Bishop shuts down womens
series
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR Staff
A retreat house in the Arlington, Va., diocese has cancelled a
series of presentations on womens spirituality at the request of Bishop
Paul S. Loverde, who charged that the presenters hold positions contrary
to the formal teachings of the church.
Complaints from a conservative Catholic activist group in
Arlington triggered Loverdes investigation of the presenters.
The series was to run one evening a month for three months,
beginning Feb. 29, at the Dominican Retreat House in McLean, Va. Presenters
were to be Mary Hunt and Diann Neu of the Washington-based Womens
Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual, and artist Mary Lou Sleevi of
Arlington. Hunt has been an adjunct associate professor in the womens
studies program at Georgetown University for approximately five years.
A spokesperson said that because of pressing pastoral and
diocesan matters, Loverde could not respond to NCR requests for comment.
A column by Loverde in the March 2 issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald,
however, lays out the reasons for his action.
If the water in the well is allowed to become polluted, no
one should be surprised when the people who drink it become ill, Loverde
wrote, saying the analogy was intended to underscore the serious
oversight required of those responsible for formation in the faith.
Loverde said he had asked his staff to investigate the three
presenters, calling the research objective and thorough.
That research, according to Loverde, found that Hunt refers to
herself as a Catholic feminist liberation theologian, pro-choice and
lesbian. Neu, Loverde wrote, has authored a prayer service referred
to as liturgy and called Eucharist.
Sleevis paintings appear to be the focal point for
those who believe that women must oppose the patriarchal church,
Loverde wrote. They are accompanied by words of
empowerment, which may sound innocent enough but they take on a
whole new meaning when they are applied in a feminist context.
Loverde added that the three women are reported to belong to
organizations which have publicly supported positions opposed to the church,
i.e., Womens Ordination Conference, Catholics for a Free Choice and Call
to Action.
We cancelled the series as a demonstration of good will to
the bishop, said Dominican Sr. Anne Lythgoe, spokesperson for the
congregation in Elkins Park, Pa. Our sisters have been in Arlington for
almost 40 years, and never has there been any reason for the diocese to
question their loyalty.
Lythgoe said the sisters who invited the three presenters were
familiar with their backgrounds.
The presenters told NCR they were not contacted by Loverde or his
staff as part of the investigation.
Hunt said she was not surprised by Loverdes action, insofar
as she and Neu were concerned. Ive been out as a lesbian for 25
years, Hunt said. Ive been publicly pro-choice. She
said the information about her and Neu in Loverdes letter was
basically accurate.
Whats problematic is that we call ourselves
Catholic, Hunt said. He wouldnt care if I was an out lesbian,
pro-choice Unitarian.
Sleevi, however, told NCR that she felt Loverdes letter
amounted to slandering my good name.
All of this has been lifted out of context, she said.
I feel like Ive been punched in the belly.
Sleevi, a longtime Mass-goer in the Arlington diocese, said she
has given retreats to religious orders and twice had her work exhibited at
meetings sponsored by the U.S. bishops conference. Two collections of her
art with scriptural reflections have been published by Ave Maria Press. She and
her husband have been active in the Christian Family Movement, cursillo and the
charismatic renewal.
Sleevi denied that her paintings are a focal point for opposition
to the church.
I believe that patriarchy is not big enough, and that
feminism is not a dirty word, Sleevi said, but in my mind that is
not an attack on the church.
Both Sleevi and Hunt acknowledged ties to Call to Action and the
Womens Ordination Conference. Hunt said she has served on the board of
Catholics for a Free Choice, but Sleevi said she has never been a member.
The Northern Virginia chapter of Call to Action plans to sponsor
the series itself in the coming year. Hunt said she is ready and
willing, but Sleevi has declined to take part.
Loverde was urged to look into the series by an Arlington-based
group called Les Femmes, which had planned to hold a candlelight prayer vigil
at the retreat house unless the series was cancelled. The group encouraged
members to send e-mails and letters to Loverde.
Loverde refers to these communications in his March 2 column.
Although I fully affirm that persons who dissent from the formal and
authentic teachings of the church
cannot be permitted to speak in our
Catholic institutions, I am saddened that often the letters I receive attack
persons rather than their positions. Such was the case in this recent
situation, he wrote.
Mary Ann Kreitzer, who heads Les Femmes, said she agreed that
Catholics should voice concerns charitably to the degree thats
possible.
But if the burglar has his hand in the silver box, its
hard to always be charitable when youre trying to get his hand out,
she told NCR.
Kreitzer said Les Femmes was formed by Catholics frustrated
over the fact that the only women who appear to be heard in the church are
feminists. She said she was pleased with Loverdes action.
Thank God for such a wonderful bishop, Kreitzer said. He
obviously is going to be a father to this diocese.
Hunt said that she believes the cancellation raises a real
estate question.
We look forward to a day when Catholic real estate will
belong to the whole church and when differences will put us in dialogue and not
in jeopardy, she said.
National Catholic Reporter, March 17,
2000
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