For the past
three months I have been in deliberations with Vatican officials regarding
Sister Joan Chittister¹s participation in the Women¹s Ordination
Worldwide Conference, June 29 to 31, Dublin, Ireland. The Vatican believed
her participation to be in opposition to its decree (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis)
that priestly ordination will never be conferred on women in the Roman
Catholic Church and must therefore not be discussed. The Vatican ordered
me to prohibit Sister Joan from attending the conference where she is a
main speaker.
I spent many
hours discussing the issue with Sister Joan and traveled to Rome to dialogue
about it with Vatican officials . I sought the advice of bishops, religious
leaders, canonists, other prioresses, and most importantly with my religious
community, the Benedictine Sisters of Erie. I spent many hours in communal
and personal prayer on this matter.
After much deliberation
and prayer, I concluded that I would decline the request of the Vatican.
It is out of the Benedictine, or monastic, tradition of obedience that
I formed my decision. There is a fundamental difference in the understanding
of obedience in the monastic tradition and that which is being used by
the Vatican to exert power and control and prompt a false sense of unity
inspired by fear. Benedictine authority and
obedience are
achieved through dialogue between a community member and her
prioress in
a spirit of co-responsibility. The role of the prioress in a Benedictine
community is to be a guide in the seeking of God. While lived in community,
it is the individual member who does the seeking.
Sister Joan
Chittister, who has lived the monastic life with faith and fidelity for
fifty years, must make her own decision based on her sense of Church, her
monastic profession and her own personal integrity. I cannot be used by
the Vatican to deliver an order of silencing.
I do not see
her participation in this conference as a ³source of scandal to the
faithful² as the Vatican alleges. I think the faithful can be scandalized
when honest attempts to discuss questions of import to the church are forbidden.
I presented
my decision to the community and read the letter that I was sending to
the Vatican. 127 members of the 128 eligible members of the Benedictine
Sisters of Erie freely supported this decision by signing her name to that
letter. Sister Joan addressed the Dublin conference with the blessing of
the Benedictine Sisters of Erie.
My decision
should in no way indicate a lack of communion with the Church. I am trying
to remain faithful to the role of the 1500 -year-old monastic tradition
within the larger Church. We trace our tradition to the early Desert Fathers
and Mothers of the 4th century who lived on the margin of society in order
to be a prayerful and questioning presence to both church and society.
Benedictine communities of men and women were never intended to be part
of the hierarchical or clerical status of the Church, but to stand apart
from this structure and offer a different voice. Only if we do this can
we live the gift that we are for the Church. Only in this way can we be
faithful to the gift that women have within the Church.
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