All Roads Lead Where?

A strange story this.

The Vatican is apparently trying to reaffirm Papal Authority over US Nuns who have become rather lax in their belief systems ..... or at least from a conservative Vatican point of view. This attempt is apparently meeting with some resistance from ladies who don't like the idea of male authority.

Now forgive me for laughing, but isn't this just the problem? After all these women are meant to be serving as Holy Nuns, not as Catholic social workers, and wouldn't the Roman Catholic Church collapse if there wasn't any acknowledgement of overarching Papal Authority? After all they are not Episcopalians or in the Church of England, where everyone believes what they want, does what they want, anyway they want.

These Nuns have become so infected with US feminism that one of them, Sister Mary Mackay is quoted as saying "The culture encourages everyone to be very tolerant and open-minded," she said. "To imagine that a dictum sent by somebody we don't know, who lives very far away would take hold in this culture, to imagine that, is really a stretch."

That person she 'doesn't know', who lives 'very far away' is called "His Holiness, the Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI", who last time I checked, was still head of the entire Roman Catholic Church.

Now I don't know what sort of religious teaching Sister Mary got, but I am pretty damn sure that it involved a short mention of Popes, and very certainly included a vow of obedience to his authority, even if he is "very far away", and Sister Mary "doesn't know him".

The report states that many nuns believe the investigation is intended to rein them in, while others warn that a 'male hierarchy' wants to regain control of them as 'women' and as a 'free workforce'. Ahh, US Feminism in full flow amongst the Nuns ..... They are not a 'free workforce', they are Roman Catholic Nuns, under vows of obedience, next they will want women priests, to be able to get married, and for the Church to be run by a female Pope!

All sounds very familiar, but the Vatican in Rome, isn't the Arch Bishopric of Canterbury, and a previous attempt by US Nuns to refuse to obey the Papal Authority, resulted in the expulsion of a number of Nuns who are now lay workers in the the 'Immaculate Heart', a community of former nuns, who had to leave the Church 40 years ago, because they refused to obey the Vatican teachings.

I shall watch this story with interest .... is the Catholic Church still able to withstand the winds of PC Feminism, or is it doomed to decay like the Episcopalian church?