Vatican Official Slams 'Obstinate Betrayal' of Nuns, Cath. Health Assoc.

LifeSiteNews.com -- Your Life, Family, and Culture Outpost ^ | April 12, 2010 | By Kathleen Gilbert

[topher]

Monday April 12, 2010

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Vatican Official Slams 'Obstinate Betrayal' of Nuns, Cath. Health Assoc.

By Kathleen Gilbert

MUNDELEIN, Illinois, April 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Catholic consecrated religious who openly dissent from the authority of Rome and the church's teaching on life are "an absurdity of the most tragic kind" and should cease identifying themselves as Catholic, said Archbishop Raymond Burke, the head of Rome's Apostolic Signatura.

Burke gave the remarks in his keynote address Friday at the Institute for Religious Life’s national meeting at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois. The Institute also honored Burke with their Pro Fidelitate et Virtute Award at a celebration of the legacy of Servant of God Fr. John Hardon, SJ.

In excerpts of the address published by Thomas Peters of the American Papist blog, Burke took a moment to express his exasperation with the defiance of Catholic religious sisters in the U.S. who supported the federal health care bill - a measure dubbed the most pro-abortion piece of legislation since Roe v. Wade, thanks to its vast expansion of government abortion funding.

"Who could imagine that consecrated religious would openly, and in defiance of the bishops as successors of the apostles, publicly endorse legislation containing provisions which violated the natural moral law in its most fundamental tenets – the safeguarding and promoting of innocence and defenseless life, and fail to safeguard the demands of the free exercise of conscience for health care workers?" Burke questioned.

The Vatican official also severely criticized "public and obstinate betrayal of religious life by certain religious" towards Rome's ongoing apostolic visitation into U.S. religious orders.

After the visitation began last spring, Sr. Sandra M. Schneiders of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary said in remarks published on the National Catholic Reporter that nuns should receive representatives of Rome "politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house."

"Who ever could have imagined that religious congregations of pontifical right, would openly organize to resist and attempt to frustrate an apostolic visitation, that is, a visit to their congregations carried out under the authority of the vicar of Christ on earth, to whom all religious are bound by the strongest bonds of loyalty and obedience?" he asked.

Abp. Burke indicated that the attitude of sisters towards the visitation represents "a growing tendency among certain consecrated religious to view themselves outside and above the body of Christ as a parallel institution looking in upon the Church with an autonomy which contradicts their very nature."

"Religious life lived in the heart of the Church, and for that reason religious congregations are, by their very nature, bound in strictest loyalty to the Roman Pontiff," he said. "It is of course an absurdity of the most tragic kind to have consecrated religious knowingly and obstinately acting against the moral law.

"The spiritual harm done to the individual religious who are disobedient and also the grave scandal caused to the faithful and people in general are of incalculable dimensions."

Burke also directly challenged Sr. Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, as well as Network, a pro-abortion lobby group of U.S. nuns, whose support for the bill the Obama administration openly acknowledged as critical to its success.

"Was not the Speaker of the House [Nancy Pelosi] glowing to report that so many religious sisters were in support of her proposed health care plan?" he asked. "Was not a religious sister [Sr. Carol Keehan, President of CHA] one of the recipients of a pen used by the President of the United States to sign the health care plan into law?

"Now is the time for us all, and in particular for consecrated persons to stand up for the truth and to call upon our fellow Catholics in leadership to do the same, or to cease identifying themselves as Catholics."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Planned Parenthood Cheers 'Brave' Nuns for Supporting Pro-Abortion Health Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10032907.html

USCCB Hits Back: Pro-ObamaCare Nuns 'Grossly Overstated' Significance
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10031909.html

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10041201.html

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[topher]

Maybe the Vatican should start excommunicating these nuns.

What ever happened to the vow of obedience for these nuns?

I guess lipstick and makeup and jewerly is more important to these liberal nuns...

[dominic flandry]

The liberals want female priests. Well, in my opinion, the majority of the bishops do not have any “balls” so the liberals must be happy.

[rbosque]

They should start there and work their way to politicians, “journalists”, college professors, “Catholics who go to Mass twice a year, and any other cafeteria Catholic who picks and chooses their own beliefs.

[livius]

Yes, when is the Vatican actually going to do something about them? Somebody there must have the authority to discipline them or force their superiors to do so.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

For those unfamiliar with it, about the Apostolic Signatura:

“The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura is the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church (apart from the Pope himself, who is the supreme ecclesiastical judge). In addition, it oversees the administration of justice in the Church.”

[Venturer]

That’s waht I want to know. When are they going to stop Chastisng them and start putting them out the door.

When are they going to make Notre Dame change it’s name to something more appropriate. Like Maureen Dowd University.

[NYer]

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[the invisib1e hand]

hell hath no fury and all that.

it's gonna get shrill.

[Desdemona]

All the grace and charm of a bull in a china shop. He’s not wrong, but has no clue how to go about instruction and getting the job done without damaging all the relationships beyond repair. We’re still dealing with that and he’s been gone almost two years. And he’s never going to get it, either. Really sad for one of the few willing to speak up about the issues.

[narses]

+

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Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Obviously these folks are creating a scandal of the worst kind. I can’t understand why they continue without being disciplined.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

‘All the grace and charm of a bull in a china shop’

Grace and charm are the last thing needed on this subject.

[Desdemona]

I have a bad feeling in this case that the archbishop is crossing jurisdictions which is what got him reassigned to Rome in the first place. I'm not arguing that the problem of errant orders hasn't gotten out of hand, but it's probably not his to fix and inflammatory words is not going to convince the heretics to come back to the fold and is going to make the job ten times more difficult for whoever truly is responsible. I know he thinks it's his job to do this in order to save souls, but there has to be some honey with the vinegar or as the Irish say, Tell someone to go to hell and have them look forward to the trip.

I'm not saying the man's wrong, but after years of one PR nightmare after another in our backyard - over things that had NOTHING to do with canon law or heresy - the man is clueless when it comes to phrasing without compounding the issue.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

‘inflammatory words is not going to convince the heretics to come back to the fold’

My attitude towards heretics is to agree with St. Thomas Aquinas. I believe that Archbishop Burke's’ current jurisdiction is universal.

[nanetteclaret]

Who cares about “grace” and “charm?” He speaks the truth! If people can’t deal with that, then tough cookies. I, for one, appreciate someone who calls it like it is. All this “politically correct” manure has gotten us where we are - in the pigpen! I would far rather have someone who speaks the truth - we all know where he stands. None of this wishy-washy go-along-to-get-along idiocy!

He is giving them a verbal trip to the woodshed and it’s about time. They are nothing more than spoiled brats who should have been disciplined years ago.

[livius]

Like Maureen Dowd University

LOL!

[netmilsmom]

How have you been?

[topher]

You wrote:

All the grace and charm of a bull in a china shop. He’s not wrong, but has no clue how to go about instruction and getting the job done without damaging all the relationships beyond repair. We’re still dealing with that and he’s been gone almost two years. And he’s never going to get it, either. Really sad for one of the few willing to speak up about the issues.

I disagree.

If one starts by ex-communicating folks like Sister Carol Keehan and some of these other radical sisters, it does a couple of things.

(1) They are no longer part of the church, so what they do is their own affair.

(2) If they want to get back into the church, then they must work to undo the ex-communication.

In the meantime, it sets the example of how bad this is.

Nothing to reconcile here. Just boot the bad nuns out of the church.

He hasn't gone far enough...

[SumProVita]

Archbishop Burke is right....per usual.

[Cardhu]

His Holiness
Benedict XVI
Città del Vaticano

United States - In the matter of the disobedient nuns
Your Holiness,

I read with great interest Archbishop Raymond Burke's, well reasoned and, to my mind, mild rebuke to the Nuns of the Catholic Health Association.

He called it an "obstinate betrayal," after the visitation began last spring, Sr. Sandra M. Schneiders of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary said in remarks published on the National Catholic Reporter that nuns should receive representatives of Rome "politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house."

Let me tell You, the faithful on FR are not pleased they are calling for their excommunication. And pray why not excommunicate the good nuns who work with and for the people because they told your Holiness to stuff it; not literally of course we've had quite enough of that sort of thing. But dissing my good friend is intolerable, any Ayatollah would have had the miscreants stoned to death by now for such acts of disobedience.

Now Benny, from my professional point of view, You would set a wonderful example of compassion, and display a veritable Solomon like sense of justice, by coupling the excommunication of those wicked, stubborn nuns with your known desire that loving paternal care be lavished upon child abusers, sexual predators, pedophiles and bondage freaks.

Surely, God works in mysterious ways, but You have his ear, know his mind as well as the priorities of Rome; so even putting hundreds of children in danger of being further sexually abused it is plainly worth it to protect the image of the Universal Church.

Stand firm, my bishop of Rome; let the world know what Holy Mother Church is really all about; not for alleviating the pain of the sick, love, charity or "suffer the little children to come unto me," pablum. Your creed, Herr Ratzinger, is let the little children come unto me and my alter Christi we will make them suffer.

Bravo, do not take Satan's advice, "that when you are in a hole, stop digging," my advice Joseph, and I am surely fully supported by at least SumProVita, topher, nanetteclaret, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Venturer and livius, is to get an excavator and go for it.

Praying for You and asking for Your blessing,

Cardi

PS.

Ratty, I feel I can call you that after my AK letter. I am presently in semi-retirement but would willingly offer my services to a worthy client needing sound advice in the Public Relations arena. I have worldwide experience but am especially well versed in the quirks and delusions of the US.

One more thing Joe, use hand disinfectant before and after all that kissing and hugging you can never be sure about those Bishops, if you get my drift, and it will certainly score bonus points for you with the American public.