A reader sent me a link to a voters guide
from the Sisters, Servants of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe, Michigan.
Catholic Answers in their voting guide
list five non-negotiable issues that are always intrinsically evil.
Abortion, Euthanasia, Embryonic Stem-Cell Research, Human
Cloning and Homosexual “Marriage.” The UCCB’s Faithful
Citizenship also mentions these issues with a lot of emphasis on
abortion and making it clear that it is not just one of several issues.
Now if I ask you how many of these items
made it into the Sister’s voting guide, what would be your answer.
If you answered zero then bingo – pat yourself on the back.
For them the most important issues are Militarism,
Immigration, Global Climate Change (bet you knew that would be in
there), and Peace.
Ironically their section on militarism
starts with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet
Union. I guess they thought this happened because people
threw some blood on some missiles or something. For them
militarism means actually having a military that might be able to
defend us.
Their section on immigration says that the
Minuteman “mounted their own attacks on immigrants” so their definition
of “attack” must be pretty loose. And of course the border
fence is all about racism doncha know. They cite Church
documents yet fail to find the fact that the Church says “Political
authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are
responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to
various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the subject to
various juridical conditions immigrants duties toward their country of
adoption.” The problem with so many social justice types is
that they are very selective on Church teaching. If they
advocated a very open immigration policy while at the same time
limiting illegal immigration they would be much closer to the mark.
In their section on global warming they quote Nobel Peace Prize winner
Wangari Maathai who thinks that HIV/AIDS was created by Western
governments to kill Africans. Well since she also believes in
global warming I guess she is consistent. At least they
mentioned the fact that biofuels are reducing food supplies and
increasing food prices. Though this is only the result of the
global warming hoax in the first place.
There section on Peace I think was written
by Rep. Dennis Kucinich
since it has that recommendation for the “Department of Peace” in it.
It is not that I disagree with everything they say in this document, it
is just so lopsided and sounds like it was issued by Sen. Obama instead
of an order of Sisters in the religious life. There was
another nun that talked about peace and set a much better example:
But I feel that the greatest destroyer
of
peace today is abortion,
because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent
child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can
kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one
another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always,
we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means
willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us.
So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love,
that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect
the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must
also give until it hurts.
We will certainly never move towards a
non-violent culture while we ignore the most violent of institutional
murder.
They also the follow the infallible guide to identify
progressive religlious orders. That is they have plenty of
links to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals and zero to
the Vatican. Sustainability gets 50 hits on a search while abortion
gets one and hen it is just included as a bunch of issues.
Though I guess the easier tell-tale sign is that no one wears
habits and it is impossible to differential pictures of a groups of
progressive nuns from a woman’s groups in a retirement home.
29 comments
On the plus side, the good sisters DID take steps to make their motherhouse “Green” so they have all the important things down, right?
10 years from now these gals will be trivia. Sister Judy – who is the “nun” in “a nun’s blog” will not be affected… as it stands now, she lives in her own apartment working for a publishing house, does not wear a habit, and frequents – by her own admission – a local watering hole that has her favorite micro-brew on draft. She is a 30seomthing hipster who would not otherwise be confused for a nun…
God love em.
Interestingly, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist are just down the road a bit in Ann Arbor and are doing landsale business with the average age of the community being something like 32.
Just a coincidence?
To attack abortion, speaking unflinchingly about the violence of its “plunging forceps,” is an act of love. Love for the babies who are being murdered. Love does not mean “accepting” such violence and being silent about it, love means speaking out when innocent people are being hurt, and yes, “judging” (just remember we judge the action, not the person who does it.)
When religious orders appear to hold global warming as a higher priority than the lives of the unborn, it is they that are not showing enough Love, for these babies at least.
Militarism AND Peace, eh? Aren’t those pretty much the same thing? Did they forget to include separate chapters on Non-Violence, Fighting, and Getting-Along-With-Our-Neighbors?
These are the same nuns who contributed to radical pro-abort PAC Emily’s list.
Well I think global warming is about 37 zillion times more scary a threat than gay marriage.
Kind of odd that nuns would miss something like abortion tho.
Did anyone notice that it is also signed by the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits?
“Well I think global warming is about 37 zillion times more scary a threat than gay marriage.”
Even if global warming was real it would not compare against one mortal sin. Something that is gravely sinful kills the life of the soul which is our most precious resource.
While the concept of Global Warming might be scary, it is a fraud. Gay ‘marriage’ and its consequences on the other hand are all too real.
A fraud according to what? Can you point me towards reliable scientific sources supporting that claim?
The vehemence towards gay marriage does surprise me. I follow the anger about abortion but this one is harder to make sense of. Why would a God care?
Those beautiful words by “another nun” about peace and love and compassion for the woman contemplating an abortion — you’re talking about Mother Teresa, yes?
Pathetic-these so-called ‘nuns’ are SOOOOO concerned about the things of this world, which will pass away….think that’s why it’s called TEMPORAL?
I’m an IHM Sister from Monroe and I’m happy to enter into dialogue about any of these topics. But I’d like to presume upon the goodwill of others reading this. It’s fine to disagree with the statement. It was never meant to be the “be-all-and-end-all” voting guide. Many Catholic organizations do this, speaking out of their areas of expertise. The Catholic Bishops and other Catholic organization have great voting guides. The ones that we highlight are also important to consider as the author of this post noted.
As for the comments by Matt — wow. I can’t believe you or anyone would publish such a comment. It is unconscionable and unacceptable that you would even suggest such violence. Your comments, as well as those of irishgirl and asimplesinner, reveal a lack of integrity and knowledge about us and about the Catholic Church and religious life. It says more about you than it does about us. Instead of hiding behind the veil of anonymity, I encourage you to contact me or my sisters directly so that we can talk person to person. You have insight and experience that I’d like to learn from, but the uncharitability I can do without.
There are several thousand scientists that aren’t convinced of Global Warming, let alone the Anthroprogenic variety. Some google searching on the matter (be sure to check bona fides and footnotes) will show that it’s not a done deal scientifically.
The core problem with recognizing homosexuality as something normal and/or begnin is that it puts into question the very nature of humanity. We read in Genesis that God created us Man and Woman, and only after he created the woman was man complete. As such the assertion that man and man or woman and woman is also complete is to destroy the very concept of the Sexes, both Man and Woman. This is huge. God made us in a very intentional way, as he does not do things that are useless, AND he made us in HIS IMAGE. So the sexes, marriage, famliy, and all the rest is essential to understanding God and our relationship to Him.
Sister Julie,
What is “unconscionable” is a religious order that thinks not including 3,000 babies murdered daily in the U.S. alone could be left off a voters guide in the first place. Or that your site doesn’t talk about the evil of it at all. Abortion is not one issue among many as the USCCB voting guide plainly points out.
Yet all of the faddish green stuff can be found everywhere such as sustainability which is often used as a code word for population control. No surprise that abortion supporters often talk about sustainability because for them human are always the problem. The U.N. programs on this subject are all about contraception and abortion.
Plunging forceps into babies is a violent as you get. As long as we allow this to happen and make abortion just another issue among many then we are contributing to evil
“Whatever you do to the least of them, you do to me”
I think your voting guide is a scandal that justifies voting for Obama who supports infanticide, abortion, euthanasia, cloning, ESCR, and same-sex marriage. But I guess intrinsic evils are no big deal. Murdering children and sick people, so what. Killing humans for embryo research, well just another death in the culture of death.
there is a constant I have observed from my wanderings of this great internet of ours. Be they atheists, protestants, terrified environmentalist, or liberal nuns they all demand proof that your argument is valid when theirs seems so much better (to them anyway)… and 95% of the time they are confused or angry and explode with insults when you respond with “what proof would you accept?”
These people hide behind their emotions, and they are entirely to blame.
Hi Jeff,
I certainly don’t disagree with you as to the seriousness of abortion and the need for people to be aware of the presidential candidates’ stances on abortion and related pro-life issues.
As I read your post and comment again it got me wondering about what Catholics and Catholic organizations should have on their websites. Does every Catholic person/organization have to articulate every Catholic teaching? How many times is “enough”? Just because a website isn’t explicit about every teaching does not mean that the author(s) don’t hold that teaching. No website can be all things to all people. It’s an interesting question to be sure.
Sustainability is such a loosey-goosey term. Not one of my favorites. I hadn’t heard it used as a code word for population control. I’ll have to look into that more (if you’ve got some good references, please pass them along to me). My Congregation’s commitment to caring for the earth and all of God’s creation comes right out of the social teaching of the Catholic Church. We too are concerned about how faddish it is and we hope to bring a faith-filled perspective by bringing the Gospels and the Church’s teaching to bear on why it is that we should care for creation.
Sister Julie,
Certainly the types of topics that are covered by a religious order site show their priorities. When one topic gets a lot of coverage and another one doesn’t you certainly wonder about the priority.
When a religious web site quotes known dissenters such as Joan Chittister, OSB you have to wonder about their orthodoxy. When a website talks more about the U.N. than the Vatican again you wonder.
When a site links to the Earth Charter where one of the rights is sexual orientation decries population increase you really have to wonder. Many proponents of the charter endorse abortion as a tool of sustainable development
The language of most sites pushing sustainability is not being good stewards, but helping to reduce pesky humans to return to “environmental balance.” These radical groups that support all of this are strange bedfellows for a Catholic religious order.
The links to “Ecology and Eco-Spirituality” are a sham. Their is no such thing as Eco-Spirituality unless you are some new age pagan. We worship God alone and work to be good stewards of his creation.
Retreat houses that teach centering prayer which can be a form of self-hypnosis is another fad. There are plenty of horror stories of people whose prayer life was destroyed by this form of “prayer.” Amazing all the saints we have had in the Church without centering prayer, yet this seems to be what everyone teaches now. The only prayer technique is love as Fr. Dubay says.
As a Marian order where is your focus on Mary in the spirituality section. How about even one picture of Mary on the site? The problem is that you just can’t tell if it is a Catholic site or a group belonging to the Democratic Party by the content.
“Sister” Julie,
Quick questions and requests for you:
– Do the “sisters” pray all of the hours in community?
– Do the “sisters” attend daily mass?
– Why do some “sisters”, who have taken a vow of poverty, live in private homes?
– Do the “sisters” pray the rosary in community daily?
– Since you seem to object at my conservative estimate of the median age of the members of the “order”–please enlighten us as to the actual median age.
– Explain why the word “Christ” appears only 21 times on their site, “Jesus” only 35 times. Yet, “green” appears 43 times, and “sustainable” appears over 50 times.
– Explain why “Mary” (separated from “Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”) appears only 29 times on your site–most often referring to the name of an alleged sister (often in memoriam I might ad).
– Explain why “Blessed Mother” appears only 8 times.
– Explain why “abortion” appears only 1 time, yet “global warming” appears 29 times.
I remind you, as Christ did, that we do not know the hour of our death–repent for the kingdom of God is at hand! For you to see the dwindling of the membership of your “order” via natural causes as a “violence” demonstrates the perverseness of your very un-Catholic theology.
Two of my best friends will make their Profession in the Order of Preachers on Friday, and I am actively discerning a vocation to the diocesan priesthood–for you to accuse me of knowing nothing about religious life, the teaching and practices of the Church is insulting.
If I were the bishop of your diocese, I would have your “order” expelled based on the un-Catholicity of your alleged order.
The comments on this site seeth with such anger and vengeance that it shocks and saddens me as a religious Catholic woman. I write from the perspective of having lived and practiced my faith for all of my 45 years as a central focus — accepting and living each sacrament as part of life in all of its joys and difficulties, certainties and questions.
I rejoice in the conversion stories of my brothers who come to this site and have found their faith after life decisions, near death experiences, crises, and initial rejection of faith and even the existence of God. You are part of the body of Christ. I do not question your belonging in our Catholic faith — Catholic meaning universal, all-inclusive, responders to Jesus’ call, “come to me… come follow me…”
However, it seems to me that the Church you sought has somewhere along your road, taken on the judgmental qualities, arguments and denial that consumed you as one who rejected faith and God for so many years. I hope the Spirit returns you to the Church in which you were received and confirmed.
The postings of this particular blog entry have gone beyond questioning and discussion, to condemnation of the positions pulled in and out of context from the website of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, (all of which are based on Catholic Social Teachings and consistent with the writings of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops).
The stated positions highlighted in the post, however, do not match one-to-one to your individual agendas, and when asked to dialog and discuss by a vowed member of a religious community gracious enough to identify herself and respond, she was greeted with more condemnation — and vengeance prevailed.
These Sisters who through their vows and in the eyes of our Church, have espoused themselves to Jesus, and have given their entire lives in service to the Church – modeling Mary and her “yes” to God, actually LIVING lives of love, goodness, faith and service to their neighbors – even those most in need. Every picture of every sister on that website and throughout each mission they serve is a portrait of Mary.
Yet, here they are “Un-Catholic” and deserve to be “expelled” because they don’t meet a word count expectation or have pictures of statues or paintings of Mary on their website, or dare I say dress like stereotypical 19th century “nuns” like they are “supposed to.”
But of course, Catholics should take their lessons from here — focusing on evils, nonnegotiables and self importance of the belief of individuals — all in the name of the Church.
I would venture that even the Holy Father himself would be heretical when bloggers here realize that the first Encyclical of this doctor of the Church and keeper of dogma and doctrine did not prioritize your agenda of abortion, violence and evils, but rather, Love! “DEUS CARITAS EST.”
I would assume from the vehemence of your postings that the Holy See must also be “unconscionable,” when Benedict XVI writes in his first teaching to a waiting Church that: “love becomes the criterion for the definitive decision about a human life’s worth or lack thereof.”
Hmmm. Sounds like a self-help guest on Oprah… Is he even Catholic??
He goes on to clarify, “Jesus identifies himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. ‘As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt 25:40). Love of God and love of neighbour have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God. To say that we love God becomes a lie if we are closed to our neighbour or hate him altogether.”
No mention of “violent deaths,” “plunging forceps.” No tallying of number of rosaries said or hours prayed in the community…
Instead Benedict instructs us, “Saint John’s words should rather be interpreted to mean that love of neighbour is a path that leads to the encounter with God, and that closing our eyes to our neighbour also blinds us to God.”
Yes there are evils, but perhaps the greatest detriment to our selves is a failure to respond to Jesus’ call to love our neighbor under the guise of devoutness and religious duties.
Benedict writes, “If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely “proper”, but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well.
Jeff, I love my faith and the life I have committed to live my faith. I believe in the future of religious life as hope for the Church, and am grateful for the many charisms that teach and focus on the multitude of ways we are called to live as Catholics as part of today’s world – not apart from. I am sorry you did not have contact with God in your life until more recently, and I hope you are open to continually receiving God’ love in the Eucharist.
I pray that you come to live the love of Jesus in your conversion story as fervently as you seek to focus on how the world is so “gravely sinful.” I pray you re-read the anger and verbal violence that rages in these postings and find other ways to constructively present points of view that will allow all who visit your site to grow in their faith.
And Matt, I have no quick judgments (oops, I mean questions) for you. You do have my prayers for your discernment, as do those who will be in the position to receive and review your application to the diocesan priesthood. Perhaps you can include the postings from this website as part of your portfolio demonstrating your knowledge of Church teaching and depth of understanding of religious life. I can particularly visualize the scene where you don alb and chasuable, with eyes blazing and fists full of rocks and stones, and expel various “alleged orders” of women religious who you judge to be “Un-Catholic.” I wonder if you would have even paused to read Jesus’ writings in the sand… I will be sure to check back and read of your journey if you continue to post here. Be assured of my prayers for you and your diocese.
Finally, my hope and prayer for all who visit this website searching is that you open yourself to encounter the God of Love and neighbor, so that you may bring the love and acceptance of Christ to the world – the call of each of us by virtue of our baptism. I am not sure how much more Catholic you can get than that.
Robin,
How do you know we “seeth with such anger and vengeance”, aren’t you judging us?
I for one don’t seeth with anger and vengeance when I see what appears to be a religious order that is preaching another Gospel. Instead I pray for them and bring up the subject and then rebut what it is they say. One of the spiritual works of mercy to to rebuke the sinner – in that we have to judge what is a sin. We can not go through life without judging what is a sin if we are to avoid it.
I think it goes way to far that all of their positions go with the social justice position of the Church. Global warming is not a position of the Church. It is a prudential position that people can either disagree with or agree with based on the facts. Whereas all the items not listed which are the prime components of the are intrinsically evil.
I seeth when I hear someone equating abortion and global warming. I hope you don’t think less of me.
I just can’t imagine St. Paul or any of the other apostles not preaching the truth of the Faith we hold so dear as The Most Important Thing on their agenda. Sadly, it sure doesn’t seem to be that way now, everything else seems to be on the agenda except what we really need to know. It’s no wonder so many Catholics are confused what is required of them daily and in particular when they sort through the issues at voting time. Thank God for people like Jeff and others taking their own time to point out the nonsense.
Dear Sisters,
In all charity and love: please answer Jeff’s questions. Don’t write a 10 paragraph response, just answer the questions concisely. Answer the questions, don’t respond to them. Answer the questions.
“Sisters”
I remind you (or maybe this is the first time you have heard it?) that just because you don’t like certain statements, doesn’t make them un-charitable.
The salient and clear (as clear as the glass that you may-or-may-not use as canonically forbidden vessels for the Precious Blood) point behind the word count exercise is: this order clearly places undue weight on certain minor “social justice issues”–when the greatest social injustice of our time is abortion.
Additionally, it demonstrates a clear lack of focus on the central elements of Catholic religious life: prayer and the sacraments. In any order, prayer and reception of the sacraments are to take primacy over service. Prayer and receipt of the sacraments are essential components of the vow of obedience.
“[M]odeling Mary and her ‘yes'”–Mary is the perfect example of obedience. But this order seems to fundamentally misunderstand obedience. Members of this order seem to think that obedience means: “obedience to one’s conscience.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. In case you have forgotten, I remind you that all men suffer under original sin. “As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called “concupiscence”)” (CCC 418). In brief: We have an innate longing for sin–we lust for sin. Since we lust for sin, like a horny teenage boy lusting after women (this is the language which the Church uses), the Church teaches that our consciences cannot be trusted on their own. This is why Christ has given us the Chruch and her Magisterium. And from it comes infallible teaching which properly forms our conscience and directs our lives. Your order seems to reject this idea.
The Church, on the universal, particular, provincial, and local level, has consistently taught that among social justice issues, abortion takes primacy. For your order to completely ignore it in a publication intended to guide voters is a scandal. Your publication is a venom which poisons both the Church and this country.
And Matt, I have no quick judgments (oops, I mean questions) for you. You do have my prayers for your discernment, as do those who will be in the position to receive and review your application to the diocesan priesthood. Perhaps you can include the postings from this website as part of your portfolio demonstrating your knowledge of Church teaching and depth of understanding of religious life. I can particularly visualize the scene where you don alb and chasuable, with eyes blazing and fists full of rocks and stones, and expel various “alleged orders” of women religious who you judge to be “Un-Catholic.” I wonder if you would have even paused to read Jesus’ writings in the sand… I will be sure to check back and read of your journey if you continue to post here. Be assured of my prayers for you and your diocese.
It is horribly perverse to offer prayers in jest.
You are right about me in some sense: your friends the Jesuits would catch my orthodoxy at the door. It is by the grace of God that I live in a diocese (and province for that matter) which is conservative among American dioceses. Before I left Pennsylvania, I had never even heard of parishes without kneelers–let alone had to suffer through the liturgical abuse-fest that was the Mass as said there. I had never seen a priest go around and shake everyone’s hand at the sign of peace. I had never seen EM’s receive the Eucharist at the fraction rite as if they were celebrating priests. I had never seen a priest say Mass without the proper (and mandatory) vestments. I had never seen an EM take ciboria from the tabernacle and place them on the credence table before Mass. I had never heard a priest ad-lib the Eucharistic Prayer. I had never been in a church where one had to go on a quest to find the tabernacle. I did not know there were professed religious who did not wear habits, as if they were ashamed of their identity and vows. I did not know that there were priests who publicly disobey their bishop–with no consequence.
And most importantly, I did not know that there was a culture war raging in the Church. The reason I didn’t know is that the war in my diocese has already been won. The average priest in my diocese can be described as conservative, hard working, reverent, and devout–sadly, this can’t be said about the average priest of a number of dioceses in the US. It is clear that St. Michael the Archangel is on our side–who is on yours?
Matt, Once again your judgmental writings prove that infallibility is not for mere lay mortals, such as ourselves… I hope you do not mind including me as a member of the same body of Christ that you and I both love and claim as our Catholic Church.
First, I am not a Sister, although I have served the Church in many parish, professional and volunteer capacities for nearly all of my adult life. As I said before, I am a firm believer in religious life and its many charisms and expressions of our faith.
Second, I would never, ever offer prayers in jest – and I hope you would never either, especially where it regards the vocational discernment and formation of those considering the priesthood and religious life.
Third, my upbringing was formed by the same environment as yours. I have lived in Pennsylvania my entire life and was raised in the Philadelphia archdiocesan system of Catholic education at a time that was complete with its holding on to altar rails, Sunday-only masses, no Eucharistic ministers, certainly no female altar servers, until the late 1980’s and everything else that was proliferated during that time.
WHile these are remnants you cherish, the honest reality is that these very closed-door, closed-minded, ultra-conservative principles and hierarchy were also corrupted by those who were elevated in authority and blindly trusted by we, the faithful, for so many generations. My own educational upbringing, religious teachings and major influences have been ripped from my history by priests who abused the sacred trust of those of us who believed in them with our whole hearts and souls. As we are still faithful to our Church and its shepherds, let’s not just idealize without question or discussion and judge what happens to be different. The bashing of the Church’s annointed Cardinals and Bishops and canonically sanctioned religious congregations on this very blog is also testimony to the various positions of the Church that exist today (is the condemnation of these people and groups of our same Church “disobedience without consequence,”?).
With that milieu as a backdrop, I do fervently pray for the candidacy, application and formation of anyone entering the diocesan priesthood, especially.
And as I said before, I encourage you to include your postings from this website in your portfolio and as addenda to your application for the priesthood. These words are statements of your understanding of Catholicism and religious life (and how you would face the everyday issues affecting the Catholics of your future pastoral ministry). Perhaps your quotes can be used on the diocesan vocation websites who espouse your Catholic beliefs and are engaged in the battle you are waging. Maybe this website can link to those dioceses as a service to those seeking a similar war zone or battle ground.
I also pray that in addition to the sword-wielding avenger, St. Michael (who is on YOUR side), that the sacred heart in hand, JESUS, and His Gospel teachings of loving God and our neighbor as our selves, is on all of OUR sides! This is what I believe and hope, despite our differences. One body, many members, one Church. AMEN!
Have a nice weekend.
In all charity and love: please answer Jeff’s questions. Don’t write a 10 paragraph response, just answer the questions concisely. Answer the questions, don’t respond to them. Answer the questions.
Seconded. That also applies to answering Matt’s fair (if pointed), salient and unfortunetly largely ignored arguments.
Jeff:
Your post in response to Sister Julie on August 13, 8.31pm may have hit home. On August 14, Sr Julie’s blog ‘anunslife.org’ had an article on the Assumption, albeit by a guest writer!
Matt’s questions were excellent but still no response from Sr Julie who is a cyclist and describes her cycling attire as “coolmax tank top, cool biker dude sunglasses and black spandex shorts”.
We are definitely not cool!
Hey ‘Sister’-I didn’t think I was THAT nasty in my brief comment….all I was stating was that your ‘guide’ was focused on this world only, which will have an end. What about the salvation of souls?
By the way, how many new postulants and/or novices do you have in your community, seeing that your ‘median age’ is ‘way up there? (OK, sarcasm off)