Häxjakt på katolska systrar

Kommer inte ihåg om jag har skrivit om detta tidigare, eller om jag bara la det på hög för att skriva om det senare. (Det jag då läste var en artikel om det - vet inte var.)

Fick hur som helst ett mycket intressant brev idag, skrivet av en syster, Sandra M. Schneiders, som beskriver situationen inifrån. Det var aldrig tänkt att publiceras - men NCR har nu publicerat det.

Det handlar om Vatikanens förestående bärsärkagång i samtliga kloster/kongregationer för systrar (enbart utåtriktade, inte kontemplativa) i USA, på jakt efter heresier. Det är av allt att döma de förnyande systrarna som genom detta ska lokaliseras och utsättas för åtgärder. De som inte går i hierarkiska koppel, utan följer Andens ledning, vad än det innebär.

***

"I am not inclined to get into too much of a panic about this investigation -- which is what it is. We just went through a similar investigation of seminaries, equally aggressive and dishonest. I do not put any credence at all in the claim that this is friendly, transparent, aimed to be helpful, etc. It is a hostile move and the conclusions are already in. It is meant to be intimidating. But I think if we believe in what we are doing (and I definitely do) we just have to be peacefully about our business, which is announcing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, fostering the Reign of God in this world.

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. I just hope we will not, as we American Religious so often do, think that by total "openness" and efforts to "dialogue" we are going to bring about mutual understanding and acceptance. This is not mutual and it is not a dialogue. The investigators are not coming to understand -- believe me, we found that out in the seminary investigation. So let's be honest but reserved, supply no ammunition that can be aimed at us, be non-violent even in the face of violence, but not be naive. Non-violent resistance is what finally works as we've found out in so many arenas.

In my work on the renewal of Religious Life over the last eight years I have come to the conclusion that Congregations like ours [the kind represented by LCWR in this country] have, in fact, birthed a new form of Religious Life. We are really no longer "Congregations dedicated to works of the apostolate" - that is, monastic communities whose members "go out" to do institutionalized works basically assigned by the hierarchy as an extension of their agendas, e.g., in Catholic schools and hospitals, etc. We are ministerial Religious. Ministry is integral to our identity and vocation. It arises from our baptism specified by profession, discerned with our Congregational leadership and effected according to the charism of our Congregation, not by delegation from the hierarchy. We are not monastics at home. We are not extensions of the clergy abroad. 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. Our community life and ministries are corporate but not "common life" in the sense of everyone in the same place at the same time doing the same thing.

/.../

The institutional Church has always resisted the new in Religious Life, especially among women. But the new will continue to happen. At this moment in history, we are it. So, let's be what we are: Religious who are not cloistered and ministers who are not ordained. Canon law has no categories yet for that combination. But we exist. Law follows life, not vice versa."

Läs hela brevet här.

***

Uppdatering:

Lyckades till sist lokalisera ett blogginlägg jag läste om detta i januari, men vet fortfarande inte om jag har skrivit om det själv. Inlägget innehåller många bra länkar vidare som ger info om vad som pågår. ..