In the last few months I have adopted a strange group of heroes (sheroes?). They are the defiant nuns who are threatening to bring sanity back to the Catholic Church. You will remember that the boys club, otherwise known as the Vatican, tried to bully them into silence about social issues. They were told to be like the boys in Italy and focus their ethical statements on the scrotum. They were to focus not an economic justice, but on issues Jesus never mentioned like abortion and homosexuality.
What do you do when facing such overwhelming odds? What’s a gal to do when sent to her room unfairly? Road trip!
The nuns are out on the road drawing focus on the Republican budget cuts that will hurt the most vulnerable of America’s poor. The Pope may have the sparkly hat and fancy red shoes, but these pictures of nuns in blue jeans are offering a new awakening for the Catholic Church in America. The Pope and his boys follow the tradition that brought us the inquisition and crusades. These powerful women represent the open-handed open-hearted compassion of the saints. I’m no Catholic, but I can see what is dying and what is being born.
To read NY Times article, click here.
I have the utmost respect for these sisters who are profoundly Christian but they are fighting a loosing battle. Make no mistake the “conflict” here has nothing to do with theology including Patristic theology it has everything to do about power. It was not the new Jewish sect who followed the Rabbi from Nazareth that brought down the Temple Establishment it was the Roman Army and it will not be the sisters who bring down the Vatican, general apathy and irrelevance will be the “army” that does that!
It has and is always about power and Jesus understood that clearly! Perhaps this is why he turns the pyramind of top to bottom on its head for those who claim his Name!
When Martin Luther became the “wild boar in the Vineyard” as the then pope called him it was not Luther’s theology that ultimately brought about the Reformation it was the power of the German nobles who were fed up with a meddling prince from Rome called the Vicar of Christ who was as much a prince as any of them ever hoped to be! They gave Luther the sanctuary and the time for his theology to spread and take root. The sisters have no “German nobles” and indeed the one German “noble” who should give them support is the very one who wants to silence them.
Even in the world of ideology and politics it is the powerful who are bent on the destabilization of our constitutional government by rendering a legitimate president illegitimate in order to protect their wealth.
It is very hard for people to accept the reality of exile but sometimes in exile there is freedom and the Vatican will requires of these sisters they sing a new song but how can they in a strange land carried off in captivity.
Thanks for linking, sisters. We’re rooting for you.