Oprah Show "A Huge Disservice?"

You'd think most everyone would be pleased by Oprah's show yesterday featuring the Domincan Sisters. But you'd be wrong. Check out some of these comments from Oprah's website--reminiscent of the response to the Tim Tebow ad (all emphasis added):


I must say however that I was disappointed that the only community featured was that of this extremely conservative group....
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This was an interesting program but I would like to see a comparison of the different Orders to get a more comprehensive understanding of what life as a nun is like in the different venues....
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- I think that you could have done a bit more to investigate some of the active orders, more progressive orders, those who have chosen to leave. The ignorance regarding religious life is profound but I am afraid that your show possibly did more to continue the ignorance. Please do a follow up with a more diverse group of women....

Some of the more passionate comments purport to be (and I believe are) from Catholic women religious:

i would hope that in the future you would give equal time to the thousands of sisters that live the same vows as these sisters, who don't wear the habit and minister to the poorest of the poor. i was a little insulted by some of the language - Nunnery??? NOT! These sisters live in a CONVENT, actually a Monastery as they are Monastic Nuns. The habit is NOT a wedding dress - it originally was the dress worn by widows in the time period. Most sisters do not wear a habit any longer, and it certainly does not lessen the vows we take....
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The story about nuns only represents about 5% of Catholic religious women in this country, perhaps visiting the traveling museum exhibit "Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America" can complete the picture. I am a Sister of Mercy for 28 years and as we say "who would give this up for an ordinary life". I've been inspired by the ordinary and extraordinary lives of my sisters. Women religious began educational and healthcare facilities in this country long before women broke through the glass ceiling, we saw the need and responded. Today many communities have NGO status at the United Nations and are envolved in enviremental issues. My community started in Dublin, Ireland wearing the simple dress of the day never intending to stand apart from our brothers and sisters....
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As a member of an international community we strive to make one among all peoples wherever we are sent. We're about responding to the mission of Jesus Christ by being obedient to God's call found through prayer and contemplation. You've begun to expose religious life. You might look at the display that is currently being displayed by the Leadership Conference of Wome Religious (LCWR) displaying the impact religious women have had on this country since its founding most especially in the areas of health care and education. You've only shown one facet of the diamond of religious life. How about letting more of it shine....
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The women you interviewed are not a representative sample of the vast majority of women living in religious life today, and frankly did a huge disservice to thousands of women and men living vowed life....

Some comments: Oprah wanted to do a story about nuns, not about teachers or nurses or UN NGO's. It seems like some of these Sisters don't feel that being a Sister is enough. They've got to be lawyers, doctors, PhD's.

Secondly, the LCWR pops up a number of times in the negative comments. On February 7, Carl Olsen over at Ignatius Insight did a piece about the upcoming Vatican Visitation, and the sisters who support it. A lady named Ann Carey has set up a website where such sisters can voice their concerns and opinions. Mr. Olsen reported:

"Mrs. Carey wrote in her email that a former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR, which represents more than 90 percent of American women religious), had sent her an e-mail on Jan. 6 saying that the Yahoo group is divisive and that perhaps Mrs. Carey should rethink its existence.'

'It's hard to imagine how anyone could be divisive by supporting an initiative of the Holy See, but some sister leaders use that term for anyone who disagrees with them,' she said."

I guess that makes the Oprah show divisive, too.

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney