Defending Our Sisters, cont'd

A letter to the Times:

In honor of the mostly smart and selfless nuns who taught me and innumerable American Catholics, I offer a two-question pop quiz.

Consider:

(a) A dwindling but devoted group of women, working for neither profit nor status, to comfort the mournful, nourish those hungry for justice, extol peacemaking, and meet the consequences of poverty, meekly and with mercy and purity of heart.

(b) Envoys of inquisition from a gilded institution, one feckless in protecting God’s children from debasing and cruel abuse.

Who are the “authentic teachers of faith and morals”?

Whose “themes” are “incompatible with Catholic faith?”

MARY GIBBONS
Washington, April 29, 2012