Readers beware: the National Catholic Reporter (the L.A. Times of "Catholic" journalism) and its dissident staff has several agenda-driven points of doctrinal contention with the Vatican: abortion, women's ordination, incorporation of Eastern spirituality into Catholic practice, gay marriage, and so on, and on, and on. The staff, peppered with longtime dissenters of Humanae Vitae (the prophetic encyclical by Pope Paul VI on the evils of artificial contraception), are bent on attacking any bastion of orthodoxy; they gladly use any group of schismatic American religious (sadly, there are many), to attack the authority of Peter.
Here is a quote from the story:
The vast majority of U.S. women religious are not complying with a Vatican request to answer questions in a document of inquiry that is part of a three-year study of the congregations. Leaders of congregations, instead, are leaving questions unanswered or sending in letters or copies of their communities' constitutions.
"There's been almost universal resistance," said one women religious familiar with the responses compiled by the congregation leaders. "We are saying 'enough!' In my 40 years in religious life I have never seen such unanimity."
What a conveniently unnamed source! Having read accounts from both ends of the spectrum, there is no such unanimity. Don't believe all you read about the Catholic Church, especially if it is written by embittered dissident Catholics.
For a critical analysis of the NCR article, check out Fr. Philip Neri Powell's post. Also, weigh in on this issue in the comment board and be sure to vote in the poll in the left column.
