Sunday, December 2, 2001

"the voice of one crying out in the wilderness." Mark 1:3

When someone uses the phrase "we thought we knew you, but I guess we didn't," that signals to me that something major has happened in the relationship and maybe something important has transpired. I wonder if that's what the officials of her church said about Joan Chittister. Joan is a Benedictine Sister and a Bible-based feminist. For a number of years I have used her daily readings to begin my day, and I find her to be an inspiration. Joan speaks out whenever she can, on the need for the church to be inclusive of both men and women. She pleads for Catholics to get involved in facing the pressing social and economic issues of the day and she confronts the evils of a patriarchal system. Because of her outspoken ways, officials of the church have described her as "objectionable." Some years back, Chittister had a meeting with a top official in the Roman Church. He told her that "her likes were a threat to the church and that American religious were infecting Catholicism." "You are right", Chittister replied. "And it's too late to stop that infection now because the disease is the Holy Spirit." (National Catholic Reporter, Jan. 12, 2001)

I believe Joan Chittister's "objectionable" voice is an important voice both inside and outside her denomination. I sometimes question how some of these Benedictine Sisters stay within the mother church where they disagree with so many official stances of the church. Then in the next breath, I find I'm posing that same question for myself and others who struggle to stay within our own denomination, where we disagree with many of the official stands of our church.

Somehow Joan has been able to remain in her church, and to work for change from within it. She may rely on the hope that there are still plenty of thinking people who, when they hear what she has to say, may decide the church can be something different. Perhaps that's the same hope many of us need to have about our denomination, as we work for change from within it.

PRAYER: Powerful God, give us the energy and the stamina to be "objectionable" people, that we may work for change in a church we love. Amen .

Sue Burwell

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