Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
Dowd: Which are miserable nuns? – UPDATED

Dowd: Which are miserable nuns? – UPDATED

Last updated on: March 11, 2017 at 1:16 am by Elizabeth Scalia

Dowd: Which are miserable nuns? – UPDATED 2017-03-11T01:16:19+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dominican Nuns having fun

So many people have written so well about Maureen Dowd’s recent display of sublime ignorance on the subject of nuns and the oppressive, patriarchal church that has oppressed them and kept them down encouraged them to do and be and lead, teach, advise and build for lo these 2000 years that I really did not feel a need to comment.

After all, Archbishop Timothy Dolan said it so well, in a letter to the NY Times, which they naturally declined to print, as he called Dowd “intemperate” and “scurrilous”.

And as I wrote here, long ago:

… the Catholic church, more than any other institutional body in history, has uplifted women and encouraged them to live to their highest potentials.
…
The fact is, for all of the talk about how oppressive the church has been for women, there has been no other institution in history which has given women such free reign to create, explore, discover, serve, manage, build, expand, usually with very little help from the coffers of the diocese in which they worked, and often with little to no intrusion on the part of the male hierarchy.

And these have not been mealy mouthed “sheeplike” women, but educated, accomplished women who have chosen their lives because they could do nothing greater with their gifts.

But that doesn’t fit the template and the narrative, does it? The established narrative has been shouted over decades, and in the noise, we’re not supposed to be able to think for ourselves and realize that throughout history, while schools, governments and societies were excluding women, the Catholic church was honoring the women who challenged the popes to be manly men!

Dowd was picking all sorts of nits in her column, but her yelping focus was on the Apostolic Visitation of active female religious orders in the United States, which she -and some amusingly paranoid “progressive” sisters are viewing as a witch hunt. As one such sister wrote:

We cannot, of course, keep them from investigating. But we can receive them, politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house. When people ask questions they shouldn’t ask, the questions should be answered accordingly.

The same sister also referred to the visitation (by this mild, and by all accounts, fair-minded sister) as “an act of violence,” so you have a sense of the warped perspective to which Dowd is aligning herself.

Over at America Magazine, Michael Sean Winters remarked of Dowd’s tired, victim-feminist sniping:

Take this sentence: “The Vatican is now conducting two inquisitions into the ‘quality of life’ of American nuns, a dwindling group with an average age of about 70, hoping to herd them back into their old-fashioned habits and convents and curb any speck of modernity or independence.” Oh, of course, misogyny must be the reason for these investigations, not the aforementioned “dwindling” numbers. Nor does she note that there have been apostolic visitations of conservative women’s religious orders as well, most famously, the 2000 visitation of Mother Angelica’s order. Nor does she note that there was a similar visitation of seminaries just a couple of years ago. But, why seek the complicated truth when misogyny is so close at hand and it explains so much.

Actually, there is no indication at all that the Vatican wants to “herd” (Dowd’s word) these women back into convents and habits, like corralled cows (Dowd’s allusion). I think the Vatican would be happy if these sisters would simply stop working at abortion clinics, like rebellious adolescents going out of their way to made daddy mad.

But I must make mention of Kathryn Jean Lopez’s great piece on Sr. Maureen of the Perpetual Glare, and recommend it to you, because she has some terrific links included with her excellent thoughts, and you’ll want to follow them, to get a sense of old and new, happy and bitter. As Lopez says, Dowd does not seem to know the same sisters Lopez knows, hasn’t bookmarked their blogs!

The fact is, Maureen Dowd, and the “progressive” sisters who are stuck in the 1970’s but believe they are still cutting edge, do not realize that time has marched on, that the experience of the church they may have had in the 1950’s and ’60’s does not translate to these young women, who carry none of that feminist angst that will forever sear the bosoms of those who burned their bras but never expected to sag.

Sisters with drums, having fun

Modern young women, whether in the habit or out of it, are not the ones noisily banging on drums and still trying to take down “the man,” because in their experience of the world, and the church, “the man,” is a construct that has ceased to be relevant. You would think the proponents of Gaudium et spes would be happy about this: it demonstrates that the foundational basis for the Second Vatican Council (beyond all of the noisy, cosmetic “Spirit of Vatican II” nonsense) -that the faithful develop deeper, more personal and fulfilling relationships with Christ- has borne excellent, passionate, energetic and joyful fruit.

But for some, there is no sweetness, therein, only the bitter:

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
— Stephen Crane

UPDATE:
The Abortion-Escort sister is being censured by her community, in rather vague terms. Not sure what it means, but at least it is a response.

Related: A Sister of the Blessed Sacrament has been found murdered in New Mexico; her car is missing. The FBI is investigating, as the murder took place on a Navajo reservation.

Nuns and sisters face real hardships and offer real sacrifice with their lives. All the more reason why their stories should not be made trivial through political grandstanding and the licking of old, personal, and festering wounds.

UPDATE II: Probably unwise to give Dowd so much attention, but the Vatican has responded to the attention being paid this apostolic visit, with vigor.

Previous Post

November 3, 2009

Palate Cleanser: Walken & Lady GaGa

Next Post

November 3, 2009 Prayers for Adam L

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Psalm contains "Create in me a clean heart, O God"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Psalm 33 Psalm 51 Psalm 110 Psalm 70