The Vatican Lays a Cunning Trap for American Nuns

[hue]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-c-johnson/vatican-lays-a-cunning-trap-for-american-nuns_b_1527369.html

At the end of this month, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will meet to formulate a response to a Vatican trap whose cunning is best appreciated within the long tradition of religious authorities who craft impossible dilemmas for those they perceive as threats.

Two millennia ago, the chief priests sent someone to ask Jesus, "Should we pay taxes?" If Jesus said yes, he would pit himself against Jewish resistance to Roman occupation and therefore, in Jewish eyes, against God. If he said no, the Romans could execute him for sedition. Instead, Jesus famously replied, "Render to Ceaser what is Ceaser's and to God what is God's."

In the 15th century, Joan of Arc's ecclesiastical inquisitors asked her, "Do you know yourself to be in God's grace?" If Joan answered yes, she would commit heresy because the Church had long taught that no one could be certain of being in God's grace; if no, they could interpret her answer as an admission of guilt. Joan looked them in the eyes and replied, "If I am not in God's grace, may God put me there; if I am, may God so keep me."

Today, the Vatican tells the women of the LCWR, "Submit to our oversight and control of your every action for the next five years." The Vatican's official "or else" clause remains unstated but clear to all involved. "Submit to our authority, or call yourselves Catholic no longer."

[southernyankeebelle]

1. I hope the nuns stand up to these pricks.

[SharonAnn]

7. I don't see how it's such a "cunning trap". It's pretty obvious that

they mean "Submit or be banned".

Bunch of bachelors in dresses trying to tell women what to do! Sheeet!

[southernyankeebelle]

8. I can't argue with that point. I wish I could.

[provis99]

2. if all nuns magically turned into altar boys,

the bishops would like them a whole lot better.

[dimbear]

3. "Morde me"

Only correct response, sisters.

[rug]

4. Luke 20

45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.”

[jerseyjack]

6. When he said that, he must have meant the jewish priests. He certainly

couldn't have meant the Pope.

[Retrograde]

9. Of course he did!

OK, the Jesus mentioned in Luke lived before the existence of popes or an organized church. But Jesus is, according to Catholic dogma, the second person of the Trinity and one with God, eternal and equal and identical in all things. Thus He knew that the Catholic Church and its popes would exist and have human imperfections and need admonishment. So the passage does mean the pope (or the bishops in general, of which the pope is one). There, I've run rings around you logically

[lupulin]

5. who or what shall determine what constitutes fidelity to Roman Catholicism?