Nuns sacked for refusing to render 'physical' services to priests

Three sisters of the Missionary Congregation of St Gemma Galgani have been sacked by their bishop for refusing to do render physical services to the priests in the parish. There appears to have been a clause in their contract stating that they had to serve as 'home helps' of the parish and assistant parish priests of Aprilia. I guess this is not what is meant by handmaiden's to the Lord, then. This post has stretched my Italian a little, so apologies for any errors, but Adista has the full story of these reluctant 'brides of Christ'.

According to Adista, the nuns' job was teaching Christian doctrine to the children of the Parish. They have been sacked by the Bishop of Albano, from Laziale, near Rome, because they refused to accept a clause in their contract which required that they be home helps of the Parish Priest and the Vice-Parish Priest of the Parish of Saints Peter and Paul in the town of Aprília .

Albano’s Bishop, Marcello Semeraro, 60, had subjected the renewal of the sisters’ employment contract, which involved the monthly payment of 800 Euros, or about £570 to be shared by the three sisters to a very precise condition: the sisters had to render ‘physical’ services as home helps to the two elderly priests in the Parish.

The Bishop’s demand was considered  'unacceptable' by the Superior of the Mother House in Lucca, which is in north-west Italy in Tuscany, about 10 miles north-east of Pisa.

As a result the Bishop has sacked to the three sisters in spite of a petition signed by 1500 parishioners supporting them.

Bishop Semeraro did not even take into account the fact that the priests in question have stated that they 'had not asked for the services of the sisters in view of the fact that they prefer their present condition and their independence.'

On October 21 the three sisters had to leave the parish.

The parishioners are apparently furious with what they consider to be a totally 'unchristian, dictatorial and outdated attitude' on the part of the Bishop.

I managed to get to the end of this post and resist the temptation to use the 'you must be taking the Pisa' joke. But I'm sorry, I've had to put it in. Good for you, though, Mother Superior, for standing up to the bishop.

Comments

[dominic]

The Church of Rome is a heirarchical church where one has to obey, under pain of canonical punishment, the heirarchy above you. These nuns are refusing to be part of such a heirarchy so, as they cannot agree with the teaching of the RC church, they should leave the church.

Further, they are clearly not prepared to uphold the contract they have - shouldn't have signed it if they don't want to live by it.

The Church of Rome is once again exposed for what it is by the actions of both sides - a human organisation which does not promulgate the truth of Jesus Christ, but does promulgate the lies of men.

[David Murphy]

Forgive me for feeling uncomfortable at some of your headlines when you are writing about the Roman Catholic church. In the heading to this post you put the word "physical" in inverted commas (suggesting what? I might ask). In the original Italian post, which you quote, the word in inverted commas is "material" not "physical" service!!
I also find it rather dubious for you to suggest that the Pope is waiting "to pounce" like some animal of prey on potential "asylum seekers" (my words) from Anglicanism.

[Chris Gillibrand]

For those that are interested, I have just posted an article by my wife on Blessed Dominic Barberi, the Passionist who received Newman into the Catholic Church.

One cannot imagine more different charectors than the Cardinal and St Gemma but he positively gushes about the association of miracles and the Catholic Church, not least among them the stigmata.

One should also remember that if indeed thet are a reality, the stigmata betoken not just a phenomenon but great and actual suffering in the recipient.

[Frank Schnittger]

Jesus rebuked Martha for complaining that Mary wasn't doing her share of the housework. It looks like the goog Bishop is putting Jesus in his place. How dare he distract the women from their chores!

[Geoffrey Smith]

"St Gemma is probably the prettiest saint in the calendar (apart from the Virgin Mary of course)
- Peter Bridgman, 13 NOV 2007, 23:34:48

I don't think I've ever seen a photo of the Virgin Mary, Peter. Do you happen to have one?

[Martin]

There are Passionists in England too - Minsteracres in Northumberland, St. Joseph's Highgate in London, and the convent of Our Lady in the grounds of Belmont Abbey are the ones I know of.

[frank]

The Catholic Church has always been and still is patriarchal and misogynistic.

[Chris Gillibrand]

As a member of the Confraternity of the Passion, by which laypeople associate themselves with the Passionists, my delight in seeing St Gemma this morning could not be contained. St Gemma is a member of the Confraternity, and was given permission to wear the clothes of the Passionists but without the Passionist symbol. However, for this priviledge, I will have to wait until I am laid in my coffin!

The Sisters of St Gemma are one of about 15 small religious congregrations that are associated in varying degrees to the Passionist order.

The life of St Gemma mirrors in many ways that of St Joan of Arc, considered by many (especially in the latter case by the English) to be quite mad. Even though clinicians might consider her a suitable case for treatment, this is no bar to her sanctity.

In the canonization process, the genuineness of the stigmata was left open to doubt and I have a holy card of St Gemma with her wounds being hidden by the wounds of Christ who is pictured with her.

Never has so small an order contained so many saints as the Passionists, not least among them Dominic Barberi who received Cardinal Newman into the Church.

From Giorgini’s Brief History of the Passionists on the Sisters of St Gemma.
“They were founded by Mother Gemma Giannini (1884-1971) who knew St. Gemma Galgani in 1899 and lived in close friendship with her. When the monastery of the Passionist Nuns at Lucca was opened, she entered in 1906 and remained a Passionist nun until 1938. Because she had not recovered her health, despite repeated exits for eures, she left definitively with the idea of gathering a group of women who would live in the spirit of St. Gemma outside the cloister. With two other companions, she be-gan the Institute on June 8, 1939 at Villa Guerra (Camigliano, Lucca), because "it seemed to her that the Lord would want the places sanetified by St. Gemma to be in the care of persons living aecording to her spirit." They are committed "to loving and making Jesus known through the teaching of catechism to little ones, through meditation on the passion, as rural catechists, especially in rural areas". The sisters take the Special vow of the Passionists. The first approbation was from the Ordinary of La Spezia in 1946. In 1948 the Institute entered the Diocese of Milan, collaborating in the work of Canon Natale Motta, who expedited the foundation as a Pious Association on April 28, 1951 through Cardinal lldefonso Schuster. Their Ecclesiastical Assistant in 1954 was Bishop Peter Zuccarino, Bishop of Bobbio, who approved the work as a Diocesan Congregation in 1964. Since 1966, the sisters have been working with the Xaverians in Zaire. On April 19, I960, the General of the Passionists gave the sisters permission to wear the "sign" of the Passionists; and on May 11, 1973, gave affiliation with the Congregation. Pontifical approbation was received on August 15, 1982.

They even seem to have grown in the post-Concilar time, but I have no more recent figures.

1976: 44 Sisters, 8 houses in Italy and 1 in Zaire. 1982: 57 Sisters, 9 houses.
1984: 62 Sisters, 10 houses.

As a Diocescan congregation, they are in theory at the beck and call of the Bishop. Their rule however appears to state their aim is “loving and making Jesus known through the teaching of catechism to little ones, through meditation on the Passion, as rural catechists, especially in rural areas". The Bishop must have taken leave of his senses to ask them to be the home helps of parish priests.

Since the Second Vatican Council, ecclesiastical obedience has been much abused, to induce those in the religious life to live counter to the original Rule of their Order and to the spiritual spirit of their founders.

However, St Gemma’s letters do talk about joy at being despised and humiliated and she humbles herself for having felt some repugnance in obeying.

[Peter Bridgman]

Here's another photo of St Gemma Galgani ...

http://www.catholic-church.org/stpaulsmonastery/StGemma.jpg

St Gemma is probably the prettiest saint in the calendar (apart from the Virgin Mary of course.)

[F. Pimentel-Pinto]

I am reliably informed that the Mother Superior of the nuns in your story is called Sister Antonia Grosso. It takes "un pezzo grosso" [a 'bigwig'] to stand up to a bishop, let alone the bishop of Albano Laziale!

[Kurtenscharfer.net]

Get out in that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans
Get out in that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans
I want my breakfast 'cause I'm a hungry man
I said, Shake, rattle and roll
I said, Shake, rattle and roll
You never do nothin' to save your doggone soul

[Amy]

This is a very, very common conflict, found frequently in church history. A history of the Ursuline missions in Montana here in the US describes it as a constant source of tension between the Ursuline sisters and the Jesuits back in the 19th century - the Ursulines had gone out to the territory to provide education and health care, while the Jesuits mostly wanted them to do their laundry and cook their meals.

[Malcolm+]

One is moved to wonder what the bishop was thinking - or rather, if the bishop was thinking at all.

[joe]

Of course there is another obvious joke about 'rendering physical services to the priests in the parish'.