Whatever you do to the least of them you do to me

hence, the visitation this year.

This sort of thing just breaks one's heart.

Can anyone suggest some action to ber taken on this? I mean like a letter writing campaign, to numerous higher ups in the church. Let's get something going. Enough is enough. I thought I saw enough when a nun wrote a column in the NCR about how abortion was the lesser of two evils, when the other evil was a child starving in a third world country. This is unbelievable.

Can anyone suggest some action to ber taken on this?

Unfortunately, according to Fr. PNP, there is not much that can be done. Her immediate supervisor is making excuses for her. I'm not sure what the local ordinary can do about it either.

Ah the Sinsinawa's. I was (mis)educated by them. No real surprise that everyone I know from school is an atheist. I was once kicked out of a theology class for disagreeing with a nun that women should be priests (her position was that with her 2 PhD's she was smarter than most priests).

Sr. Donna Quinn is playing an interesting game here. The motherhouse is in one diocese (Madison WI) Donna Quinn lives and causes small mischief in another (Chicago) and I believe that she is doing the clinic escorting in a third (Joliet). I think that means that instead of three bishops dealing with this... they are all just letting it slide thinking that it is someone else's problem.

One would hope that they could coordinate to deal with this... but since she has the protection and support of her prioress that could be a challenge.

It's a shame really. Much of my family was educated by the Sinsinawa's and it was nice to attend the same school as my mother. I can't hope that my children would follow my footsteps - because I wouldn''t ever want to support the Sinsinawa's in any way.

Sr. Donna Quinn was once on the NARAL website wearing a 'Nuns for choice' sweatshirt. If you google for that you can see a picture. I am just glad that my grandmother (educated by Sinsinawa's) never saw that.

Makes one miss the inquisition....

St. Dominic, pray for us!

By the way Jeff. In case you are wondering why there are all these multiple posts of the same thing, for some reason your blog (and for me it's the only one) hangs for an indordinate amount of time. I've trained myself to only click once, but others I imagine are led to think they didn't click it. Might want to check it out.

Scott, I noticed the same thing...

She seems to be a classic example of a sheep in wolf's clothing, hmmm? So much better to undermine the church from within. Makes me sick to think I'm contributin to her paycheck in any way.

If my 10 yr. experience of pro-life work on the front-lines of abortion clinics in the most liberal of states is any indication, the comment that pro-lifers are verbally abusive is a. load. of hogwash. All the verbal abuse I've experienced, ever, has come from the pro-"choice" side. And I can tell you that it is ugly, relentless, and increasing in shrillness. Never once have I witnessed a pro-lifer be anything but prayerful, quiet, and peaceful.
(Silent, peaceful, exercise of free-speech rights infuriates many pro-"choice" people.)

I've met more than a few pro-choicers embarrassed by the ugliness of the genuine abusiveness of those who share their views. I'm just glad I've never had a reason in my personal experience to be be embarrassed of any pro-lifer.

Yes, I think that reveals a general trend, exceptions nonwithstanding.

But, murder and sin do tend to make one blind and defensive, even if the motive feels right and good.

As someone who lives across the river from Sinsinawa, none of this surprizes me. Disgust yes. This is a prime example of how far they have strayed from the vision Blessed Samuel mazzuchelli OP had when he founded the convent.

PS At times I swaer I can almost hear him turning over in his grave up in Benton, WI.

Not much that can be done? How about excommunication for assisting with abortion?

Not much that can be done? How about excommunication for assisting with abortion?

As I mentioned elsewhere, it is pretty evident that she has incurred automatic excommunication. The problem is enforcement.

I suspect that the nun in question has been the recipient of much counsel to cease her activity. She is obstinate. She has made herself an accomplice to the devil by doing the devil's work. The Church would do well to officially recognize that she has excommunicated herself by assisting women to procure abortions. Perhaps once she has been censured she may recognize the gravity of her actions and cease what she is doing.

So do the activities of a religious order fall under the jurisdiction of the bishop or not?

If so, and the bishop does nothing does that settle the issue until judgment day?

If outside the jurisdiction of the bishop, then does it go to the Vatican and if they do nothing that settles the issue until judgment day?

I get the impression it might vary from order to order. I'm of the understanding that the Order of St. Peter and Regnum Christi only get to operate with the permission of the bishop but Opus Dei does not need the permission of the bishop.

Though with the rise of all these things outside the jurisdiction of the bishop, perhaps this will pave the way in a few years for the pope to clean house all over without requiring co-operation from the local bishop.

So that's all that her prioress has to say? None of the firm decisiveness of St. Teresa of Jesus?

A question to the American readers here: how would these disloyal religious feel if they got a message from overseas Catholics telling them news of their indiscretion has reached far beyond America and that we are also scrutinizing them? I wonder if it would make any impact at all. ("They have Moses and the prophets…")

Opus Dei only operates in a diocese with the permission of the bishop.

Okay.

How about we target all three Bishops for letter writing? We link to this effort, far and wide, and let things fall where they will. I happen to think it will get some traction. She's crossed a line. I think there is a taste for dealing with this now, actually, and even if there isn't, let's do it anyway cause it's important and worth doing. One letter, copied to all three Bishops, so they all know they are being asked in unison to respond and act. And, I realize this is cheeky, but how does one get a letter cc'ed to Rome? I think it should be the three Bishops, and His Holiness! Why aim low.

No, I'm not kidding.

Who are the Bishops and where are they located?

And, I realize this is cheeky, but how does one get a letter cc'ed to Rome?

Through the papal nuncio:

Apostolic Pro Nuncio
Most. Rev. Pietro Sambi
3339 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008-3687
Telephone: 202-333-7121

An order of nuns like this can't operate in a diocese without the permission of that diocese bishop. At any time he withdraw his permission to operate there. So he could easily tell the sister to get their act together or pack up and leave.

I'm grateful, as a convert, that my first introduction to the Order of Preachers was not via a dissident woman religious. As a Protestant minister friend of mine used to say, that best thing we could do for some people and for the body of Christ as a whole is as soon as they get saved take'm out the back of the church and shoot them, that way they go straight to be with Jesus without drawing anyone away from him in the meantime.

Thank you, Scott W.

Does anyone else feel writing is a good idea? Does anyone else plan to do it?

This is a terrible scandal. As with the priest sexual abuse scandal, in this case Sr Donna is being aided and abetted by her superiors. If they really wanted to, they would find a way to make her stop. Ed Peters at his canon law blog has some ideas on what could be done. But even apart from canon law matters, a religious community has other ways of dealing with errant members that would at least make it difficult for her to keep on doing this. She is being supported by her religious community and that is the real scandal.
There must also be many good sisters in that community, I would hope, who are heartbroken at this. But they have no voice.

I sent a prayer request to the motherhouse's prayer site, as suggested by a comment on American Papist - prayers@sinsinawa.org , but it was bounced back to me.
"Please Pray for Sr.Donna Quinn That she remember her call to Christ and HIs love for the least of them - the unborn. That she repent of her work aiding and abetting the death of the unborn."
I hope it's because the site was overwhelmed with traffic and not a lack of willingness to pray for their sister.

I sent a prayer request to the motherhouse's prayer site, as suggested by a comment on American Papist - prayers@sinsinawa.org , but it was bounced back to me.
"Please Pray for Sr.Donna Quinn That she remember her call to Christ and HIs love for the least of them - the unborn. That she repent of her work aiding and abetting the death of the unborn."
I hope it's because the site was overwhelmed with traffic and not a lack of willingness to pray for their sister.