the Nicene Ideology

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jul 24, 2009

 Poor Father Richard McBrien remains terribly unhappy about the Vatican's investigation of American women's religious orders:

One of the most disturbing aspects of the "visitation" is the requirement that each of the visitors will be required to make a public profession of faith and an oath of fidelity to the Apostolic See.

That is, the Vatican is asking Roman Catholic religious to confirm that they are in fact Roman Catholics. And the trouble with that is...

This requirement will discourage a number of potential visitors from volunteering their services in this study, and thereby skew the visitation teams in a particular ideological direction.

Of course! Why didn't I think of that? The people who are willing to profess their allegiance to the Holy See will all be Catholics, and therefore share the "ideology" known as Catholicism. (Some people would describe Catholicism as a "faith" rather than an "ideology," and some might go so far as to say that this faith is the "truth." But why quibble?)

But again, why would Catholic nuns hesitate to profess their allegiance to the Catholic faith ideology? 

This will likely be the case because many women religious find the demand for loyalty oaths to be both redundant and demeaning, given the fact that Catholics profess their faith on a regular basis when they recite the Creed together at Mass on Sundays and major feasts.

Ah, yes. By that logic, I suppose it's demeaning to expect the faithful to join in the Profession of Faith, week after week. Why do we have to go through it this Sunday? Didn't we recite it last Sunday? 

But it's comforting to know, at least, that the nuns whom Father McBrien is defending apparently still attend Mass regularly-- at least on Sundays and major feasts.