The Post-Dispatch published a letter to the editor today from a spokesman from the Loretto Women’s Network who related her group was “saddened” by the Lears decree. It is an absolutely priceless exemplar of leftist sloganeering in the name of dialogue (drink):
The Loretto Women’s Network is saddened by Archbishop Raymond Burke’s use of the canonical punishment of interdict against Sister Louise Lears for attending an ordination and for blessing two women priests (“St. Cronan’s pastor looks to future after Burke,” July 12).
As a voluntary group of about 200 feminists within the larger Loretto community, we honor her action. We do not understand why such a severe penalty was meted out for this Christ-like act of support. Surely, her presence was not a scandal to the more than 600 people at the ceremony, nor to the members of the faith community these women serve. If it is a scandal to act as one believes Jesus would act, then what is a conscience for?
The LWN commits itself to “work for the full equality of women and men in all aspects of ecclesial life, including full access to all sacramental ministries.” We applaud Ms. Louise’s conscientious decision to be present at this event. We are grateful for her many years of service to God’s people, and we lament the loss her absence will be to the people of St. Cronan’s and to the church in St. Louis.
Martha Anderson, Webster Groves, Loretto Women’s Network
Where to begin?
First of all, a group of 200 feminists within the larger (203?) Loretto Community, which I guess is one way of saying “The Sisters of Loretto“– the Loretto Women’s Network is certainly an interesting crowd of ladies. Their web page says that they “work toward transforming institutional, personal and structural relationships based on domination and subordination, both within the Loretto Community and beyond it.” Seriously.
If you can stomach it, reading their Identity Statement yields the gem that they support the so-called Equal Rights Amendment. This may give some indication of the freshness of the movement, but more importantly for their Catholicity the ERA is widely analyzed by Constitutional scholars to require abortion on demand.
They are “saddened”. They “lament”. They “honor”. They “applaud”. I wonder how a representative of a group of self-described feminists can use language that makes them appear as emotional drama queens. Just a thought.
The letter also trots out the usual and inaccurate defense of the Lears crowd that her actions were Christ-like. Really? Would Jesus Christ really support the mocking and destruction of the Sacred Priesthood He established in His own Blood? Would He really support “being there” and “encouraging” two women who engage in an act that constitutes objectively grave sin? That could lead them to hell? Hardly.
Alderson admits in this letter and elsewhere that it supports women’s “ordination” (this is the meaning of the convoluted language in quotations in the letter). I suppose that of all the action verbs the LWN experienced from the Lears decree, I guess we won’t read “we learn” in there.
About the use of the word scandal. To quote Inigo Montoya, “I do not think it means what you think it means.” If scandal is defined as some act of sacrilege that stuns the “womenpriest” crowd, then nothing is scandalous. Scandal, instead, is what has been proven: the acts of Lears and the others have led people astray from the truths of the faith.
And though the writer lauds her act of “conscience”, she is missing the point. Conscience can be dead and devoid of proper formation. Lucifer acted in conscience. His mission statement contains similar language– he worked “toward transforming institutional, personal and structural relationships based on domination and subordination, both within the angelic community and beyond it.” That didn’t work out so well for him, did it?
The Sisters of Loretto operates Nerinx Hall, a high school for girls in Webster Groves.
