DISSIDENT TEACHING TO CATHOLICS QUESTION from Frank Lee October 4, 2001 Our liturgy director is using the writings of Sr. Joan Chittister, O.S.B., as a prayer source distributed at our Sunday Masses. The last one was excerpted from Mary, Wellspring of Peace. This set of prayers seems very feminist as it never calls God either Father or Son, and emphasizes Our Lady as Liberator, Oppressed woman, and so on. The readings for the novena denigrate the apostles as ineffective.
What can you tell me about this nun and her writings? I need information to be able to question this matter with my pastor. It seems to me I have heard something about the Vatican trying to silence a Sr. Joan, but I can find no website that gives any information on this or on dissident groups that would help us avoid their publications. Do you know any?
Thank you for the wonderful service you and the rest of St.Michael's provides to us Catholics who want to keep our faith intact, for ourselves and our communities. Sincerely, Frank Lee
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on October 10, 2001 Dear Mr. Lee:
Well, first you really don't need any information on this sister. The issue is the material. If the material is heretical or heterodox then you have the right to challenge it on its own merits (or demerits). If this material is being read during Mass, you have a great deal to support stopping this practice since Church law requires that NOTHING other than that which is approved by Rome can be part of the Mass itself. If this is just a handout for people to take home, then you must deal with it from the point-of-view of the material itself. Just look at what she has to say. Take a look at her keynote speech before the heretical group Call to Action: http://www.cta-usa.org/reprint1-98/chitti.html or her keynote speech before the NCEA: http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/documents/addressbySJC.htm
I don't know if Rome is in the process of censuring this, in my view, pretend, Catholic, but it does not take a Rocket Scientist to know that this woman is not in communion with the Church. She is a a Call to Action person and Call to Action is a heretical group. Any member of Call to Action should be excommunicated. In the Lincoln, Nebraska Diocese Call to Action members were excommunicated. Any pastor who would allow her material to be distributed in his parish needs to repent and be re-educated.
As for a clearing house of groups are good Catholics should stay away from, the Legion of St. Michael is planning to provide such a database. But we need volunteers to pursue the project.
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