Inflammatory title belies fair presentation on problems of U.S. Catholic nuns

Kenneth Briggs, former religion editor of The New York Times and author of Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns, shares the fruits of an eight-year study which brings to light possible reasons for the diminishing numbers of American sisters in our time. Tracing a detailed history of events from the 1950s until the present, Briggs provides specific examples of typical religious communities and interviews with individual sisters.

Well documented and fairly presented, the book describes the struggles and misunderstandings between the church's hierarchy and the sisters who took seriously the mandate for renewal directed to religious by the Second Vatican Council.

Briggs' thesis is that when U.S. sisters enthusiastically responded to the call for changes in their customs, dress and lifestyle, they ran into opposition by the clergy. A financial crisis concerning retirement, health care and survival soon compounded the problem. The author suggests that if church authorities had encouraged and supported sisters, their numbers may not have dwindled, nor their future become so uncertain.

Evidence of the "betrayal" began with events predating Vatican II, according to Briggs. Although religious women were earlier exhorted to adapt to the modern world by both Pope Pius XII and Belgian Cardinal Leo Jozef Suenens, one of the council's four moderators, the hierarchy objected to changes made after the council. Many clerics held to the idea of a "higher state" for religious, whereas the council had abandoned the idea.

Vatican officials attempted to control the Sister Formation Conference, a program for educating the sisters intellectually, psychologically and theologically. Social justice, put forth by the council as a great world need, also became a problematic issue when many sisters engaged in that work became aware of major injustices not addressed within the church itself.

Following Pope John XXIII's proclamation that justice for women is one of the major signs of the times, well-educated sisters began to wonder if patriarchy was really a teaching from Jesus or the creation of a hierarchy which developed later. Having followed the mandate to return to the truths of the gospel, many American sisters felt torn between Jesus' model of a discipleship of equals and a vertical, stratified authority structure.

Many questioned the disparity between the council's concept of "the people of God" and the exclusion of women from the council itself. When sisters questioned not being allowed to attend the meeting of the committee on religious life, Briggs reports that the cardinal in charge remarked that perhaps they could try again at the Fourth Vatican Council.

Because of substandard compensation for many years of service to the church, sisters eventually faced a future without health care or retirement funds. An appeal to the bishops usually met with the rebuff that the sisters had voluntarily chosen to sacrifice themselves for God through the system and now were on their own. Briggs' study shows that although a yearly appeal was allowed through the parishes, it barely met one-tenth of their needs.

Although the author shows the hierarchy turning a deaf ear to the voices of many U.S. sisters, he also states that neither side had begun with animosity. One of the major factors creating controversy, he feels, was the lack of any directive from the council to the priests and bishops themselves for change. Had the clerics been directed toward a searching analysis of their own origins, gospel truths and the nature of their authority, a better understanding might have emerged and a more complete renewal in the church would have been possible.

Despite its inflammatory title, some typographical errors and misuses of Catholic terminology by Briggs, a Methodist, the book is informative and insightful overall.

It is government assistance and when I go on it, it will still be government assistance. However no one can live on Social Security.

I find it unconscionable for any organization for which you have given so much of your life to, to simply kick you out the door. I can understand this happening with United Airlines more than I can understand it happening with people who serve the Church/church. I also find it offensive to read bishops saying things like, "Well, they knew they were taking a vow of poverty so they're getting what they deserve." I wonder what the nuns think when they have to figure out how they're going to pay for needed medication. The bishops might just as well as have said, "Go off and die and leave us alone." That's what they meant.

Before we spend money on missionary outreach, perhaps we should look at spending our money on those who have served.

I've noticed you spend far more time posting articles about the Catholic faith lately than you do the Protestant faith. Don't you think it's about time you drop the pretense and come on over to our side? You know you love us!

Me, swim the Tiber? Not gonna happen, but I appreciate the kind gesture (and the attention). If it makes you feel any better, the Greek Orthodox tried to woo me to their side some time ago, and I turned them down too. And they even had the power of Greek cooking on their side!

If the Church/churches cannot support the people who serve them in their old age, then they should rethink what they are about. It's like politicians who would prefer to build new roads rather than fill potholes. It looks good to their constituents. The Church/churches are eager to build beautiful churches in Florida but the don't focus on the needs of those who have served them.

Perhaps if the Church would be a little more proactive in stopping pedophiles priests, they could use the money from costly lawsuits of corrupt priest to take care of the faithful nuns who deserve to be taken care of in their old age.

I just talked to a missionary yesterday who might have to leave the ministry because his family don't have health insurance. That is a sad state of affair in my mind.

Hello? No-one kicked anyone out the door.

Also, don't lump entities together: A religious order is a seperate entity from a diocese. If a religious order drove away members by being apostate, and not standing up for the truth, that IS that religious order's own fault. Or are you believing the bullsh** in this article that the Vatican is to blame by not being liberal enough?

So, yes, because of their own UNFAITHFULNESS, many religious orders are pressed for cash. Yet still, no-one has kicked anyone out any doors. Nor does that mean the religious orders are doing anything unseemly in collecting the money that is rightfully and legally due them from the government.

It amazes me how many FReepers will believe any thing a liberal says, so long as the liberal hates the Catholic Church.

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