The liberal host of the public radio show Interfaith Voices, Sister Maureen Fiedler has cheered [1] for the Occupy protests, railed [2] against the Ryan budget, advocated [3] for single-payer healthcare, and pined [4]
for the Obama of 2008 – and it is now her taking umbrage at the Vatican
that got her a nice soft interview on CNN, Tuesday morning.
Anchor Carol Costello actually made light of the Vatican's announcement
last month to reform the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women's
Religious (LCWR) – of which Sr. Fiedler is a part – by asking her,
tongue-in-cheek, if she wasn't the "kind of radical, feminist nun the
bishops are concerned about?" That prompted a chuckle from her guest,
followed by her liberal lines.
The Vatican, after a lengthy investigation of the LCWR – during which CNN helped promote [5] the cause of the liberal nuns – found a doctrinal "crisis" [6] within the organization. And Sr. Maureen Fiedler herself has knocked [7] the U.S. bishops for being behind the times on same-sex marriage.
"Same-sex marriage is defined these days as a civil rights issue, and
there will come a time when the bishops will not want to be cited in
history as against civil rights for gay and lesbian people," she wrote
in the wake of Maryland's legislature legalizing same-sex marriage.
Toward the end of the soft interview, Costello teed up her guest once
again. "The Catholic Church seems to be a mission, 40 some Catholic
universities are suing over Obamacare, Catholics are investigating the
nuns, the Girl Scouts. What's next do you suppose?" she asked.
That teed up Sr. Fiedler to quip that it might be "puppies and kittens next, you know?"
[Video below. Audio here [8].]
A transcript of the segment, which aired on May 29 on Newsroom at 9:32 a.m. EDT, is as follows:
CAROL COSTELLO: It is a showdown, although a prayerful one, between
Catholic nuns and the Vatican. The Leadership Conference of Women
Religious is meeting in Washington to determine how nuns will respond to
allegations of radical feminism. Bishops accuse America's nuns of
fighting for the poor, but not fighting against contraception, abortion,
and same-sex marriage. The church is demanding major reforms.
Sister Maureen Fiedler is host of "Interfaith Voices," a public radio
show. And she's worked for social justice and gender equality issues for
many, many years. Sister Maureen, welcome.
Sister MAUREEN FIEDLER, nun: Thank you. It's good to be here, Carol.
COSTELLO: I'm glad to have you. I'm going to ask you a tough first
question. Aren't you kind of radical, feminist nun the bishops are
concerned about?
FIEDLER: You know, I had to laugh when I read that part of the
document. I mean, if these men really want to beat some radical
feminists, I can introduce them to them. But I don't think the women of
LCWR are that. I certainly am a feminist. I believe in the fundamental
equality of women and men – which by the way the Second Vatican Council
does as well. It says and I'm quoting, "Every type of discrimination
based on sex is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God's
intent," close quote.
COSTELLO: Okay. So, you came out. You say, yes, I am a feminist. But
doesn't that mean you're not a good Catholic in the bishops' eyes?
FIEDLER: Oh, absolutely not. I don't think you can be a good Catholic
and not be a feminist, not be someone who believes in the fundamental
equality of the genders.
(Crosstalk)
FIEDLER: Pardon me?
COSTELLO: That's not what the bishops are saying.
FIEDLER: Actually, I think if you scratch the surface and talk to a lot
of bishops, particularly those who have not joined this recent lawsuit
on the contraceptive issue – and there are most that have not joined –
there is a lot of dissent on those issues in the Bishop's Conference. It
just doesn't always make it publicly.
COSTELLO: Okay. So, I know what the Leadership Conference of Women
Religious, the gathering of most of the nation's nuns, they will pray
for a solution. But you know many of these women who are attending this
conference – are they angry enough to actually consider splitting from
the Vatican, turning their orders into nonprofits and working with the
poor on their own?
FIEDLER: I don't think that quite is the issue. I think there's a
possibility. It has been suggested by some former leaders that LCWR
itself, which is the leadership conference, the elected leaders of nuns
in America, to become a nonprofit on their own. That's one of the ideas
on the table, so to speak. But I do think they are going to go about
this thoughtfully, prayerfully and intelligently -- which is the way
they have always gone about business.
COSTELLO: The Catholic Church seems to be a mission, 40 some Catholic
universities are suing over Obamacare, Catholics are investigating the
nuns, the Girl Scouts. What's next do you suppose?
FIEDLER: I don't know. I keep saying is it puppies and kittens next,
you know? But what's really at stake here in the larger significance of
this is the future of the church.
Whether we're going to go back to the old church before the Second
Vatican Council, which was male and dictatorial and not collaborative,
obsessed with issues of sexuality, or whether we're going to go forward
with what Second Vatican Council called us to, which was collaborative
leadership and dialogue and a church where the laity really have a
place. And a place where social justice issues are in the forefront of
the agenda that we're carrying forward.
And I think the laity of this country want the second. In fact, I think
it would be a tragedy for the American church if we ever went back to
that old model. And unfortunately, that's represented in this Vatican
document.