Paranoia, Pride, and Prejudice

By Elizabeth Scalia

Sr. Sandra M. Schneiders, plainly unhappy with a recently announced apostolic visitation of women’s communities in America, wrote an email to some of her colleagues and friends which she later approved for publication in the National Catholic Reporter.
In her email, Sr. Schneiders, a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, writes,

I am not inclined to get into too much of a panic about this investigation—which is what it is . . . I do not put any credence at all in the claim that this is friendly, transparent, aimed to be helpful, etc. It is a hostile move and the conclusions are already in. It is meant to be intimidating. But I think if we believe in what we are doing (and I definitely do) we just have to be peacefully about our business, which is announcing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, fostering the Reign of God in this world. We cannot, of course, keep them from investigating. But we can receive them, politely and kindly, for what they are, uninvited guests who should be received in the parlor, not given the run of the house. When people ask questions they shouldn’t ask, the questions should be answered accordingly.

Further along she adds,

I have come to the conclusion that Congregations like ours [the kind represented by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in this country] have, in fact, birthed a new form of Religious Life. 

 (Full story at First Things)