"The Pope Lives In The Vatican..."

From Tara:

When I was 25, my sister and I took a month-long trip to Europe together.  We spent two weeks in Spain, then traveled by train across France to the coastal town of Roscoff to catch a ferry to Ireland.  We had reserved a small cabin, which we ended up sharing with a young nun from Dublin.  She was talkative and we spent hours discussing her outreach work with prostitutes.  She mentioned that she distributed condoms and helped women get access to birth control.  My sister and I expressed surprise, and she stated, firmly, "The Pope lives in the Vatican.  I live in the real world."


That moment made me feel more connected to the Catholic faith than I had in years.  I have thought of that kind Sister many times since, and wondered how her work was progressing.  I loved knowing that there was a nun in Dublin, helping people and meeting them where they were, rather than setting out nearly impossible requirements and refusing to serve them if they didn't live up to the doctrinal standards.


This week, the Vatican is taking aim at American nuns who have been engaging in activity that the Vatican claims is fraught with "serious doctrinal problems:"

“I’m stunned,” said Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby founded by sisters. Her group was also cited in the Vatican document, along with the Leadership Conference, for focusing its work too much on poverty and economic injustice, while keeping “silent” on abortion and same-sex marriage.

During our recent trip to Ireland, Jeff and I had the pleasure of visiting a cousin who is a Sister of Mercy.  We shared a delightful lunch with her and about 25 of the other Sisters in her convent.  They were all quite elderly (not surprising, given the Church's recruiting problems and declining numbers of people entering Catholic religious vocations), but they were also remarkably aware of political and social issues.  Several mentioned Barack Obama's visit to Ireland last year, and one 80-year-old Sister, upon hearing that we are from Iowa, asked, "How did the Caucuses turn out for ye there?"

Clearly, those Sisters and the ones under fire from the Vatican know what it means to live in the real world.