Pope Francis has backed the Vatican’s doctrinal crackdown on a major group of American nuns, reasserting the Roman Catholic Church’s conservative approach to various social issues in a move that could cool the warm reception he has received from some liberal Catholics since taking office last month.
The Vatican said in a statement Monday that Francis had reaffirmed the doctrinal evaluation and criticism of U.S. nuns made last year by the Holy See under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The assessment accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents most U.S. female Catholic orders, of promoting “radical feminist themes” and ignoring the Vatican’s hard line on same-sex marriage and abortion…
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious represents about 57,000 sisters, or 80% of U.S. nuns.
On Monday, officials from the conference met with Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith…Mueller reminded conference officials that organizations such as theirs “are constituted by and remain under the direction of the Holy See,” the Vatican’s statement said, and that Francis had “reaffirmed the findings of the assessment and the program of reform” prescribed for the nuns.
Kenneth Briggs, the author of a book about the Vatican’s clash with U.S. nuns, said Francis’ backing of the Holy See’s unyielding line was “a major blow” to prospects for more dialogue.
“It seems like the Vatican has put a more appealing salesman in charge of the same old product,” Briggs said.
Being out-of-date and irrelevant is, after all, perfectly acceptable behavior to many religious old geezers who fear women, equal opportunity, democracy and progress.
“You are not part of a democracy, sisters. You are members of an ORDER.”
The Pope has zero authority over a nun and their orders. They could excommunicate an individual nun like any other Catholic lay person.
The old boys’ club is still alive and well I see. If Jesus was here he’d slap the pope and the rest of the males at the Vatican and spit in their face for excluding women from the priesthood! The best way to KILL the Roman Catholic Church and assure it has NO FUTURE is for it to continue excluding women from the priesthood. Who the hell gave these men the right to OWN Jesus’ message and decide that only men can be priests! FUCKING TOTAL IDIOTS!
…and you are obviously not part of the human race, since you’re only using your monkey brain 🙂 The VATICAN is still being run as a monarchy…the French got it right when they beheaded their monarchy…get rid of orders and monarchies once and for all…Jesus was NOT a DICTATOR…if he was here he’d kick your ass real good and tell you to wake the FUCK UP! You do NOT OWN HIS message! Now go pray for forgiveness…oh yeah you don’t think you’ve done anything wrong! Now THAT is the WORST kind of sinner! I fart in your general direction!
The teapubs were right on the slippery slope argument.
Women’s rights have led to the fucking nuns now asserting themselves.
“Happy halloween, ladies…. Nuns. No sense of humor…” — The Kurgan
youtube.com/watch?v=F0GLu7xVTWk
MOM!!!!
Why is the internal procedures of the Catholic Church of interest?
It isn’t. These aren’t the nuns you’re looking for, move along.
Regrets: Those WERE the nuns you were looking for.
Because what you are witnessing may be the beginning of a deep divide among the Catholics. A divide so deep to eventually cause a split. Since 84% of us are Christians, this is big news.
No divide among Catholic (so obvious that even non- and to some degree anti- Catholic like me can notice): Church doctrine is clearly defined. You can honestly call yourself a Catholic only and only if you agree with it. These nuns disagree with official doctrine yet want to be not only Catholics but influential Catholic. Simple truth is – they are Catholic just in name and have no place in that church. Hence they are irrelevant to the issues of Catholic church.
Split in the Catholic church would mean two groups agreeing to ALL fundamental Catholic doctrine but severely disagreeing on superficial issues to the point of splitting. This is not it. Similar to “gay marriage” situation this is a group who do not want to be Catholic but thinks that they somehow have right to the name of it just because…
This is a “news” only because of the Left media wanting to push a (non existent) issue.
Maybe they could go ahead and split and call themselves something else, say… “Episcopalians”.
Well good, I hope he does, we need to stop them from voting for Obama multiple times.
http://news-press.com/article/20130417/NEWS01/304170027/1002/RSS01/Nun-pleads-guilty-voter-fraud?odyssey=nav|head
If only Mr. Jobs were still around. He could advise the Vatican and old geezers how to restructure the Church so it would be more up-to-date and relevant.
Then get Perez Hilton to report on the new iChurch.
The phrase “upon this rock I will build My church” is not referring to geology.
Being out-of-date and irrelevant is, after all, perfectly acceptable behavior to many religious old geezers who fear women, equal opportunity, democracy and progress.
What a mouth full of SHIT! Any “relevancy” in religion has nothing to do with anything. That’s because we’re talking about BELIEFS here – NOT FACTS!!!
And to go protesting someone Else’s BELIEF or even a group of people for their BELIEF or even their CULTURE (which is often a result of beliefs), is probably the highest form of BIGOTRY anyone can display.
As “wrong” as a culture or belief may be, it’s still wrong to try and impose what many others may see as common sense on anyone or any group who would still CHOOSE to be a part of the overall ignorance – particularly if no one else is really being oppressed.
Of course, this is totally different where kids are concerned since kids often have no choice. The best any society can do for children is to impose or at least provide an education so that their human animal can make better informed choices later on in life. (You might note that this may seem in direct violation of what I said with regard to adult’s. But that’s because there’s a little thing humans have created called laws; and in most nations which have laws, there are usually guidelines regarding one’s age of emancipation from custody.)
So, I may agree that these religious people are idiots. But to say that their religion or any religion has any “relevancy” is ridiculous particularly when lumped together with other groups like misogynistic troglodytes. (Which again may be true with regard to the Catholic church but then it’s still all about CHOICE here.) The only time any of us should be protesting is when taxes or laws are imposed on the rest of society and done so based on some sort of non-factual belief!
So my advice to those nuns would be that if they disagree with their CHOSEN oppressor (said with tongue in cheek) to go start their own religion or branch or whatever. It’s pointless to try and change a CULTURE unless that culture is open to change which in this case, it clearly is not. You should never try and force anything on anyone unless you yourself have no choice.
Of course, it’s always nice to point out problems to someone you think is having one. But if the person having the problem still doesn’t agree that there even is a problem then the best advice would be to not waste any more time if it doesn’t affect you, your choices or your liberties. In other words, move on!
“You should never try and force anything on anyone unless you yourself have no choice.”
VERY INTERESTING how you contradict yourself! SO it’s ok for the Vatican to IMPOSE something on its members but NOT ok when those members point out problems with the Vatican. You know what Jesus called people like you and those hardliners in the Vatican: SERPENTS and PHARISEES and HYPOCRITES! What a MORON you are if you think that Jesus will welcome YOU with open arms.
A slap across your face and a kick in the ass is what’s waiting for you!
A “cult” legal status is probably weeks away, at this rate.
The word for it is schism.
Don’t worry, once the US priests have to wash the scorch marks out of their own damn shorts, I suspect that they’ll come around.
This time around they won’t be called protestants a la Martin Luther but they’ll pick a snazzier and more inclusive monicker in a vain attempt to remain relevant.
For the Left, destroying families and religion is important, because they are separate from the State.
There was John Paul II. And I couldn’t name one of the new “ones”.
Pope Francis? Pope Hernando Monte Crisco?
I don’t think anyone knows the name of the new ones.
Pope Franky goes to Rome.
Same sex marriage? Relax, don’t do it.
The old boys’ club is still alive and well I see. If Jesus was here he’d slap the pope and the rest of the males at the Vatican and spit in their face for excluding women from the priesthood! The best way to KILL the Roman Catholic Church and assure it has NO FUTURE is for it to continue excluding women from the priesthood. Who the hell gave these men the right to OWN Jesus’ message and decide that only men can be priests! FUCKING TOTAL IDIOTS!