A Happy Easter to all!
I though the name of Sr. Chittister sounded familiar. Did a little research and this sounded familiar. From The Nation in 2001:
"Arguably, the best known is Sister Joan Chittister. A fiery orator and prolific author, this 66-year-old Benedictine nun made international news last year when she refused to obey a Vatican order forbidding her to speak at an international conference in Dublin on the ordination of women. Chittister made her decision in the face of Vatican threats of "grave penalties," which could have ranged from excommunication to expulsion from her monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania. "The Church that preaches the equality of women but does nothing to demonstrate it within its own structures...is...dangerously close to repeating the theological errors that underlay centuries of Church-sanctioned slavery," she told the emboldened crowd at the gathering."
see http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020819/bonavoglia
Ugh.
re: Chittister
She is an apostate in the extreme... I dare say, a heretic.
She went after Catholic Answers tax status on the run-up to the election because of it's Catholics Voters Guide. They are pro-abortion, pro-female priest, pro anything anti-church teaching. She a ninth circle excommunicate in absentia.