Yes LCWR, Please Disband!

Sister wasn't pleased when she heard the news.

It must now be clear even to George Osborne the NCR is headed for some rather difficult times, what with their readership rapidly self-extinguishing and the Church starting to think and act Catholic again. Still, the chaps and gals at the NCR are always good for a bit of whining.

This time, it is about the result of the apostolic visitation to the LCWR.

In short, the sisters get out of it without any exemplary punishment: no closure or suppression of the organisation per se and no one of the most scandalous “sisters” is kicked out and asked to queue for the dole, or start working for a change. Instead, there is a very “soft” approach based on the appointment of an archbishop who, in the next years, will try to inject some orthodoxy in them. Failing, for sure.

You would expect the ladies would have run to light huge candles to the Blessed Virgin for the averted danger, though I doubt they see Her other than as a symbol of the patriarchal oppression of the Church.

What they do instead is bitching around: The Vatican informed the US bishops before they were allowed to say to their members (oh! that word!) how things stand, the Vatican machos (they are the only ones who consider them anywhere near it) have been indelicate, and, in general, the ladies are clearly hurt in their feelings. A former leader of the group even says the Vatican measures are “clearly immoral”. Ah, if she says so…

Another one has, though, a brilliant idea: Read what “Sister” (not mine, thank God!) Chittister has to say:

“Within the canonical framework, there is only one way I can see to deal with this,” said Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, who has served as president of the group as well as in various leadership positions. (Chittister also writes a column for NCR.) “They would have to disband canonically and regroup as an unofficial interest group.

“That would be the only way to maintain growth and nourish their congregational charisms and the charism of the LCWR, which is to help religious communities assess the signs of the time. If everything you do has to be approved by somebody outside, then you’re giving your charism away, and you’re certainly demeaning the ability of women to make distinctions.”

I agree, I agree! Please, please disband! Create all the “unofficial interest group” you wish! Emancipate yourselves!! The money goes back to the Vatican, the sistas find some other idiot (hopefully, the NCR subscribers; as long as there is any) to pay for their bread, and they stop abusing the generosity of generations of good Catholics, who never in their wildest dreams could have thought their donations would one day have been used by a bunch of new age witches to pervert Christianity.

So you see: it should not be said I never agree with the old witches ladies.

Mundabor