“Fear being forced back”

So that’s the reason some nuns are angrily resisting the Vatican’s Apostolic Visitation to US religious orders.

The Church likes and needs to check in on seminaries and congregations on occasion (rare, at that) and see how they’re doing. It is, after all, a universal church with a set of guidelines by which the faith should be taught and observed. It’s like any corporate body trying to keep unity and harmony and order in its corporation by tending to its many parts around the globe.

But certain members of this corporate body aren’t only balking, they’re refusing to cooperate. It’s been going on for months now, but continues to generate new intrigue.

Sister Elizabeth Ohmann, a Franciscan nun who works for Humane Borders, an immigration lobby group, noted that the investigation is focusing on active sisters rather than those cloistered in monasteries. She told the Arizona Daily Star that she believes the Visitation is targeting those communities that dissent from Catholic teaching, especially on sexuality.

“I think – and this is my opinion – that they are saying they believe it’s the active communities that are really encouraging, say, women priests and are also upholding the rights of homosexuals and even homosexual marriage,” she said.

Ohmann admitted that she and some of her fellow sisters were among these, saying, “Are we going contrary to Rome’s teachings? I say, ‘Yes, it is contrary to Rome’s teachings.’ But it is not contrary to my own conscience.”

Well, there you have it, in a nutshell.

Recently, I received an email from someone helping groups of Sisters who want to speak up, but know they can’t do it in their own religious order because of pressure to resist the Vatican. It said “a new Yahoo message group has been started to enable sisters who support the Apostolic Visitation to communicate with each other anonymously.”

Here’s their site. Here’s their explanation:

Many women religious welcome the Apostolic Visitation in the hope that it might bring about an authentic renewal of religious life. Several of these sisters have been searching for a way to be in solidarity with other sisters who see the value and necessity of the Apostolic Visitation at this time in this country. To answer this need, Ann Carey, author of “Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women’s Religious Communities,” has been asked to moderate a message group wherein sisters who favor the Apostolic Visitation can anonymously be in contact with each other.

Stealth Sisters.

The email added…

Also, it is important to get the word out to sisters that the Apostolic Visitation office still welcomes and encourages letters from individual sisters who want to share their experiences and hopes for religious life. Such letters will be treated as confidential. Sisters may write to:
Mother M. Clare Millea ASCJ
Apostolic Visitation Office
P.O. Box 4328
Hamden, CT 06514-9998

‘Be not afraid.’