"categories" Of Communities

[Sister Marie]

I think that this is a great topic to bring up although I don't agree with some of the suggested ways to group communities. I find my community not fitting in with any of the categories. It is hard to say "traditional, conservative (Nashville Dominicans), and liberal (Sisters of Saint Joseph)" because I think that there is definitely a continuum or a spectrum on which communities fall and there really is no name for each. My community is nothing like either of the communities listed above!

Conservative is the label I find the most difficult. I would never put my community in the same label as the Nashville Dominicans... just because we are not the same, but neither are we liberal. I have studied with some of them and they are lovely sisters but they have a much more monastic rhythm in their life than my community does. Sometimes I think we can mistake more monastic with more conservative and the two are not synonymous. For instance, in my community we wear a habit, we receive a religious name at our Reception, and receive a ring at our profession. We also always live in community in a convent with the Blessed Sacrament, and attend Mass daily. We minister within the Church and are faithful to her teachings. Our habits are modified, we pray morning and evening prayer together, but some other prayers privately because of our very apostolic ministry (Rosary, Stations of the Cross...), but just because of these things I don't think we would fit into the category of liberal.

While I understand the desire to label with the LCWR/CMSWR groups, I think it fails also in describing everyone. I don't know if anyone has noticed this but many, not all, of the CMSWR communities are smaller and/or newer than the LCWR communities. Most of this split between the two happened before anyone knew what the LCWR would become. However, the LCWR had a lot of great practical resources for religious that they wouldn't have access to otherwise because they were larger. For example, for a community with over 2,000 sisters, it was important at some point to get everyone on Social Security... well, it is really difficult to do and you need people who know what they are doing to help you. Those kinds of financial (not money but guidance) and legal resources are the kind that the LCWR was able to help a lot with. My community belongs to the LCWR because they had these resources, not because we agree with everything they say. You may disagree with that, however, if you read above I doubt that the description I gave of my community would ever fit into what is commonly referred to as an "LCWR community".

I propose that instead of categories you look at communities on a continuum. We all fall somewhere else and the only real name for a category is our community's name. This doesn't mean that I don't think it is important to discuss... because I do! I just think that unfortunately it isn't as black and white as we wish it could be. (Everything would just be so much easier! ) Thanks for bringing this up!

Many prayers,
Sister Marie

[Sister Marie]

wow... really double post, sorry!

Edited June 18, 2010 by Sister Marie

[Sister Marie]

Sorry, double post!

Edited June 18, 2010 by Sister Marie

[TeresaBenedicta]

Here is something from Fr. Philip Neri OP,'s blog [url="http://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2010/06/crdl-george-sisters-and-pseudo-rant.html"]Domine, da mihi hanc aquam![/url], that I think is somewhat relevant to this thread. Here he is making the point that, when looking at the so-called "liberal" communities, it's often the loud voice of the few (who happen to be leaders) that give a bad name for the whole. That's something to keep in mind as well.

[quote]Bear with me as I rant. . .there is a point in here, somewhere:

(CNN) -- The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said this week that a group of nuns who broke ranks with the powerful conference on health care reform in March is responsible for the controversial legislation's passage.

"Sister Carol and her colleagues are to blame," Cardinal Francis George is quoted as saying in a Catholic News Agency report Wednesday.

[. . .]

Wow. This is not the usual sort of carefully crafted bureaucrat-speak we've come to expect from the USCCB. The Good Cardinal is speaking Truth to Power here.

Make no mistake: the sisters who supported B.O.Care are not the cheery, put-upon drudges that the MSM is making them out to be. Sr. Keehan rakes in about $900,000 a year as head of the Catholic Hospital Association. The women's congregations represented by the LCWR and its overtly political arm, NETWORK, certainly have sisters who fit the MSM description, but the problem with 90% of American women congregations is not the vast majority of sisters who make up the bulk of the workforce, but their leadership.

I've been told many times by many sisters that their congregational leaders do not represent the views of most sisters on hot button issues. Layers of congregational bureaucracy, multiple national and international associations, "consensus decision-making," ideological formation, and pressure to conform to the community's unitary voice have all made it difficult for any sort of internal opposition to organize. IOW, sisters who disagree with their leaders are effectively silenced.

I''m not suggesting here that congregational leaders are consciously suppressing internal dissent. I know of no program or scheme to ostracize sisters who oppose their elected leaders. There's no nefarious conspiracy here. What I am suggesting is that the culture of American women religious strongly discourages internal opposition through a variety of mechanisms designed to establish and present One View to the Church and the world. This shouldn't surprise us given that most groups do this sort thing, including men's religious congregations. The most effective mechanism in creating the illusion of seamless assent is the so-called "consensus decision-making" process that disallows rational discourse in favor of emotional expression, thus side-stepping potentially discomforting practices like debate and voting on issues. How one feels about an issue is deemed vastly more important than what one thinks about the issue. Voting might expose real divisions and hold up action.

So, what's my point? It's this: when the LCWR and similar groups express dissident opinions on issues that our bishops have pronounced on, do not assume that all or even a majority of the sisters the group claims to represent hold the dissident view. The best we can assume is that leadership "heard the sisters saying X" during discussions about the issue. I've been in many meetings of religious where complex responses to even more complex issues have been reduced to meaningless three or four word bullet points. The Robert's Rules approach to decision-making is cumbersome, often confusing, and time-consuming. But the alternative is equally frustrating. There's nothing more aggravating than to spend three hours discussing a complex problem only to see the wide variety of views congealed into a list of innocuous half-sentences that no reasonable person would dispute.

[b]I just hate to see all our sisters blamed for the dissident opinions of their leaders.[/b] ([i]Emphasis added[/i])[/quote]

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='TeresaBenedicta' date='18 June 2010 - 01:21 PM' timestamp='1276881693' post='2130947']
Here is something from Fr. Philip Neri OP,'s blog [url="http://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2010/06/crdl-george-sisters-and-pseudo-rant.html"]Domine, da mihi hanc aquam![/url], that I think is somewhat relevant to this thread. Here he is making the point that, when looking at the so-called "liberal" communities, it's often the loud voice of the few (who happen to be leaders) that give a bad name for the whole. That's something to keep in mind as well.
[/quote]



I just read that blogpost this morning!

Amen, Fr. Philip Neri!

[sistersintigo]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='18 June 2010 - 01:09 AM' timestamp='1276834182' post='2130762']
....how should I go about this plug?



The [url="http://www.op-stjoseph.org/"]Eastern Province of Dominican Friars[/url] (aka the Dominican Province of Who? -- [i]St. Joseph[/i] ) really wants the Sisters to open up a convent in the U.S. I think it could be a real possibility in the future, especially once (God willing) vocations start rolling in...

Personally, I would [i]love[/i] a mission the U.S.!



I'd be up for that, too! [/quote]

This is the first I had heard that the Saint Joseph Province wants the Dominican Sisters of Saint Joseph to come across the "pond." Did I read that right??

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='sistersintigo' date='18 June 2010 - 01:28 PM' timestamp='1276882101' post='2130950']
This is the first I had heard that the Saint Joseph Province wants the Dominican Sisters of Saint Joseph to come across the "pond." Did I read that right??
[/quote]

The Eastern Province works closely with the Dominican Sisters of St. Joseph. Usually the Frairs of the Eastern Province come "across the pond" to give retreats and teach classes. (I thought that was very cool. ) While visiting last year, I had asked the vocation director (now Prioress) about the future of the community, and she had told me about the Friars expressing interest in having them come to the U.S., especially since there's not really any Dominican community like them here in the U.S. doing what they do specifically. The closest could [i]possibly[/i] be the [url="http://www.sistersop.com/about.html"]Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception[/url].

Granted, it's not like this is happening tomorrow or anything. Sister had said that we'd have to have the numbers to be able to send out to mission houses.... anyone interested?

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='18 June 2010 - 01:57 PM' timestamp='1276883878' post='2130971']
Sister had said that we'd have to have the numbers to be able to send out to mission houses.... anyone interested?


[/quote]

Get them to have nursing as their apostolate and I'm there!

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' date='18 June 2010 - 04:20 PM' timestamp='1276892409' post='2131021']
Get them to have nursing as their apostolate and I'm there!
[/quote]

Two of the Sisters were nurses before they entered. Two others were schoolteachers.

I can't remember what the others did.... though I'm sure some were university students as well.

However, if God is indeed calling you to the Hawthorne Dominicans then I'm sure we'll see each one day! "My" Sisters (I'm still so not used to say that! ) are also close with them, too! Their black cappas are from the Hawthorne Dominicans' pattern.

[vee]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='18 June 2010 - 12:57 PM' timestamp='1276883878' post='2130971']


Granted, it's not like this is happening tomorrow or anything. Sister had said that we'd have to have the numbers to be able to send out to mission houses.... anyone interested?


[/quote]

Weeeell how much quiet cloistered contemplation and crying time would I have?

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='18 June 2010 - 04:54 PM' timestamp='1276894464' post='2131037']
Two of the Sisters were nurses before they entered. Two others were schoolteachers.

I can't remember what the others did.... though I'm sure some were university students as well.

However, if God is indeed calling you to the Hawthorne Dominicans then I'm sure we'll see each one day! "My" Sisters (I'm still so not used to say that! ) are also close with them, too! Their black cappas are from the Hawthorne Dominicans' pattern.
[/quote]

That'd be awesome!

I'd imagine we'd be talking serious theology at first (Thomas Aquinas, anyone?) and then be laughing at the Jesuit jokes we once told on PM.

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' date='18 June 2010 - 09:14 PM' timestamp='1276910050' post='2131148']
That'd be awesome!

I'd imagine we'd be talking serious theology at first (Thomas Aquinas, anyone?) and then be laughing at the Jesuit jokes we once told on PM.
[/quote]

Most definitely!!!

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='vee8' date='18 June 2010 - 06:23 PM' timestamp='1276899786' post='2131094']
Weeeell how much quiet cloistered contemplation and crying time would I have?
[/quote]



Hmmmm..... well, there's two hours of study time in one's cell, so if you are particularly moved by profound Truth, then I am sure you would be free to cry. Also, after Adoration and Compline one retires to her cell... for study and sleep.

Need some extra Kleenex?

Teehee.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='18 June 2010 - 09:25 PM' timestamp='1276910706' post='2131152']


Hmmmm..... well, there's two hours of study time in one's cell, so if you are particularly moved by profound Truth, then I am sure you would be free to cry. Also, after Adoration and Compline one retires to her cell... for study and sleep.

Need some extra Kleenex?

Teehee.
[/quote]

[vee]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='18 June 2010 - 08:25 PM' timestamp='1276910706' post='2131152']


Hmmmm..... well, there's two hours of study time in one's cell, so if you are particularly moved by profound Truth, then I am sure you would be free to cry. Also, after Adoration and Compline one retires to her cell... for study and sleep.

Need some extra Kleenex?

Teehee.
[/quote]

Aw thanks *takes Kleenex* I'll need that for when I get kicked out of the Carmelites, or trip and epic fail out! After which I'll give the Dominicans a try.