You may wonder whether the global church the sisters belong to is interested in keeping the convents open. It sure seems like it isn't. By 2005, the Catholic Church had spent $1 billion on legal fees and settlements stemming from priests sexually abusing children. Yet church leaders have allocated no funds to take care of elderly sisters, and while priests’ retirement funds are covered by the church, the sisters have no such safety net. When their orders run out of money, that’s it.
“Why would you want to be a nun if the archdiocese is going to treat you like they do?” Ann Frey at the Wartburg said. “Their whole lives they’ve been obedient and done what they were asked to do, and now nobody is helping them?”
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
No More Nuns ...
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Appalling.
ReplyDelete"By 2005, the Catholic Church had spent $1 billion on legal fees and settlements stemming from priests sexually abusing children."
ReplyDeleteThat was a consequence of gross negligence, and a scandal. But the settlement part came out of court orders, and I don't know what it has to do with anyone's retirement. I bet that the Catholic Church in the US, broadly enough defined, spends many millions on utility bills every year. Why not cite that?
"Yet church leaders have allocated no funds to take care of elderly sisters, and while priests’ retirement funds are covered by the church, the sisters have no such safety net. When their orders run out of money, that’s it."
Are the retirement funds for priests referred to are for diocesan priests, who after all are employees of a diocese, and do the priests and brothers in orders such as the Benedictines or Dominicans have different arrangements? Once year in every parish in the US, there is a collection for the elderly and retired religious; it has always been my understanding that this applied to everyone, not merely priests.
I do occasionally see reasonably young (under 40) sisters, for example now and then some from the Sisters of Charity of Calcutta in Columbia Heights.