The rebel nuns, the cardinal and a showdown with the Vatican

[rug]

Rome attempts to crack down on independent thinking in the US



Cardinal William Levada, centre, will meet with Sister Pat Farrell in Rome. Photograph: Alessandra Benedetti

Tom Kington in Rome
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 9 June 2012 10.52 EDT

She is the American nun who after 15 years spent working with war refugees in El Salvador now leads the majority of the 57,000 Catholic sisters in the US. He is the American cardinal who marched in San Francisco protesting against gay marriage and was accused of turning a blind eye to paedophile priests before he took over the Vatican's doctrinal office, the modern version of the Inquisition.

On Tuesday, Pat Farrell and William Levada will clash in Rome at the climax of a raging row over what Catholicism means for women. It will be a confrontation that pits America's increasingly independent and broad-minded nuns against the Vatican's male guardians of the faith. "Pat Farrell knows it will be daunting, but she sees the importance of this meeting for the whole Catholic community," said her spokeswoman, Sister Annmarie Sanders.

The showdown follows the claim by Levada's department that Farrell's Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the umbrella organisation for most US orders, has been promoting "radical feminism" and glossing over the Vatican's hard line on gay marriage and abortion.

To set the sisters straight, Levada plans to send an archbishop to rewrite the group's statute and institute re-education programmes to combat heterodox thinking. The reaction from Farrell, the group's president, was swift, denouncing the Vatican move as causing "pain and scandal". "We're all hurt by this," she told the National Catholic Reporter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/09/vatican-showdown-america-liberal-nuns

Cardinal Levada is the former Archbishop of San Francisco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Levada

[patrice]

1. Sat nam, Sisters! For the way, the truth, and Life.

[xchrom]

2. i remember levada

[rug]

3. Ditto.

[mysuzuki2]

4. Just ignore him and he'll go away.

[cbayer]

5. This is great stuff. I wish it were going to be televised.

[rug]

6. I'm trying to track down who that group is with the Cardinal in the picture.

It's a very familiar habit and I'm thinking it's one of those chivalric honorary orders.

You're right though. This should be televised for the staging alone.

[cbayer]

7. For some reason I can't get Meryl Streep out of my head.

This is the kind of event the church needs to shake it up. The fact that it is happening at this level just makes it more exciting.

[rug]

8. Great! Anthony Hopkins as Levada!

"Well hello, Sister Farrel."

http://www.hark.com/clips/nbcqdcjbkc-hello-clarice

[cbayer]

11. Perfect! Jody Foster, definitely on the list for lead nuns. Other nuns:

Cher, Juliette Binoche (that's a gratuitous nod to my better half who would launch me if she showed up), Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathy Bates.

[skepticscott]

12. Except that nothing is "happening"

other than a show by the red hat club. In the end, the best the nuns can really hope for is a few mealy-mouthed words about how important their role is, maybe half an apology if they're lucky, then a dismissal. They have two choices: they can leave the Catholic church for somewhere else where they can try to do the kind of good they wish to, and also be considered as full and equal persons, or they can remain under the same second-class citizenry they always have enjoyed in the RCC. If you think anything else will come of this, you're deluding yourself. The Catholic church hierarchy is not all of a sudden going to go liberal because a bunch of nuns make a scene. It just isn't.

[rug]

13. Quick, you must inform them of their two choices.

They must be beside themselves. "What to do? What to do?"

[skepticscott]

14. No need...which is sad

Deep down, the ones being honest with themsleves already know it perfectly well. They've been dealing with the red hat club too long to think otherwise, but they have nothing better to do than go through the charade...

[rug]

15. You must have great insight into how women think.

[skepticscott]

17. I know how the red hat club thinks

and I know nuns are smart enough to know it too. If you need more, sorry, but there's no help for you.

[ashling]

9. Seems like Levada is going to a lot of trouble to show these nuns the true path

why doesn't he just burn them at the stake? You know he wants to.

[asjr]

10. Neat picture! Looks like the chorus line is about

ready to perform.

[Angry Dragon]

16. I never trust a man in a red dress

[struggle4progress]

18. Why isn't there an "Inside the Vatican" sitcom?

The conversations I infer certainly have comic potential:

A: Alas, the church is losing it's credibility!
B: So many folk think we're outdated and irrelevant!
C: We should make a big stink about people using birth control!

A: Alas, attendance is down!
B: The sex abuse crisis really hurt us!
C: We need to make a big stink about all these uppity nuns!