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The Land Down Under uplifted by news of first saint

28 Feb 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord is "my life's refuge," says the psalmist this Sunday. Mother Mary MacKillop, who founded a religious order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, that offered refuge, shelter, and education to impoverished children across the Australian Outback in the 1800s, will become that nation's first Catholic saint in October. Pope Benedict XVI made the announcement this week and set the formal canonization for October 17 in Rome. With vows of abstinence from owning personal belongings and dedication to helping the poor, MacKillop is credited with spreading Roman Catholicism in Australia and New Zealand. But she was a strong-willed advocate who sometimes got into trouble for challenging orthodox thinking within the church. In 1869 she was excommunicated for inciting her followers to disobedience, though the bishop who punished her recanted three years later and she was exonerated by a church commission. "This is a great, great tribute to the Catholic Church and a great, great tribute to her hard work in education," Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Friday. "This is a great honor for Australia. I offer a heartfelt expression of appreciation to the wider Catholic community." "Today it has been recognized that a woman can become a saint in the Australian environment with all its complexities and challenges," Postulator for the Cause of Mary MacKillop, Sister Maria Casey, said in a statement. "Mary MacKillop is to be listed among the saints of the Catholic Church. I look forward to the celebration of her goodness when many pilgrims from all over the world come to Rome for the ceremony." MacKillop died in 1909 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995. Sainthood was also approved for Stanislaw Soltys, a 15th-century Polish priest; Italian nuns Giulia Salzano and Battista Varano; Spanish nun Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola; and Canadian Holy Cross Brother André Bessette. Source: An article by Victor L. Simpson for the Associated Press

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Brazilian rancher convicted of nun’s murder

18 Apr 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist expresses gratitude this Sunday that the Lord "did not let my enemies rejoice over me." A court in Brazil has sentenced a rancher to 30 years in prison for ordering the murder in 2005 of U.S.-born nun Dorothy Stang over a land dispute. Stang had lived for decades in the Amazon region advocating for the rural poor and opposing deforestation. The much-delayed process of convicting her killers became a test of Brazil's ability to tackle widespread impunity from such crimes in the region. Vitalmiro Moura, 39, was given the maximum sentence Monday after a jury in the Amazon port city of Belem found him guilty of hiring a gunman to kill 73-year-old Stang. A member of the Sisters of Notre de Namur, Stang was born in Dayton, Ohio but was naturalized as a Brazilian citizen and devoted nearly 40 years of her life to helping landless peasants threatened by loggers and ranchers. Locals affectionately called her "the angel of the Amazon." Moura had received the same sentence previously but it was overturned in 2008, a decision Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had called a "stain" on Brazil's image abroad. A retrial was ordered after it was determined that jurors had ignored evidence pointing to Moura's guilt in reaching their verdict. Stang's murder became a symbol of the often-violent conflicts over natural resources in the vast Amazon region. The Land Pastoral Commission, which monitors conflicts over land in Brazil, says 365 people were murdered in such disputes between 1999 and 2008. Commission spokeswoman Cristiane Passos welcomed the judgment but said the government and justice system need to pay more attention to violent conflicts over land as the problem still claims many lives. "It's still far from the end of the violence," Passos said. Source: An article by Peter Murphy for Reuters and dorothystang.org

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Grieving nuns demonstrate the quality of mercy

15 Aug 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Death and the hope of resurrection dominate this Sunday’s second reading. The death of a Catholic nun August 1 at the hands of a drunk driver who was in the country illegally has become the latest flashpoint in the polarized national debate over immigration. Benedictine Sister of Virginia Denise Mosier, 66, was killed and two members of her community were seriously injured in northern Virginia when their car was struck by one driven by Carlos Marinelly Montano, 23, of Bolivia, who was later charged with driving while intoxicated. Montano had two previous convictions for drunken driving before the crash. Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered an immediate review to determine why Montano was released after his second DWI conviction in 2008. Groups that want stricter controls on immigration cited Montano as an example of a failed policy. However, Mosier’s community said in a statement that they were “dismayed and saddened that this tragedy has been politicized and become an apparent forum for the illegal-immigration agenda.” Just a day after the accident, the Benedictine community extended forgiveness to Montano and his family. They urged the rest of the nation not to exploit the tragedy for political purposes. Source: Articles by Alan Gomez for USA TODAY and Michelle Boorstein, Kevin Sieff, and Paul Duggan for the Washington Post

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Buzz builds around new unofficial “saint of abuse victims”

10 Oct 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist this Sunday praises the Lord for having done “wondrous deeds.” Many saints have been lauded for remarkable deeds as well, but few if any are known to have exposed clerical sex abuse—until this week. A new documentary brings to light that Australia's Mother Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), to be canonized October 17, was briefly excommunicated after having blown the whistle on abusive priests. MacKillop, the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who now have thousands of women in their communities across Australia, heard disturbing reports of priests sexually abusing children in the Kapunda parish in the diocese of Adelaide in south Australia, according to the documentary on Australia’s ABC Compass station. MacKillop and her sisters informed Father Julian Tenison-Woods, cofounder the Josephites, of their concerns, which were then reported to the diocesan vicar-general. One of the abusive priests, Father Patrick Keating, was sent back to his native Ireland, where he continued to serve as a priest. The whistleblowers apparently so angered Keating’s colleague Father Charles Horan that he vowed revenge and used his influence over Adelaide Bishop Laurence Sheil to have MacKillop excommunicated. In 1871, after only four years as a nun, MacKillop was turned out onto the street with no money and nowhere to go—a bit like one of the outcast lepers we read about in this Sunday’s readings. Perhaps recalling the God of justice praised by the psalmist this Sunday, however, Sheil revoked the punishment on his death bed some five months later. After being reinstated by the Catholic Church, MacKillop became known for her work with disadvantaged children, female ex-prisoners, and prostitutes. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995. After her canonization October 17, she will be known as Saint Mary of the Cross. A statement from the Sisters of St. Joseph has confirmed that the documentary’s reports are “consistent with” the extensive studies that have been done of the event. In a column commenting on the revelations, Father James Martin, S.J. wrote: “Now victims of sex abuse and their families, and all who desire reconciliation and healing in the church, can pray to Mary MacKillop, who understands them perhaps better than any other saint. Perhaps it is providential that she walks back onto the world’s stage again.” Source: Articles by DailyMail.com.uk, Ecumenical News International, Father James Martin, S.J. for The Huffington Post, CathNews.com.au, and ABC.net.au

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Educated, skilled women choose religious life despite parents’ objections

13 Feb 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“We speak a wisdom to those who are mature, not a wisdom of this age,” Saint Paul writes in this week’s reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians. While contemporary trends have led to a decline in the numbers of professed members of religious communities, a new survey suggests that women entering religious life today are quite mature--highly educated and experienced in numerous church activities. The Profession Class of 2010: Survey of Women Religious Professing Perpetual Vows was released by the U.S. bishops on February 2, the World Day for Consecrated Life. It was conducted by the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate and commissioned by the bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. One of the more disconcerting findings is that parents are often the most discouraging voices when their daughters consider becoming a nun or sister. Sometimes parents object because they want grandchildren or fear losing a daughter. Other times they fret over their child's loss of freedom and independence--an understandable but mistaken worry, according to many sisters. More than half of the women who professed final vows to join a religious order in 2010 said a parent or family member had discouraged their religious calling, the study said. Only 26 percent of the surveyed sisters said their mother encouraged them to consider religious life, and only 16 percent said their fathers supported their choice. A more extensive survey conducted by the Chicago-based National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) in 2009 produced similar results. In a presentation to the U.S. bishops in 2009, Holy Cross Brother Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C., executive director of the NRVC, flagged the discouragement from family and friends as a troublesome trend for the church. "Although people want a full-time pastor in their parish or religious sister teaching their children in the Catholic school, ironically, they are reluctant to have their own son or daughter choose that vocation," Bednarczyk said. Nevertheless, religious life continues to attract highly educated and skilled candidates. Of those surveyed, six in ten entered their religious community with at least a bachelor’s degree and a quarter already possessed a graduate degree. Eighty-five percent had ministry experience before entering, most commonly in liturgical ministry, faith formation, or social service ministry. Source: Articles by Daniel Burke for Religion News Service, Cathy Lynn Grossman for USA TODAY, and the USCCB Office of Media Relations, and NRVC.net

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Aussie church agencies apologize for forced adoptions

31 Jul 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Nothing and no one can separate us from the love of Christ, Saint Paul confidently asserts in this Sunday’s reading from the Letter to the Romans. Three Catholic agencies in Australia have apologized "with a deep sense of regret and heartfelt sorrow" for forcibly separating thousands of unmarried mothers from their newborn babies immediately after birth and handing them to adoption agencies in past decades. The apology this past week came jointly from Catholic Health Australia, the largest nongovernment provider of healthcare services in Australia, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, about 100 miles north of Sydney. The practice of forced adoption was reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in a story on its website after an investigation into claims of abuse and trauma in Newcastle. The story said it was believed that at least 150,000 Australian women had their babies taken against their will by some churches and adoption agencies. Initially Archbishop Barry Hickey of Perth said he saw "little evidence" of forced adoptions in decades past. He issued a follow-up statement this week which said: "While it is true that I had little evidence of forced consents to adoption, I realize that many of the young women at the time were not clear that their consent was required. Many were confused, feeling powerless during their pregnancy for fear that their baby would be taken from them.” Martin Laverty, chief executive officer of Catholic Health Australia, addressed hospital adoption practices in a letter to the Australian Senate which is investigating past adoption policies and practices. He wrote that "in some cases, the adoption practices of 30 to 60 years ago had devastating and ongoing impacts on mothers, fathers, children, and families. "We acknowledge the pain of separation and loss felt then and felt now for the mothers, fathers, children, families, and others involved in some of the practices of the time," Laverty said. "For this pain that arises from the practices of the past, we are genuinely sorry." "Catholic Health Australia would endorse a proposal to establish a national framework to aid those dealing with their post-adoption circumstances," Laverty said. He also said that there were several options to support the mothers, including access to medical records related to the births and adoptions. Source: An article by Kerry Myers for Catholic News Service

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Faith groups seek a social return on investments

20 Nov 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In vivid language in this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus describes our responsibility to tend to those who are hungry and thirsty, the ill-clad and the stranger, the sick and imprisoned. The New York Times has profiled the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia who, along with other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, have become shareholders in order to lobby Wall Street bankers to do more to protect consumers, rein in executive pay, increase transparency, and remember the poor. The order employs a tactic known as shareholder activism that has emerged in corporate America since the 1980s. The sisters developed a strategy combining moral philosophy and public shaming. Once they took aim at a company, they bought the minimum number of shares that would allow them to submit resolutions at that company’s annual shareholder meeting. That gave them a powerful option in the event the company’s executives refused to meet with them. Unsurprisingly, most companies decided they would rather let the nuns in the door than confront religious dissenters in public. “You’re not going to get any sympathy for cutting off a nun at your annual meeting,” said Robert McCormick, chief policy officer of Glass, Lewis & Company, a firm that specializes in shareholder proxy votes. With their moral authority, he said, those in religious life “can really bring attention to issues.” The Sisters of St. Francis are by no means the only religious voices challenging big business. They have teamed up on shareholder resolutions with other orders, including the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth and the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, both in New Jersey. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the umbrella group under which much of the activism takes place, includes Jews, Quakers, Presbyterians, and nearly 300 faith-based investing groups. “Companies have learned over time that the issues we’re bringing are not frivolous,” said the Rev. Seamus P. Finn, 61, a Washington-based priest with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and a board member of the Interfaith Center. “At the end of every transaction, there are people that are either positively or negatively impacted, and we try to explain that to them.” Source: An article by Kevin Roose for the New York Times

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Vatican critiques leadership group of U.S. women religious

29 Apr 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The liturgical readings focus “on the difference between good and bad leadership,” declares the “Inner Word” reflection in this Sunday’s issue of Exploring the Word. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a "doctrinal assessment" last week, saying it was compelled to intervene in the case of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the umbrella organization that represents 80 percent of American nuns, to correct "serious doctrinal problems."The Vatican, calling for reform amid what it termed a doctrinal “crisis” within the LCWR, appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to oversee the reform. The assessment states, “it is clear that greater emphasis needs to be placed both on the relationship of the LCWR with the Conference of Bishops, and on the need to provide a sound doctrinal foundation in the faith of the church.”Saying that he hoped he could "help the sisters and the LCWR recognize that we are all in this together," the archbishop called the reform a "great opportunity" for women religious, U.S. bishops, and the Vatican to “strengthen and improve all of our relationships on every level.”The LCWR responded to the assessment in a statement on its website: “The national board of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will meet May 29-June 1, 2012 to begin its discussion of the conclusions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s doctrinal assessment and the implementation plan put forth by that Vatican office.“The board will conduct its meeting in an atmosphere of prayer, contemplation, and dialogue and will develop a plan to involve LCWR membership in similar processes. The conference plans to move slowly, not rushing to judgment. We will engage in dialogue where possible and be open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. We ask your prayer for us and for the church in this critical time.” Sources: Articles by Francis X. Rocca for Catholic News Service and Michelle Baumanfor Catholic News Agency and a blog post by Fr. James Martin, S.J. for America

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Women religious hope for dialogue on Vatican critique

19 Aug 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Wisdom’s hope for the people of God is clear in this Sunday’s reading from the Book of Proverbs: “Advance in the way of understanding.” Expressing a similar hope, albeit with some wariness, members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a group criticized in a spring Vatican report that ordered an overhaul of the organization, said Friday they would talk with church leaders about potential changes as long as the process did not force them to compromise on their mission.Sister Pat Farrell, outgoing president of the LCWR, said that members believe that "open and honest dialogue may lead not only to increasing understanding between the church leadership and women religious, but also to creating more possibilities for the laity and, particularly for women, to have a voice in the church."She said that the more than 900 LCWR members who met in St. Louis this past week told their leaders to conduct a conversation with Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle, charged by the Vatican with overseeing the organization’s restructuring, but that the leaders "will reconsider if LCWR is forced to compromise the integrity of its mission."Taking the stage to a standing ovation, Farrell said that "some larger movement in the church . . . has landed on LCWR." A key question facing LCWR, she said, is: "What would a prophetic response to the doctrinal assessment look like?""I think it would be humble, but not submissive," she said, "rooted in a solid sense of ourselves, but not self-righteous; truthful, but gentle and absolutely fearless. It would ask probing questions. Are we being invited to some appropriate pruning and are we open to it? Is this doctrinal process an expression of concern or an attempt to control?”Farrell acknowledged the nuns' plan going forward was vague, but noted the process would stretch over five years and had only just started. "Dialogue on doctrine is not going to be our starting point," Farrell said. "Our starting point will be about our own life and about our understanding of religious life, and the [Vatican] document's, in our view, misrepresentation of that, and we'll see how it unfolds from there." Sources: Articles by Mary Wisniewski for Reuters, Agence France Presse, Jim Salter and Rachel Zollfor the Associated Press, and Joshua J. McElwee for National Catholic Reporter

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