The diocese of Paris, where I spend a lot of time, now has more religious that diocesan priests and it is worth recalling that both the Hildebrandine reform of the 11th century and the Post-Tridentine reform of the 17th encouraged the formation of communities of canons regular and priestly congregations devoted to parish work, like the Oratorians.

I don’t doubt it, but I would be curious whether he agreed with the following interpretation of that experience.

Many priests will tell you that they hear a lot about loneliness from the other side of the confessional. Quite a few priests will add that loneliness is precisely the consequence of relaxing the life of prayer too much — not because they were lonely before, but because that relaxation led to their walking away from their One True Companion. Some speak from painful, personal experience. Many never walk back.

Naturally, relaxing the communal life has the same effect. The companions you make in the order, who once helped God fill that hole in your heart, are no longer so important as they once were.

I certainly don’t think that’s the full explanation; no doubt some of those men really were in the wrong place. But I recall that the more successful monasteries and religious houses I’ve known were the ones who enforced both prayer and recreation quite stringently.

(This being America, there doesn’t seem to be a problem getting the men to work! ;-))

I’m still puzzled. Just who are these pseudo-traditionalists and how are they bashing nuns?

The proof is really in the pudding: let’s look at the sisters in Ann Arbor and Nashville and ask ourselves the constructive question, “What are they doing right, such that they constantly need to be building additions to their facilities?”

Reform should be life-giving, not life-sucking; and yet — sadly, as I mentioned previously, since it will involve the disappearance of countless orders in this country — this problem will take care of itself within a generation.

But then you’ll see an outward expansion again, true to the Church’s M.O. throughout history, especially in the 19th century in regard to women’s religious orders: the Church must often grow small before it can grow larger again, as Pope Benedict once said.

I can’t help but wonder what Felapton is talking about. I have no idea what this phrase means, let alone to whom it applies.

I think it refers to people who get offended by nuns practicing Wiccan ritual in church buildings.

Because it is a venerable old Catholic tradition to show respect for nuns; irregardless of what they’re wearing, how old they are, how much they weigh, whom they vote for, where, when or what they do in their apostolate. Basically, the Catholic tradition is, if you don’t have anything good to say about them, just keep your mouth shut. (Especially if there are any non-Catholics around to hear you.)

People are free to call their own personal preferences and prejudices “traditions” if they wish; but that doesn’t make them Catholic traditions.

Going to civilian clothes instead of keeping habits, making prayer of the Divine Office optional or severely relaxed, making the sisterhood about secular ministry and a 9 to 5 job no different than a lay person’s…some women said they said to themselves, “What am I doing as a sister that I can’t do as a layperson?”

Religious life is supposed to be RELIGIOUS life, not secular+smattering of religious window dressing.

I can’t help but wonder what Felapton is talking about. I have no idea what this phrase means, let alone to whom it applies.

The appointment of Archbishop Sartain to oversee the LCWR is a result of the CDF investigation of the LCWR. The LCWR is the umbrella organization that enables the superiors of religious women’s orders to collaborate on things like development of formation materials and, um, lobbying.

The Apostolic Visitation of the orders themselves was carried out under the auspices of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life. The contents of their report have not been made public, but Cardinal Braz de Aviz and his staff have suggested that the prayers of the nun-bashing pseudo-traditionalists for an orgy of public humiliation will probably go unanswered.

Archbishop Sartain can’t make anybody put on a burka, resign her professorial appointment, prostrate herself at the consecration or witness to the exclusively affective nature of the feminine genius. All he can do is decide whom LCWR can invite to speak at their conventions, withhold approval of the formation textbooks, forbid them to hire NETWORK, things like that.

Catholic Health Care Sister,

I am so glad you said that! There were never as many brothers as there were sisters (no doubt because men can become priests), but the sharp drop in numbers of brothers and sisters was proportional. I don’t think the sharp decline in number of, say, Christian Brothers had anything to do with feminism!

Some of those brothers, priests and sisters realized they had responded to the allure and not to a true calling.

One of the Christian Brothers at my high school became a personal friend of my family, and when the brothers began leaving in large numbers, he said that one major reason was that a huge amount of their time that had formerly been scheduled (communal prayer time, and the like) had been made optional or done away with. He said many people then realized they were lonely. That, of course, is just one person’s opinion, but it has always sounded plausible to me.