Church in the World

Benedictine prioress defends Sr Joan in defiance of Vatican

A Benedictine sister who attended a recent conference on women?s ordination in defiance of a Vatican ban has been robustly defended by her superior. The Vatican had asked that the American Benedictine writer and speaker, Joan Chittister, should stay away from the first-ever conference of Women?s Ordination Worldwide (WOW), held in Dublin from 29 June to 1 July (See ?Special Report?, The Tablet, 7 July).

Mounting a vigorous defence of Sr Joan?s participation, her superior, the prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St Benedict, at Erie in Pennsylvania, this week condemned what she described as the Vatican?s 'scandalous' attempts to forbid 'questions of import to the Church'.

Sr Christine Vladimiroff OSB said she had been in deliberations with Vatican officials for three months over the question of Sr Joan?s participation, which 'the Vatican believed ? to be in opposition to its decree (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) that priestly ordination will never be conferred on women in the Roman Catholic Church and must therefore not be discussed', she explained. Because of this, 'the Vatican ordered me to prohibit Sr Joan from attending the conference where she is a main speaker'. But after seeking the advice of 'bishops, religious leaders, canonists, other prioresses, and most importantly my religious community', and following 'many hours in communal and personal prayer on this matter', she had concluded that she 'cannot be used by the Vatican to deliver an order of silencing'. Sr Joan, her superior had concluded, 'must make her own decision based on her sense of Church, her monastic profession and her own personal integrity'. In choosing to address the Dublin conference, she had 'the blessing of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie'.

The reason she had refused the Vatican?s request, she went on, was that the Vatican?s understanding of obedience was 'fundamentally different' from that of monastic tradition. Whereas 'Benedictine authority and obedience are achieved through dialogue between a community member and her prioress in a spirit of co-responsibility', the Vatican sought 'to exert power and control' and to 'prompt a false sense of unity inspired by fear'.

Soline Vatinel, one of the conference organisers, said it was 'remarkable and unprecedented' for a religious congregation publicly and unanimously to demonstrate solidarity with a member in conflict with Church authority.

A well-known speaker and author of more than 20 books, Sr Joan, a former prioress of the Benedictine Sisters at Erie, used to be president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States. Sr Joan said her participation in the conference, which she described as 'reverent and prayerful', was neither 'divisive nor defiant', nor an endorsement of women?s ordination, but 'rooted in the best history of the Church'. Her appearance at the conference was a personal statement that dialogue is good for the Church. 'I believe ? and the history of the Church is clear on this ? that what is not good for the Church is silencing. What is good for the Church is discussion', she said earlier.

In her statement, Sr Christine agreed that discussion was necessary. She had disagreed with the Vatican that Sr Joan?s participation would be a 'scandal to the faithful.'

Sr Christine?s decision to defy the Vatican?s request to prevent Sr Joan?s participation 'should in no way indicate a lack of communion with the Church', the prioress went on. It was, rather, an indication of her fidelity to a 1500-year-old monastic tradition stretching back to the early Desert Fathers and Mothers of the fourth century. These communities 'lived on the margin of society in order to be a prayerful and questioning presence to both Church and society', she said. Only if Benedictine communities continued to stand apart from the hierarchical and clerical church were they able 'to live the gift that we are for the Church', she concluded. And only then could they be 'faithful to the gift that women have within the Church'.

Sr Myra Poole of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur was also asked to stay away from the conference. Sr Ellen Gielty, General Moderator of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Rome, has said in a statement that Sr Myra, who lives in London, initially withdrew from the conference after discussing the issue with her superiors and Church authorities. Last week The Tablet reported that Sr Myra had been 'threatened with dismissal from her order' if she attended the conference. But Sr Ellen said the threat did not come from the Sisters of Notre Dame. 'At no point in the correspondence or in the dialogue was any mention made of the possibility of expulsion from the congregation', she said. As it happened, Sr Myra later changed her mind and attended a session at the Dublin conference on women in developing countries which she had helped to organise. According to Sr Ellen, 'Sr Myra has been in communication with Sr Ellen Gielty about this change in her decision.' The Pope?s press spokesman, Joaqu?n Navarro-Valls, last week confirmed that the Vatican had asked the sisters not to attend the conference. But while the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life had thought the sisters? participation 'inopportune' because of the 'possibility of outside manipulation', the Congregation 'never considered taking disciplinary measures', Navarro-Valls told reporters on 6 July.