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Nun who ruffled diocese to speak here
Saturday, June 16, 2001 By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Sister Joan Chittister, who was the focus of a controversy between the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and the National Catholic Education Association, is scheduled to receive an award today from the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Sisters of Divine Providence.
"We've been trying to get her for years to come here to receive this award and to give a talk at our assembly. Her schedule was such that, by the time we asked, we were three years behind. This year we lucked out," said Sister Mary Ellen Rufft, provincial of the order, which is based in McCandless.
Chittister's 7 p.m. speech has been sold out for weeks. She recently suffered complications from back surgery but the sisters said they believed she would be able to travel to Pittsburgh.
Late last year, the Rev. Kris Stubna, diocesan secretary for education, announced that the diocese would not give continuing education credits to teachers who attended the Catholic Education Association's convention, a prestigious conference with informal ties to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Two years earlier, the association had given its own top award for achievement in Catholic education to Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh, an award that was proudly cited in Wuerl's biography on the diocesan Web site.
No specific reason for the ban on credits was given, but the National Catholic Reporter carried stories claiming that Stubna had been arguing with association officials over Chittister's presence as keynote speaker at the convention, which was held in April in Milwaukee.
Her topic was to be spiritual leadership, but she is an open proponent of women's ordination. Stubna later said he had made the decision to deny the credits without consulting Wuerl.
Chittister, who is from Erie, has been a well-known Catholic writer for more than 30 years. Long before the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin spoke of the "seamless garment of life," Chittister encouraged anti-nuclear activists to oppose abortion and anti-abortion activists to oppose the arms race. In more recent years she has been best known for addressing the concerns of women in the poorest nations of the world.
Her speech to the education association drew on the examples of Catholic saints as she urged teachers to teach their students to question cultural assumptions.
"Pity the children who are taught to recite the past but forbidden to examine the present or to imagine a different future," she said.
She reiterated her long-standing opposition to abortion, calling it the sexist solution of men who want sex without commitment or responsibility. A brief remark on gay people was in line with Vatican teaching that they are children of God who should not be subjected to hatred or violence.
But her words about the place of women in the Catholic church drew the most sustained applause.
Catholic school children should be taught "to ask how it is that one sex can take upon itself the right to define what God wants of the other one. Teach them to ask what kind of God it is that would give women a mind, a soul, a baptism and a call and then forbid them to answer it when a sacramental church is in danger of losing the sacraments," she said.
The award she will receive from the Sisters of Divine Providence is named for Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, a 19 th-century co-founder of the order and an early proponent of German labor unions. It is given to Catholic social justice activists, especially those who champion unpopular causes. One of the earlier recipients was Sister Helen Prejean, the death penalty opponent whose story was told in the movie "Dead Man Walking."
Both Wuerl and Stubna were recently at the motherhouse and saw posters announcing Chittister's appearance, Rufft said. Neither raised objections.
"We have a cordial relationship with the diocese. We also have disagreements. I think that, like everyone in the church, we all have our opinions about different people," she said.
"As far as we are concerned, Joan Chittister is not just some wild social justice advocate. She is a very spiritual woman whose books have affected our sisters and religious women throughout the world."
The Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the diocese, confirmed that its officials saw no reason to challenge the award to Chittister.
"That is an internal matter to that religious community," he said.
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