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April 19th, 2012
03:05 PM ET
Vatican blasts American nuns, calls for reformsBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) - The Vatican is turning up the heat on a group of nuns it says are operating outside of the Roman Catholic Church's doctrines. The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the church’s doctrinal watchdog, on Wednesday announced the conclusion of a years-long “doctrinal assessment” investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 80% of the Catholic nuns in the United States. The “assessment reveals serious doctrinal problems,” said the report, which called for major reforms. The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith appointed Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle to institute those reforms. The report singled out a Washington, DC social justice group called Network, which is run by nuns and the Resource Center for Religious Institutes, which assists members with financial and legal resources. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories The Vatican report, made public by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the doctrinal assessment began in part because of the group’s dissent on the Holy See’s teaching on the ordination of women and human sexuality. The Catholic Church ordains only men to be priests and says sex is to be reserved for between a man and woman who are married in the eyes of the church. The assessment said that a Leadership Conference of Women Religious conference yielded “manifest problematic statements and serious theological, even doctrinal errors,” that went unchallenged. It also said the event promoted “radical feminism”and decried the “prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in some programs and presentations sponsored by the LCWR...” While the assessment praised the social justice work of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Network and the Resources Center for Religious Life, it said the groups were “silent on the right to life from conception to natural death” and on the Church’s view on “family life and human sexuality.” The report also took note of public statements from the nuns that opposed the Catholic Bishops. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Network vocally disagreed with the Bishops' conference's position on the Affordable Care Act, which they supported and the Bishops did not. The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith called the current doctrinal and pastoral positions of the groups “grave and a matter of serious concern,” because of the global influence of the groups. Pope Benedict XVI approved the request from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith to intervene and the implementation of their recommended changes, the doctrinal office said in its assessment. Some of the changes to come include a revision of the LCWR statutes, a review of programs including their annual general assembly, and a review of their ties with Network and Resource Center for Religious Institutes. Cardinal William Levada, a former Archbishop in the United States and now the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, said in a statement that the the Vatican process is aimed at “fostering a patient and collaborative renewal of this conference of major superiors in order to provide a stronger doctrinal foundation for its many laudable initiatives and activities.” The sisters, for their part, expressed surprised at the findings. “Because the leadership of LCWR has the custom of meeting annually with the staff of CDF in Rome and because the conference follows canonically-approved statutes, we were taken by surprise," the Leadership Conference of Women Religious said in a statement. "This is a moment of great import for religious life and the wider church," the statement continued. "We ask your prayers as we meet with the LCWR National Board within the coming month to review the mandate and prepare a response.” soundoff (1,705 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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sure, the pope cracks down on nuns but won't do anything against priests molesting little boys.
what a great guy.
screw catholicism. bunch of hypocrites
I thought we were talking about the nuns, not the abuse scandal?
Kinda breathtaking hypocrisy, isn't it.
Breaks the heart.
AP – EVERYTHING the Church say or does from now on will be analyzed in terms of the Church scandals. Talk about "spin"...I think the Archbishop's "changing the subject" to contraception and "communist" nuns will NOT change that!
if the vatican and all xtians were REALLY true to their faith they would all take vows of poverty and spread the message of jeebus, which is a good message, HOWEVER, THE VATICAN and ALL other organized religions choose MONEY and POWER over actually spreading the word.... anyone that gives money or power to them is PATHETIC...
Stay focused on the issue. This is about the nun's organization. I actually saw nuns taking positions on TV against the church on the contraceptive issue. Whether abortion or the gay marriage accusation is legit, is not the issue really. These nuns are starting to go rogue here and need to be reined in on doctrinal contradiction
SOUTHERN CELT:
The nuns were not doing anything not entirely consistent with the teachings of Jesus by tending to the poor. There was no reason to castigate them – rather they should be respected and commended.
They were doing exactly as you said, actually – bringing the church into the world.
What are you talking about? This issue is about the nuns.
Kenny, your rants show you have not fully investigated ALL Christians. It is unfair to group all together in the same way it is unfair to group all atheists together.
What's to be done with these radical bishops?
Leave them alone.
Very alone.
They are a scandal.
Why do you call them radical? Because they won't bend to public opinion? Society should conform to the Church. The Church does not conform to Society.
If the bishops are within doctrine, they are not radical
The Catholic Church and the Republican Party. What a Team! And the Republicans tell us there's "no such thing as a "War on Women" .....Yeah....Riiiiigggghhht!
You got it my friend
Well said Sir !!!
I agree with you...the Catholic Church hasn't been keeping up with the times, and I've got news for them...most Catholics don't agree with the birth control/health care nonsense. I'm Catholic and I'm ashamed of how they are acting about this.
The R's only like the Catholic Church when it can be used as a weapon in the War on Women. Did you notice how quickly they turned on the church when it momentatily stood up against the Ryan plan last week? Dropped 'em like a hot rock.
I also noticed the disparity between the energy and vigor with which those bishops were out in the media on the matter of birth control, as contrasted with their opposition to the Ryan plan – which would devastate the lives of millions along with the economy of America. A statement. Hardly a campaign and media tour and congressional action.
Just hitting the marks on the stage, though it wa better than nothing at all. The difference between their passion for the two topics was pretty noteworthy.
So very, very sad...
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...!
CherieC,
The Church has definite teachings and methods for natural birth control. Maybe you should investigate them and learn how.
There is no "team". What the republican party chooses to do is what they choose to do. What the church chooses to do is what they chooses to do. Get with reality
RevMum:
You said: "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain". From the same movie/story I say "There's No Place Like Home".
AP...Yeah...Riiiigggght!
"I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it."
— Rev. Billy Graham, Parade, 1981
God can use who He wants to to minister and dosnt need permission.and women if u have a calling on ur life just know i think u should go for it.God used women all thru the Bible from abigail ministering to david and gaining favor for her wisdom; to ester went before the king and saved her people;to mary magdelene the first to se Jesus after the resurection and the list goes on.we are all made into Christs body(Christians) so we are not male and female we are spirit and Christs body(all belivers)and we are all His bride (male and female Christians).and we are living in radical times we need people who arent afraid to speak and work the harvest, men are getting caught up in abuse scandals, and stealing from church, give the women a go.work and minister in the grace God provided for you to live we are all ministers in Christ we must just first be partakers of His grace and be made excellent(fully abounding in the work of the Lord) be blessed
My, you sound like an actual Christian. Not an easy thing to be these days.
Of course, when discouraged we can always remember the fact that our spitirual forebears were thrown to lions. Compared to that, trying to be a Christian in this spiritual sewer of politics is pretty easy sailing, huh!
When dogma conflicts with common sense, the individual has to decide which to follow. These women would probably be better off out of the Catholic Church anyway.
If Pope Eggs Benedict keeps complaining he'll continue to see dimishing numbers of Nuns. Then, God Forbid, the male clergy would have to do 'womens work'.
The numbers of priests and nuns have been going down for almost fifty years now, because western society in general is much less religious. Families do not select a child to go to seminary, like they used to and gay people just come out of the closet now.
If the Catholic church starts taking the bible at it's word.....wouldn't that make them Lutheran?
Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I hope the Catholic church will take the Bible at it's word. If everybody did, we'd all be better Christians whether Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, or whatever.
Or Episcopalian.
...and we'd kill people for working on Sunday and be okay with slavery and have rapist marry their victims and live on a flat earth and believe demons cause disease and not be allowed to wear mixed fibers and so on
How about we look at the major reform needed to keep the priests from raping young children? Let's start there, shall we?
If all you theists are going to start taking the bible literally, we're going to need a lot more prisons. Your god commands that you folks kill gay folks. You also need to start killing all the women who aren't virgins on their wedding night. And unless you guys change our laws and consti.tution, each and every one of you who obeys your god, will be put away for life, or executed for hate crimes.
If all you theists are going to start taking the bible literally, we're going to need a lot more prisons. Your god commands that you folks kill gay folks. You also need to start killing all the women who aren't virgins on their wedding night. And unless you guys change our laws and consti.tution, each and every one of you who obeys your god, will be put away for life.
Server fail.
Sorry.
You're not supposed to take the bible literally, I mean, it's been translated and much of the message has been lost because of this (not to mention over hundreds of years).
If Protestants stopped misinterpreting the Bible and believed what they read that would make them Catholic.
I guess this would take care of all the overpaid CEO, Upper Management, etc. There is only one God and they aren't worshiping Him. We'll have to get rid of them.
UltraAtheist, the bible (old testiment) was meant to be more than a religous text and has to be taken in context. At the time Isreal was a theocracy and there was no distinction between law and religion. There are many things that were the law for a good reason at the time, for example not to store meat and dairy together, rotten milk is yougurt and cheese, rotten meat is death. Second in Exedous where it says heep the sabbath, he is talking to Jews, not Gentiles. Exedous 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Gentiles weren't expected to follow Jewish law.
Nothing done by the Vatican in regards to Nuns surprises me in any way. I remember WELL visiting my Great Aunt who lived in a convent. It was so cold because they never had heat. They didn't have more than a single sheet and thin blanket on their cots. The meager meals. The Vatican treats God's wives like dirt. All to save money while the Priest feasts.
It has long been kow that the church despises women and will do anything to see them suffer and die.
When God's wife isn't happy, God isn't happy.
More failure from the n"leadership" of the catholic church. Seems like the catholic bishops and pope are more like an extension of the tea party. The announcements that seem to come out regularly are more about politics and poor historical comparrisons, rather than helping people treat each other like Jesus would. Since the catholic church has become so very political perhaps they should not have their tax exempt status now that they act more like an extension of the right wing conservative movement. I was catholic and I left the "religion" because of their clear partisanship, hate and intolerence. Nothing mlike the teachings of Jesus, more about the power that men so desire.
....if they , the Catholic church, should lose their tax exempt status for speaking on things that are directly related are you willing and ready to pull the trigger on insti'tutions such as the Girl Scouts, such as their relationship to Planned Parenthood? Or when Unions force their membership to have their dues and fees go to this party or that party?
The insti'tution of Tax Exempt applies to so many groups that have no religious links and as soon as you go after the churches, mosques,synagogues and temples then another will go against other groups. That is the great thing about Society is that folks are not monolithic in their likes and dislikes. It achieves a great balance. Sorta like as much as some might not like neo-nazis even the moment that we tell them that they can not march or organize because of their views we then limit groups such as the NAACP to do the same. Almost to the point that different groups, while hating a counter protest, would be very scared if the police came and locked those counter protesters up because tomorrow it could be them.
If you were Catholic (doubtful) you should remember the part of Chapter 6 of St. John's gospel where He explains the nature of the Eucharist in plain Aramaic:-). All the Jews left, except for the 12 Apostles. When Jesus asked if they were going to desert Him too, St. Peter said "Where else would we go? You have the words of Eternal Life". Used to be Catholic, what makes you any different from those disbelieving Jews ?
Nuns Gone Wild
I want the video NOW
Good !
I was raised a Catholic, but unlike most Catholics I see the church for what it truly is. The pope is a former Nazi SS trooper who has aided, abetted and protected serial child molesters. The fact that Catholic priests are not allowed to mary has nothing to do with anything that Jesus ever said, did or taught. It has everything to do with the fact that the church wants to inherit every priest's property when they die. The Catholic church is also primarily responsible for anti-semitism. In fact, the Catholic church turned a blind eye to the holocaust during WWII. Open your eyes and keep priests as far away from your children as possible.
...... that he said.
He was in the Hitler Youth, not the SS,
>>>"In fact, the Catholic church turned a blind eye to the holocaust during WWII. "
Hmm.... you mean the same way that we forget all of the Ja'panese Americans that were sent to American Concentration Camps ....
...or how African American troops returned from WW2 to live in a Jim Crow Law America?
Remember Port Chicago during the war? How after so many African American service men were killed?
Just saying I love America but as a History student I know that my country does not have the cleanest record in history.
Far-be-it from me to support, or stick up for these cretins – but if you are going to denigrate them, at least get it straight. The Pope was not a Nazi Trooper – he was in the Hitler Youth, .like most boys his age. However, the Catholic church was in cahoots with the Nazi's.
Catholic priests used to able to marry hundreds of years ago. The church (Pope) had one of those magical visions saying priests needed to be celibate. Various scholars say that this was to prevent priests wives from inheriting church property when the priest died.
Raised Catholic? You either didn't listen or listened more to society instead of the Church. His Holiness was NOT a Nazi SS trooper. He may have been in the Hitler Youth but so was every other German kid. He does not aid, protect or defend molesters.
He removes them from contact with children, tries to reform them, and forgives them if they do reform. If they don;t they are no longer priests and the law can have them. Priests do not marry because Jesus was not married and several other reasons the Apostles recommended. Ever read an Encyclical? If the Church is anti-Semitic then why do we pray for the Jews to remain faithful to God's Word since they were the first to hear it? Open your eyes and try remembering what your Parents and CCD teachers tried to teach you. The Church hid and helped every Jew/Gypsy/Needy person that came to them escape from the Nazi's. There are movies on the subject, maybe you've seen one? Stop listening to people who want to bring the Church down. Your education should tell you who is behind that.
god, jesus and the holy ghost (and all other mythological figures) are presently laughing at how continually satanic and dark-minded and self-oppressive the vatican is and will be -- the nuns are right and free to be with God in the true free sense
You cant really blame the current Pope. He is only restating the Church teaching that has not changed for 20 centuries. All the historical docs and catechisms say the same thing. He doesnt have the power to change doctrine. He can only guard what JC gave them in the beginning. Cultures come and go. The deposit of faith will never change.
Actually, the pope is considered the infallible word of God. He can change doctrine if he wants to.
Sorry, Anne you're wrong. The RCC does believe that the Pope can change doctrine. Until the 1840s the Immaculate Conception was not doctrine (i.e., not binding on the soul of the believer). Later the pope declared it binding and it was then a mortal sin not to believe it.
I sincerely doubt JC ever said anything about birth control or other women's health issues. Remember, it wasn't Jesus who thought up a whole new religion named after himself. Jesus was a Jew and lived and died for the betterment of his people and his religion. His disciple John made him holy, decided his birth was a miracle and that Mary was a virgin, and it was Paul who went around converting people to this new faith. Emperor Constantine changed the Sabbath to Sunday and realigned the celebration of the birth of Christ to December with the Roman god worshippers' 'Sun day' and their winter equinox celebration Saturnalia.
I feel sorry for those of you who drank the koolaid and still believe in this ridiculous farce called Catholicism.
eyeswideopen:
and I feel sorry for all of you that are still slaves to sin.
Do you seriously believe Jesus Christ had anything to do with creating the Catholic Church in it's current form?
Ha! I wonder what the Catholic Church considers as “radical feminism”. Probably anything having to do with women's rights.
no no, they can have all the rights they want – as long as they agree with the bishops.
The Pope is German...just like Hitler. TAX ALL RELIGIONS!!!
Tax all religions and pay off the debit...........FAST !!!
"And they shall be of one heart and one mind" Thanks for keeping it real, Vatican!
As a Jew who worked in a large Catholic owned healthcare network..........The "POPE" needs to keep his big mouth shut and continue down the "yellow brick road" in his RED PRADA SHOES.......(read my mind?)
The nuns are the heart and soul of our healthcare network, they work endless hours and Pope Dorothy in her red shoes needs to have some respect for these women !!!!!!!!
The nuns are compassionate and THE BEST................ FYI – I have the right to cast stones, I'm GAY – I know my own kind when I see them, red shoes and all !!!!!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU TO THE NUNS.......the Pope pushes at the Nuns.........we will push back !!!
I heard the representative for the women religious group on public radio last night and SHE ROCKED! She said women were the first to witness the resurrection and explained it to the apostles and though they were not happy about the arch bishop's involvement they'd explain what was going on to those guys too. YOU ROCK, SISTER!
Yes, women were the first to witness the Resurrection. How, exactly, does this make a group of nuns 2,000 years later right? By your logic, since men were the first to walk on the moon, we should only take male scientists word on anything.
Thee misseth the point, Dan.
The nuns were not wrong to take care of the poor. It's a gospel imperative, entirely in keeping with the faith. Thus, no "right" or "wrong" here regarding the actions of the nuns.
This is politics and social code vs. teachings of Jesus, which makes it worth reflecting upon as people of faith.
Or noticing, to your horror, as observing citizens.