Gerald posts on the Catholic Theological Society of America honoring Sister Sandra Schneiders. His post is in depth with lots of background. As you would expect with the CTSA the Sister is the typical radical feminist with the normal laundry list of where the Church must change to match society. The typical talk about the"institutional church." You know like when Jesus told Peter on this rock I will build my "institutional church." Or Matthew 18 when we are told when all efforts fail to take it to the "institutional church." How exactly did the word institution become ominous a kind of progressive four letter word? Or is it just the aspect of institutions that are related to authority? Since she wants to get rid of the Pope and the bishops this could be it. People against any kind of authority truly just want to replace some form of authority with their own. To quote G.K. Chesterton "In truth there are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it and those who accept dogmas and don’t know it."
For my own part I rejoice that Holy Mother Church is an institution. It would be pretty hard when attempts at rebuking your brother fail to take the matter to some amorphous body of all believers. If you think you have problems with the Curia as a bureaucracy, try getting something done with a whole body of believers. Speaking of Holy Mother Church have you ever heard that term used by these feminists in theologians clothing. The divine feminine is applied to everything, but the Church. Mother is applied willy-nilly to God, but not to the Church. As Cyprian put it, "He who does not have the Church as Mother cannot have God as Father." Though I guess they are not really thrilled with the language of the second part of the equation anyway.
The article Gerald points to compares the Sister to Saint Catherine of Siena. The only real comparison that I can come with is that they are both women and they both don’t have their heads firmly attached.
As to this honor Kevin Miller puts it very charitably:
It certainly isn’t impossible to find, among well-known (nominally) Catholic theologians whose scholarly output is fairly prolific, someone whose work has been less intellectually, morally, and religiously serious, someone less deserving of such a high honor. It takes a bit of work, though.
…What, exactly, is Catholic about the CTSA, except for the fact that a few of the regulars happen to be Catholic?
Sister Sandra Schneiders has also been a speaker at Call to Action. CTA recently has given its leadership award to Cindy Sheehan. Now I can understand why they might be attracted to her. Her idea of a fast is appealing. Recently she went on a one day fast that included Jamba Juice and Vanilla ice cream. Obviously choosing Vanilla over other flavors is quite penitential. Though you would think that after Mel Gibson’s unfortunate remarks that they might not want to back Cindy Sheehan who has talked of Jewish cabals and dark conspiracies theories and is closely associated with groups that call for the elimination of Israel. Unlike Mel she hasn’t blamed all war on the Jewish people, but definitely blames the Iraqi war on them, "My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel".
8 comments
I consider Cindy Sheehan’s choice of vanilla ice cream to have been racist. She should have ordered rainbow sherbet.
Catholic and Communist
by
Chris Dickson
http://chrisdickson.blogspot.com
I am appalled by the naivete of our Church being duped into anti-Christian communism. Liberation theology is a threat to free society by its undermining of the Church and its magisterium through attempting to redefine moral issues (changing the Gospel to support theology opposed to shaping theology as a result of the Gospel.)
Ignorance is not bliss and unless we familiarize ourselves with the dangers, then future generations will demand answers as to why we threw away our freedom in lieu of communism.
To quote Gustavo Gutierrez (the “father” of liberation theology,) “There is no evil in being subversive, struggling against the capitalist system…Liberation leads to reinterpreting the Gospel…As I have witnessed the power of Marxism to provide motivation for a life of service where none existed before, I have come to a new appreciation of this part of my own history. I cannot settle for any story of America that fails to give a central place to this vision.”
Again, Roger Garaudy (one of France’s foremost Marxist intellectuals) wrote, “Socialism is a traditional stage in the passage from capitalism to communism.” Also, “When the established order involves such injustice that millions of men are exploited, oppressed, mutilated, and humiliated by this order, a revolution, even armed revolution, can be less costly and in the long run less ‘violent’ than this established disorder, which has become pure violence. Of this, incidentally, many Christians are today becoming conscious, including, for example, even priests and bishops in Latin America.”
Charles E. Curran, no longer permitted by the Church to teach moral theology at Catholic universities, has stated,”Questions arise in the light of both the importance and the limitations of Scriptures. In the light of the most striking development has been the emergence of dissent within the Roman Catholic theological community from the teachings of the hierarchical magisterium on specific moral issues.”
One cannot help but feel an air of approval when local archdiocesan newspapers print articles written by these people. Already we have seen a swing by our priests and educators away from the Church’s doctrine of “norma normans non normata”(the Scriptures being the norm above all other norms by which all norms are taken) and are thus shown to question the Scripture’s relevance in our daily lives.
Perhaps we need to seek the definition of a couple terms which seem to have taken on good and bad connotations in complete reversal of their intended meanings:
First of all, the term orthodoxy means “right praise,” or consistency with the faith of the Church as embodied in Sacred Scripture, the Fathers, official teachings and the liturgy.
Libertaion theology, on the other hand, is defined as a new type of theology which emphasizes the motif of liberation in both Old and New Testaments and which reinterprets all doctrines in terms of that motif. Forms of liberation theology include Latin American, black and feminist.
Jesus “liberated” all of us from the bonds of oppression. Rather than reinterpreting the Gospel, perhaps we would be better served to “live it.” This idea may not be popular with some in the Church today, but by returning to the basics of our faith, we will be truly liberated through the instruction of Sacred Scriptures if only we would accept Jesus as the catalyst of our lives.
Sister Sandra proves once again that academic learning is no substitute for genuine faith. In fact, it seems like collecting degrees and academic honors makes some people as arrogantly egotistical as those who collect dollars and gold thinking that gives them a special ability to speak infallibly. All soul-warping wealth is not filthy lucre but can also be a wealth of ego-inflating so-called education.
Why Deacon John, are you suggesting that baptism, not graduation, is the sacrament of regeneration?
That’s a pretty radical thought, there…. 🙂
Peace,
–Peter Brown (Ph.D.)
I used to be a member of the CTSA. I am not active now for reasons that have little to do with the organization itself. As I suppose I am the only person on this blog that has actually been to a few of these meetings, let me tell you straight.
*There are indeed some “liberal” theologians in CTSA.
*There ARE some fairly conservative members (we’re not talking Steubenville folks but people like Avery Cardinal Dulles, Matthew Lamb, etc.).
*There are a number of bishops on the roster.
*And the people there are a great deal more faithful than this set of posts leads one to believe. There’s a prayer room at each conference–that is actually used– as well as morning prayer and a large, surprisingly “standard,” Saturday eve Mass.
The organization isn’t beyond criticism but they are less dark than you would believe from the conservative Catholic blogosphere.
I’m not inclusing my real email because I don’t want to deal with harrassment for saying that you shouldn’t fully judge what you haven’t seen.
Former CTSA member,
Then explain why they choose to honor someone that wants to do away with the Pope and bishops and to ordain women? This is not Catholic theology but radical feminism. Sure not everyone who belongs to CTSA thinks the same way, but something is deeply wrong when time after time they choose to honor those with heterodox views.
To correct some factual errors by FCTSA Member:
Avery Cardinal Dulles is NOT a member of the CTSA. In fact, in 1998 he publicly mused in Commonweal Magazine that perhaps the organization should be replaced by something more faithful. In fact, he’s pretty scathing about the institution, far worse than is seen in this combox (at the present):
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_n6_v125/ai_20520531/print
Actually, one of those Steubenville folks is a member–Scott Hahn. As they say, it’s his money….
Those who wish to confirm membership can go to the CTSA website:
http://www.jcu.edu/ctsa/search.asp
My apologies. I quit going around 1998 and I do remember the piece in Commonweal, vaguely. I was speaking from my remembrance at the mtgs back then.
I don’t think Sandra Schneiders is the quintessence of evil, Jeff, although an award to Cindy Sheehan, who isn’t even a theologian, seems pretty odd, yes. But in any case, the society has around 500 members, and is led by a group of around…15 maybe? The 15 make those kind of honoring decisions.
I just know in the nitty gritty meeting, discussing, working together stuff, there are cons, mods, and libs. know why? It’s one Church. And may the most truthful interpretation win….
(screaming baby–gotta go)
peace