{"id":1338,"date":"2015-04-24T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T04:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1338"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:29","slug":"april-24-betsy-linehan-rsm-todays-guest-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/04\/24\/april-24-betsy-linehan-rsm-todays-guest-editor\/","title":{"rendered":"April 24 – Betsy Linehan, RSM – today’s guest editor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday April 24 \u2013 \u201cour desert began again to bloom\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our guest editor for today is UDM trustee, Betsy Linehan, RSM.\u00a0 Betsy turns our attention to a turning point in the Church, as the Vatican\u2019s Apostolic Visitation of Women Religious in the United States comes to a close.<\/p>\n

Have a good weekend.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u2013 Betsy Linehan, RSM<\/strong><\/p>\n

To my knowledge, Pope John Paul II never granted an audience to Sr. Theresa Kane.\u00a0 As President of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in 1979, she greeted the Pope at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.\u00a0 In the most humble and respectful way possible, Theresa asked that all the ministries of the church be open to women.\u00a0 Words \u2013 and even thoughts \u2013 like these were subsequently forbidden by John Paul and his Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).<\/p>\n

For the LCWR and all of us whom it represents to Rome, the following 36 years have been a long desert journey. (40 years is the biblical number, but 36 real-world years is close enough!)\u00a0 Three years ago the CDF initiated an \u201cinvestigation\u201d of the LCWR in language that threatened a hostile takeover or outright abolition.\u00a0 Political philosopher Hannah Arendt, writing about freedom, says that \u201cSeen from the outside\u2026the chances that tomorrow will be like yesterday are always overwhelming.\u201d\u00a0 Hope comes hard.<\/p>\n

Last week some of us were astonished that our desert began again to bloom.\u00a0 The CDF and the LCWR leadership issued a joint statement, remarkable as much for what it did not say as for what it did.\u00a0 The concluding paragraph of the statement includes this summary: \u201cThe Commitment of LCWR leadership to its crucial role in service to the mission and membership of the Conference will continue to guide and strengthen LCWR\u2019s witness to the great vocation of Religious Life, to its sure foundation in Christ, and to ecclesial communion.\u201d<\/p>\n

More remarkable still, for me the real story, was the invited private audience of the LCWR leaders with Pope Francis.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know what anyone said, but he made sure there was a photograph.<\/p>\n

\"LCWR-Francis\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo source: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/04\/17\/us\/catholic-church-ends-takeover-of-leadership-conference-of-women-religious.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday April 24 \u2013 \u201cour desert began again to bloom\u201d Our guest editor for today is UDM trustee, Betsy Linehan, RSM.\u00a0 Betsy turns our attention to a turning point in the Church, as the Vatican\u2019s Apostolic Visitation of Women Religious … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1340,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1338\/revisions\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}