Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said this about herself during a particularly fraught time during her premiership: a well fitting attribute. But she is not the only iron lady deserving of this title.
This formidable nun told me: ‘I am obedient and subservient to God, not to the bishops’- Fr Joe Borg
I met another formidable woman last week at the retreat house the Carmelites have in Lunzjata, limits of Rabat. She is, I venture to guess, in her mid-seventies, a university professor by profession and a religious sister by vocation. Within her frail physical frame resides a spirit of steel: Sr Sandra Schneiders.
When I said she didn’t fit the stereotype of an obedient, subservient, nun she objected, saying that she is both obedient and subservient.
“I am obedient and subservient to God, not to the bishops. Our constitution is the Gospels, not some edict written by a Vatican bureaucrat. Our task as Church is to make Jesus a reality to contemporary men and women. We have to resist the corrupting tendencies that affect institutions, even ecclesiastical ones. Like the Apostles in the Acts I declare my obedience to God and not to men.”
She buttresses her arguments by frequent references to the Gospels and Catholic theology. Schneiders is more than qualified to present such arguments. Her high theology qualifications were earned at the Istitut Catholique de Paris and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
About Scripture and spirituality she knows a thing or two. Sister Sandra is professor emerita of scripture spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and gives courses in biblical spirituality, Christian spirituality and religious life. She is also a bestselling scholar who has followers even in Malta.
When I told her religious sisters in many countries, including ours, hardly play a leadership role in the life of the Church, she said:
“Sisters in the US, on the contrary, play a very vital role... we are the US Church’s most credible body. We have more credibility than the bishops and the priests because we are closer to the people, particularly to those who are oppressed by society and are discriminated against by the institutional Church.”
We then speak of the Leadership Conference which incorporates more than 80 per cent of the 60,000 sisters of the US. This body has been for some time in a spot of trouble (a bit of an understatement) with the Vatican. The latter has embarked on both a visitation and a doctrinal evaluation of the Leadership Conference. Schneiders looks at these initiatives as a wholesale inquisitorial investigation aimed at undermining the credibility of the sisters.
Schneiders laments that the sabotage of Vatican II has now been going on for years by the appointment of bishops, described by her as both conservative and inefficient. Many Catholics don’t consider these bishops as their leaders, she adds.
Some months ago a Maltese missionary had given me a similar negative appreciation while commenting on the episcopal appointment in Latin America, where he had served the Church for decades.
Another challenge to Vatican II, Schneider says, is the new translation of the English missal which has been mired in controversy: “This is a terrible translation not reflecting the language of the people. It is ushering in an unintelligible liturgy. This is in total contrast to the simplicity Jesus taught and lived.”
I broadened the subject of our conversation to the current conflict between Barack Obama and the US bishops on what is being called the contraceptive mandate. The bishops are accusing Obama of undermining religious liberty. The controversy has been going on for some time. I had addressed it in my commentary of April 29 titled ‘Politicians, good Catholics and dissenting opinions’.
Is it an issue of religious liberty as the bishops are saying? I asked.
Schneiders answers with a resounding No. She categorically states that Obama’s efforts to legislate universal healthcare should have been staunchly supported by all Catholics, particularly by the bishops, since 13 million US citizens were not covered by any health insurance – a great obscenity if there ever was one. “Such support was not always forthcoming,” she said.
Turning to the current controversy on the contraceptive mandate, Schneider thinks the compromise offered by Obama provided an acceptable basis for agreement.
I mentioned that 12 lawsuits were recently filed against the US government on behalf of 43 distinct Catholic organisations, charging that the Health and Human Services Department’s contraception edict violates statutory and constitutional law.
She is definitely not in agreement with such a strategy.
I pointed out that Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, had expressed concern about the strategy of filing lawsuits, adding that “there is a concern among some bishops that there ought to have been more of a wider consultation”.
America Magazine reported that Mgr Blaire was worried that some groups “very far to the right” are trying to use the conflict as “an anti-Obama campaign”. (Since then Mgr Blaire has issued a clarification stating his solid support for the other bishops as he believes this is an issue of “unacceptable intrusion of government into the life of the Church by the Mandate”.)
Asked whether she would vote for Obama, Schneiders said she does not like everything about the Obama administration for it is too trigger happy, and some civil rights are being eroded because of security concerns. However, she declared without hesitation that she would vote for him as Obama’s vision and policies are much better when compared with Mitt Romney’s.
“If the bishops defeat Obama it will be a very sad day. Romney is a greedy, selfish man. He is on the side of the rich,” she concluded.
The issue has deeply divided the Catholics in the United States and even some Obama supporters think he has not always treated the Catholic Church well.
Back to Sr Sandra Schneiders…
When I asked her about the possibility of the ordination of women, Schneiders said that she believes this would eventually happen. She does not yearn for it, however.
She then went on to make a striking point: “Sisters should remain sisters. This is our vocation and our strength. They can take nothing away from us, unlike the priest.
“If a priest’s clerical state should ever be removed by the Church, he would lose his identity and raison d’être. As we are we would never lose our identity, prophetic charisma, and freedom.”
One may agree or disagree with her, but throughout our meeting I could not but notice that her comments were motivated by her love for the Church, as she perceives it.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt