THIS IS A RANT

And if you have a problem with it, you have three options.  One:  just skip it, and read something else.  Two:  place your rebuttal in the comments section.  Three: try to realize how little I care about you not liking it.

The National Catholic Reporter, a journal that as near as I can determine is about as Catholic as the Church of Scotland, has recently put up two items on it's web site.  One of the these is an interview with Archbishop Joseph Tobin, who is the number two man at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.  It is titled  " Vatican Must Hear 'Anger and Hurt' of American Nuns, Official Says".The other is a shorter piece touting a "strategy of reconciliation" with the American Sisters affiliated with the LCWR (Leadership Council of Women Religious).

Let me make my bias perfectly clear:  I DON'T GIVE A RAT'S A** ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS.  Not at all, The Sisters of the LCWR have spent nearly fifty years trying to disassemble the Church in the US.  From those delightful Sisters of providence in high school, who tried to teach me not to say the rosary, pray before the blessed sacrament or pay attention to the Holy Father, to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who signed, more or less en mass, an attempt to block the implementation of Liturgiam Authenticam in the US, I have never run across a congregation affiliated with this miserable group that was faithful to the Magisterial Teachings of the Church.

Representing better than 80% of the religious sisters in the US, these groups receive about 20% of the new vocations to the religious life.  Simply because they have abandoned it.  NO group that has seen such a decline in numbers can be said to be doing well.  And no group that has spent a generation defying the legitimate authority in the Church can be said to be faithful.

These women are being subjected to not one, but two Apostolic Visitations.  One is from Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life.  It is looking into the fact that when Vatican Two called religious order to return to their original charism, the American Nuns abandoned their in droves.  It's looking into the fact that the norms of religious life--community living, obedience, poverty and yes, chastity are not being followed.  It's looking into the reason why there are almost no vocations to these congregations.  And to make the job easier, They have only to compare these women to those congregations of women affiliated with the IRL, who are displaying stability, and in some cases, explosive growth to see that in fact there is not a shortage of women called to religious life, but a shortage of opportunities to join, and examples of, faithful women religious.

The Sisters reactions have been those of rebellion and disobedience since the Visitation was announced.  No surprise, these chicks have been behaving like spoiled college freshmen for fifty years.  But the cornerstone of religious life is obedience--the other vows, and the whole life. proceeds from that.  And these women do not want to obey anything.

From their undermining of the Bishops in the last two years on questions stemming from the sanctity of life to the sanctity of marriage, their stubborn refusal to cooperate, their deliberate mendacity in public relations, all these women have managed to do is cement the appearance that they are in material, if not formal, schism.

Anger and Hurt?  Why isn't anyone worrying about the anger and hurt of parents who have children who say that the Church isn't important, and unique on the earth, because these sisters have undermined that belief?  What about the anger and hurt of laity who contribute to Religious Communities, when they hear the superiors of those communities say that we "need to get beyond Christ"?  What about the hurt of families who see their children cohabiting, or living in sodomitic relationships with the sister's blessing and approval?

And most of all,what about the anger and hurt of the Saints, who look down from heaven to see souls falling into Hell for listening to these women, who many assume to be speaking from the heart of the Church and out of Holiness?

Nobody in the hierarchy gives a Rats Ass about the anger and hurt of the Faithful, who are generally relegated to the periphery of parish life.  Nobody cares about the hurt of those who ask, and beg, for reverent liturgies only to be told that sister has been to St. Louis, and knows best.  Nobody cares about the anger of men whose children have been murdered before birth under laws theses "sisters" supported and lobbied for.

We shouldn't give a moments concern for their anger and hurt, and we shouldn't give a thought to a strategy of reconciliation with these communities.  We should tell them that they can be Catholic Religious, or they can be Independent.  But they can't be hotbeds of heresy, disobedience schism and lesbian activism--which right now they are--and pose as Catholics.

The Sisters of the LCWR embarrass me as a Catholic.