Vatican’s doctrine chief blasts U.S. nuns for disobedience

[rug]

David Gibson | May 5, 2014

(RNS) Catholic nuns in the U.S. have been thumbing their nose at Rome’s demands to toe the doctrinal line and they need to obey or face serious consequences, the Vatican’s enforcer of orthodoxy said in a surprisingly tough talk to women representing most American sisters.

“The Holy See believes that the charismatic vitality of religious life can only flourish within the ecclesial faith of the church,” Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told four members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Mueller said the LCWR — which represents about 80 percent of the more than 50,000 Catholic nuns in the U.S. – is dependent on the Vatican for its bona fides as a church body. He indicated that the group’s status, and the Catholic faith of the sisters, was at risk if they did not heed Rome’s directives.

“Canonical status and ecclesial vision go hand-in-hand, and at this phase … we are looking for a clearer expression of that ecclesial vision and more substantive signs of collaboration,” Mueller said.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/05/05/vaticans-doctrine-chief-blasts-u-s-nuns-disobedience/

https://lcwr.org/

Putz.

[47of74]

1. And my response....

[okasha]

2. The man is about to learn

what every girl in my Ursuline school knew: pissing off The Nuns is NOT a good idea.

[TommyCelt]

3. Troubling...

I was wondering where Pope Francis is in this ongoing issue with the LCWR. I fear we may just have found out.

[regnaD kciN]

8. Is Mueller a Francis appointee, or a Benedict one?

[rug]

9. John Paul made him Bishop. Benedict put him on the Curia. Francis made him Cardinal.

[MBS]

4. here's the politics of the situation

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/benedict-prot-g-francis-vatican

Cardinal Gerhard Müller enjoys recounting a humorous episode that occurred some months ago when Pope Francis stopped into the office Müller heads, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The pope immediately noted a small statue in the entrance hall, which depicts a bishop in full regalia sitting on a horse and holding aloft the Blessed Sacrament in a gold monstrance. "I sat in a saddle like that for six hours," Müller told the pope, alluding to the 600-year-old annual Pentecost Ride he sometimes led when he was bishop in Bavaria. With a chuckle, Francis replied: "The poor horse!"

Unfortunately, there's also a dark side to this lighthearted humor. Horses aren't the only ones that have had to bear the heavy weight of the 66-year-old Müller. Most recently, he came down hard on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest and oldest of the two associations of nuns in the United States, during a meeting with its leaders April 30 in Rome. But many and varied are the Catholic clerics (even a few cardinals), religious and laity who have gotten pressure from this Joseph Ratzinger protégé in the little less than two years he has been in charge of what was once called the Holy Office. . .
Müller's words and actions appear to them as contradictory to this new style of openness and audaciousness. They rightly want to know if the pope is merely tolerating the cardinal's contrasting views or, more worrying, if he is actually (and secretly?) approving them. And if so, why? If the answer is neither, then why did he ever reconfirm the German as Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect in the first place and then make him a cardinal? The fact is, like that "poor horse," Francis was saddled with him. ..
So what to do about the prefect of a major Curia office who does not seem to be "on message"? Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese hinted at the solution in a recent article, "The Vatican's doctrinal congregation isn't so supreme anymore" (NCR, March 14-27). He noted that at least three of Francis' closest aides have been openly critical of the doctrinal congregation prefect and the positions he's taken on certain issues. . .
Reese also noted Francis' advice to religious orders not to worry too much about corrections and warnings they receive from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Jesuit author then cited his pope-confrere's address to doctrinal congregation officials, saying their work should be "distinguished for the practices of collegiality and dialogue."

[rug]

5. Thanks for this. It goes a long way to explaining what's really going on.

[okasha]

6. I see Cardinal Muller

retiring shortly to spend more time on his spiritual life. Maybe Benedict's convent has a vacancy.

[rug]

7. He's got 9 years to go before je has to submit his resignation.

Benedict was stacking the deck.