Tuesday, April 19, 2005
The Challenge of Arrogance
Stacy Meichtry's NCR piece on religious included this almost incredible story:
But many argue that responsibility was precisely what John Paul lacked when it came to the religious. Sr. Camilla Burns, who is based in Rome as the Superior General of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, couldn’t recall the last time her order had an appointment at the Vatican. Reached by telephone in Boston, Burns said what stuck out in her mind was the pope’s failure to turn up at an international assembly for religious held in Rome last November. “A year ago they got a commitment (from the Vatican) to meet with the pope. It was a great opportunity to meet 850 religious from around the world. But when the time came something else was scheduled. It created great sadness,” she said. “And he wasn’t ill that day,” she added.
I say "almost" because though it reveals a gross disregard for hospitality, it has the sad ring of truth in the dealings I've seen between clergy and religious.
I wouldn't pin the blame on the pope for this one. This looks like a screw-up from arrogant (or incompetent) Vatican flunkies.
Looking at the whole article, I also think it's decidedly unprogressive to expect a pope or any such mortal leader to be the single savior figure for the world's religious. Religious orders, if they want to be self-determined and self-sufficient, must take responsibility for their own members, their charisms, and their own relative success or failures.
I do think the boom in "traditional" orders is partly due to the general climate in the hierarchy that encourages those charisms: pray, pay, and obey. While I can understand 850 convening religious disappointed at their clerical snub, you can't live fruitfully while nurturing every injustice. And if you are attracting even a whiff of interest from potential postulants or lay associates, it sounds rather pollyanna, but as the song says, put on a happy face.
