Last week the Vatican announced that it was finally going to crackdown on American nuns. Most of them belong to the "Leadership Conference of Women Religious"....there are almost sixty thousand of them. They were accused of falling prey to "radical feminism" and failing to speak out against homosexuality and contraception. I always had a hunch that the nuns were the big problem in the church....what with all their caring for the sick, and reaching out to the poor, helping the disenfranchised...who do they think they are? Jesus? Why the last time I marched in the streets to protest the war in Iraq there was actually a group of Catholic nuns marching right beside me...you'd think they were actually feeling blessed as peacemakers or something. The Vatican has it's hands full with these women...and their social justice ideas, especially
when it's still dealing with things like pedophilia, bishops with kids, problems with that pesky IRS stuff, and the very IDEA that a person without male sex organs would think they were worthy of the priesthood.
As far as "speaking out more about homosexuality", the community of nuns in this country through their many outreach programs are too busy taking care of the victims of hatred, abuse, and discrimination...often CAUSED by men of the cloth.
Just because these women go about their daily lives quietly helping the least of us, it doesn't mean that they aren't a real problem for the guys in the fancy dresses and pretty hats in Rome...they've been found out !
Years ago we went to a funeral in West Virginia..in a Catholic church for a friend who had died of AIDS. I had my seat belt on for the homily..wondering if we'd hear the usual gay bashing that is all so common. The priest however spoke about the time when he visited Mother Theresa's AIDS hospice in New York and told her that he didn't know how to deal with or even how to think about the whole issue, especially in the gay community. Her response was to lead him up and down the wards and hug each and every one of the patients. Then she said to him .... "That's how you deal with it".
Perhaps many of the nuns in this country are just a little too busy doing things that really matter..while the American bishops and the guys in Rome are on the wrong road...with the wrong priorities, and could learn a lot from the Little Sisters of the Poor when they're out begging for food on Saturday morning.
