Sisters in the Church
Pope Francis has discovered that machismo and misogyny reign in his Vatican Curia. And that, therefore, the sisters who work there - numerous in all ranks - are not properly appreciated. He believes that, in order to elevate them, they must be turned into civil servants. In this bureaucratization of the nuns, he has set an example by appointing one as prefect and another as secretary of a dicastery. A belated and curious feminism!
This judgment extends to the position of the nuns in the whole Church. For centuries, and especially in the twentieth century, the situation of consecrated women has followed the crises through which the Church passed. An outstanding example: traditionally, nuns have been educators: they have created their own schools. In the 1960s, it was said, “the time of the laity” came and they had to hand over the educational institutions to the laity. As it turned out, the institutions were lost. The true appreciation of sisters consists in helping them to live out their own vocation, for which they were instituted: in the humble, silent but indispensable work among the poor, the sick, the elderly. They were not made for bureaucracy. The crisis of religious institutes has followed the crisis of the Church.
The experience of my relationship with consecrated women has made me appreciate the work they do in the Church. We must distinguish between two dimensions: purely active or contemplative, and also those who try to assume contemplation and action. Benedictine monasteries cultivate, especially, liturgy and Gregorian chant; they used to be well-populated abbeys. The Carmelite monasteries, on the other hand, have a small number - no more than twenty - but they multiply, regularly requested by the bishops. And they take up the tradition forged by the great St. Teresa of Avila. The decision of St. Therese of Lisieux fully portrays the function of these Carmelites: “In the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be love”. My memory goes to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Scholastica, in San Isidro, where as a young priest I was asked to teach theology. And, likewise, to the Carmel “Regina Martyrum y San José”, in La Plata, which I was very close to.
A case of promotion of the commitment for which the feminine institutes were created is the development reached by the sisters of San Camilo de Lellis; what is shown in the magnificent hospital that is, in Buenos Aires, the San Camilo Clinic, with thousands of associates. The Mater Dei Institute originated in the province of San Luis [Argentina], where the active work is supported by the contemplative dimension. From this provincial origin it has spread throughout the world. Thanks be to God, the tradition is accepted in many dioceses. We could mention other examples of institutes of sisters that are growing in vocations, precisely because they have not relaxed or surrendered to the spirit of the world.
The “harsh winter” that followed the Second Vatican Council (the expression is by Paul VI) caused the hardship and closure of numerous congregations of sisters. When the Church experiences a true springtime - and not the imaginary ones that arise from ideologies or “new paradigms” - convents flourish.
In the Vatican there are numerous nuns working in their offices, many in humble service to Cardinals and Prelates. They do not aspire to the dubious promotion now sought by the Pontiff. The Pope should rather be concerned with the persistent news that the Vatican is full of homosexuals.
