Apostolic Visitation is moving forward despite ‘boycott’ reports

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Comments: 32

Mother Mary Clare Millea (center) with some of her fellow sisters

Washington D.C., Dec 4, 2009 / 03:54 pm (CNA).- Responding to a report which claimed that the majority of women religious are not complying with the apostolic visitation, the Apostolic Visitation Office has said that “some congregations” have sent incomplete responses but the effort is moving ahead as planned. The National Catholic Reporter in a Nov. 24 article cited unnamed sources who claimed a significant number of religious congregations were not cooperating with the Apostolic Visitation.

“There's been almost universal resistance” said one unnamed women religious who reportedly was familiar with the congregations’ responses. "We are saying 'enough!' In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity."

Nov. 20 was the deadline for questionnaires to be returned to the apostolic visitator, Mother Mary Clare Millea, who is superior of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The National Catholic Reporter, citing “an informed source,” said many women religious submitted only partial answers to the questionnaire. Some sent in copies of their orders’ religious constitutions, arguing that this contained the information requested.

However, a statement from the Apostolic Visitation Office casts doubt on the extent of this uncooperativeness.

The Apostolic Visitation’s assistant for communications, Sr. Kieran Foley, FSE, responded to a CNA inquiry about the reported boycott.

She said the office continues to receive responses from major superiors to the questionnaires and has not yet completed its review of these responses.

“In a spirit of confidentiality, as I am sure you will understand, we are not at liberty to disclose how many we have received or from whom,” Sr. Foley told CNA. “While some of the congregations did send incomplete answers to the questionnaire, the Apostolic Visitation will be moving ahead as planned with the phases as described on the Apostolic Visitation web site, that is, at the completion of the data collection from the questionnaires (Phase 2), we will proceed to Phase 3, conducting selected on-site visits to congregations.”

On July 28 the Apostolic Visitation sent to congregation leaders a working document called an Instrumentum Laboris, which outlines the aims of the Visitation. The document presented “reflection topics” for all members of religious orders to consider in preparation for the visitation. Topics included the religious identity of the respondent’s order, its governance and financial administration, and its spiritual and common life.

Questions were presented concerning religious orders’ vocation promotion, admission and formation policies, and fidelity to and expression of their vows. The reflections also asked respondents about their concerns for the future of their religious order.

Comments: 32

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Sister Jean Anne Moser
Manitowoc/WI/USA 05/07/2010 09:22 AM EST

"There has been much discussion in the media about the Apostolic Visitation process, some of it quite negative. Our community has just completed our Apostolic Visitation. Does the fact that we were interviewed mean that we are a bad community? NO! In an effort to get a fair picture of apostolic religious life in the United States, about 100 communites are being interviewed. Communites of different sizes, small, medium, and large, have been chosen. They are from different parts of the country, and from urban and rural areas. Communities were chosen with different apostolates: education, health care, parish ministry, working with the poor, etc. Our sister visitors were pleasant, friendly, and good listeners. They were interested in seeing how we experience religious life. We discussed our vocation stories, our ministries, our strengths and challenges as a community, how we picture our future, and how the Church can be of help to us. In our community we have been very fortunate to have a community director who cooperated with the whole process and encouraged us to do the same. About two-thirds of our sisters had interviews. We did not find the process something to be worried or fearful about. If we open our hearts, it can be a special time of God's grace. I pray that many other communites will have the same experience. Sister Jean Anne Moser Franciscan Sister of Christan Charity

Published by: HEA
Nebraska 02/18/2010 03:03 PM EST

Ater reading all the comments, I am relieved that so many people have still that "Catholic Instinct" to realise that something has gone badly wrong among many sisterhoods. I hope everybody prays that God's grace can turn things around!

Published by: L.W. Rehman
Ravenna, OH USA 12/10/2009 05:43 PM EST

Rate: Regular

The entire problem can be summed up as coming mainly from one source - the LCWR: Leadership Conference of Women Religious. This pathetic group of dying orders should worry more about their survival and try something new----obedience.

Published by: Lawrence Gregan
Wagga, New South Wales, Australia 12/07/2009 07:23 PM EST

I was working at a Catholic mission in Papua New Guinea in the 1990s, also there were three Maryknoll sisters, aged in their 60s. These "sisters" were not in any kind of habits or veils, on occasions would invite me in for coffee, usually when they wanted some kind of maintenance carried out on the convent house. The cordial relationship soon deteriated when on one visit one nun commented that Pierre Telhard De-chardin would one day be declared a saint!, I politely replied that this person could not as he had 14 declarations against him by the Vatican for his printed works, he also took part in fraud in England regarding the 'finding' of a skull with mixed animal human bones. These 'nuns are I am sure on the way out, there are no young nuns in their order that I know of. By the way; an American Passionist Priest visiting Papua New Guinea while I was there told me of a Priest friend who used to say Mass in a convent in the US, this Priest noticed there were very few nuns at his Mass, on enquiring why the nun he was talking to said, - Father, the others are upstairs saying "mass" themselves!. Some religious orders are destroying themselves through faulty ecumenism, loss of faith and humility. Lawrence.

Published by: Anne
USA 12/07/2009 04:44 PM EST

I taught with OSF sisters in the early 1980's. At the time I thought they were cool - just like single girls in their twenties...only living in the convent. Now that I look back I see that they were really worldly and rarely conversed about spiritual concerns. They were free of the responsibilities of wife and mother but were enjoying a sorority like existence - just not dating. No veils except for one older sister who wasn't cool but now I realize was holy. The orders need reforming as they did at the time of the Council of Trent. Teresa of Avila help us!!

Published by: Sacerdote
New York, New York, USA. 12/07/2009 01:01 PM EST

Any religious communities of nuns that do not comply with the Apostolic Visitation have ceased to be in Communion with the Catholic Church.

Published by: TimJ
Sullivan, WI 12/07/2009 11:33 AM EST

This coming weekend, Dec. 12-13, the National Collection for Retired Religious will be taken up in parishes around the country. To show your disapproval of the dissent Sisters, you and I have the freedom to send our donations directly to the retirement fund of Sisters, nuns or men religious that show obedience to the Vatican.

Published by: Don
Ma 12/07/2009 05:38 AM EST

I hope they are investigating the Sisters of St Joseph in the Springfield Ma Diocese!

Published by: irishsmile
Oregon 12/07/2009 01:30 AM EST

A number of these women support abortion and many promote homosexual rights. As Catholics, we need to withdraw our financial support from pretend Catholic colleges, convents and even dioceses that are too extremely liberal. If the NCR promotes it... run for the hills.

Published by: Laura
Winona MN USA 12/07/2009 12:50 AM EST

I am glad to see the visitation and am praying for its success. The local orders in my area do not wear the habit, and some blatantly promote New Age and feminist ideas and practices. For example, at a festival hosted by one of the orders, there was a booth selling various "spiritual" items,all stamped with the phrase "womanspirit rising". Other booths sold Native American Dream Catchers, feathers, etc. Very few Catholic items, like rosaries or crucifixes or prayer cards, were among the items for sale. The whole atmosphere was strange, and not very Catholic at all. Other local orders who run retreat centers advertise talks on ecology, Reiki healing, prayer labrynths, and other New Age things. I hope this visitation puts an end to such things quickly and restores true Catholicity to our religious orders!

Published by: LeonG
brunei 12/07/2009 12:42 AM EST

Andrew & Kay: Of course, any resistance to Vatican surveys seems unreasonable but media exaggertions cannot be ruled out, either. There possibly are some convents that are resistant but it seems unlikely that there is wholesale non-compliance. Elsewhere here, officially The Vatican has declared Medjugorie "non constat de supernaturalitater" - no evidence of the supernatural. The local bishops of Mostar have declared themselves consistently against any evidence too. They should be obeyed but are not by many perhaps well-meaning but misdirected catholics. Organised pilgrimages are forbidden but this sanction is ignored by various parishes and dioceses around the world. The so-called visionaries are not as exemplary as one is led to believe. Also, so far, we have had over 40,000 alleged personal visitations of Our Blessed Lady since the whole saga began which must stretch one's credibility beyond the normal. Leading vision-broker Thomaslavic Vlasic was stripped of his priesthood by Pope Benedict XVI in July this year. This should perhap have been done long before. There have also been very significant problems with the Franciscans and disobedience in Medjugorie too.

Published by: carol
louisville,ky 12/06/2009 06:53 PM EST

Why am I not surprised they won't respond. When they are not in habit they are referred to as nutty nuns. I had a cousin that said "pooh pooh on the Vatican. "She was a member of a large convent & she was in her kilt. There are two nuns that go out together one in habit the other in her suit. I will compliment the one in habit. The other would get all huffy & say I'm a Nun too. I would look at her & "say sorry I would never know"

Published by: Fr Bill
Fernley/Nevada/USA 12/06/2009 04:39 PM EST

The "spirit of vatican two" is like the smoke of satan and has infected a significant part of the clergy and religious. Benedict XVI works to bring his flock back to the path to righteousness. The Church is episcopal and not democratic, but the "spirit" says otherwise. Time will tell.

Published by: Kay
McKinney, TX 12/06/2009 03:11 PM EST

Andrew, The Vatican has NOT declared Medjugorje a false apparition. They are still studying it. The visionaries themselves are NOT living or responding in disobedience. The fruit of the apparitions--repentance, healings, reconcilliation, vocations and increased prayer lives--would also indicate its validity. Your comments regarding nuns I agree with completely.

Published by: TimJ
Sullivan, WI 12/06/2009 02:37 PM EST

Some Sisters have been quoted in published reports as saying that the reason for their resistance to the Vatican investigation is because the Pope refuses to allow women's ordination to priesthood. Concerning the ordination of women in the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II has spoken clearly and definitively on that topic. He said that Divine Providence has not given the Church the authority and power to ordain women to the priesthood. For the Church to attempt to ordain a woman to priesthood would be to attempt an invalid action. Catholic women who have felt called to ordained ministry have left the Catholic Church to be "ordained" in the Anglican/Episcopal Church, Lutheran Church, etc. No one is forcing these women to remain in the Catholic Church. No one forced these women to enter the religious life. No one is forcing women religious who wish to be ordained to remain in the religious life. The most important commitment in life that any person can make is to save one's soul. All the rest is secondary. We save our soul by seeking God and His will for our lives. If we truly are seeking God's will for our lives, we will find ourselves called to a life of obedience to His will and not to our conscience, called to a life of humility, called to a life of holiness of life, called to become a reconciler and not a divider, called to speak truth in love and not with hostility, and called to a life of service.

Published by: Joseph Aubin
Plattsburgh,N.Y. 12/06/2009 02:20 PM EST

Those nuns "liberating "themselves fromthe influence of the church are causes devestation to the churcvh. Better that they leave;we can survive without them. Their actiovities are self destructive, anyway. They wont be with us much longer. Thank God !

Published by: Joyce
California 12/06/2009 01:07 PM EST

In our area, there is a group of nuns from the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, RSM, who are from Ireland. They all dress in civilian garb, some very sloppily, and others more stylish with high heeled shoes. They are all party women and love the company of men, priests included. They used to teach in schools, but no longer. They prefer "social work." They should be sent back to Ireland.

Published by: Laurie
Canada 12/06/2009 01:07 PM EST

It only exposes the reason why this visitation is needed in the first place.

Published by: Andrew
Asheville, NC USA 12/06/2009 08:20 AM EST

How sad that so many of our women's religious orders have been taken over by the radical feminists. Once upon a time, it would have been unthinkable for a nun or an entire order of sisters to openly support abortion and pro-abortion political candidates but that's what's happening now in some cases. I know of one convent where the nuns have taken down the Stations of the Cross in their Chapel and replaced them with floral arrangements. These are also nuns who don't wear the veil and have no vocations. Unlike other cloistered orders in the U.S. (that are growing with vocations), these feminist orders are dying out which proves a point: the feminist movement does not appeal to women as much as the feminists would have us believe! Furthermore, the Catholic Church is not like a renegade Protestant church where a group of parishoners at a First Baptist Church gets mad and forms a Second Baptist Church. No: obedience is a dogma in the Catholic Church for a reason. It was obedience to the chain of command, established by Jesus Himself, that led to the canonization of many Saints as well as the approval of apparitions such as Lourdes, Fatima and Guadeloupe. And, it was disobedience that has exposed false orders and apparitions like Holy Love Ministries, Medjugorje, Garabandal and countless others. If these women's orders really want to continue on as Catholic, they can't be Catholic in name only. Otherwise, their orders will die out from a lack of vocations - which is fine with me!

Published by: vin
ilion/ny/usa 12/06/2009 08:20 AM EST

The disobedient women religious (?) apparently are aware of what they are doing by deliberately going against the Vatican. Obedience is not easy, but they certainly were aware of what was expected of them. It's hypocrisy in practice. Not good for the church. If they want to do social work, there are many other avenues without incorporating disdain towards the church. God sees all good works.

Published by: Joe
Melbourne. Australia 12/06/2009 03:38 AM EST

In Australia we have similar religious both male and female who believe the vatican has no right to ask questions. We have a congregation of priests in Melbourne who have several members who preach contry to church teaching and one member refuses to absolve and has denied the acrement of penance becuse he hates listerning to people confessing. The superior knows whats going on but does not do a thing. Obedience is an out dated idea and way of life. Religious have becom lazy and accoustomed to living the high life and enjoying the good life due to the genirosity of good Catholics. What they need is to lose all their wealth and once more rely on Divine Providence, throw in a littly humility and maybe they will look and act like true Religious.

Published by: Wendy P
West Hollywood, Ca. USA 12/05/2009 11:04 PM EST

In an age of accountability and transparacy I do not get what religious have to fear. Unless there is something to hide. I would doubt that anything uncovered on a nationwide bases would be earth shattering. Nothing that could not be corrected.

Published by: Arkyump
Arkansas 12/05/2009 09:30 PM EST

If it is true, this poor attempt of being independent, then the Holy See needs to pull all their charters. Of all the religious in the Church today, there are more problems with "nuns' than any other group. It seems they go out of their way to go against the teachings of the Church. Social progressiveness does not mean siding with the devi. Most likely, these socially progressive religious are the reason that there are few women considering entering these abhorrent excuses for God's Servants.

Published by: Theresa
Toledo, Ohio usa 12/05/2009 08:55 PM EST

I feel this is another sign of our times which is about to change its path very, soon. This is why the world and the church have been cold and lukewarm because sisters and nuns don't listen to the Pope any longer. They are doing everything, but what they are suppose to do which is to pray and obey. Their love for God is now love for themselves. The Lord is clean sweeping our church, and Thanks be to God for it!

Published by: Abraham
Chicago 12/05/2009 07:23 PM EST

Some years ago I was at a seminar at which a nun explained to us that she wasn't really sure about all the God stuff, but that this was a great way to get involved in social work. That was horrifying enough. Then, at a time when my daughter was deeply troubled and was briefly under observation at a Catholic psychiatric hospital, I caught her with a Wiccan spell book from the library - in the psychiatric ward. I informed staff and was told Wicca was helpful to a young girl's self-esteem and was not incompatible with Catholicism. Talk about horror. I did some study. Nuns are supposed to be brides of Christ - and their habit is their bridal garment. I pay little attention to such brides who scorn their bridal garment. Thank God for this visitation.

Published by: John
Webster, NY 12/05/2009 06:18 PM EST

Isn't this the same "non serviam" satan uttered before his fall? If these blatantly dissident women religious will not serve, why do we need them? Come to think of it their numbers ARE declining (and they know it) and they are becoming irrelevant. On the other hand those orders with a traditional vocation like the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist are experiencing a rapid growth in numbers. God works in wonderful ways! Pray for the success of this Apostolic Visitation.

Published by: Sheila
Walnut Creek, CA, USA 12/05/2009 03:47 PM EST

For those young women interested in religious life, this visitation is a solid gauge as to a community's adherence to the authority of the Pope and the magesterium. I advise these young women to ask their prospective communities if they complied with the questionnaire and ask for copies. If one is denied this information, it would be better to look elsewhere for a solid community.

Published by: Gary
Milwaukee WI USA 12/05/2009 01:07 PM EST

Another example of CNA trying to rile readers, this time quoting NCR no less, which quotes 'unnamed' sources. Commenters thus far have swallowed the sensationalism and are assuming the worst about religious sisters with absolutely no evidence. CCC 2464 ff. esp 2477.

Published by: Anita
Florida,USA 12/05/2009 03:27 AM EST

Rate: Very Good

It is sad that so many nuns are rebelling against the Pope. Jesus put him in the authority he has and they are basically ingnoring Jesus and being disobedient to Him. They need to move on if they are defying Jesus, because they are deceiving themselves and everyone else.

Published by: J.C.
Coral Gables, Florida, USA 12/04/2009 11:53 PM EST

This is simply outright disobedience on the part of the women religious and exposes their sense of pride and arrogance. What happened to humility?

Published by: Michael Futschik
Lake Jackson, TX 12/04/2009 11:12 PM EST

"We are saying 'enough!' In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity." Well, this is precisely why the Apostolic Visitation needs to take place. Think about it... "never seen such unanimity"... shouldn't we have seen "such unanimity" in their faithful profession of the Catholic faith; in their faithful obedience to the Magisterium. Why is their unanimity so unprecendented?

Published by: Louis
Singapore 12/04/2009 05:52 PM EST

Rate: Excellent

It is blatantly obvious that this Apostolic Visitation is necessary, as it would seem that many orders have forgotten the call to obedience. Rome would no doubt have copies of their 'religious constitutions', but they were asked to answer questions and their failure to cooperate is just another example of the disregard that some order possess to the Church hierarchy and magisterium. Further, it has been this defiance that initially led Rome to send a team to evaluate some of these religious orders. They are only exacerbating the point by acting in this fashion, for if they had been acting in accord with their religious constitutions, Rome would never had had the need to make an inquiry regarding their orders' fidelity, expression of vows and spiritual life.

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