nuns-left-stunned-by-vatican-rebuke-for-radical-feminist-tendencies-20120423-1xhcm.html
I don't read Murdoch's "The Australian", and it's subscription only anyway.
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