St. Louis Review
Aug. 9, 2012
When two entities are in conflict, engaging in a dialogue about it means more than just a presentation of both parties’ sides.
True dialogue begins with recognizing that we are first human and even owning up to mistakes of the past in order to move forward. Conflict is then best resolved in the context of forming relationships with one another, said Sister Donna Markham, an Adrian Dominican from Cincinnati, Ohio, who spoke to members of the press at the annual Leadership Conference of Women Religious assembly Aug. 9.
Sister Donna and two other women religious spoke at the press conference to explain the importance of dialogue as the sisters consider the recent Vatican assessment that calls for a reform of the LCWR.
In April, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced a major reform of the LCWR. The announcement was made at the end of a four-year doctrinal assessment and included an eight-page report [1], detailing the need to remedy significant doctrinal problems associated with the group’s activities and programs. The Vatican said the reform also was warranted to ensure LCWR’s fidelity to Church teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality.
The word dialogue itself has proven to be tricky to understand by many, especially in light of all the media attention surrounding the conflict between the Vatican and the LCWR, which has 1,500 leaders of religious communities as members. They represent about 80 percent of the 57,000 women religious in the United States.
Just a few weeks before the opening of the sisters' assembly, Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo appeared on National Public Radio, during which he said there is no "middle ground" when it comes to faith and morals, referring to some of the serious errors with the LCWR's activities. Bishop Blair conducted the Vatican-ordered doctrinal assessment.
"If by dialogue they mean that the doctrines of the Church are negotiable and the bishops represent one position and the LCWR presents another position, and somehow we find a middle ground about basic Church teaching on faith and morals, then no," he said. "I don't think that is the kind of dialogue that the Holy See would envision.
"But if it's a dialogue about how to have the LCWR really educate and help the sisters to appreciate and accept Church teaching and to implement it in their discussions and try to hear some of the questions or concerns they have about these issues, then that would be the dialogue," he added.
After just one day of discerning the Vatican assessment as an assembly, it was clear that emotions were becoming visibly raw. A number of sisters, on this full second day of the meeting, could be seen at times with tears in their eyes and solemn faces. At the press conference, Sister Mary Waskowiak, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas, became tearful when she reflected before the press on what it means to surrender one's self. She said she considered that after watching the movie " Of Gods and Men," in which a group of Trappist monks in Algeria experience an internal conflict during the civil war there.
"It's deeper and bigger than the mandate," said the former LCWR president and director of development and fundraising for the Mercy International Association in Burlingame, Calif. "What am I willing to die for? What will this cost?"
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"The mandate is the mandate, but how are we going to get through this together?" asked Sister Donna. She said the Church cannot risk splitting any further than it already has. But there has to be respect the integrity of both groups, she said. And "we can't change what's already been written."
"Neither one of us is being self-righteous in this," said Sister Donna, who was later seen teary-eyed after the press conference. "There are men and women of good will" who want a positive result.
The sisters continue their discernment this evening in closed-door sessions.
Original article at St. Louis Review
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