A reader who thinks like me sent me a heads up about this story from Tuesday.
From ABC10 News:
NEW YORK – LuLulemon Athletic has taken its black yoga pants off the shelves because the sheer material reveals too much.
The Canadian company said that it took the pants off its store shelves and website over the weekend. That means there will be a shortage of its black Luon pants and crops for awhile.
LCWR meditation retreat centers hardest hit.
The full text is here. It’s a PDF, so the best I can do is link to it.
Their response can be distilled down to these two short paragraphs:
The assembly instructed the LCWR officers to conduct their conversation with Archbishop Sartain from a stance of deep prayer that values mutual respect, careful listening and open dialogue. The officers will proceed with these discussions as long as possible, but will reconsider if LCWR is forced to compromise the integrity of its mission.
The members reiterated the importance and value of LCWR’s mission to its members and its role as a voice for justice in the world. They urged the officers not to allow the work with CDF to absorb the time, energy, and resources of the conference nor to let it distract the conference from the work its mission requires.
Let me break this down into simple numbers. Throughout the entire response, “Conversation” is mentioned 4 times. “Dialogue” is used 3 times. “Jesus Christ”?
Zero.
‘Nuff said.
This is persecution -
Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daquin
A priest who quit China’s state-sanctioned Catholic Church and was ordained auxiliary bishop of Shanghai with the approval of the pope at the weekend was taken away by officials after the ceremony and has not been heard from since, a Catholic online news service reported on Monday. More recent reports state that he is being kept at his seminary.
This is not -
Driving in an air-conditioned bus that had been underwritten by people opposed to the Catholic Church and speaking to friendly crowds, falsely complaining about problems brought about by one’s own decisions to flout Church teaching and finally get called out by Church authorities is pantiestwistecution, not persecution.
This is suffering -
Explosions hit churches in four cities in Kaduna state in the latest in a series of attacks on Sunday congregations in the majority Muslim north of the country. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Nigeria’s al-Qaeda-linked Islamist terror group Boko Haram has carried out at least 10 similar strikes so far this year. This is from June 17. Attacks on churches in Nigeria have been going on all year – remember the devastating attacks last Christmas? Getting blown up while attending Mass, and then sifting through the rubble to find loved ones and survivors…that’s suffering.
This is Insufferable -
I’m sorry, but I can’t even gin up false sympathy for these ladies. They’re not being persecuted or maligned or oppressed in any way, shape or form. They’re opportunistic political players spreading their Gospel of Public Opinion through a compliant and biased media, ignoring the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the process. I wonder how many poor people would have been helped if the money spent on their rock n’ roll tour had instead been given to charity?
(AoftheAP) In what is shaping up to be an endless campaign to strengthen public support in their conflict with the Vatican over issues of reform, the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) has begun work on a new public awareness project modeled after the Obama/Biden 2012 Campaign “The Life Of Julia”.
They are calling the project “The Life Of Junia”, and according to LCWR Director of Dialogue, Sr. Heidi Highdeehoh, the fictional woman’s name of the project comes directly from Scripture.
“We’re basing her on the woman mentioned in Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” Sr Heidi said. “She was a great apostle in her own right, and we are drawing upon her wisdom and grace to lead us in our battle against the patriarchal forces of the Vatican.”
AoftheA has been granted permission to publish several of the slides of the upcoming project:
“We were so impressed with the clarity, truth and honesty of “The Life of Julia” project. Modeling our project after the president’s was a complete no-brainer,” Sr. Heidi explained. “The LCWR is interested in helping and encouraging and reaffirming women of any age, at any stage of their lives, and this slideshow is helpful to show exactly where we stand. There shouldn’t be any question whatsoever about what the LCWR is all about, once “The Life Of Junia” is released.”
The project is tentatively scheduled to launch May 17, St Junia’s traditional commemoration day.
(Sister Patricia Owens O’Flannery, OP, a post-modern pre-traditional omni-spiritual Dominican sister, periodically contributes to AoftheA. Today she offers commentary on the Vatican’s recent decision on the LCWR.)
Hello, dear and gentle readers and friends of LarryD! May the warmth
and vicissitude of Nature grace you with immeasurable beneficence! I have been praying for each of you every day, offering supplication that Sophia bless you and surround you with her wise wisdom, inspiring you to dance and play and immerse yourself in Her ephemeral permanence of lasting spontaneity!
You know, I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense, and if it doesn’t, please forgive me. My soul has been heavy as of late, all because of the recent announcement of the LCWR investigation. I know that many of you have been eager for my opinion and insights on this serious matter – I have felt the psychic vibrations emanating throughout the noosphere. Such confusion in your hearts, dear readers! I will try to explain and assuage your fearsome trepidations and trepidacious fears.
Before I begin, let me assure each and every one of you – the Swiss Guard have not put me or any other LCWR representative under house arrest! Those rumors are simply unfounded! We are free to travel as we wish, our passports have not been confiscated, and none of us – I repeat in the most emphatic of terms! – none of us have had our reiki stones taken away or labyrinths dismantled.
Now, as with any traumatic experience, we tend to vividly recall what we were doing at the time of the experience. For some, it was the assassination of JFK; for others, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded; and still others, when the Berlin Wall was torn down. In my own life, I vividly recall every action and emotion that coursed through me when I heard that Polly’s Polyester Pantsuit Palace in Walla Walla closed its doors, back in 1983. I had just been released from the local Catholic elementary school, and was meditating along with Chick Corea’s “The Meeting” album, and my mesquite incense infuser, when Sister Etta Loretta Loreto burst into the room, crying with the news. That was the last day I ever listened to Chick’s music. A sad sad day. The smell of mesquite still evokes a passionate tear.
But this news, hard to believe, was even sadder. I was leading a group of NCReporter editors on a pilgrimage to several Buddhist monasteries in Nepal when my 4S iphone newsfeed alarm went off (I downloaded the voice of Gloria Steinem, and she says “You’ve got fe-mail”! Isn’t that spectacular?), and I read the story with shock. The rest of the trip was ruined, as the thin atmosphere made it difficult for me to conduct any soothing breathing exercises. All I could think about, was how could this be possible? The LCWR – the prophetic voice of the world – and no one predicted this was going to happen!
Upon returning to Michigan, I orchestrated a conference call with the leadership of the LCWR to devise a strategy. Unfortunately, because of all the caterwauling and spitting fits, all we could accomplish was schedule a meeting at a future date for additional dialogue, and form subcommittees to develop a framework in order to discuss the problem. Well, that could take months before anything gets done! By that time, the Vatican might have us all in chains and forced to wash Church linens and repair vestments!
After much meditation, yoga and a few visits to the sweat lodge, I concluded that the only reason the Vatican chose this moment in time, this nexus of confluent space-time events, to make their move, is that they know for certain that the LCWR is close to breaking free from their patriarchal padlocks. The ecclesiastical clock must be mere moments from midnight, when their hierarchical hold on our charisms is loosed, and the feminine consciousness is unleashed across the cosmos. Thus, they are acting with impunity now, at this very moment, to prevent the LCWR from reaching their full potential. They have perpetrated this grave injustice, plugging their fingers into the dike of destiny. Continue reading
Not only are they unequal, but the Catholyc’s version is make-believe.
A teachable moment, courtesy of the dissentive Jaime Manson and the National Catholic Distorter.
Last night, “PBS NewsHour” dedicated a segment into the Vatican takeover of LCWR. They interviewed two women of opposing views on the issue. Supporting LCWR was Jeannine Fletcher Hill, a professor specializing in feminist theology at Fordham University. Supporting the Vatican was Donna Bethell, a lawyer who serves as the chairman of the board at Christendom College.
[...]
The college’s website boasts, “Catholicism is the ‘air that we breathe,’ ” and “Academic excellence takes the Magisterium as its guide.”
[...]
When Ms. Bethell isn’t singing the praises of the Latin Mass and the curia, she is deeply committed to denying climate change. In addition to serving on the board of Christendom, she also serves on the board of the Sandia National Laboratories, a company that aids the U.S. with the development of nuclear weapons. No. 1 on Sandia’s five-point mission is “ensuring the [nuclear] stockpile is safe, secure, reliable, and can support the United States’ deterrence policy.”
In addition, Ms. Bethell’s husband, Thomas Bethell, who serves as senior editor of the American Spectator, spends his time not only denying climate change, but also denying evolution and, if you can imagine, the belief that HIV causes AIDS.
So, between Ms. Bethell and her husband, we have three significant conflicts with church doctrine on battling climate change, nuclear disarmament and evolution. And yet, Ms. Bethell gets awarded the post of director of the board at Christendom and is allowed to publicly defend the Vatican against nuns who supposedly contradict or ignore the church’s teaching.
The Vatican’s double standard on dissent is breathtaking.
Believably, some commenters actually agree with her.
What’s breathtaking – but not surprising – is the spurious claim that such issues are doctrinal – well, they are if you’re a liberal left-wing Catholyc. Such thinking (or lack thereof) is par for the course at the Distorter – forever knocking down Christ’s Church in order to create one in their image. No wonder they are so supportive of the LCWR.
(AofhteAP) A report out of Hollywood indicates that plans are in the works to produce a film about the rise and fall of the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious), to be released in mid-2013.
Variety reporter Ann E. Aggraam has given AoftheA Entertainment the scoop on the new movie.
“The project couldn’t be more timely,” Aggraam said, “what with the recent publication of the CDF report on the LCWR. A script is being developed, and several big stars have asked to participate, including Susan Sarandon, Rosie O’Donnell and Jane Fonda. Rumor has it that Nathan Lane has asked – begged, actually – to play the role of Sr. Joan Chittister, which I personally believe would be perfect.”
When asked who’s been approached to direct the film, Aggraam rattled off some well-known names. “Spielberg has been mentioned, along with Cameron and Michael Bay. But the word on the street is that Irwin Allen is at the top of the list.”
Allen, the “Master of Disaster”, is noted for such classics as The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure, as well as the 1960′s TV series Lost In Space.
“The producers feel he’s the right guy for this project, given his track record,” Aggraam explained. “He’s a natural when it comes to directing disaster films. And given that he’s been dead since 1991 is a major plus working in his favor, considering the material. The producers are hoping beyond hope he accepts their offer.”
Calls to Allen were not returned, obviously.
The film name hasn’t been settled on yet, but an unconfirmed report states that the working title is “Crackdown!”
The LCWR (League of Crazy Women Religious) kicks off their annual assembly tomorrow, as 600 or so sisters will be convening in southern California over the next four days.
Normally, their annual meeting schedule is filled with talks, presentations and discussions regarding upcoming strategic plans – such as, which corporation to protest, or what nuclear weapon plant to chain themselves to, or what Environmental Injustice to rally around. But not this year.
No, this year they will be spending the conference is quiet contemplation, to “discern the future” as they regard their aging population and dearth of vocations. Something, I think, they should have been doing all along, but hey, better late than never, right?
The National Catholic Distorter has the story: LCWR Begins Next Step in Re-examination of Religious Life [excerpted]
Religious life for the majority of U.S. sisters is at a crossroads. An aging membership and a decline in new vocations have communities probing what to do next to sustain their ministries and their way of life. These women sense a new era is emerging and they have decided to embark together on a new way of discerning that future.When more than 600 sisters gather in Southern California Aug. 9-12 for the annual assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, they will set aside discussions on strategic planning and talks about mergers and consolidations. There won’t be workshops on recruiting new members or on financing retirement. Gone will be the breakout sessions that often follow keynote addresses at their national meetings.
Instead, these leaders of the 334 congregations in the Leadership Conference will sit together in silence, discovering what God is calling forth for religious life today. They will have no expectation of a particular insight or result. Rather, they will spend time in collective contemplation to explore where religious life in the United States may be moving.
“We sense that something new is emerging,” said St. Joseph Sr. Carol Zinn, a member of conference’s executive committee, “but we certainly don’t yet know what it will look like.”
The sisters hope this contemplative process will “open us to a deeper place within ourselves” so “we can create with God the future God intends,” said Marie McCarthy, a Sister of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods and a member of the Leadership Conference’s Contemporary Religious Life Project, which is spearheading the five-year contemplation process.
It is an outgrowth of a call in August 2000 by the then-conference president, Immaculate Heart of Mary Sr. Nancy Sylvester, for women religious to enter into contemplation for “fostering the transformation of religious life.” [it's taken them 11 years to get to this point???]
In response, the conference has developed a process they’ve used at their regional meetings over the past year. But the assembly in Garden Grove, Calif., will be the first time all the leaders of the member congregations will engage in the process together.
[...]
Collective contemplation
The contemplative process developed by the conference appears simple at first — reflect silently on global events of the past two years and how these events shape the mission of U.S. women religious, consider what new realities might be emerging and what responses to these realities are being called forth, then share those insights in a word or phrase with one another.
The depth of the experience, however, belies the apparent simplicity. It’s a suspension of rational Western thinking as the participants drop into what Zinn calls “a contemplative way of seeing what God sees.”
McCarthy added that the process allows “whatever wishes to emerge from within to do so.”
[...]
This contemplative process, the sisters assert, has potential far beyond religious communities. It can offer individuals, institutions and political entities a new way of resolving differences through collaboration and peace instead of competition and conflict. And it can help people stay in dialogue with one another in the midst of such differences so they can forge a new vision together.
“We have learned a great deal over the years about managing diversity and living together with polarities,” (Sr. Pat )Farrell said. That wisdom, coupled with a deepening access to the Divine, might very well be the unique gift women religious are about to offer the church and the world, she said.
(Sr. Marie) McCarthy points out the growing interest in meditation across all sectors of American society and believes it’s a sign of the times, one that garners great hope for the future of the entire planet. “This is not just a New Age fad, but a real experience of opening up to a new place,” she said.
Therein lies the problem – the fact she says it “is not just a New Age fad…” She admits that this style of contemplative prayer IS New Age. Totally contrary to Catholic spirituality.
Which is why their plan won’t work. The next four days will unfortunately be a complete waste of time and energy. I highly doubt they will come to any meaningful conclusions – at least the ones God truly has intended for them. Because they seem to be neglecting the most important person of all:
Jesus Christ.
The article mentions Christ a total of -zero- times. It doesn’t appear they will be praying before the Blessed Sacrament. Instead, they’ll be praying before mirrors instead of windows, that only reflect upon themselves rather than allowing them to gaze outward upon the Lord.
Sayonara, LCWR.
Fr. Z has a must read post.
You know the meme amongst the MSM, progressive Catholycs and nearly everyone else in the world regarding the child sex abuse scandal, right? How it’s a big cover-up by the hierarchical patriarchal men’s club headquartered in the Vatican City. That it goes as high as Pope Benedict. That it’s all because of celibacy. That if only there were womynpreests, so much of what had happened could have been prevented. Remember Peggy Noonan’s op-ed sometime back, where she said saving the Church would require a woman’s touch?
Well.
It’s all just a feint. And it’s all rather disturbing.
LCWR’s Long Standing Cover-up of Sexual Abuse of Children by Nuns
The Dissenter’s Breviary, NCR, and the “magisterium of nuns“, LCWR, are abusing the abuse crisis for their own ends.Have a look at the recent NCR piece, “Compromised hierarchy needs relational wisdom of women” by Charlene Spretnak.
Spretnak draws an opposition between the “patriarchal value system” of the “men’s club” and the “relational wisdom of women”, which she says is exemplified, in part, by the “[harassed] communities of nuns” and by other women in the Catholic Church.
NCR’s Spretnak turned a blind eye to the voluminous new emerging data concerning the sexual abuse of children by women, and, in particular, by Catholic nuns, as reported here and here and especially here.
In the latter article, “Nuns On the Run From the Truth” (Salon - 17 August 2009), self-described “feminist and progressive Catholic” Frances Kissling, moans,
“we were surprised when the LCWR leadership refused to allow survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic sisters to address the past few annual meetings. The survivors want to share their stories of abuse as well as suggest processes to prevent such abuse in the future, including recommending that the sisters adopt the bishops’ anti-sex-abuse guidelines. To date, the nuns have just said no.”Zowie!
Just imagine! Frances Kissling is surprised that the LCWR, that besieged bastion of religious integrity, of female “relational wisdom” (to quote Spretnak), would ape the bishops and major superiors!
But wait, there’s more!
Even as they wag fingers at male bishops and priests, the LCWR, fully supported by the liberal press, has covered up sexual abuse of children by women religious.
Just focus for a moment on how the LCWR has for years been fighting off SNAP.
SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) has been trying to get the LCWR to deal with them since at least 2004.
SNAP tried to engaged the LCWR about women religious who have abused children but the LCWR has stonewalled them. In their “relational wisdom”, LCWR responded to SNAP, thanking them for “raising their consciousness” about this problem. Then they did nothing to work with SNAP. In 2009 LCWR was still “raising their consciousness” and still stonewalling.
What would Spretnak say about the superiority of women’s “relational wisdom” over the men’s club’s “patriarchal socialization” if she had bothered to do this simple Google search – “Catholic nuns child sexual abuse” – before she emailed her corrosive article to NCR’s HQ?
The dirty little secret is that both Catholic priests and nuns – yes women! – have engaged in sick, immoral acts against children and minors. This is not an exclusively male problem. This is not a celibacy problem. See my article here on Protestant ministers – married ministers – and sexual abuse of children.
Read the whole thing.
This is a sin problem. It’s an epidemic that crosses cultural, racial, sexual, religious and secular lines. But it’s the Church that’s in the target because of Her stance against the world, and it’s the priesthood in particular that stands in the bullseye. Minimize the Church’s influence in the world, as well as attempt to eliminate the priesthood. It’s a brutal front on the front lines of the spiritual battle.
The point isn’t to deflect blame away from guilty priests and bishops. Nor downplay the evil that has been done to innocent children. It’s not a game of “gotcha!” Abuse of any child – in any circumstance – is never acceptable.
No – the point is to show the hypocrisy on the part of feminist forces within the LCWR, who have been screeching without ceasing, that it’s the exclusive all-male club that has fomented an atmosphere conducive to the abuse of children. The point is to show the lack of transparency of the media and progressive Catholyc publications who have turned a blind eye to this issue. The National Catholic Distorter is equally complicit – they unswervingly and uncompromisingly support the LCWR – in caring more to tear down the Church and the priesthood than protect innocent children.
It makes me wonder if there is more to the Apostolic Visitation than meets the eye.
Want proof we’re rushing headlong towards the apocalypse?
The Environmental Outreach Committee of the Archdiocese of Washington DC published a Lenten Carbon Fast Calendar, in coordination with The Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, a quasi-ecumenical group more in line with pagan Earth-worship than traditional Christianity.
Here’s a link to the PDF that gives a day-by-day blueprint to get green for Lent.
Oh! – and the PDF comes from the LCWR website! Who’d-a-thunk-it? I guess the Vatican-directed visitation and investigation of certain women religious groups is unwarranted after all…not!
Some of the suggestions are pretty hilarious – “Friday Feb 19 – Go meat free today! Christians have been eating less meat for Lent for generations. Choosing meat-free meals is one of the most powerful things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.” I guess they didn’t see this article earlier in the month where becoming a vegetarian may actually cause more harm to the environment. Not to mention abstaining from meat on Fridays in Lent is an obligation on all Catholic adults.
Then there’s this: “Thursday March 18 – When heating water on the stove, use a pot with a lid to conserve energy.” But what if I don’t want to boil water on Thursday? What if I want to boil water on Saturday the 20th? Would it be okay if I don’t use a lid on that day?
If you think about it, Jesus was rather eco-friendly during his 40 days in the desert – no meat, no littering, he left the bottled water with John the Baptist, he didn’t leave any powertools plugged in at the carpenter’s shop back in Nazareth, and he didn’t drive an SUV out into the wilderness. I say – if these environmentalists want to make a real impact, they should do exactly what Jesus did, and just go away for the next seven weeks.
Full disclosure time – I’ve already blown it for Lent, at least according to this Carbon Fast Calendar. Yesterday, I replaced a light fixture for Mrs LarryD, and the new one uses two light bulbs while the older fixture only held one. But that’s not the worst of it.
The old fixture had a CFL – I put incandescent bulbs in the new one. I am so eeeeeeeeevilllllll!
s/s to Fr. Z
