More US women religious summoned to Rome: Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet

fishwrapThe leaders of the Sisters of Loreto were called to Rome to talk about issues of doctrine and morals.

Then the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were called.

Now I read at panicky Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter) that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet are next.

A copy of the subsequent letter sent by leadership to Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet sisters was obtained by Global Sisters Report. It says that all CSJ Province Leadership Teams received the same letter from CICLSAL and quotes from it on five matters “voicing the following concerns“:

• Your desire to help bring about an ’emerging new form of religious life’;

• Your Congregation’s policy regarding members of the community who are known to hold positions of dissent from the Church’s moral teaching or approved liturgical practice;

• We also urge you to evaluate your efforts to promote ‘communion with creation‘, especially in light of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si, a comprehensive presentation on the responsible care of creation, in view of integrating its principles enunciated in the encyclical into your current efforts in this area. [I think this means that they should stop venerating the earth mother goddess.]

The congregation’s statement said the letter was presented as a follow-up to the on-site visit to the order in St. Paul, Minnesota, in late 2010. The congregation’s leadership team discussed whether to accept or decline the summons, but decided the “benefits outweigh the challenges of expense and some inconvenience.”  [Uh huh… go ahead and pretend that you are the mistresses of your fate.]

I’m from St. Paul and Minneapolis. They are really strange.

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14 Comments

  1. Toan says:

    Who knew that Laudato Si would be used repeatedly as a means to rein in dissenters! Interesting.

  2. Ellen says:

    I looked at the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet’s website. Weird doesn’t even begin to describe it.
    I looked in vain for any mention of the Name of Jesus.

  3. gloriainexcelsis says:

    These are the nuns who saw me through 16 years of true Catholic education. I have wept over what happened to the order – and to my beloved women’s college, Mt. St. Mary’s in Los Angeles, CA.

  4. TNCath says:

    Haha! While I like the fact that they are still needling the Sisters with “concerns,” what I don’t see (and haven’t seen in any part of the Apostolic Visitation or investigation of LCWR) is any reference to the 1983 document from the Congregation for Religious entitled “Essential Elements of Religious Life” that left no question as to what the Church expected of religious and religious institutes.

    http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_31051983_magisterium-on-religious-life_en.html

  5. Joseph-Mary says:

    I have known several dear ladies who had to leave the Order when it went off the rails. They were heartbroken but could not stay and risk losing their souls.

  6. The former chancelorette of my diocese, who publicly advocated women’s ordination (and particularly the ordination of herself) was one of these. They have a house here. No wonder we are such a wasteland.

  7. wmeyer says:

    [I think this means that they should stop venerating the earth mother goddess.]

    Oh, surely not! They would be completely adrift!

  8. cl00bie says:

    I remember visiting the Mother House in Albany, NY, and seeing this beautiful bas-relief wood carving hanging on the wall. It had what appeared to be three heads, and I thought to myself: “What a neat representation of the Trinity!”.

    As I got closer and read the caption, the “heads” referred to “earth”, “air” and “water”.

  9. VexillaRegis says:

    Wouldn’t it be easiest just to excommunicate them on the spot?

  10. NYer says:

    I reside just down the road from their mother house in Latham NY. Will never forget their ad in the local diocesan newspaper, a few years ago during Lent, to join them on Good Friday to meditate on a plant emerging from a seed. This community supports itself through real estate.

  11. Maltese says:

    Good news to report: the Nuns at the Carmelite Monastery in Santa Fe, NM, are now fully habited, and cloistered! I can say this from first-hand experience, since I went to mass there two weeks ago–they were sequestered (invisible) away from the congregation, and sang beautifully in Latin! I think Pope Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum is taking slow, gradual effect.

  12. Maltese says:

    I admire these nuns for this decision (by the 2×4 new construction, I could tell that they just recently decided to be visibly segregated)–they want to worship without the intrusive eyes gawkers, but they are still generous enough to allow the “public” to attend their 7am mass. Fortunately, in this town, most are too hung-over to venture to their worship space at that hour, and those who do are pretty respectful to-the-faith to begin with.

  13. St Donatus says:

    I am not sure I agree with your interpretations of ‘We also urge you to evaluate your efforts to promote ‘communion with creation‘, especially in light of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si, a comprehensive presentation on the responsible care of creation, in view of integrating its principles enunciated in the encyclical into your current efforts in this area.’
    Perhaps they are saying that the problem is that their ‘efforts to promote ‘communion with creation’ are inadequate and must be more aggressive.

  14. Elizabeth D says:

    I am downright proud of the Congregation for Religious for these follow-ups on the visitation, and glad that they have gone about it in a way that, so far, seems to be earning the cooperation of the sisters. The concerns expressed by the Congregation for Religious are exactly on point, they are the most serious problems.

    In regards to the use of Laudato Si, I personally always thought this was part of the reason why Laudato Si was written, as a sincere example of and model of the appropriate bounds of thinking about ecology as Catholics. Pope Francis is well aware of ecofeminism and the new age, post-Christian “creation spirituality”/”conscious evolution” idea.

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