Friday, August 22, 2008

Sister Christian   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

I have a piece in the Wall Street Journal’s religion-column slot today on women religious in the Catholic Church. Its hook is the recent “ordinations” in Boston of three women “priests.” The ordinations are, of course, not Catholic, but the women ordained say they are and have no intention of conceding that point — they have no intention of ever being schismatic.

But their view of the Catholic Church is just not Catholic — the emphasis is moved away from the centrality of the Eucharistic sacrifice and on community and feelings and feminism. But that’s not to be ridiculed and dismissed. While the Church is not going to change its position on women’s ordination and it shouldn’t — the issue is not negotiable — still, these women’s words and protest should be taken to heart.

These last ordinations happened in Boston and it was obviously a brilliant place for them to have gone. There’s still sadness and anger and hurt there. There’s still skepticism about the future. There’s still an uneasiness. Especially if your faith in the centrality of the Eucharist is shaken or weak — because of both bad formation (sometimes because of priests who are not ministering and bishops who are not shepherding) and the distractions of earthly experience with the Churchmen and women (full of human failings). One of the “priests” I talked to explained how tragic it is that there are so many non-practicing Catholics in our everyday midst.

Remaking the Catholic Church is not the way to attract fallen-away Catholics and evangelize to Catholicism, however; what the Womenpriests are doing and talking about is another church, whether they accept that or not. But faithful Catholics who accept Church teaching on the priesthood and everything else should have the same fire those Womenpriests do to reach out to the nonpracticing and compellingly and lovingly draw them in. (Mercifully, many are. See World Youth Day. See some of the beautiful young religious sisters and communities thriving today; more about them in a moment.)

I think Catholics need to ask ourselves: Is there something we’re doing or not doing to keep and/or push people away? Maybe part of the reason these Womenpriests appear to stake more on community than the Eucharist is because Catholic devotion to the Eucharist is not always what it should be? Was the Consecration at the last Mass you attended the most beautiful part of your day or was it wholly forgettable? Did I receive Communion with reverence or out of force of habit?

Women will not be, cannot be, should not be priests in the Catholic Church. But these Catholic Womenpriests I talked to clearly love the Lord and want to serve him. I beg God’s forgiveness for what I’ve done to contribute to their inability to find their satisfaction within the Catholic Church. There will always be those who don’t fully believe or leave or try to remake things that can’t be remade. But, also, we must do better.

In the piece I point to just a snapshot of some joyful religious sisters in the Catholic Church. They are leaders and devout servants of Christ who couldn’t be happier in their vocations and in their Church. They preach through their actions and their positive energy, besides through actual acts of catechism. They are images Catholics and the world need to see more of — these young, vibrant, orthodox, thriving religious congregations who live and breathe what Pope John Paul II referred to as a “new feminism,” at the frontlines of a new evangelization that B16 refers to as a “New Pentecost.” They are renewing the face of the Church — and thus, the earth — without seeking to remake it. Given the popularity of a lot of these young, traditional religious orders, they appear to be not only inspirational and truly Catholic but a recipe for success.

I’ll end this way-too-long Corner post with a link. Here’s the piece for those interested.

08/22 10:42 AMShare