Posts by Elizabeth
“Kittie’s Trials”: A Catholic short story from 1899, by a Saint Clara Academy girl
This wonderful short story was written in 1898 by Charlotte Lodge, a talented high school aged student of Saint Clara Academy, the girls’ school on Sinsinawa Mound, run by the Dominican Sisters. It was published by The Young Eagle, the Saint Clara student magazine, of which Charlotte was also one of the editors. That’s her in the middle, in the square picture featured on this article. I have a real admiration for this story, because it is well written and I really get a sense of how Saint Clara Academy was fostering real love for the Catholic Faith, and building up the girls in virtue, and fostering a beautiful Catholic culture. Kids and adults today should...
Read MoreTruth and Conscience
For some sisters, standing on conscience has come to often mean a liberation theology-influenced opposition to various teachings that the Catholic Church proclaims as certainly true. Often, listening to conscience is framed as being opposed to listening to Catholic teaching. Though Vatican II teaching on conscience is oft-cited as supporting their dissent, the teaching of Vatican II is that “In the formation of their consciences, the Christian faithful ought carefully to attend to the sacred and certain doctrine of the Church. For the Church is, by the will of Christ, the teacher of the truth.” This article surveys what the Catholic Church, Dominican Saints, and the Sinsinawa Dominicans say about truth, and about conscience. I point to and discuss some of the impact of “the new cosmology.” Also Included is a description of a video “A Matter of Conscience” made by Dominican sisters in response to the LCWR Doctrinal Assessment, which attempts to justify dissent by reference to Vatican II, the USCCB, Canon Law, etc.
Read MorePaul and Third World Women Theologians (1999), and, Feminism and Beyond (2004) by Sister Loretta Dornisch
If you guessed “Paul and Third World Women Theologians” might be about what third world women theologians say about Saint Paul, or anything like that, you’re way off. Sister Loretta seems to strongly dislike Saint Paul, so her book is a reading of Saint Paul’s epistles as if Paul were a woman–“Paula.” His friends become Timothea, Sylvana, etc. And instead of a funny and flip approach to this aggressively foolish book that I cannot describe to others without laughing, I approach it in excruciating detail and intellectual seriousness in order to be specific about the problems with a book that may even be used, incredibly inappropriately, for college courses. Then I review Sister Loretta’s book “Feminism and Beyond” in which she is very negative about marriage apparently due to seeing relationships with men as more or less inherently exploitative, but approvingly predicts that “In Western society we can project an increase in single females as well as lesbianism.” Maybe you could call these works Marxist-feminist-lesbian critique of Christianity.
Read MoreAwakening to Prayer; A Woman’s Perspective, by Sister Clare Wagner (2009)
This book by a Sinsinawa Dominican who is a Madison Call to Action member and “new cosmology” enthusiast, is published by the mainstream Catholic publisher Saint Anthony Messenger Press. It’s part of a series titled “Called to Holiness: Spirituality for Catholic Women.” This book is generally sweet-natured. But behind the “emerging spirituality” it portrays, is an “emerging theology” that doesn’t seem to have any clear relationship to the Catholic Church. Sister Clare is a devotee of “the new cosmology” or “the universe story” and makes various statements suggestive of panentheism, and the divinity of Jesus is left ambiguous. There is not a great deal of reference to God Himself in personal terms, which seems part of the fallout from feminist refusal to speak of God as “He” or “Father”; God is “Unfathomable Mystery” or “loving Divine Presence.” At the end of each chapter there is the sort of made-up private ritual popular with the “womenchurch” movement, for which, for instance, besides lighting a candle, “it would be helpful to place before you: an alarm clock, a bright cloth (a “wake up” color) and three to five rocks or stones.”
Read MoreWhat a Modern Catholic Believes About Women, by Sister Albertus Magnus McGrath (1972)
Written by a history professor Sister engaged heavily with the National Organization for Women in promoting the Equal Rights Amendment, this polemical work introduces us to all kinds of insulting or demeaning things some Catholics have historically said or thought about women, portraying these as “the Catholic position” and the Church as the “land of the perpetual put-down,” wherein “woman is not made in the image of God.” She compares the situation of women in the Church to the situation of black Americans which was being remedied by the black Liberation Movement, and insists there needs to be an elimination of anything upholding the order of man over woman. “The Church is not meant to be the Church of the hierarchy, the Church of men. It is the Church of Christ who loved and befriended and was served intimately by women.” Sister Albertus Magnus McGrath proposes “women’s ordination” as important to justice.
Read MoreMoving beyond the Church?, Part 1: “What is Eucharist for me?”
The LCWR Doctrinal Assessment referred to Sinsinawa Dominican “Sr. Laurie Brink’s address about some Religious ‘moving beyond the Church’ or even beyond Jesus.” I begin discussing what Sister Laurie may have seen within her congregation that would make her say this, by discussing some sisters’ preference for alternative “feminist liturgies,” and discussions in which revised understandings of the meaning of the Eucharist are discussed and sometimes encouraged. At the extremes, these discussions range into the topic of starting “a new church.”
Read MoreMoving beyond the Church?, Part 2: “Relationship with the Institutional Church”
A sense of estrangement from what they term “the institutional church” is extremely prevalent among Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, and has been discussed at length even at the congregation level, and this article describes some detailed history of that in the last several years. Their thinking and attitude about it simply does not cohere with Vatican II, which says that the society of the Church structured with hierarchical organs is not to be considered a separate reality from the visible assembly and spiritual community of the Church. Some Sinsinawa Dominicans have even asked “Is it better to work within or step outside and have our own church?” But, in the words of Pope Francis, quoting Pope Paul VI, “It’s an absurd dichotomy to think one can live with Jesus, but without the church, to follow Jesus outside the church, to love Jesus and not the church.”
Read MoreThe Memoirs of Father Samuel Mazzuchelli
Father Samuel Mazzuchelli’s memoirs were written in 1843-44 during a visit home to Italy to recruit missionaries and raise funds to purchase Sinsinawa Mound, where he intended to found a seminary. He passed away in 1864, thus, his book dates from only the middle of his missionary activity, and prior to founding the Dominican Sisters. “Memorie Istoriche ed Edificanti d’un Missionario Apostolico” was published in Milan in 1844, its author anonymous and writing modestly in the third person. The book witnesses to Catholic doctrinal and moral truth in an exceptionally lively and attractive way, with many exciting and fascinating stories of frontier life.
Read MoreThe scandal of Sister Donna Quinn
Sister Donna Quinn entered religious life in 1955, and in 1974 her life took a decisive turn toward radical feminist activism. Sister Donna has repeatedly faced by Catholic authorities with dismissal from religious life for her advocacy of abortion rights, signing on to a “pro choice” New York Times ad in 1984, and causing scandal by volunteering as an abortion clinic escort in 2009, but the Sinsinawa Dominican congregation to which she belongs has repeatedly made statements on her behalf and covered for her, which the Church accepted even though Sister Donna has publicly spoken up rejecting the statements. At a Planned Parenthood event in California in May of 2012, Sister Donna Quinn said of her abortion clinic escorting “so what if they were coming in for an abortion? So what?” Sister Donna is a national leader of the dissident sisters’ groups NCAN and Women-Church Convergence and Illinois state coordinator of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Sister Donna denounces all religions including Catholic Christianity as misogynistic, has been known to protest against and refuse to attend Holy Mass on the basis that there is a male priest, and says she remains in religious life “for the sisterhood.”
Read MoreOn whether to give honor to Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit–Part 1: Dominican Praise
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia. This doxology begins each hour of the Liturgy of the Hours–words deeply familiar for most religious sisters and all priests. The most astounding and disturbing things I read on the Sinsinawa Dominicans’ email discussion list archive SinsinOP were the discussions about what language to use for the Divine Persons of the Trinity, instead of “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Some speak of wanting a greater variety of words for God and flexibility; others are very radical and want to do away with all male language for...
Read MoreThe Feminization of the Church, by Sister Kaye Ashe (1997)
Sister Kaye Ashe, Prioress General of the Sinsinawa Dominicans from 1986-1994, issues a strident call in her 1997 book The Feminization of the Church? for “affirmative action” to “feminize” the Catholic Church by changing meanings and practices. This was published by the National Catholic Reporter, an organization that is afoul of canon law in numerous ways, according to their local bishop. This book is an inside look at how radical feminist heretics think. It proposes socialism and Marxism as corrective to traditional ethics, suggests female friendship as the ideal model of all relationships among created beings, and approves of Catholic women...
Read MoreOn whether to give honor to Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit–Part 2: Vow Formula
Is God literally or metaphorically Father? Not only did the preference for de-gendered language for God contribute to leading the sisters away from praying the official prayer of the Church, the Divine Office, but many actually wanted to change most everything to remove male language, including their Constitutions and their vow formula. In February of 2002, Sister Patty Caraher began a discussion on the Sinsinsawa Dominicans’ SinsinOP email discussion list: Dears, Thanks to [Dominican Praise translation committee member] Mary Margaret [Pazdan] for her carefully presented paper on “alternative language” which prompted a wonderfully lively discussion at...
Read MoreDominican Praise
http://almanac.logos.com/Maribeth_Howell “ollowing a sudden hearing loss in 1999 that left me with partial hearing that was completely distorted in one ear I struggled to for two years to remain active in the classroom. Before returning to full-time teaching in 2007, I was engaged in the ministries of spiritual direction and program planning at the Dominican Center of Religious Development in Detroit, and Program Planning at Weber Center in Adrian, Michigan. While time has helped me to better adjust to the classroom and to various social settings, it was the desire to continue studying and teaching that drew me back to the classroom. It was during this hiatus that...
Read MoreThe preaching of the non-ordained: why not sister homilists
Why is the homily reserved to the priest or deacon alone? There is a deeper reason than the fact that the Church has assured their proper formation, education and training and commissioned them for that service. That reason lies in the unity of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, and the intense orientation of the Gospel and the exposition of the Scriptures, toward the Eucharist, source and summit of the Christian life. The homily is ordinarily given by the priest celebrant of the Mass, or occasionally for a good reason, a concelebrant priest or one assisting “in choir”, or the deacon, but having some other person slip in to give the...
Read MoreSister Francis Assisi Loughery, who spoke up for Catholic beliefs
Ann Therese Loughery was born July 26, 1922 in Cicero, IL, to Cornelius Francis and Mary (Ryan) Loughery. She had two brothers, Gerald and Francis, and a sister, Dorothy. She received Catholic schooling at Mary, Queen of Heaven Grade School in Cicero and Saint Patrick High School in Chicago, then a bachelor’s degree from Chicago’s DePaul University, in philsophy and English, after which she taught for a little while at St Patrick High School. She discerned a call to the Dominican Sisters of the Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary of Sinsinawa in her late 20s, entering the novitiate a year after a friend from DePaul, Mary Courtney, who became in religion...
Read MoreA historian’s synopsis of Father Mazzuchelli’s Memoirs
FATHER SAMUEL MAZZUCHELLI BY JAMES DAVIE BUTLER. LL. D. In 1844, the journal of a Dominican missionary “among various tribes of savages and among catholics and protestants in the United States,” was published in Milan. Being printed in Italian and never translated into English, this work of 364 pages has never been much known in America. It deserves, however, careful study. During the decade between the years 1830 and 1840, no intelligent man traversed the Wisconsin region more frequently and more thoroughly than this Italian priest, and no one has better described the phases of nature and life there. Footnote 1 -- lengthy For material for the...
Read MoreGen. George Wallace Jones and Sinsinawa Mound before Father Mazzuchelli
Sinsinawa Mound’s first white settler was a man with an illustrious role in the history of the young nation and young territories, Gen. George Wallace Jones. Father Mazzuchelli was called upon by Jones and other Protestant civil leaders for various kinds of assistance, because of his learning and valuable experience, for instance in building. Father served as chaplain to the first Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. General Jones had proposed his lead mining plot Sinsinawa Mound as a potential site of Wisconsin’s new Capitol; this obviously did not come to pass, but Father Mazzuchelli had the opportunity in about 1944 to purchase the prominent hill as the site of a new college for Dominican friars, which he must have hoped would be a “capitol” of evangelization. General Jones recounted the story of his role in American history, at the Organization and First Reunion of the Tri-State Old Settlers Association of Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, held Thursday, October 2nd, A.D. 1884 at Rand Park, Keokuk, Iowa, which included many leading men of the day.
Read MoreEarly historical associations of Sinsinawa–and what is the real meaning?
The Wisconsin Historical Society’s Wisconsin Magazine of History, Volume 3, No. 3, March 1920, includes in its “Question Box” feature a Sister’s query. The Sinsinawa Dominicans have long held that Sinsinawa means “home of the young eagle”, and accordingly, Sinsinawa Mound’s St Clara Academy published a student periodical The Young Eagle in the late 19th and early 20th c. In the article below, the State Historical Society found a record USGS record (which may be from around 1903), that indicates the meaning as “rattlesnake.” The 1955 book Mother Emily of Sinsinawa says, “The name is either the Sac and Fox word meaning ‘clear water’, or the Siouan word for ‘home of the young eagle.” The book Indian Place Names on Wisconsin’s Map states “home of the young eagle” and “rattlesnake” are said by different sources to be based on the word jinawe, which “is the Ojibwe word for rattlesnake in [Father Mazzuchelli’s friend Venerable Bishop Frederick] Baraga’s dictionary, but it seems a poor match for Sinsinawa.” To make a long story short, we do not know exactly the meaning of Sinsinawa.
Read MoreFather Mazzuchelli
An excellent short article introducing some of the truly remarkable details of the life of pioneer missionary priest Father Mazzuchelli. From the State Historical Society of Iowa publication The Palimpsest, October of 1920, by its editor John C. Parish.
Read MoreVenerable Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, pioneer missionary priest
Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, who became founder of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa, was an extraordinary and holy man
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Dominican priest and Missionary Apostolic
in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois
in pioneer times.
Builder of 20 churches, founder of 30 parishes,
founder of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa.