Correspondence
I just read Barbara Lyghtel Rohrer’s interview “Sisterhood,” with Sister Louise Akers [November 2013]. As a Catholic woman of seventy-seven, a mother of four, and a person who has witnessed the struggles of people in all walks of life, I want to applaud Akers for speaking out on behalf of women in general, and Catholic women in particular. Her ideas and questions have been ignored for too long if we are truly trying to follow the teachings of Jesus.
Nathalie Anne D’Arcangelo
Beaufort, South Carolina
Sister Louise Akers had me hovering near her corner until the end of the interview, when she equated the people of God with the Catholic Church and declared her intention not to leave it.
The Catholic Church is both homophobic and misogynistic. For any thinking woman to remain affiliated with it is akin to a woman staying in a bad marriage, believing that if she is simply good enough or obedient enough, he will change. I’ve been there.
I also spent four years in a convent, studying to become a nun. I was told that we were the chosen, and it was our job to educate the young and wait for the old and unteachable to die out so the Church could flourish. This was many years ago, but I still hear stories from churchgoing friends about the arrogance of the clergy: letters of reprimand, for example, for not making a sufficient monetary contribution. I would see membership in such an institution as an insult to my intelligence and integrity.
I stand with Audre Lorde, who said, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Working to change from within an institution based on power and control seems to me a waste of time and energy — busywork that would take me away from the real work of justice. We shouldn’t need an institution in order to live as the people of God.
Pat Sellon
Monticello, Wisconsin
My main issue with Sister Louise Akers is that she thinks one can be Catholic and still believe whatever one wants. This is Protestant thinking. It’s as if she were Martin Luther nailing her own set of theses to the church door. The Church, she says, is in error regarding “sexism,” homosexual activity, abortion, liberation theology, priestly celibacy, and women’s ordination. Instead of changing her beliefs to conform to the Church’s, she expects the Church to function like a democracy and decide its morality by a vote of the people.
Everyone has a piece of the truth, Akers says. But what if my piece of the truth contradicts yours? It is illogical and demeaning to the very idea of truth to say we can each be right in our own minds and that is enough.
Akers speaks of her role models and teachers but never mentions the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Church sees in Mary the highest form of the feminine genius. As a consecrated woman, Akers is in a spousal relationship with God, a virgin able to become a bride of Christ and a mother of believers in Mary’s image. This is a magnificent honor!
Trish Crew
Greenville, South Carolina
Sister Louise Akers responds:
To Trish Crew: I do not think that I can believe whatever I want. Nor, in my experience, do Protestants. Since Martin Luther’s famous stand in the sixteenth century there have been numerous examples of conscientious dissenters within the Church. Some have been excommunicated, others have decided to leave, and many, like myself, have chosen to stay despite punitive measures and silencing. Historically theologians have been in dialogue with the Church. In this way doctrine evolves. With Pope Francis there appear to be signs that decades of silencing will end and dialogue will resume.
To Pat Sellon: I admit it is a struggle at times to remain within the institutional Church, but I do believe it is changing, as we witness in the tone and words of Pope Francis. We have yet to see what, if any, doctrines will be altered. I’m familiar with the Audre Lorde quote you offer, but I and other feminist-liberation theologians aren’t using the “master’s tools.” We’re creating our own tools based on our lived experiences and a different vision of the Church.
My wife told me that, when she was in graduate school twenty years ago at a Catholic university in Florida, she kept getting A-minuses on her work in one class. Eventually she asked the professor, a priest, “What is it going to take for me to get an A on one of these papers?”
In front of the whole class, the priest replied, “Your papers are exceptional, but I don’t give A’s to women.”
The interview with Sister Louise Akers illuminates this sort of institutional misogyny in the Catholic Church. Its policies are behind the times and a serious impediment to gender equality throughout the world. Only the persistent efforts of Catholic women like Akers, who keep chipping away at the monolithic patriarchy, give me hope that things will be different one day.
Kim Bonsteel
Highlands, North Carolina
Hallelujah for Sister Louise Akers! It is so good to hear a spiritual leader say that we can believe in God and liberal politics at the same time. I like to think of the Holy Trinity as the Mother, the Son, and the (genderless) Holy Ghost.
Christine Hillegass
Livingston, Montana
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