Nunsense at TIME

From The Digital Hairshirt:

So Drudge is promoting TIME magazine's article by Jo Piazza that says this:

Today's generation of nuns are progressive women, two things the Church isn't used to. 

Nuns are an endangered species. They are dying and not being replaced.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (aka CARA), in 2014 there are just 49,883 religious women in America, down 13% from 2010 and down 72% from 1965.

Now, let's look at this article.  It heads out by saying that the decline is attributable to a lack of appreciation of the nuns by the evil patriarchy of the Vatican.

The Vatican doesn’t celebrate these women. In fact, it has done the very opposite. Attacks on American nuns have been happening since 2008, when the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life initiated an “Apostolic Visitation,” a euphemism for investigation, of the nuns.

The nuns nicknamed it the Great Nunquisition and in the past eight years they’ve come under scrutiny from the church patriarchy.

I have some problems with that connection.  For a woman to assume the habit of a religious order requires some great sacrifice on her part.  She will not marry.  She will take vows of celibacy, obedience, and poverty.  She will live in community with her fellow sisters and become, as it were, a "bride of Christ."  Now, to whom does she pledge obedience?  Ultimately, it is to the Church and those whom She has set in place as its authority, i.e., the Magisterium.

In short, it is a life of humility that she voluntarily takes on.  Sometimes the humility can be seen clearly, as with Blessed Mother Teresa.  Most of us would not relish washing the wounds of a leper.

So, consider this:  these humble women, living lives of service . . .

Do you think they choose this lifestyle to be "celebrated" by the Vatican?

The young women who could be the nuns of tomorrow share a lot of the same values as the nuns of today. They are fiercely dedicated to the concept of social justice and doing good in the world. Seven in 10 millennials consider themselves social activists, and 72% of them are eager to participate in a nonprofit young professional group. 

They want to be of service. 

I recently spoke to a young woman who was discerning to be a Catholic sister, but changed her mind before she took perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 

I asked her why and the answer was very simple and yet disheartening. 

“I want to work for an employer that values what I do.”

Then may I suggest she did not have a vocation to become a religious sister.  Because it is not a job with an employer - it is a vocation to serve and emulate Christ.  What Piazza just described is antithetical to the the mindset of someone wishing to enter the religious life.

The author lists examples of nuns (sisters, really - a nun technically is a religious women living a contemplative, cloistered life, like my beloved Handmaids of the Precious Blood) who should be lauded:... (continued)

Read More at The Digital Hairshirt

Link:

• Nunsense at TIME 

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