This has me concerned.
Now we read this.
SCANDAL: Pope Leo appoints pro-female ordination and pro-LGBT consultors to the Vatican’s religious life dicastery.
Appointees include Sister Patricia Murray, who has pushed women’s priesthood and addressed the “pain” and “woundedness” of LGBTQ people.https://t.co/J2nOqorSJ7 pic.twitter.com/jKjzUYVKkx
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) August 10, 2026
Why does it have me concerned?
Because “personnel is policy”.
An institution’s formal policies matter less if the people charged with implementing them disagree with their substance or priorities. Consequently, appointments are themselves policy decisions.
Who is Sister Patricia Murray?
From the LCWR site we start collecting the pieces. Lots of pieces, ’cause they do specialize in logorrhea at LCWR. Here’s the cliffnotes version:
Education: Undertook extensive studies at:
University College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin
Catholic Theological Union, Chicago [The Smoking Gun, perhaps. MA in 2005 and DMin in 2011]
Particular study in areas concerning justice and interculturality.
Secondary school teacher
Secondary school principal
Peace Education Officer for the whole of Ireland
Director of the Loreto Education Office
University lecturer
Frequent conference speaker
Member of the General Council of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto Sisters) for eight years, exercising leadership in a congregation with ministries in more than 20 countries.
Executive Director of Solidarity with South Sudan, an intercongregational initiative involving women and men religious working together in South Sudan.
Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) [the organization of women religious who in general don’t wear habits], beginning in 2014. In this position she fostered international networking among women religious and expanded UISG programs and services.
Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Culture, appointed by Pope Francis in 2019.
The profile also associates her UISG leadership with the development or expansion of Talitha Kum (anti-trafficking), the Sicily Project (migration), the Laudato Si’/Sowing Hope for the Planet project, global canon-law services for religious, and Catholic Care for Children International.
CTU looms large here. CTU was, and is, one of the worst schools in these USA.
Why is CTU important for understanding this pontificate?
Robert Prevost attended CTU where he obtained the coveted MDiv (Master in Divinity) in 1982. It is his highest theological degree. Otherwise he studied Mathematics and then Canon Law.
So, what was/is CTU like?
Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago has long had a distinctly progressive reputation. That reputation has substantial historical basis. In the 1970s and 1980s CTU [when Leo was there] became associated with advocacy for women’s ordination, and conservative Catholic writers later criticized faculty such as Kathleen Hughes and Carolyn Osiek [taught at CTU for 26 years and head’s up “Women Preach” and promotes ordination of women] for arguments challenging the Church’s restriction of priestly ordination to men. Prevost/Leo’s wiki entry says that when he was in seminary he chose Sr. Osiek as his spiritual director. Catholic World Report noted that current faculty member C. Vanessa White publicly supported LGBTQ-related initiatives at odds with positions defended by the U.S. bishops. CTU’s own programming strongly emphasizes intercultural theology, social justice, feminism, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, and questions concerning women’s ministry.
You get the picture.
Personnel is policy.
I must of missed the Delorian Pulling up to the Vatican, ’cause it sure feels like the 1970s all over again! We already did this…but now it’s going to be even worse…Retire, old woman, please, ride off into the Sunset with Doc and just go away!
Oh man. SSPX necessity.
Each action like this proves it more. Even if you wondered at the time.
It looks like those folks who got addicted to wishful-thinking fueled, papal-justifying mental gymnastics during the reign of Francis will get to enjoy plenty of exercise under Pope Leo. For everyone else, the “if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck” line of reasoning will be sufficient.
“Coveted MDiv”
I wouldn’t covet an MDiv from one of these places anymore than a sprained ankle. I would rather unclog drains every day for the rest of my life.
When compared with the learning amongst prelates in the Church a couple of centuries ago, it really is unspeakable what’s happened.
It’s like Chicago of the 1970s and 1980s superimposed on Rome.
I’ve endured the Church in Chicago for some seventy-something years. CTU was the worst. Loyola a close second. DePaul right up there in the running. Wacko feminist nuns running around all over the place, vulgar and political, like Pfleger on steroids; Black liberation theology, Hispanic liberation theology, Native American liberation theology, Minority Women liberation theology, LBGQ liberation theology, Name Your Flavor liberation theology, touted from lecterns in homilies by Fr. So Hip; South American liberation theologians celebrated as if they were persecuted saints, spouting Marxism even at Mundelein Seminary, BIG EVENT!!! Gustovo Gutierrez, the MAN himself, is in town and scheduled to speak to seminarians, and others by invitation only, with Cardinal Bernardin making his entrance in grand fashion, but sitting in a common auditorium seat (because he is humble, doncha know,) front row.
Leftist political animals posing as religious and priests unleashed en masse into parishes against unsuspecting middle class Chicagoans, assigned as pastors or associates, hired as DRE’s and liturgical directors, so they can tell wide eyed middle-aged moms running parish CCD programs that Adam and Eve in the garden is a myth, and prevent any semblance of, or opportunity for, any display of piety, by orchestrating liturgical antics like children sitting around the altar on the floor during the homily, and music so loud and banal (and usually badly performed) that it shuts down any possibility of entering into reflection of God.
Anyone talking about Jesus Christ in non political language? Not a chance. Anyone talking about salvation of souls? Even less of a chance. Just like now in Rome.
I didn’t enjoy the 70s the first time around.
What’s amazing is these folks think they can outsmart God. Sadly, many will suffer because of them.
“I know a guy” who went to CTU back in the day where he ran across Prevost. Recognized him from an old picture published after his election to the papacy. I think he would agree with your assessment of CTU. Convert from a local Protestant church which would make Rupnik look like a choir boy (and that’s not much of an exaggeration). Currently undergoing formal exorcism with Fr. Ripperger’s group. Not that that has anything to do having attended CTU, though. “Probably just a coincidence” as Nefarious would say.
I have been hoping for a number of years that this generation of 70’s liberal priests and nuns would have passed and the Church could get back to her apostolic roots and mission. But no- looks like there are still some that want to the RC Church to become more like COE- why don’t they just go join Sarah and all of them wear costumes, especiallly with rainbow motifs-God help us and prepare us to do battle against those who want the Church to be of the world.
@fac I was excited when my Daughter was offered a teaching position at DePaul University naively thinking that would help with her conversion, HA, was I in for a surprise. I’ve moved over to the Oak Park SSPX Chapel now because my Parish Priest gushes on and on about first Pope Francis and now Pope Benedict (whom he’s met). I have to bite my tongue every time I’d chat with him. Make fire and brimstone preaching great again!
Sad. Very sad. I have been holding out hope for some mercy from Pope Leo regarding the Traditional Latin Mass after our bishop banned our parish TLM, the only one in the diocese, but it appears to be becoming more and more unlikely. I had held out some hope when our bishop finally agreed to meet with us last night, but it became clear that he had no interest in “dialogue’, but was there to explain why our love for the TLM is misplaced, how the problem is our failure to appreciate how the Novus Ordo is actually far superior, how Pope Benedict actually was wrong to freely allow it, that any of his brother bishops who have sought dispensations are misguided, etc.. His only “concession” was that if Pope Leo were to relax the current restrictions he would follow that guidance, but that seems less and less likely.
These people and this agenda is in its death throes. They are all 70-80-90 years old. They know they have failed and the younger generations do not want their koolaid, but they are going to do everything in their power to solidify everything they dreamed about and destroy everything they hate about the Church before they die.
A dying animal is a very dangerous animal. They are dying but in the meantime they are at the age where they have a lot of power.
@maternalView
What’s sad is, I don’t think many of them ever even think about God. And when they do, they can only imagine Him in the exact carbon copy of their own image. It’s the inherent danger in the whole switching from a “vertical” alignment to a “horizontal” alignment. I think they have completely blinded themselves to anything beyond themselves.
@Dan,
Indeed. I’ve never regularly attended SSPX Masses in my life (twice, at most), but I am increasingly sympathetic to the necessity argument.
I logged in, … after reading all the comments. I can’t add or subtract anything.
I’m not concerned. The issue is clear. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is for men only. The question of ordaining women seems to me to be a woke, modern question designed to find a complaint with the Catholic Church and make women feel inferior. Pope Leo has already dismissed the idea of ordaining women.
Our Lord, Himself a male, chose 12 other men to be His successors. He did this purposefully. Since the diaconate is a step ordered towards the priesthood, both are reserved for men only. God gives authority to men in the family setting, so it’s consistent that men also have the authority roles in the Church.
The woman’s role is not diminished in any way. Our Blessed Mother is the perfect example. She gave birth to the Savior of the world and without her, there would be no priesthood at all. Her “yes” allowed all things to take place, and Our Lord listens to her. She waited at the foot of the cross while her son, the Son of God, sacrificed His life for us. She may have wanted to take His place but she simply didn’t. She instead humbly points to Him as the one who saves, having already fully recognized her dignified place in salvation history. In this receptive posture she gives all future women a holy, feminine example to follow.
It’s disorienting when I see a woman at the altar. Are they aware that the Mass is a re-presentation of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, dying on the cross? Why do they go up there and fold out the linens like they’re preparing for a lighthearted brunch? It’s very strange. Some things just belong to men: Holy Orders is one of them.
I have no problem with women being in advisory roles, as Our Blessed Mother was at times an advisor. But women need to step up their understanding of the great dignity that is inherent to them just by being a woman. For example, men will never be able to give birth to another life. It can’t happen. Do you see priests complaining about that? No. They accept reality and move into roles proper to men. Likewise, ladies need to also accept reality and start being more ladylike, which includes not pushing for the ordination of females. It can’t happen.
A seminary is a place where men are prepared to serve as Catholic priests. The “coveted MDiv” degree is one important component in that period of formation, but only one.
The strange coveting of the Master of Divinity, outside of preparation for the priesthood, has, indeed, rendered it into something it was never meant to be. And some seminaries have become places where priesthood is only one of many things on the menu. Maybe not even the most important thing.
I wonder (sort of) how many students at CTU are women, or others who are not really preparing to become Catholic priests. And women “priestesses” are only a fantasy and a delusion.
In that milieu, what is meant by the word, “seminary?” Or “formation”? Or “mentoring?” Or “spiritual direction?”
I wonder about women like Sisters Murray, Osiek and Hughes. How many women have followed them into religious life?
I have understood from pretty much the beginning that Pope Leo is not Pope Benedict XVII much less Pius XIII. He is sympathetic to, and not going to disown or clamp down on, the Pope Francis-type liberals. I believe however that he is committed to a “unity” that gives space to the orthodox wing that Pope Francis sought to suppress. He is not troubled when a bishop closes down a TLM and he is not going to touch Traditionis Custodes. However, in the name of “unity” he will not attack the TLM and will encourage tolerance of it.
Being a sacristan is one of the traditional female jobs, particularly in the early Church, and it was generally associated with being a canoness, or perhaps a family member of the priest.
Obviously this was not a thing when you had a zillion priests in a parish, but it was often a thing in parishes with low staffing. In the American West, if a mission area mostly had a bunch of religious sisters or pious Catholic ladies as staff, then they often served as sacristans.
And of course convents often had sacristans as one of the elected or appointed offices. St. Therese and St. Bernadette both had stints as sacristans for their religious communities.
The basic problem was that sometimes men forget that being a sacristan is also a male job, both in parishes and in monasteries and friaries.
My great aunt served as a sacristan for her religious community (pre-Vatican II) and for my mom’s Catholic girls high school chapel.
I have a formal photo of her in the office of sacristan, which is similar to other photos of nuns and sisters serving in that office.
My mom and her cousin served as assistant sacristans in high school. It was something she took very seriously, even in her last days on earth, and she passed along helpful bits of her training.
Fasten your seatbelts.
cpt-tom: “Retire, old woman, please, ride off into the Sunset with Doc and just go away”
And Dan also: “These people and this agenda is in its death throes”
As you both posit, they’re at their most dangerous – vicious – when they see their time fading. They have produced nothing of lasting (or any) value, but remain wedded to the spirit of the World, tambourines slowly falling away from arthritic fingers, felt banners fading into the irrelevance they always had …
In 20 years’ time I’ll be in my 80s but I have a great deal of hope, and belief, that the Church of my youth, my early youth, and that of my ancestors, will be again established. In greater strength. I sure hope I’ll still be around to see it.
Pray, do, and pay – it doesn’t come cheap.
Uh, Im at the point where they can do anything they want to do and it hardly disturbs me. Of course Leo selects a woman, of course she endorses LFBTQXINLP. Let them. What have they to do with us. Look theres a few groups I personally cant stand. More than a few. Democrats. Republicans. Marxists, I could go on. The church is a group I cant stand. Im tired of it all. Let them have it. Im sick of having my face rubbed in something every day. To put it politely the heck with that. After years of hoping im done. Theres only so much abuse a person can take.
If SSPX was near me Id never look back.
When my TLM goes its over.
One, if he takes only a little time to look, can find many women with the intellectual skills to effectively defend traditional Roman Catholic theology and morality. I am not going to list the ones I know about because I am too lazy to make sure I have spelled their names correctly, but they make my intellectual skills look like that of a 7 year old. None of these women, some of whom are converts from Judaism, want to be priests or chair Vatican departments, they just wish to pursue their scholarship while also pursuing their own salvation and they are very inspirational. It seems to me that there is something different about women who wish to have either themselves or other women in important administrative positions within the church. And this difference can be seen in the mainline Protestant Churches that have decided to allow ordination of women. First comes women priests or ministers, then women bishops, then or at the same time a relaxation of sexual morality and all of a sudden a complete loss of any concept of personal morality, everything is group morality, such as “do you have the correct view on world population or global warning.” And these Churches are in decline because if there is only group sin, there is really no need for a Savior.