I just finished reading an article in the Huffington Post penned by Jim Wallis. The article simply and clearly states that the dissident nuns aren't doing anything wrong and it is the big, bad Vatican - and the all-male hierachy - that's missing the big picture, that is, that the nuns are doing Christ's work. I didn't know who Mr. Wallis was, so I clicked on the link and read his bio. While I can't say that Mr. Wallis is anti-Catholic, it certainly is obvious that his personal Christian beliefs run counter to that of the Catholic Church.
It turns out that he is owns a website, http://www.sojo.net/, that is particularly concerned with social justice issues, but, as usual, the devil is in the details. Turns out that the Sojourner's website is for same-sex marriage and Mr. Wallis' wife was one of the first women to be ordained in the Church of England- two things definitely opposed to Catholic teaching. To his credit however, it would seem that his ministry is against abortion and he even came out in 2009 in support of Pope Benedict's encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Unfortunately, Mr. Wallis is at the wrong end of this arguement.
It seems kind of ironic when you think about it because here we have a man that, for all intents and purposes, has a belief system that fundamentaly is at odds with Holy Mother Church and yet, he is trying to defend the heretical actions of women who violated their authority. Like I said, Mr. Wallis may not be an anti-Catholic Protestant but, the nature of his arguement and affiliations certainly distance himself from accepting the truth of the Catholic Church. Let's look at a couple of the points he brings up in this article (read it in full here).
Mr. Wallis states:
"...They have reprimanded the women for not sufficiently upholding the bishops' teachings and doctrines and paying much more attention to issues like poverty and health care than to abortion, homosexuality and male-only priesthood."
Sorry Mr. Wallis, it wasn't that the nuns weren't "uholding the bishop's teachings" it was that they weren't upholding the Catholic Church's teachings, under the natural supervision of the bishops and they had begun to take very liberal stances on contraception, homosexuality and women's priestly ordination.
"...they [the nuns] have been taken to task for 'occasional public statements' that disagree with the bishops..."
Occasional public statements? Like the 24 nuns who publically supported abortion and took out an ad in the New York Times? Or how about Margaret Traxler, a nun who openly accepted an overt pro-homosexuality view and even went so far as to carry a banner, into the Vatican, to protest the Church's stance on abortion? Or how about Jeanine Gramick, a nun who was head of New Ways Ministry, an organization that supports gay and lesbian Catholics, who in 1999 was removed from the ministry by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) due to her gross undermining the Church's teacing on homosexuality? How about Sister Mary Ann Cunningham who in 2006 distributed a "voter guide" encouraging the laiety to stand against Church teaching in matters of abortion and homosexual unions? How about Sister Louise Lears, who was banned from recieving the Sacraments in 2008 after her constant refusal to adhere to Church doctrine banning women's ordination as well as inciting the lay faithful against the Holy See? How about Donna Quinn, a Chicago area pro-abortion nun who actually escorted women to abortion mills? Or, how about Sister Margaret Mary McBride, who was excommunicated in 2009 after sactioning an abortion at a Catholic Hospital? Sorry, Mr. Wallis, but these incidences are way beyond simple "public statements" that "occasionally" happen! They are deliberate acts against the Catholic Church.
"The Vatican's approach to its concerns, to say the least, is quite regrettable. Condemnation and control were chosen over conversation and dialogue. Quite honestly, do most of us believe, or even most Catholics believe, that the bishops are the only 'authentic teachers of faith and morals?'"
To begin with, the Sisters are wrong and as such, need to be corrected. This isn't a disciplinary condemnation but instead a reproval of falsehoods, it's the mother (the Church) and the father (the Pope) correcting the child (the nuns). As for the bishops being the only authentic teachers of faith and morals, well Mr. Wallis, they kind of are. The Catechism of the Catholic Church #883 states the following:
"The college or body of bishops has no authority unless united with the Roman Pontiff, Peter's successor, as its head..."
So, you see, as long as the bishops are in communion with Rome, they are THE teachers of our faith.
"...from a biblical point of view, the sisters may be right and the Vatican wrong."
The irony. A Protestant is telling the Church from which the Bible came from, that the very book they canonized in the year 400, dictates that they are wrong. Wow. Thankfully as Catholics, we don't and we never will, use "the bible alone" to dictate what the truth is! A little history for our Protestant friends: We have the early apostles being commissioned by Christ to spread His teachings unerringly with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, this group of 11 men had the AUTHORITY to proclaim what was right or wrong as well as the power to bind and loose. The early collection of these 11 men who had this TEACHING AUTHORITY, was the very first Magisterium. This group of men who taught unerringly, transmitted the message of Christ through words for the first few decades after Christ's Acension, this SPOKEN WORD of God had AUTHORITY because those first 11 men could indeed speak about the faith and the moral teachings of what Christ wanted for us; this SPOKEN WORD became what is called the Apostolic Tradition because all the information of this new religion was communicated through them and to their followers who followed the apostle's teaching for the first 3 decades of Christianity at which time, the first written words, usually in the form of written letters, began circulating through this early church. It wouldn't be for another 380 years before the Early Catholic Church, who drew upon the Magisterial AUTHORITY as well as the AUTHORITY from the Apostles' teaching, to canonize certain letters into what became the Bible.
So, from a biblical point of view, Mr. Wallis, the sisters are wrong and the Vatican - the Magisterium - is right.
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