Denver, Colo., Mar 7, 2018 / 03:19 pm (CNA).- Last week, the women’s edition of a magazine distributed in the Vatican published an article claiming that religious sisters in the Church are poorly treated and economically exploited.
The article appeared in Women Church World, a monthly women’s magazine published by L’Osservatore Romano, the newspaper of Vatican City. The Associated Press called the story an “exposé on the underpaid labor and unappreciated intellect of religious sisters.”
In the article, three religious sisters, whose names have been changed, expressed that the work of women religious is undervalued, that sisters are treated poorly by the priests and bishops they serve, and that they are not recognized or paid fairly for their work.
One nun, identified only as Sr. Marie, said that nuns often work long hours in domestic roles for little pay. She also lamented that some sisters are not invited to eat at the same table with the clergy that they serve, causing frustration and resentment.
Another sister in the article lamented that sisters with advanced degrees are sometimes tasked with menial tasks.
“I met some nuns in possession of a doctorate in theology who have been sent to cook or wash the dishes the following day, a mission free from any connection with their intellectual formation and without a real explanation,” said a religious sister identified in the article as Sr. Paule.
But several religious sisters have told CNA that the article does not reflect their experiences in religious life.
Mother M. Maximilia Um, who is the Provincial Superior of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George in Alton, Illinois, said that the article might indicate specific problems in particular sisters’ situations, rather than systemic institutional problems.
“None of the concerns or problems pointed out in this article can really be completely dismissed, but…I don’t think that they can be confined to relationships between men and women, and those who are ordained and those who are not,” she said. “I suppose in the end it’s a problem as old as sin.”
While Mother Maximilia’s order of sisters mostly serve in health care and education positions, they have “quite a history” of serving in the households of priests or bishops, like the sisters in the article.
However, the views of the sisters in the article do not reflect “the very real experience our sisters have had in these apostolates, where there is real care and concern shown for the sisters and for their service,” she said.
Mother Marie Julie is the Superior General of the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church, headquartered in Connecticut, whose apostolates are primarily in health care and education. Their charism is “to serve the people of God in a spirit of heartfelt simplicity.”
“So by our charism, we’re not looking to get our name in lights, we’re not looking for adulation or praise or notice even, we just want to be in the heart of the Church, and I think that’s pretty much the feeling of most religious congregations and their members,” Mother Marie told CNA.
She added that she was “saddened” by the L’Osservatore Romano article, because, she said, it paints a “misleading and bleak picture” of religious life, and does not emphasize the gift of the vocation, both to the consecrated individual and to the Church at large.
“There are disgruntled people everywhere, and also I have to admit there is probably some truth to what was written in that article, I can’t say that those people have never had any of those experiences,” she said. “But that has not been my experience or the experience of those sisters that I know.”
Rather than a feeling of servitude, religious sisters typically feel that they are daughters of the Church, and are loved and respected as such, said Mother Judith Zuniga, O.C.D., Superior General of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, California.
“I feel and know myself to be a daughter of the Church, which in essence means that the Church is my Mother and I sincerely love her,” Mother Judith told CNA by email.
“If there is sexism and discrimination, my sisters and I have not experienced it. There seems to be more a feeling of respect, affection, and gratitude for the services we render, for who we are. This would be the more standard response we’ve received from people within and outside the Church,” she said.
When it comes to monetary compensation, Mother Maximilia noted that while the salaries or stipends of a sister doing domestic work might be less than what she might make in other apostolates, “that was never an issue for us because first of all we see this as a real service to the church,” she said. Furthermore, the households in which sisters served often provided other compensation, such as meals or lodging.
“I feel like we were always adequately compensated for service,” she said.
Mother Marie told CNA that sometimes, if a particular parish is struggling, the sisters serving there might be paid less, or paid later as the funds come in, but “those are the parishes that are struggling, that is not the norm by any stretch of the imagination,” she noted.
“We don’t expect that we would live simply on the love of God, we have to have insurance and we have responsibilities and overhead,” Mother Marie said. “But when that happens – when we’re in a ministry and we’re not paid adequately as the world would see it – that’s not servitude, that’s Gospel, and that’s a privilege,” she said.
Religious sisters in the Church typically make three vows – those of poverty, chastity and obedience. During the celebration of the final profession of those vows, a sister often lies prostrate, face down, before the altar and the cross, in a symbolic gesture that she is giving up her old life and rising with Christ as someone who totally belongs to him, Mother Marie said.
That moment is “one of the holiest moments of our lives as sisters,” Mother Marie said.
“When we laid our lives at the service of the Gospel, we also laid at the foot of the altar our expectations for what we would gain in life,” in terms of worldly success or recognition, she said. Instead, “our hope is that we would gain souls, and I know that that might sound sort of Pollyannish, but that’s what gets us up in the morning,” she added.
Regarding the complaint that sisters with advanced degrees might be working in positions of service that are considered less intellectually stimulating, Mother Maximilia said that kind of thinking reveals a bias about what makes work valuable.
“The thought that [intellectual work] is objectively more valuable is already a biased opinion,” Mother Maximilia said.
“The point of any work is to serve and love God and neighbor, and I think actually that shows itself in a very particular way in direct service to a person’s needs,” she said.
“I would argue that it often is very intellectual work to balance and manage a household, so I think first of all we have a skewered notion of what valuable work is, and I would accentuate that what makes work valuable in the end is love, and we’ve always understood that service to the clergy is primarily that,” Mother Maximilia said.
It is natural, Mother Marie noted, that a religious sister with an advanced degree would want to work in her field of expertise at least for a time, and that is often the plan for those sisters. However, sometimes extenuating circumstances necessitate that sisters serve in other apostolates.
“If God calls us to do something else either through our superiors or the signs of the times or just through events, then we respond to that…we see that as the will of God,” she said.
When a sister is serving in a position that may not have been her first choice, it is not unlike the sacrifices that mothers and fathers make for their families, she added, such as staying up all night with a sick child, or taking a lower paying position in order to have more time for their family.
“That’s done for love, and it’s love that drives what we do, and a recognition of this great gift that we have,” as consecrated people, she said.
Mother Judith added that while education is a good and necessary thing, it is not ultimately the measure by which souls will be judged at the end of their lives.
“In the final analysis, when we come to the end of our life and we come before the Lord, I think it’s safe to say that He’s not going to ask us how many degrees we had or how we used our education,” she said. “He’s going to ask us how we loved.”
Mother Judith noted that the article misses, as contemporary culture often misses, the gifts that women in their femininity bring to the world, regardless of what specific tasks they are performing.
“We live in a culture that doesn’t seem to value the true gifts that women bring to our culture – motherhood, gentleness, patience, intuition, sensitivity, attention, warmth and the list goes on. These qualities are now seen in a negative light, seen as weaknesses, when in fact, it’s our strength,” she said.
“For consecrated religious, these elements of true femininity should be even more deeply rooted in us simply because of who we are. People see us and right away they associate us with God, the Church and rightly so. What a blessing and privilege it is to be a daughter of the Church.”
[…]
Peace is precious. Non-violence is a time tested value. Democracy is a continuous process. In a democracy, each one is invited to contribute to the peace process. Long live democracy.
I am glad that the US is not a democracy, but a republic, since all democracies end in tyranny. Donald Trump was elected on Nov. 3, but morning came and it was stolen with tens of thousands of illegal ballots. They told us beforehand what they were going to do and they did it. If Biden is installed on Jan. 20 we will then be a banana republic. And one other thing, most of the protesters were let in by the police and were antifa. President Trump’s voters are peaceful protesters unlike the demoncrats.
Yes, this must be condemned, this movement (Pope Francis). Francis correctly calls for healing the violence. Condemn the movement? The movement is at least 72 million Americans who voted for Trump, many who faithfully hold to Catholicism. Who are against abortion. Who risk defending the unborn. Who reject homosexuality and its threat to the traditional family. Who are willing to stand up for religious liberty. What keeps us together as a Nation is exactly this sense of revolutionary Liberty of the founders, a belief in God given freedom, the inherent rights to live without immoderate restriction, to believe in a saving God, corrupted by a Catholic Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy in his opinion defining liberty sans principals Planned Parenthood E PA v Casey. Likely the intellectual catalyst that divided more conservative Christians and Mid Westerners from urban hardened hostile Marxist socialists. Result of the election ignited the spark, the volatility of the speech, yes even Trump’s admittedly narcissistic but not wholly untrue speech, march, the attack on the Capital that is perceived as betraying that most valued premise of God given freedom. We’re in for a fight, or the cowardly decision to lay down and enjoy the remaining moments of just peace until that is wrenched away from us. Our challenge is in response to the question, where does justice lie? In keeping up political decorum? Certainly not in violence. Rather it’s in the determined quest for the true and the good. Our failure as a Nation with the election of a moral turncoat will end in the suffering, and hopefully to find in disaster the redemption of those of us who have failed themselves and country. And many of us God.
When the Pope speaks of condemning ¨this¨ movement, it is a stretch to interpret it as his condemning all who voted for Trump. He is referring to any movement that involves violence.
The Holy Father is quite likely not knowing the ground situation and is unaware of the nuances – the mainstream media tar everyone with the same brush and he probably naively believed that narrative.
It is obvious that those who entered the Capitol also included Antifa / paid actors. Plus some of the events were cleverly staged and raise a lot of questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0AM9xPFNFc
That said, re the ´many who faithfully hold to Catholicism´ bit – well the ´many´ bit is debatable. How many among that ´many´ adhere to the teaching of Humanae Vitae?
The tide will turn within a fortnight, and then of course, it remains to be seen what the ¨many…who reject homosexuality and its threat to the traditional family¨ are going to do when the ¨most pro-gay President¨ – https://twitter.com/LogCabinGOP/status/1296039209891819520 – continues his ´campaign to decriminalize homosexuality in 71 countries´ >> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7092519/Trump-Republican-president-promote-LGBT-Pride-Month.html
What will they do when Trump ´accommodates´ the demand from some ¨Republican conservatives¨ such as https://logcabin.org/adoption/ (or those among them who will move to any new party that may be formed) to continue to allow ¨LGBT couples¨ to adopt or foster children?
Do those ¨who faithfully hold to Catholicism¨ have the numbers as well as the political will, courage, stomach and determination to overturn the ¨anthropological regression¨ of ´…laws “assimilating” homosexual relationships to marriage´? – https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-calls-for-civil-union-law-for-same-sex-couples-in-shift-from-vatican-stance-12462
´…(The Pope) expressed concern that if same-sex couples “are given adoption rights, there could be affected children. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help them shape their identity.”…´
This non-Catholic expressed one aspect of the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWpvf-tZWIY
The system is broken. We are broken.
Kyrie eleison!
Yes, all isn’t black and white. We, nevertheless, mustn’t adopt your presumed omniscience and disparaging response. We hold fast to Christ and as priests we witness fearlessly to his truth. He will not abandon us as long as we hold firm. That’s what I convey to the faithful and to you.
Unsure what led to the ´omniscience´ label. [As an aside, I was reminded of ¨The aims of leftist labeling and censoring of conservatives as extremists¨ – https://www.debatez.com/forums/topic/the-aims-of-leftist-labeling-and-censoring-of-conservatives-as-extremists/ – so is this a case of the shoe being on the other foot?!] 🙂
In any case, if it is because of the confidence (based on multiple reports from various sources) that some things will happen in the coming days including the reversal of the tide, – that does not mean I know everything, nor do I claim to be ´omniscient´.
´disparaging response´?
Again, another (wrong) perception / interpretation.
I was simply pointing out the truth as borne witness through the content in the cited web pages – the intent being to point out stuff that needs to be highlighted for the benefit of those who may not quite be aware of those things. That is to say, it was merely to indicate areas where there are inconsistencies and work to do – which that non-Catholic woman has also rightly flagged in some respect.
If I intended to be disparaging, I would not have included myself in saying WE are broken.
I’m not convinced that Pope Francis has a clue what he’s talking about when he wades into U.S. politics.
“But we have to understand well that it does not repeat, learning from history.”
Shouldn’t we do the same for McCarrick? The report published by Vatican didn’t seem to impress most people I follow. I haven’t read it myself, but have been hearing it’s essentially just a report of blaming here and there, instead of admitting what’s going wrong in the Church / Vatican and how it could be solved. As a Catholic, I’m really sad I have to write something like this as a public comment, but I think we Catholics deserve to know what’s really going wrong so we can work together to prevent the same thing. Unfortunately, our dear pope seems to prefer silence when people tried to clarify controversial / ambiguous topics.
I’m astonished that he is astonished. Did he not say to “make a mess” and that “chaos is good” and he would be” seen as the Pope who divided the Church?” Does he not know what the earthly result of that is?
And silence about the violence against Christians in China? Selective astonishment.
Well, yes.
Good point. Truthfully ,I was pretty astonished at the mayhem in DC but compare the state of affairs here to what’s going on in communist China.
I think of everything going on in the world that’s disturbing and our betrayal of Christians in China has to be one of the worst offenses. Imagine what the early missionaries would think of us.
I am astonished that the Pope, to by my knowledge, has issued no statement in response to the legalization of abortion in his native land. I am astonished that such a man is the Vicar of Christ.
The Pope is astonished and condemns the violence?? Where was he when the BLM and antifa crowd set a church on fire across the street from the White House last summer and Donald Trump stepped out alone to present a picture of calm and authority? For which he was, as always , attacked by the Democrats,who complained the rioters were roughly treated, and who seemed to have no trouble letting the country burn all summer in Blue states. In fact the DEMs took the trouble to kneel in solidarity with the rioters!!! But now they are shocked!! Shocked they say, that a few protesters trashed Congressional offices. I do not support anyone rioting. But even less do I support smug self-serving politicians such as those on the left. Rules/Laws are supposed to apply to ALL or they should apply to NONE. For more than 2 centuries Americans have grown used to being the objects of hate. We do not care what non-Americans think of us.