The Vatican v. the US nuns: what is it really all about?
Historian and commentator Tim Stanley warns that it would be simplistic to blame the dispute between the LCWR and the Vatican on chauvinism.
- International
- June 29, 2012
Will no one rid the Catholic Church of these turbulent American nuns? Earlier this month, the Vatican rebuked the liberal Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) for its unorthodox positions on female priests, contraception and homosexuality. Refusing to back down, one Catholic group has hit the road on a tour called Nuns on the Bus, which aims to show what the modern nun is all about. Apparently, it’s not prayer or charity. Instead, it’s lobbying against federal budget cuts and, by implication, re-electing Barack Obama. So far, there hasn’t been a wimple in sight.
It’s tempting to see the nuns vs Vatican story through the prism of gender politics. Given the American Church’s history of covering up child abuse by priests, it must be galling that the male leadership is taking such a public stance against a group of religious women who are simply fighting for what they regard as equality. From the nuns' perspective, it’s frustrating that the Church’s teachings on social justice are being subordinated to an obsession with patriarchal orthodoxy.
But this row is about theology, not identity politics. The Catholic Church is one of the few institutions left in the West that simply cannot change. Its theology is like a delicate spider’s web: remove one strand and the entire structure would collapse. It can’t be done.
If, for example, the Church permitted female priests, two possible conclusions would be drawn. First, that God can change his mind. That’s patently absurd, as it undermines faith in the Almighty – God can’t make mistakes. Alternatively, if an exclusively male priesthood was never really part of God’s plan, then perhaps the Church got God wrong? If so, what else has it messed up? Might it be wrong about the resurrection or the virgin birth? How can we trust any doctrinal statement that the Church makes in the future? And without any doctrinal yardstick to measure things by, might female priesthood be an error, too?
Full Story: The war between the Vatican and American nuns is about bad theology, not gender oppression
Source: The Telegraph
It’s tempting to see the nuns vs Vatican story through the prism of gender politics. Given the American Church’s history of covering up child abuse by priests, it must be galling that the male leadership is taking such a public stance against a group of religious women who are simply fighting for what they regard as equality. From the nuns' perspective, it’s frustrating that the Church’s teachings on social justice are being subordinated to an obsession with patriarchal orthodoxy.
But this row is about theology, not identity politics. The Catholic Church is one of the few institutions left in the West that simply cannot change. Its theology is like a delicate spider’s web: remove one strand and the entire structure would collapse. It can’t be done.
If, for example, the Church permitted female priests, two possible conclusions would be drawn. First, that God can change his mind. That’s patently absurd, as it undermines faith in the Almighty – God can’t make mistakes. Alternatively, if an exclusively male priesthood was never really part of God’s plan, then perhaps the Church got God wrong? If so, what else has it messed up? Might it be wrong about the resurrection or the virgin birth? How can we trust any doctrinal statement that the Church makes in the future? And without any doctrinal yardstick to measure things by, might female priesthood be an error, too?
Full Story: The war between the Vatican and American nuns is about bad theology, not gender oppression
Source: The Telegraph
