Perhaps inadvertently, Sister Sandra Schneiders, a professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality and a long-time supporter of Call to Action dissidence, has laid down the gauntlet. In a private letter that became public and was finally posted with her permission online, she calls the Vatican’s forthcoming apostolic visit and its accompanying study of women religious communities in the United States “aggressive and dishonest…. a hostile move…. meant to be intimidating.” She likens the papal delegates to “uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house.” “Congregations like ours….have, in fact, birthed a new form of Religious Life. We are really no longer ‘Congregations dedicated to works of the apostolate.’” To protect ownership of this parlor, Schneiders counsels “non-violent resistance.” [Dr. Schneiders, letter, National Catholic Reporter online, 2-27-09]
One wonders at the dramatic phrase “non-violent resistance” and the self-created “religious life” of the sisters who share her views. These are women who want the resources of the Catholic Church and to be respected as “religious” while themselves decide what “service” they will and will not render to the Church community.
The sisters of the “new form,” according to news reports, “fear they are the targets of a doctrinal inquisition” since there will be a concurrent doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious conducted by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). Cardinal William Levada, head of the CDF, said “an investigation was warranted because it appeared that the organization had done little since it was warned eight years ago that it had failed to ‘promote’ the church’s teachings on three issues: the male-only priesthood, homosexuality and the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church as the means to salvation.” American sisters who are at odds with Church doctrine believe “the real motivation [of the Vatican investigation] is to reel in American nuns who have reinterpreted their calling for the modern world.”
[Laurie Goldstein, “U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny,” NYT, 7-1-09; “Apostolic visitation of US nuns is making waves,” CWN, 7-2-09]
Schneiders’ “non-violent resistance” sounds very heroic but is actually nothing more than non-cooperation with the apostolic investigation, specifically by declining to answer a questionnaire about a given religious community. The religious orders have been asked to explain their understanding of religious life, how they handle disagreements on Church authority, what their vocation and formation policies are, and describe the spiritual life and common life of the community, its charisms and missions, and its financial stewardship. Some questions ask if sisters attend daily Mass and the nature of the rites and services celebrated.
These aren’t irrelevant questions, particularly as the religious orders most reluctant to answer them are on self-destruct, attracting fewer and fewer vocations. In marked contrast to thriving, young religious orders with a strong Catholic identities and adherence to Catholic teaching, dissident communities are in free fall. “The number [of women religious] in the U.S. declined from 173,865 in 1965 to 79,876 in 2000, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The average age of a member of a women's religious community was between 65 and 70 in 1999.” [Eric Gorski, “Catholic sisters queried about doctrine, fidelity,” The Boston Globe, 8-4-09]
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At this rate, the dissident orders may be finished before the Vatican investigation is.
Stephanie Block is the editor of the New Mexico-based Los Pequenos newspaper and a co-founder of the Catholic Media Coalition,
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