Nuns: The civilizing force of the church

Dearest Sister, You have certainly told it how it is in areas of the world in Hinduism as well. Here it is different, in a small Arizona Ashram and monastery with three female monks and another in training. As GOD has made this one the Guru here, and I am in a female body, we do our best to treat all as GOD, and not serve those in male bodies the way we have at times been neglected and abused. Thank you for writing such strong Truth. May GOD have Compassion on us all. Love, Your Sister in GOD, Guruji

Dr. Estes, your columns always reflect great compassion, tenderness, and wisdom accompanied by a strong sense of justice. I was so touched by this column, as I am when I remember with gratitude and humilityi the circle of women of which I am a part.

I read your column in the context of our being subjected to a Vatican investigation, more euphemistically called an "Apostolic Visitation." Sister Sandra Schneiders said it so well: "We cannot, of course, keep them from investigating. But we can receive them, politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house. When people ask questions they shouldn't ask, the questions should be answered accordingly"

Schneiders urges us to remain focused on what is important -- fidelity to our calling to ministry: "Our whole life is affected by our ministerial identity: searching out the places (often on the margins of Church and society) where the need for the Gospel is greatest (which may be in Church institutions but often is not); living in ways that are conducive to our ministry; preaching the Gospel freely as Jesus commissioned his itinerant, full time companions to do."

Thank you for your reflections and a reminder for us to remain focused on what is important.

Thank you Clarissa. My first twelve years of formal education was from nuns. It was Caroline Myss who alerted me to the fact that being taught by a person who is exclusively dedicated to a spiritual ideal invariably has the effect of connecting you to a realization that Spirit is real--something we need to live a real life. That prompted me into a Jesuit seminary but also lead me beyond it. It got me to Japan to include Buddhism through Fr. Enomiya LaSalle, to India to include Hinduism through Fr. Bede Griffiths, to Islam through the Sufis, and to Sri Aurobindo to include all life. I continue to have a wild and wonderful life because nuns taught me how. We are the church. We are six billion. I am grateful.

I applaud your accolades to the religious sisters who have fought the good fight. I am blessed that many of them are mentors and friends. But, please, do not forget those of us who are lay women and educated ourselves for service to a church we love only to be pushed out by the same disregard for the dignity of women as were / are the sisters. We stand with them in solidarity during this latest investigation.

Two years ago I took a weekend course at a Catholic college in Phila. In the lunchroom there were all of these very old women. They were nuns but did not have their habit on. Instead they had worn dresses that made them look poor instead of noble. It made me cry. The flower prints were so worn from washing. My understanding from speaking to different people was that the nuns do not get their religious clothing for free. They must pay for them. How cruel it seemed to me.

For more inspiring examples of the creative, innovative and wise leadership of religious women, readers in the Chicago area are invited to the Siena Center at Dominican University in River Forest for a lecture by Sarah McFarland Taylor, award-winning author of "Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology" (2007). The lecture will be held Tuesday, March 31 at 7:30 pm. For more information or tickets visit www.siena.dom.edu

Dear Dr. Estes,

Your writing is so poetic and deeply inspiring. I look forward to each new column. In this early winter of my life I relate to the women of your writings profoundly either in relation to my own life or those of the many women in our family. Thank you for your teachings and inspiration.

Bravo, Sister Estes! You have said what should have been said years ago. How dare the powers that be who waltz around in their superbly tailored suits, French cuffs, and silk shirts, simply ignore the dear nuns who wiped their snotty noses and even their butts when necessary, and taught them how to be holy men. Well, now that they have reached that exalted state, they have no use for nuns or any other women...oh, yes, women are needed to keep the altar linens perfectly white and starched and ironed. Some thought should be given to the elderly nuns still serving, still loving, still being what they set out to be...holy women and teachers of us all. Pity those who live in dumps, who are cold in the winter and hot in the summer, who have no one to wait on them, those who even take in the old, worn and weary priests who have no place else to go. Ah, yes, they are truly saints. Then let us honor them. What bishop will take up the challenge to work for the betterment of elderly nuns? Hush, is that a stampede I hear??

Gracias, as you continue to speak on behalf of women who have given their yhouth for the the CHurch and God's people. Thank you sweet sister who journeys with us. Paz

This accolade and cuationary tale has long been needed- and like the issue of racism needs to be brought up continually until the human mass realizes that by denying these women place, acknowledgement and care-it is plugging the airholes of the spirit, the "air talk" and substantial humane works of thousands of religious women and lay women. What happens when the gifts of spiritual mothers and the bearers of better life are passed over, buried and forgotten and ignored? The gift keeps giving until their is only a voice that cannot be quelled but can be drowned out.
Did the good women of the lay church not think these same things would happen to them- when so little was done by them to change how the church treated its religious? And now the children of the church- male and female do you not think of what you are losing that you may not be able to retrieve? nor build on for your own breath of the spirit?

As of late, Italy is galloping towards a modern form of dictatorship. Italians are disoriented and trying to grasp what is happening, and I don’t really think that the world is yet paying attention. I bring this to your blog, because the Dark Age church is not finding and freeing the living filament inside the precious Italian carrara marble, but assisting in smashing and shattering it, and the good, tireless work of nuns has been used as a political weapon. (sheep dressed as wolves). I refer to the case of Eluana Englaro, whose family, after years of court cases received the court orders of the highest court in our democracy to remove a feeding tube, which was not only her own will pre-accident but the ethical choice of the family and doctors intimately involved in the case. Our prime minister, Berlusconi, (who now has control of all Italian television, his private channels and all the public service that he is overlooking, and who has made a series of laws exclusively to keep himself out of prison…but this is a larger story) ignored this highest order of the Judicial branch, threatening a rushed emergency law “to save Eluana”. (Wolve dressed as sheep). Our very diplomatic president, Napolitano responded to this threat of democracy with a firm no- “the constitution is the final word”, but Berlusconi then ignored the executive branch and proceeded with the emergency law. Simultaneously the country was thrown into the emotion of an euthanasia dilemma, (attack of democracy dressed as religion) many unaware of the double attack our democracy had just undergone. The tone and human indecency was astounding. Berlusconi said that Eluana (in a vegetative state for 17 years) could potentially bear children… her family was viciously criticized and attacked in the political game, the nuns that have cared for Luana were thrown into the spettacolo as the saviors that only wanted to persist to care for her despite the assassin family... As always unfortunate for Italy, the Vatican jumped indiscriminately on the band wagon. The misuse of the nuns to insinuate that Luana’s father was abandoning her; the doctors and family that were called assassins by church officials. One day the Vatican responded to criticism by saying they shouldn’t interfere with state politics, the next day they gave a list of what changes Italy should make in it’s constitution. Luana’s father had medical contacts in Holland and could have brought his daughter there years ago to remove the feeding tube. Despite clear signs that she was suffering, he decided to follow Italian law and the paralyzing interference of the Vatican in politics in this country. The world needs to hear this story. The Catholic church may have its Dark Age characters for those who are part of the church worldwide, but in Italy, that Dark Age church is Omni- present. During this whole fiasco, the left wing opposition coalition imploded. Inner contradictions and divisions caused by a church that it must prostitute itself to for it’s political survival and that impedes it from ever being a successful coherent coalition. A right wing that has most often in history been church backed. Again, Italy is left to the forces of dictatorship. Nearly every day all the TV stations cover stories, most without any substance, of what the pope is doing and saying. He rants intolerantly against homosexuals circa once a week. Most priests around the country went on and on about Eluana in church services the week that this political game was being played. We all know the story of Williamson. Our right wing government is making devastating cuts in our schools, devastating anti-interception laws that will facilitate the mafia, devastating racist immigration policies, and persecuting Rom gypsies that are Italian citizens. (bulldozing their shacks and moving them from one location to another, without access to water, or electricity and often on major highways, unsafe for their children). Some months ago angry Italians set a Rom camp on fire. As of late, the news is overstating the violent crimes of Romanians, again, a story a day, in conflict with actual statistics and reality. Elements of Fascism are spinning all around. Italians are in panic, denial and dread. The real implications of the global economy are yet to hit Italy. In America you may be concerned about the direction that the Vatican is taking, in Italy we are down right alarmed. Fire is being played with in an unstable global world and we are at the epicenter. I am a New Yorker and have been living in Italy for 17 years. This is my home. I have not been this alarmed and nauseated since 9/11. My family is considering leaving Italy, despite the hardship that this will bring. The Italian spirit is being broken and shattered and the world needs to know. To Fascism there must be resistance. To the enormous heart of Clarissa and those that grasp the depth of her love and wisdom: please bear witness and do what you can from within the church, perhaps Italy is the litmus paper and it is time to take action.

As of late, Italy is galloping towards a modern form of dictatorship. Italians are disoriented and trying to grasp what is happening, and I don’t really think that the world is yet paying attention. I bring this to your blog, because the Dark Age church is not finding and freeing the living filament inside the precious Italian carrara marble, but assisting in smashing and shattering it, and the good, tireless work of nuns has been used as a political weapon. (sheep dressed as wolves). I refer to the case of Eluana Englaro, whose family, after years of court cases received the court orders of the highest court in our democracy to remove a feeding tube, which was not only her own will pre-accident but the ethical choice of the family and doctors intimately involved in the case. Our prime minister, Berlusconi, (who now has control of all Italian television, his private channels and all the public service that he is overlooking, and who has made a series of laws exclusively to keep himself out of prison…but this is a larger story) ignored this highest order of the Judicial branch, threatening a rushed emergency law “to save Eluana”. (Wolve dressed as sheep). Our very diplomatic president, Napolitano responded to this threat of democracy with a firm no- “the constitution is the final word”, but Berlusconi then ignored the executive branch and proceeded with the emergency law. Simultaneously the country was thrown into the emotion of an euthanasia dilemma, (attack of democracy dressed as religion) many unaware of the double attack our democracy had just undergone. The tone and human indecency was astounding. Berlusconi said that Eluana (in a vegetative state for 17 years) could potentially bear children… her family was viciously criticized and attacked in the political game, the nuns that have cared for Luana were thrown into the spettacolo as the saviors that only wanted to persist to care for her despite the assassin family... As always unfortunate for Italy, the Vatican jumped indiscriminately on the band wagon. The misuse of the nuns to insinuate that Luana’s father was abandoning her; the doctors and family that were called assassins by church officials. One day the Vatican responded to criticism by saying they shouldn’t interfere with state politics, the next day they gave a list of what changes Italy should make in it’s constitution. Luana’s father had medical contacts in Holland and could have brought his daughter there years ago to remove the feeding tube. Despite clear signs that she was suffering, he decided to follow Italian law and the paralyzing interference of the Vatican in politics in this country. The world needs to hear this story. The Catholic church may have its Dark Age characters for those who are part of the church worldwide, but in Italy, that Dark Age church is Omni- present. During this whole fiasco, the left wing opposition coalition imploded. Inner contradictions and divisions caused by a church that it must prostitute itself to for it’s political survival and that impedes it from ever being a successful coherent coalition. A right wing that has most often in history been church backed. Again, Italy is left to the forces of dictatorship. Nearly every day all the TV stations cover stories, most without any substance, of what the pope is doing and saying. He rants intolerantly against homosexuals circa once a week. Most priests around the country went on and on about Eluana in church services the week that this political game was being played. We all know the story of Williamson. Our right wing government is making devastating cuts in our schools, devastating anti-interception laws that will facilitate the mafia, devastating racist immigration policies, and persecuting Rom gypsies that are Italian citizens. (bulldozing their shacks and moving them from one location to another, without access to water, or electricity and often on major highways, unsafe for their children). Some months ago angry Italians set a Rom camp on fire. As of late the news is overstating the violent crimes of Romanians, again, a story a day, in conflict with actual statistics and reality. Elements of Fascism are spinning all around. Italians are in panic, denial and dread. The real implications of the global economy are yet to hit Italy. In America you may be concerned about the direction that the Vatican is taking, in Italy we are down right alarmed. Fire is being played with in an unstable global world and we are at the epicenter. I am a New Yorker and have been living in Italy for 17 years. This is my home. I have not been this alarmed and nauseated since 9/11. My family is considering leaving Italy, despite the hardship that this will bring. The Italian spirit is being broken and shattered and the world needs to know. To Fascism there must be resistance. To the enormous heart of Clarissa and those that grasp the depth of her love and wisdom: please bear witness and do what you can from within the church, perhaps Italy is the litmus paper and it is time to take action.

I sincerely hope that women religious will avail themselves of the invitation and challenge to comment to Dr.Estes. I hope also that while respecting the confidentiallity of individuals, that whe will share the observations as they unfold.

There is a significant discerment opportunity here, necessary and valuable, for the women religious yes but also for all catholics everywehre

Dear Dr. Estes,

I just read this column (today is March 11). Thank you very much for your wonderful, meaningful words. It would be interesting if a movie, along the lines of "It's A Wonderful Life" were made, showing what would have happened if the nuns in the U.S. and other parts of the world had not been present and sharing all they had. I am blessed to have had nuns be a part of my life.

Loved your writing but your own caption shows the way to change things
"When women are silent, it does not mean they agree."
Why didn't someone point out the lack of care for the older sisters and arrange an acomodation shift I am sure if the young seminarians had been shown the disparity in accomodation they would have insisted on a swap Sometimes people are simply blind and need to be enlightened.
As to the churlishness of the Archbishop's speech we have tongues in our head why couldn't someone have pointed this out to the Archbishop gently but firmly.It was good to have you here but it is a pity your homily did not remain focused on the good sisters.
As to the Apostolic Visitation the sisters who are living according to thaier vows have nothing to fear.