Nuns and feminists.
Not two words most people expect to hear in the same sentence, unless the headline involves one bashing the other.
Yet that’s what the headlines have been flashing for the past week. The Vatican has decided a U.S. collective of approximately 1,500 nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, needs to be reined in for petty differences in priority.
When first reading the article as the news of the Vatican’s report broke, I prayed my reading comprehension was failing me. “Radical feminist” nuns don’t often make the front page, if you have ever heard of them before.
The nuns in question are being reprimanded for challenging the teachings of the bishops, who are the “church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.”
One member of the LCWR believes the target was placed on them after some members vocalized their support for health-care reform despite the contraception clause, which was in direct opposition to the stance of the bishops.
The nuns believed something was better than nothing for all those lacking any form of health care, while the bishops found any reform including contraception unacceptable.
So what are their other grievous crimes against the Catholic faith?
The New York Times summarizes the Vatican report best, stating the organization and affiliates are “focusing [their] work too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping ‘silent’ on abortion and same-sex marriage.”
I’m just appalled by their actions, mind you. What these nuns are focused on is obviously incompatible with the Christian faith. I mean, how dare women who have dedicated their lives to living the teachings of Christ do exactly what Christ did?
According to their website, the LCWR justice initiatives encompass affordable and accessible health care for all, accessible clean water and other environmental action, relief services to Haiti, immigration reform and human rights issues like war, refugees and torture.
The Christ I study focused his entire ministry on befriending and loving those who were oppressed and shunned from society for a variety of reasons. He spent his time with the tax collectors and the prostitutes.
He taught and performed miracles among those pushed to the outskirts of society as unclean, immoral and unwanted. He wasn’t shy about loving and helping those who were deemed the lowest class by society, and he told us to do the same.
The nuns have taken this to heart and are doing their best to give life to Christ’s teachings.
“What you do for the least of these, so you have done for me” is a compelling statement, along with “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Combined, these verses should give the Vatican some much-needed perspective.
The LCWR decided not to focus its collective efforts on opposing same-sex marriage and abortion because it is concentrating on more urgent issues affecting our world. The LCWR is trying to pursue not only initiatives affecting the poorest U.S. citizens, but also issues plaguing people internationally.
There is nothing loving about the Vatican’s rampage regarding the shaming of homosexuals and abortion. No matter your stance on these issues, no person or organizations – especially in a faith centered on love – has the right to dehumanize another to the point of self-hatred or suicide.
Its end result is people hating and killing people, both themselves and others. If your mission is to love and help, why would you choose to spew hate instead of helping people?
This report is just one of many to come. The Vatican, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recently completed an investigation of all U.S. nun organizations, and the results of many of those inquisitions haven’t yet been revealed.
There are even more issues to this report. Some question the sexism of this revelation, as it is made by an all-male group of bishops against all-female nuns. Others question the Vatican’s priorities regarding those affected by poverty.
No matter the motivations, the Vatican is compounding the negativity surrounding the Catholic faith by reprimanding a group of women only seeking to improve our world for superficial differences in priority.
Kristi Carnahan is a 25-year-old anthropology senior from West Monroe. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_KCarnahan.
 
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Contact Kristi Carnahan at [email protected]