UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
by Phyllis Zagano on Jun. 06, 2012 Just Catholic
As leaked documents cast doubt upon the Vatican Bank and the Swiss guards say the butler did it, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith continues playing “Whack-A-Nun.” Vatican congregations have scrutinized women religious, put their major leadership organization into receivership and attacked the writings of individual sisters.
So anyway, do they read the newspapers? Don’t they get it?
You know the story: Two major American scholars, both women religious, have been under scrutiny for four years. What Rome does not seem to realize is every time you try to beat one down, four or five other women pop up. And the next generation of theologians and ethicists does not belong to religious institutes.
All those women — especially the American women — standing behind the scholars and the 57,000 other members of LCWR religious institutes were educated by the sisters. Their first rank, the female majority of the US’s 35,000 lay ecclesial ministers, have managed by hook and/or crook to get theological training — despite being barred from most diocesan seminaries — and have jobs in Catholic ministry. They are chaplains in hospitals, prisons, colleges and schools; they are pastoral associates, many in charge of parish religious education; they run soup kitchens and after-school programs. Then there are the high school religion teachers and university theology professors; the editors and journalists; the newscasters and politicians. Not to mention all the other Catholic women at home and in the workplace who quite often disagree with the canon lawmakers.
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