Benedictine Sisters Disagree With Vatican

I was appalled at your article on Sister Joan Chittister (“The Nuns Who Defied Vatican’s Order to Be Silent,” Aug. 5). Not so much at its subject--the Catholic Church has always had dissidents and always will--but at the shameless lack of objectivity and blatant manipulation of the reader. There are long rhapsodies about the sisters’ simple Benedictine lifestyle, but the opposition gets two small paragraphs and a short quote that do not adequately explain its position.

The article says the sisters “lovingly disagree” [with a Vatican decree against Chittister attending a conference to promote women’s ordination] and are speaking out in spite of the “gag order,” but it fails to mention that the church’s authority is part of its intrinsic nature and that by belonging to the church the nuns have implicitly accepted that authority. Chittister is paraphrased as saying that it took “extended debate” to determine other important issues, ignoring the fact that there has already been an official ruling on this: “The church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women.”

Finally, by exuberantly praising Chittister’s feminism, the article implies that anyone in the (male) hierarchy who disagrees with her is, of course, a male chauvinist.

Rose Hodge

Winnetka

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Time for a reality check for the pope. Throw in the cloth and concede that woman is the equal of man.

Richard M. Ruby

Woodland Hills