02/05/02
May 02, 2002 Nuns demand more power in 'male' Church From Richard Owen in Rome
The Times
AMERICAN nuns are intensifying pressure for changes that will give them more power in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. They blame male domination by a secretive old boys' network for the paedophile troubles that have divided the Church. Leading the call for a greater role for women in decision-making is Sister Kathleen Pruitt, head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the biggest organisation of American nuns. Sister Kathleen arrived in Rome to tell Vatican officials that Catholic women were "deeply troubled by the escalating crisis over allegations of clerical abuse". She said that the Pope's meeting last week with American cardinals on sexual abuse by priests had failed to quell rising anger and concern in the Church and that religious sisters felt betrayed and indignant. A meeting with the Pope is not planned, but Sister Kathleen, whose organisation represents more than 75,000 American nuns, is expected to meet Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, today or tomorrow before returning to America. Cardinal Ratzinger, who defends doctrinal orthodoxy on the Pope's behalf, shares his view that women have an important but limited role to play in the life of the Church, and there is no question of their serving as priests. He also backs the Pope's view that priestly celibacy must be maintained at all costs. Yesterday, however, it emerged that Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, of Brazil, who said this week that clerical celibacy should be optional, had backed calls by senior prelates for a third Vatican Council to challenge papal conservatism on a range of controversial issues from celibacy to divorce, abortion and contraception. Il Giornale said that supporters of greater Church democracy had opened a Madrid-based website (www.proconcil.org) for those favouring a third council, a project long advocated by the leading liberal contender for the papacy, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the Archbishop of Milan. Cardinal Martini, 75, is to be replaced in July as Archbishop and his calls for a "debate to take the Church into the modern world" have been cold-shouldered by the Pope. The eruption of protests in the Church in America over sex scandals, however, has offered Cardinal Martini a pyrrhic victory by opening the floodgates to demands for change. Signatories of an "open letter to the Pope" on the new website include not only Cardinal Arns but also other prelates from Latin America and even a member of the Vatican Curia, Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, of Japan, head of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerants. Sister Kathleen, from Bellevue, Washington State, said that the Vatican's failure to deal with the problem of paedophile priests and the "tendency simply to move them from one parish to another" was the result of a protectionist male hierarchy that looked after its own. She said that American nuns were worried by the impact of the scandals on the Church, which was losing moral credibility. She demanded the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, Archbishop of Boston, who is accused of failing to act against abusive priests. That, she said, would help in the healing process. The situation in Boston worsened yesterday when a parish rebelled against Cardinal Law, saying that it would refuse from now on to take part in Church fundraising. In Brooklyn, Church authorities defied a Vatican instruction that paedophilia should first be handled as an internal Church matter by signing a formal deal with the police, agreeing to hand over any priest alleged to have abused children or teenagers. Sister Mary Boys, from New York, said that she felt betrayed and did not believe that the "culture of Rome" would listen. The male hierarchy had operated an old boys' network that had proved "incredibly insensitive to victims of sexual abuse". In a statement, the nuns said that the Catholic leadership's pattern of silence was eroding trust in the Church and there was a need for "openness, radical honesty and transparency . . . we believe there is an opportunity to be self-critical rather than defensive and so create a more healthy Church". Sister Marie LaBollita, from Newton, Massachusetts, said she was outraged that last week's meeting with the Pope had consisted of "white-haired old men in red vestments" without a single victim of abuse, a relation or an expert. Eugene Kennedy, author of The Unhealed Wound: the Church and Human Sexuality, told the Los Angeles Times that the American Church "owes its success to women . . . these women have a clear consciousness that they as much as the bishops are the Church, and they are going to speak out". Famiglia Cristiana, the most popular Italian Catholic magazine, said the paedophile scandal had also affected Italy, where seven priests had been jailed.
May 02, 2002 Nuns demand more power in 'male' Church From Richard Owen in Rome
The Times
AMERICAN nuns are intensifying pressure for changes that will give them more power in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. They blame male domination by a secretive old boys' network for the paedophile troubles that have divided the Church. Leading the call for a greater role for women in decision-making is Sister Kathleen Pruitt, head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the biggest organisation of American nuns. Sister Kathleen arrived in Rome to tell Vatican officials that Catholic women were "deeply troubled by the escalating crisis over allegations of clerical abuse". She said that the Pope's meeting last week with American cardinals on sexual abuse by priests had failed to quell rising anger and concern in the Church and that religious sisters felt betrayed and indignant. A meeting with the Pope is not planned, but Sister Kathleen, whose organisation represents more than 75,000 American nuns, is expected to meet Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, today or tomorrow before returning to America. Cardinal Ratzinger, who defends doctrinal orthodoxy on the Pope's behalf, shares his view that women have an important but limited role to play in the life of the Church, and there is no question of their serving as priests. He also backs the Pope's view that priestly celibacy must be maintained at all costs. Yesterday, however, it emerged that Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, of Brazil, who said this week that clerical celibacy should be optional, had backed calls by senior prelates for a third Vatican Council to challenge papal conservatism on a range of controversial issues from celibacy to divorce, abortion and contraception. Il Giornale said that supporters of greater Church democracy had opened a Madrid-based website (www.proconcil.org) for those favouring a third council, a project long advocated by the leading liberal contender for the papacy, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the Archbishop of Milan. Cardinal Martini, 75, is to be replaced in July as Archbishop and his calls for a "debate to take the Church into the modern world" have been cold-shouldered by the Pope. The eruption of protests in the Church in America over sex scandals, however, has offered Cardinal Martini a pyrrhic victory by opening the floodgates to demands for change. Signatories of an "open letter to the Pope" on the new website include not only Cardinal Arns but also other prelates from Latin America and even a member of the Vatican Curia, Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, of Japan, head of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerants. Sister Kathleen, from Bellevue, Washington State, said that the Vatican's failure to deal with the problem of paedophile priests and the "tendency simply to move them from one parish to another" was the result of a protectionist male hierarchy that looked after its own. She said that American nuns were worried by the impact of the scandals on the Church, which was losing moral credibility. She demanded the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, Archbishop of Boston, who is accused of failing to act against abusive priests. That, she said, would help in the healing process. The situation in Boston worsened yesterday when a parish rebelled against Cardinal Law, saying that it would refuse from now on to take part in Church fundraising. In Brooklyn, Church authorities defied a Vatican instruction that paedophilia should first be handled as an internal Church matter by signing a formal deal with the police, agreeing to hand over any priest alleged to have abused children or teenagers. Sister Mary Boys, from New York, said that she felt betrayed and did not believe that the "culture of Rome" would listen. The male hierarchy had operated an old boys' network that had proved "incredibly insensitive to victims of sexual abuse". In a statement, the nuns said that the Catholic leadership's pattern of silence was eroding trust in the Church and there was a need for "openness, radical honesty and transparency . . . we believe there is an opportunity to be self-critical rather than defensive and so create a more healthy Church". Sister Marie LaBollita, from Newton, Massachusetts, said she was outraged that last week's meeting with the Pope had consisted of "white-haired old men in red vestments" without a single victim of abuse, a relation or an expert. Eugene Kennedy, author of The Unhealed Wound: the Church and Human Sexuality, told the Los Angeles Times that the American Church "owes its success to women . . . these women have a clear consciousness that they as much as the bishops are the Church, and they are going to speak out". Famiglia Cristiana, the most popular Italian Catholic magazine, said the paedophile scandal had also affected Italy, where seven priests had been jailed.
