Fired nuns speak out (sexism in the Catholic church)

[Thom Little]

When Kathy Riordan took her final vows in 1965 to become a Sister of St. Dominic in Amityville, she imagined a life in education. Over four decades, she taught every subject, although math and religion were her passions. She worked with every age group -- from kindergarten to college. But what she couldn't envision is that after 40 years of service, she would be fired by the diocese.

"I never expected to be at odds with the bishop," she said of Bishop William Murphy. "It never would have occurred to me."

Riordan, 63, had been a campus minister at Hofstra University in Hempstead for a decade, when she and two nuns at other campuses learned in March they were fired by the Diocese of Rockville Centre. The diocese said it wanted younger "peer" ministers who would be more evangelical and attract more students to Mass.

But all three sisters were -- and remain -- popular and their firings prompted hundreds of letters, petitions and a demonstration. Speaking for the first time nine months later, the sisters said negotiations with the diocese are at a standstill and they are still angered by what they see as the diocese's discrimination against women, especially older women.


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-linun1204,0,1149906.story?coll=ny-top-headlines