Nabi Sayeth: Where Have All the Good Sisters Gone?

Nabi Asketh: When was the last time you saw a Catholic sister sitting in the pews of your parish Church for mass? Or teaching at your child’s or grandchild’s Catholic school? Or walking in the halls of your Catholic hospital?

How many of your children or grandchildren know what a Catholic sister is?

Where have all the good sisters gone?

Not here! These old gals traded God for the world.
Oh...and they left their walkers on the bus!

Editor's Note: For a fuller understanding of what Nabi is discussing in this post, read Donna Steichen's book, Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism. Donna discusses many of the corrupt religious orders and the damage caused by the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious). It became so bad, that in 1992, the orthodox orders pulled out and formed the CMSWR (Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious). While CMSWR represents a small portion of the orders in the U.S., their houses are young, energetic, and growing. The corrupt orders are aging and collapsing. Look at the faces of the nuns on the bus. They represent the LCWR. Then watch the video at the end of the post. Look at the faces of the Dominican sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist who met with Oprah in 2014. Who owns the future?

Nabi Sayeth continued...

The following article caught Nabi’s attention and while it offers a description of the collapse of the vocation of “sister” in the Catholic Church, it falls woefully short in providing the reason for the collapse.

The Number of U.S. Nuns is Collapsing

From the earliest years, Catholic sisters did an incredibly sacrificial job of helping the Catholic Church grow and prosper in America while helping her carry out her mission, especially as two large waves of immigrants from western and eastern Europe sought refuge and prosperity within our borders. They taught the immigrants our language, personal hygiene, helped them find work, manage their hard-earned money, educated their children, gave comfort and treatment to their sick and dying...prayed with them…..and in every way, loved them. They formed many first-rate, faith-filled Catholic citizens. The sacrifices of the sisters really helped make the Catholic Church in America great all the while doing so within a culture that held Catholics suspect and treated them with contempt.

But then something horribly destructive to the orders of sisters occurred beginning  in the 1960’s:

• Existentialism and its offspring “The Self Esteem Movement” infected the philosophies of most religious orders. The theme of “Self-Actualization” replaced the traditional discipline of “Self-Surrender.” Sisters left their classrooms and hospitals in order to pursue graduate degrees in subjects that were more “meaningful” and “self-fulfilling” to them such as social work, psychology, economics, theatre, engineering, computer science, art etc.

• In an attempt to re-discover their roots as a part of what they perceived as the Second Vatican Council’s call to “renewal”, they began to cast aside their traditional dress and religious practices in order to become more contemporary, more “in line” with the people in society. Habits and religious garb were replaced with secular dress, including makeup and jewelry. Rather than identify themselves by biblical or saint names, they used their familial/ secular names.

• Sisters abandoned the spiritual security of the convent community and began to live in housing “out among the people”, sometimes in pairs, but unfortunately, sometimes alone. The early 70’s saw a huge departure of sisters, many of whom gave up their vacations in order to get married.

• The percentage of lesbian sisters increased significantly. Screening of candidates weakened either because of a concern for “numbers” or an imprudent sense of “acceptance.

• But one of the most damaging influences that permeated the religious life of the sisters was the acceptance by many orders of radical feminist philosophy. And what is so damaging about radical feminism? It’s dependence on Marxist philosophical analysis. How was this harmful?

A. Marx taught that reality is defined by a class struggle. For Marx this meant that there was an enmity between those who have and those who have not, the rich vs. the poor, the worker vs. those who control the means of production. Religion does nothing to assist the have nots nor to improve their lot in life, in fact, it keeps the oppressed poor in tow and subservient to the will of the master. Religion is an “opium of the people.” The only solution to overcome the class struggle is for the poor, the have nots, to overthrow the rich and through the use of violence when necessary. Since power is never freely given, it must be taken from the wealthy (just think about Antifa).

 B. Radical feminism sees an enmity between man and woman. Man has the power and control over women. Women must reverse this order by standing up against signs of inequality in every form and by any means necessary. Traditional roles are demeaning to women such as mother, teacher, nurse, sister and must be given up for more meaningful and self-fulfilling roles.

C. The radical feminists see the Catholic Church as a patriarchal society that assigns roles to women which at best deprive them of power and position, such as priesthood. Even though Pope John Paul II said clearly and forcefully that the topic of the ordination of women was “closed”, many sisters continued to protest. Some, unfortunately left the Church to form their own communities where they could ordain themselves “priests” and “bishops.”

 D. Many sisters who remained in the Catholic Church did great harm to the faithful through their teaching: They focused almost exclusively on the humanity of Jesus rather than His Divinity. God Almighty was presented as “she”. While preparing second graders for First Holy Communion there was little if any emphasis placed on the uniqueness/transcendence/awesomeness at the Consecration, rather, the focus was on teaching that Jesus was their “friend”. The sex education textbooks for fourth grade Catholic school students in the diocese of West Virginia featured such topics as birth control, nocturnal emission and masturbation!

E. Many sisters succumbed to the secular agenda of the radical feminists: Many became silent on the sin of abortion; they aligned themselves with what they perceived as other oppressed groups, most especially, the  growing LGBTQ movement (one former superior of a religious order, the Pallotine Missionary sisters actually tweeted her support for homosexual unions!). If you want to do a quick litmus test on the level of faithfulness to Catholic teaching of a sister, just ask her about her thinking on issues such as women’s’ ordination, homosexual unions, transubstantiation, and papal infallibility

F. In their lust for positions of power in the Church they, like their hierarchical counterparts, ignored Jesus’ job description for the true disciple in Mark 10:45 (“The Son of Man came to serve and not be served; to give His life as a ransom for the many”) and in doing so did great harm to the faithful of the Church. The poor witness of many sisters to Catholic teaching caused confusion and led to the departure of many from the Church. Why do you think almost 50 percent of Catholics are Pro-abortion (aka “pro-choice”)? According to a Gallop study from the 90’s only 33 percent of Catholics believe what the Church has always taught about the Real Presence of Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist! We should not be surprised that this is the case since in most parishes for many years sisters were almost solely responsible for preparing our children for their First Holy Communion.

Nabi Sayeth: To be sure, God created man and woman as good and the Church teaches that they are each unique but equal. All have dignity within the Body of Christ. Humility is the most important quality of the true disciple. The lust for power, prestige and position run contrary to the will of Jesus as He taught His often hard-headed and arrogant disciples many times before Calvary.

Many religious orders are going extinct in large part due to their refusal to live spiritual lives as their predecessors did. Those orders that are traditional in essence and appearance, whose members live in a counter-cultural manner, who strive to imitate the humility of Jesus are flourishing.

But will their increase be sufficient to compensate for the extinction of those who have succumbed to the ways of the world? Only God knows. May His will be done!.....

Editor's Note: This is the future of the Church! Pray for them.