what is so wrong about serving with Love?

I can't stress this quote enough: the fruit of Love is SERVICE. I say this because of something I read last night that just has me baffled.. ... I read it and wondered what Mother Teresa would say about this finding as she looked about the squalor that was her life in Calcutta for so many years. I think also about the many folks who went on a pilgrimage to Calcutta and the many things they took away from the experience of working side by side with the sisters there, tending to the hurts and pains of those for whom were left on the margins of society. What is the male-dominated "leaders" of this "church" so afraid of....because I tell yout his, THEY HAVE COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN HOW JESUS TOLD ALL HE MET TO TAKE CARE OF THE WEAK, THE INFIRM, THE SICK. He did NOT make it complicated, rather He gave us His example by doing it himself...(think of how he taught His disciples to wash the feet of others.) Read on for more.

"A group of nuns are reeling over accusations by the Vatican that they have been disobeying church doctrine. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a group of 1,500 women who represent 80% of Catholic sisters in the United States, received an unpleasant surprise in Rome on Wednesday, 30 May, when church leaders declared they were flouting doctrine on important moral issues. But are church leaders just chafed at the idea that women are helping to redefine church priorities?
Contradicting popular opinion, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has held that the LCWR is paying too much attention to poverty and socioeconomic injustice while ignoring church doctrine on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia. According to the special Vatican office, the nuns have been promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith,” reports Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times. Church leaders have also contested a letter signed by LCWR members supporting U.S. president Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care overhaul, which was opposed by American bishops, the “church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals,” Goldstein reports, quoting the church.

In their assessment, the bishops emphasize the church’s age-old values, citing the same “appeal to tradition” fallacy so often used to criticize change in religious institutions. Quoting Raymond Arroyo, a host on the Catholic Cable Channel EWTN, Goldstein reports that “[t]he Vatican is throwing a life line to the leadership of female communities that are not thriving,” and “attempting to facilitate a reform that will allow them to rediscover their initial calling and draw young vocations into the future.” The problem with this position is that a premise is not correct just because it is traditional: male dominance cannot be justified on the basis of church tradition (or on any basis, for that matter).
 it might seem counter-intuitive that the Vatican should diverge with the LCWR in their fight for greater economic equality. One might expect church patriarchs to hail the nuns’ efforts to combat poverty, hunger, human rights abuses, and other pressing humanitarian issues. After all, the Universal Church of Rome is known for these kinds of charitable efforts. Nevertheless, the church has imposed an ultimatum on the nuns, as Eric Marrapodi of CNN reports: they can accept the assessment, negotiate, or create a separate organization outside the hierarchy of the church. What really seems to be happening is that the church is re-asserting traditional male dominance over female-driven social and institutional change, clinging stubbornly to tradition merely for tradition’s sake."

Comments

  1. former nun.....and proud of itJune 21, 2012 at 8:49 AM

    I have noticed how much the male dominated church is fighting to keep it that way! They are afraid that women will actually make it better. As you said, Jesus held women in higher esteem than men because he could see that it would be a tough row to how down the line. And I think of how the MEN ran away and hid at his crucifixion, but the WOMEN stood by Him till the end. The men can take their rules and shove them...you rock, Women of God!

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  2. I am thinking that if you work for justice through feeding the poor, wouldn't it stand to reason that everything else falls into place? I mean, sure, keeping abortion at bay and all......one would follow another. Work towards the common good of all.

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