Card. George’s interview with John Allen: “the nature of the Church”

The fair-minded nearly-ubiquitous John Allen, sadly still with the National Catholic Reporter, posted the transcript of his interview with His Eminence Francis Card. George of Chicago, now President of the USCCB.

There has been a question about what Card. George said during an executive session of the USCCB, as reported by CNA (READ THIS).

The Catholic Healthcare Association (CHA) undermined the authority of the bishops by supporting Obamacare, which the bishops say leaves open the use of taxpayer money for the most extreme form of child abuse: abortions.

Mr. Allen posted, at the end of the transcript,… (my emphases):

ALLEN: From your point of view, is this ultimately an ecclesiological question – who speaks for the church?

CARD. GEORGE: Yes, exactly. Our disagreement may be narrow, but it’s a narrow difference that has exposed a very large principle. It affects the nature of the church, and therefore it has to concern the bishops.

I know this comparison may seem dramatic, but a few years ago Cardinal von Galen of Munster [Germany] was beatified. Under the Nazis, von Galen not only condemned euthanasia as an unethical procedure, but he also condemned the laws which permitted it. Today we think of him as a hero, and rightly so. This is the question that has to be raised: Are we to offer moral teaching solely about actions, or also the laws which permit and foster them?

Let’s loop back into to serious problems with the members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).  There is a good deal of overlap between the LCWR and the CHA.

There are deep points at stake.  They concern the nature of the Church and also the protection of and justice for children.

Women religious have also been guilty of sexual abuse of children. BUT…. they used the abuse of children by men to advance their own agenda.

They want to speak for the Church. They want women priests. 

The horrible irony is that these liberal women religious watched the very male clerics they envy and criticize get hammered for sexual abuse of children, they lambasted the male clerics for covering it up, and now we find the women did exactly the same thing.  Just ask SNAP.

Dioceses and religious orders of men have been bled white from law suits.  Are the women religious next?

Read this entry, in which I refer to decidedly non-traditional, non-conservative sources about the problem:

LCWR’s long-standing coverup of sexual abuse of children by nuns

They are trying to crack the Church’s discipline (celibacy) and teaching (male priesthood). 

The Apostolic Visitation of the women religious in the USA is a serious and necessary undertaking.

Read this too.

A magisterium of nuns

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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6 Comments

  1. avecrux says:

    Excellent, concise summary.

  2. Massachusetts Catholic says:

    Sometimes I am ashamed of my archdiocese of Boston. The secretary of social services, Fr. Bryan Hehir, gave a major address at the Catholic Health Association conference June 13. He spoke just after a video in which Obama thanked Sr. Carol Keehan for her help in passing Obamacare. Fr. Hehir also lauded Sr. Keehan’s work. He said, “there was foundation for the different judgments made on the bill in the Catholic moral tradition.” (Meantime, Cardinal George was slamming the CHA.) If you’re going to tie together the CHA and the LCWR, you should mention the “fellow travelers” appointed to high positions in liberal dioceses around the country.

  3. Tom Ryan says:

    On Cardinal George sounding like a bishop(there’s been a lot of that these past 5 years) and taking a nun to task.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/a/u/0/_Ziulu6pT1g

    And then those nuns….

    http://www.voiceofcatholicradio.com/walk,100530,sisters_in_rebellion,part_iii,randy_engel,j_bagnoli_arc,31_min.mp3

  4. rakesvines says:

    I admire your crystalline synthesis of the issue here and the earlier posts. I’ve linked to it with my sophomoric comments at http://divine-ripples.blogspot.com/2010/06/cha-women-masquerading-as-nuns-are.html

  5. capchoirgirl says:

    UGH, these “women religious” give us all a bad name! I”m discerning with the wonderful Summit Dominicans in NJ and they are traditional and wonderful–enclosure, habits, the whole thing!

  6. rakesvines: crystalline synthesis

    Thanks. I have thought about this for a while and talked to a lot of people.

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