"US Priests Reportedly Behind Vatican Crackdown on Nuns"/ Take the Survey on MSNBC to Express Your Support of Nun Justice/ Bridget Mary's Response to MSNBC article and support of Nun Justice

...."Gibson, a Religion News Service correspondent, said the crackdown shows that concerns about poverty and economic inequality are taking a backseat in the church.“There’s so much riding on the gay marriage battle, and on abortion rights, and on contraception that [bishops] want everybody in the church to be doubling down on those issues and not being distracted by social justice,” Gibson told msnbc.com.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/10/11597887-us-priests-reportedly-behind-vatican-crackdown-on-nuns
Bridget Mary: What ever happened to the Vatican following the Gospel? Jesus' primary concern was living justice and compassion, loving God and neighbor. He taught "whatsoever you do the least of my sisters and brothers that you do unto me". Have the bishops tossed justice and compassion out the window in this latest power play to bully the nuns? I don't recall anything Jesus said about contraception or gay rights. And Gibson leaves out the "third elephant in the room, women's ordination." The nuns are in big trouble with the Vatican for their support of gender equality including women priests!  If the nuns go non-canonical, declare their independence from Vatican control, the women religious who have been doing priestly ministry for years, could be ordained. Just think how blessed Catholics would be to have nun priests. The nuns' views on contraception, gay rights and women's ordination reflect ordinary Catholics attitudes. The Vatican's bullying of the nuns is an abuse of power and a fiasco, both morally, spiritually. Another reminder that the hierarchy is not the church, the people of God are and they are supporting the nuns! 


...."Bishops have been playing defense for years in the wake of the church's sexual abuse crisis, and Gibson said they've been looking for issues on which they can reassert their moral authority.“These issues are ones they think they can do that on, so they really want to show that... they’re calling the shots,” he added.


Bridget Mary: You have got to be kidding. They have lost all moral credibility! The global sexual abuse coverup belongs at the door of the Vatican. This bullying of the nuns, most of whom are elderly and have devoted their entire lives to service to those in need, is the last desperate gasp of a patriarchal church, out of control! 


..."American Catholics are showing their support for the nuns, organizing vigils all over the country to advocate for the end of the crackdown. The Nun Justice Project is one organization standing with the nuns against what they call "a prime example of how the hierarchy in the Roman Catholic Church misuses its power to diminish the voice of women."An online petition started by Nun Justice had garnered more than 41,000 signatures at the time this story was written....The LCWR will meet starting May 29 to begin its discussion of the Vatican's doctrinal assessment and the implementation plan put forth by the Holy See. The Vatican has the power to remove the official recognition of the LCWR.

Bridget Mary: Hopefully, the LCWR, in prophetic obedience to the Spirit,  will affirm primacy of conscience in the hot button issues and  declare independence from Vatican control. It is not like the nuns need a good housekeeping seal of approval of the Vatican in the 21st century. As the young people today say, nuns rock!

Do you think the Vatican is justified in cracking down on U.S. nuns?"

Bridget Mary: Take the survey! Express your outrage. Support Nun Justice! The U.S. nuns should be investigating the Vatican for its global sexual abuse coverup that has allowed pedophiles to rape and sodomize children and youth. The Vatican's blatent bullying effort of the nuns is an exercise in hypocricy that boggles the mind! One recent example, the horrific, Philly sexual abuse cover up that goes to the top! And the Vatican has the nerve to investigate elderly nuns who have served the church for decades!

Bridget Mary Meehan, SFCC, ARCWP

I am a Sister for Christian Community, an independent Catholic religious community of Sisters, that was founded in the 1970's to offer a new paradigm of religious life for women who did not want to be controlled by the hierarchy, but wanted to be a leaven of Christian community in the church and world. I was ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest in Pittsburgh in 2006 and bishop in 2009.