Nuns’ work needed more than ever

Mr. Wayne Bessette’s June 9 letter concerning the Vatican’s intention to investigate Catholic nuns in America hit the nail on the head. The sisters have run Catholic schools, hospitals and orphanages in our country for close to 200 years. Now, they are being chastised for their efforts to find a deeper meaning in their service to the church.

Their umbrella group, Leadership Conference of Women Religious, represents over 58,000 Catholic nuns. A panel of picked bishops, appointed by Rome, will audit their rules and policies, the guest speakers who may speak to them at their conferences, and ban certain subjects the hierarchy feels they should not discuss. In short, they are to be put into an administrative straitjacket. Of course, the hierarchy will tell you this is for “the nun’s own good.”

In addition to the fact that the hierarchy has done nothing substantial to address the church’s continuing pedophile problem for the past 10 years, Bessette is right that the nuns are being monitored because of their support for ordaining women deacons, priests and married men. This action is, in reality, a “straw man” to divert the laity’s attention from the church’s far more serious problems.

Many parishes today have only nuns working as full time staff. Close to one in ten Catholic parishes in the United States hasn’t a resident priest. These churches are staffed by nuns who often have graduate degrees in theology or pastoral care, but are not considered qualified to be ordained in the eyes of the church. A priest may drive 150 miles or more to different parishes to say Mass on Sunday. And there are times he can only make the trip every other week. This is a fact of life in many small towns in the Midwest, and it is getting worse.

Robert Harrison

Elk Grove Village