This is the introduction to a great interview of Bishop Blair and his response to the LCWR stance. This is a great quote:Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio, is the bishop who assessed the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Along with Archbishop Peter Sartain and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, he will be working with the nuns of the LCRW to make sure the group is aligned with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The bishops and the nuns' group leaders were also told to develop material "that provides a deepened understanding of the church's doctrine of the faith."
Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio
GROSS: So that was Sister Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, as recorded on our show last week. Bishop Blair, what's your response to what she said?Bishop Blair also defined the kind of dialogue he would like to have with the LCWR and I assure you, this will feel like a very cold shower to the sisters' alternative magisterium.
BLAIR: Well, my response is one of great disappointment because obviously, the human person has to be defended in all aspects, and I think that's what Sister Pat is saying. No one is questioning, or criticizing, the fact that they take care - that many sisters are involved in the care of the elderly or the infirmed, the needy, the troubled.
But I recall something that Pope John Paul II said. He said that all other human rights are false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right, is not defended with maximum determination. You know, we also hear a lot about the Second Vatican Council. The Second Vatican Council said that life must be protected with the utmost care, from the moment of conception; and said abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
So to kind of relativize or say, well, you know, the right to life of an unborn child is a preoccupation with fetuses, or it's relative in its importance - I can't agree with that. And I don't think that represents the church's teaching, and the focus of our energies, in trying to deal with this great moral issue.
I urge you to listen to the interview here, or to access the transcript here.
Please, pray Bishop Blair and all our bishops, and pray for the LCWR sisters too, that they may continue their labor within the visible confines of the Catholic communion.