Truly bad news

As you know, I’ve been a busy little beaver, posting away the last two  days.  I spent quite a bit of time and effort researching Sr. Rupp’s work, as I hope my recent posts demonstrate.  Because of the effort involved, I held off sharing some bad, really bad, news I had received on Tuesday.  I wanted to complete the posts analyzing Sr. Rupp’s work from an orthodox perspective before sharing this news.

The news is this: The chancellor of the Diocese, Mary Edlund, informed Fr. Henry Petter, pastor at St. Elizabeth Seton parish, that Bishop Farrell had “not found any [sic] Ecclesiastical Sanctions concerning Sr. Joyce Rupp. Therefore, the bishop will not interfere with the five parishes who have invited Sr. Rupp here at Seton.”   This means, at least for now, that the Diocese will do nothing to prevent Sr. Rupp from holding her retreat.

This is amazing to me, especially given two factors.  For one, I had been told, verbally, that not only was Sr. Rupp’s ecclesial status being reviewed, but that diocesan officials, not necessarily the Bishop, were reviewing the content of her work.  I do not know how one could review her work and not come to the conclusion that Sr. Rupp’s beliefs are verrry problematical, at best.  Secondly, this ‘ecclesial review’ is not terribly substantial.  All that it involves establishing is that the competent authority over Sr. Rupp, in this case, the head of her order, thinks she is A-OK.  Well, that’s a bit like the inmates running the asylum, since, as I demonstrated on Tuesday, Sr. Rupp’s order is deeply involved in New Age practices through the “Servite Center for Compassion.”   I suppose the ecclesial review could also include a check to insure that there are currently no Church-wide prohibitions on Sr. Rupp speaking to Catholics, but it takes a truly outrageous act of dissent from Church doctrine to incur such a penalty – even complete heretics like Charles Curran were able to speak for years before incurring such an injunction from the Church. 

There is one other factor that surprises me.  I am surprised that Bishop Farrell and/or the diocesan staff would be willing to adjudicate postively for Sr. Rupp, given her statements about the Magisterium.  I related yesterday a speech Sr. Rupp gave at the 2004 US Catholic awards.  About half of this speech was little more than an invective filled assault on the Magisterium of the Church, particularly regarding the issue of women’s ordination (sister needs to have a come to Jesus with, uh……..Jesus, on that one).   In this speech, Sr. Rupp repeatedly uses the rhetoric of extreme elements of feminism, stating about the Church and/or Magisterium “Women suffer alot because of the Church,” ” It’s this attitude of sneering
domination and the obvious lack of respect for their individual worth that causes such immense angst in Catholic women today,”  “women’s suffering is related to Church issues,” and, my personal favorite “Power rightly exercised can be healthy and helpful. Rome agrees, but only so long as this power is in the hands of men. When women begin to assert their rights and seek to have their God-given potential and gifts fully acknowledged and accepted for service in the church, they are not only denied this right but are written off as adversaries, reactionaries, and power-seekers.”   Oh, the martyrdom!

This is, obviously, the language of power dynamics that suffuses the thinking of the more radical feminists.  I can not think of a more wrong-headed attitude towards the attitude the Catholic Church takes towards women.  I do not think I should have to remind Sr. Rupp, or anyone who thinks like her, that the most exalted human being in the Church is a woman, the Blessed Virgin.  I do not think I should have to remind Sr. Rupp of the historical contributions of women from St. Terese of Avila to St. Catherine Labour to St. Bernadette, nor the fact that the Church exalts those women saints to the same degree it exalts any of the male saints.  And, I do not think I should have to remind that the Church, though staffed with ordained MEN, has written some truly amazingly insightful and thoughtful commentaries on the relationship between women and their Church, their families and societies, and the world.  And, I know many women, who are not obsessed with the philosophy of male-oriented power dynamics, who recognize the unique and irreplaceable power that a woman has in the world. 

I am, needless to say, deeply disappointed at this decision by the Diocese.  I do not think either the process by which this decision was reached, nor the decision itself, reflect well upon the Diocese. 

This does not mean we shall give up on this issue.  I knew going in that getting this particular retreat cancelled would take  a miracle, and God in His Good Wisdom has not yet deigned to grant such a miracle.  But, I do think our prayers and actions have had an effect, and I remain prayerfully confident that ultimately we will effect some changes in the types of speakers that are brought into this diocese, especially the north deanery.

If you want to contact the diocese, the contact info is below.

Again, be brief, polite, direct, and to the point. 

Mary Edlund   Chancellor, Dallas Diocese   chancellor@cathdal.org 214-379-2819
Elsa Espinoza, Secretary, Bishop Kevin Farrell: eespinoz@cathdal.org 214-379-2816