By Mary Cristy
A View from the Hills
“Embattled Bishop,” “Egregious errors,” “the depth of crisis in the American church,” are the words in which leading publications, such as Newsweek, report the current “scandal” that besets the Catholic church. And the question of the church’s ability to withstand the formidable and understandable outcry that rains upon it is raised, anxiously in the hearts of the faithful, scornfully in those who scoff at its failure to prevent the heinous abuse that took place within its hallowed walls.
Considering questions that were raised when cardinals met in Rome to confer with their pope, we can only pray that somehow, a prelate as wise as Solomon will emerge to create policies and guide church and parishoners through these troubled times. For those of us who are grieving and embarrassed by the activities of the few, it may help to take a closer look at the many.
During the American Revolution Catholic nuns risked their lives to board battleships and care for the wounded. So reviled and unwelcome were these women that historians are challenged to find their names or documentary evidence of their work, but it was through them that nursing care for wounded and dying men was finally accepted, and from whom the Florence Nightingales and Clara Bartons of later conflicts took their cue.
Medical Mission sisters came into being in the ’20s when Austrian born Dr. Anna Dengel met 72-year-old Dr. Agnes McLaren and learned of the unrelieved misery of sufferers in Rawalpindi, India, where McLaren had helped to found St. Catherine’s Hospital. Civilian nurses came and, appalled by the hardships, left almost immediately. After five trips to Rome, Dengel obtained permission from the pope to train nuns as nurses and doctors to work in India.
In America, with the help of Father Michael Mathis, a priest recently returned from India where he too had tried to send nurses, a woman doctor Dengel met in Chicago and a Luxembourg nurse she knew founded the first mother house. Total assets - a statue of St. Joseph and a broom! In time, the grey habits and blue veils of Medical Mission sisters became symbols of loving care and relief from suffering.
Rawalpindi’s St. Catherine’s Hospital served as a prototype for innumerable clinics and hospitals throughout India where they were staffed by native men and women trained by the sister-nurses and doctors.
Rural America may seem an unlikely place for religious bigotry but when Glenmary Sisters began their ministry to relieve the poverty and illness of Appalachia, legends, lies, and slanders about the evils of “Cat’licks” preceded them. Hatred, antagonism and distrust were so great that priests and nuns were stoned.
But poverty that stalked backwoods cabins and main streets of towns was so prevalent that the sisters would not be driven off. In time, even their most hostile detractors saw the sisters were not the “sinner people” they’d believed them to be. Sinners didn’t nurse, bring help, do the cleaning if need be, or shampoo little heads on Saturday night.
In Big Stone Gap, Va., sisters opened Holy Cross Center, and gave the miners and their families their first glimpse into “lived religion” as these Catholic nuns and priests practiced it before their eyes.
And these are only a few of the many stories enacted worldwide by those who believe the teachings of their Master and strive the bring the brotherhood of man to others. He built His church upon the rock that was Peter, who was also flawed, and who denied his Master three times before he repented and died for Him.
On such a rock, even the dynamite of scandal must hiss, fizzle, and die. But, perpetrators of crimes, be they clergy or laity, must share equally and be held accountable for their sins. Justice tempered with mercy is noble, but justice there must be, and in seeking it with the help of God, the faithful will not falter, nor God willing, will the Church.
Cristy, a Los Altos Hills resident, has been writing for the Town Crier for more than 40 years. Her column is published the first week of the month.
