American Catholic sisters' "quality of life"

Posted on Theolog this week:

The American Catholic Church has had some difficult years. With thousands of accusations of sexual abuse made over the past two decades and a widespread and well-documented cover-up of the problem, the Church has suffered psychologically, financially, culturally and socially. It has accumulated a great deal of legal debt while the number of parishes without priests is at an all time high. Thirty-four hundred U.S. parishes are currentlywithout a resident pastor.

Given these circumstances, it seems warranted that the Vatican might take a closer look at the state of the American Church. What seems odd is where the Vatican has trained its lens: on American Catholic sisters. In the spring of last year, Slovenian Cardinal Franc Rodé announced an apostolic visitation of all uncloistered sisters living in the United States. Historically, apostolic visitations have been conducted in cases where severe misconduct is suspected. In this case, however, the Vatican is saying nothing more than that it wants to “look into the quality of life” of these women religious.

American sisters have responded to the visitation (a two-year process at minimum) with everything from resignation to paranoia to outrage. With the Vatican so vague in its statement of intentions, some have speculated that the hierarchy intends to appropriate sisters’ property and assets in order to pay off their brothers’ legal debts. Others wonder if Cardinal Rodé is uncomfortable with uncloistered, un-habited sisters and would like to return them to pre-Vatican II restrictions. Still others wonder if the motivation is political. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 95 percent of American sisters, has been singled out for criticism for insufficiently promoting church teaching on male-only priesthood, the sinfulness of homosexuality and the centrality of the Roman Catholic faith as a means to salvation. For nearly all, the whole thing smells a bit fishy.

Sandra Schneiders, a biblical scholar and sister of Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, has written openly about her concerns about the visitation. To her, what is most disturbing is the vague implication of wrongdoing. Her sisters are educators and nurses. They are the underpaid, unrecognized workhorses of the Catholic Church, serving in schools, hospitals, social services, missions and hospices across the country. To be investigated is like rubbing salt in old wounds. At the very least, she would like the Vatican to clarify its motivations. To say that they are investigating “the quality of life” gives American sisters little understanding of their footing. They deserve better.