Today, George Zimmerman’s defense team released a video of Zimmerman leading Samford, Florida police through a reenactment of the tragic events that transpired the night 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed.
In the video, Zimmerman tells detectives Martin attacked him and slammed his head into the pavement several times.
“I didn’t want him to keep slamming my head on the concrete so I kind of shifted. But when I shifted my jacket came up…and it exposed my firearm. That’s when he said you are going to die tonight. He took one hand off my mouth, and slid it down my chest. I took my gun aimed it at him and fired.”
According to Zimmerman, after Martin was shot, the teen sat up and said, “You got me,” however officers on the scene said Martin was found lying face down with his hands under his body.
During his account to police, Zimmer also insisted Martin was the aggressor, a point his attorney hopes will help bolster his self-defense claim.
After the walk-through, the lead detective was not convinced Zimmerman was telling the truth and felt he should have been arrested and charged for the teen’s death, but he was overruled.
It took weeks of protests and public pressure before the State of Florida would appoint an independent prosecutor to determine whether or not charges against Zimmerman would be pursued. In April he was booked on Second Degree Murder charges.
This video comes on the heels of the release of the 911 call from Tracy Martin reporting his son, Trayvon, missing.
Today, the Martin family also issued a statement after the release of Zimmerman’s interrogation video.
“When you look at the hand-written statement written by George Zimmerman on the night of the shooting that he did before he talks to lawyers, his words, and take that into consideration with the audio statements, the witness interviews, and the previously released evidence, it is clear to us why Angela Corey charged George Zimmerman with second degree murder,” the family said.
George Zimmerman's legal team has released audio of their client explaining to Sanford Police investigators his version of what happened the night he shot Trayvon Martin.
In it, Zimmerman is being grilled by investigator Chris Serino, telling him why he followed Trayvon and why he shot him. The audio pretty much matches the story that Zimmerman has been telling all along, but this is the first time that we can hear audio of someone asking him the questions.
He sticks to the story that Trayvon started the scuffle, knocked him to the ground and reached for Zimmerman's gun when he saw it under his jacket, threatening to kill him. Zimmerman says that's when he pulled out the gun and fired it, not knowing that he hit Trayvon until he said "You got me" before stumbling to the ground.
The audio exchange between Zimmerman and Serino include ones such as these:
Serino: Ever hear of Murphys' Law?
GZ: Yes sir.
Serino: OK, that's what happened. This person (Trayvon) was not doing anything bad. He was 17 years old. An athlete. A kid with a future. I kid with folks that care....Not the goon.
"You have any prior training in law enforcement at all? As far as identifying people, what to look for that makes them really suspicious? If you guys continue Neighborhood Watch, typically the garb is black on black on black with a black hoodie. This guy had a gray hoodie. But his pants were beige. Not exactly your prime suspect type."
Serino asks Zimmerman what was going through his mind when he saw Trayvon, and he responded that he saw him near a house that someone else was casing out weeks earlier.
Serino: You know you're gonna come under a lot of scrutiny under this, the profiling aspect of this. You understand that, right?
GZ: Yes.
Serino: I got to ask that. Like I said this child has no criminal record whatsoever. Good kid. Mild mannered kid.
Serino also made mention of Trayvon having a history of recording everything on his cell phone. Zimmerman retorted that he hoped the entire ordeal was in fact captured on camera to exonerate him.
Listen to the audio for the entire interview HERE.
Sanford, Fla., has fired Bill Lee, the police chief who initially oversaw the controversial investigation into a white-Hispanic neighborhood watch captain's fatal shooting of a black 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin.
The initial lack of an arrest drove widespread protests and propelled the case into national headlines.
Lee previously took leave as chief and later offered to resign. Now, he is "permanently relieved of duty," according to a written announcement from the city.
"After much thoughtful discussion and deep consideration for the issues facing the city of Sanford, I have determined the police chief needs to have the trust and respect of the elected officials and the confidence of the entire community," Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte was quoted saying in the city's statement. "We need to move forward with a police chief that all the citizens of Sanford can support. I have come to this decision in light of the escalating divisiveness that has taken hold of the city."
Sanford police initially cited Florida's "stand your ground" law, which allows killings in self defense, in declining to arrest the neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman.
Zimmerman claimed he was defending himself, adding that after a late-night confrontation Martin was getting the better of him in a scuffle prior to the fatal shot.
Amid separate investigations into the shooting and the response to it, Lee said on March 22 that he was "temporarily" stepping aside as Sanford police chief. He later offered his full resignation but the city council narrowly voted to reject it.
In April, a special prosecutor appointed by Gov. Rick Scott charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder.
In announcing Lee's dismissal, Sanford said Interim Chief Rick Myers would continue to run the city's police department as the city conducted a nationwide search for a permanent replacement.
From Kristin Wilson: Recently, a number of peers and I have been trying to put together a collection of poetry written in African languages. In our experience, there has not been much of that sort of poetry and we believe that even poetry about Africa and/or by Africans that is not couched in our various languages does our languages disservice. The project is very much in its nascent stages and we would appreciate it if you could help spread the word about this amateur but nonetheless exciting project.
The project aims to promote the written study and use of African languages which are often more spoken than written. The ultimate goal is to turn the online publication into a published book, and hopefully turn this into a sustainable project.
About two weeks ago, I posted about the idea of creating a modern african poetry anthology with the poetry written primarily in african languages. If you haven’t already read about it or need some more details, they can be found here.
I do believe that it is important to publicize why such a project is relevant and where it could go. Growing up in Ghana, one of the things i regret is the lack of focus on the arts and the fact that little or no importance was attached to their study. The path to culture is through the arts, which is why we drum, and dance, and have poems and appellations and things we say as we pour libation. Our culture hinges on the arts, and yet our educational system places very little emphasis on them. When I speak for Ghana, I can speak with a lot more authority, but i do not doubt that in many countries across the African continent, the situation is similar. Promoting a love of poetry, is intended to draw us closer to our culture, and make it easier for others to figure out what exactly our culture is (I say this with respect to the various cultures that can be found on the continent).
Reason number two, is to promote the written study and use of African languages which are often more spoken than written. The official languages of many African countries are European, and in some cases, this is to the detriment of local languages. More and more children grow up surrounded by a language that they cannot speak, and yet speak impeccable English or French or Portuguese. In rural settings, children who have a strong command of their mother tongues are often considered uneducated. While I cannot deny the importance of Speaking a bigger language such as English, French or the like in the world today, I see nothing wrong with us changing the perception of literacy to involve a strong command of our own languages, both spoken and written. Let’s engage each other intellectually in Kikuyu, Ewe, Hausa, Yoruba and the like, to name only a few.
Beyond this, I want this project to be the start to an Afrocentric turn to our educational system. Africans turning inward for a change and exhibiting a deeper knowledge and concern with happenings on the continent as well as its histories. I do not see how we can change the way the world views us : as Africans, not as Nigerians, South Africans etc, if we cannot interact with that view, and a greater awareness of ourselves and of each other would equip us to do so.
I believe there is beauty and subtlety to our languages that we often fail to see because we do not study them enough, and that it is important to become aware of this.
So summed up, this is why i think my project is relevant.
In a little while, a video version of this post will come up so you can hear about it if text doesn’t work for you. Hopefully that will also help generate awareness about the project and get things started.
If you have any questions, submissions, things you would like to submit, or would simply like to get on board, send an email to:
africanpoetryanthology@gmail.com
The slogan for this project and for many others that I hope will follow is:
The Black Girl Project (BGP) is holding its second annual Sisterhood Summit, a symposium designed to provide a platform for young women and girls to develop the tools to advocate, express, create and inspire, while also building active and sustainable networks on local, national and global levels, in Brooklyn, NY in October, 2012. The symposium this year is themed: PYT: Pleasure, Youth & Transformation.
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” - Audre Lorde
This year’s summit, is inspired by the amazing experience and responses we received from many of last year’s participants to explore deeper themes of sex, sexuality, intimacy, love, and identity and how these issues resonate in the lives of young women and girls*, their communities and popular culture at-large. It is an opportunity for young women and girls to engage in dialogue and interactive workshops that will allow them to ask questions, engage viewpoints, and deepen their insight.
From the historical, overtly stereotypical archetypal representations of Black women’s sexual identities as “mammies” or “jezebels,” to modern pervasive inferential ideological forms, to more recent examples (see: Psychology Today and indie band Chester French): Black girls beauty, bodies, and sexual identities and practices are ever the topic of conversation. For generations overt one-dimensional stereotypes have been created to describe and target Black women’s sexual identities, experiences, and choices.” This year we welcome parents and caregivers of the young women and girls present. There will be a parent track of workshops and tools to support and help facilitate conversations around sex/uality, values, and popular culture by those people who work with youth on a regular basis, and even by youth workers themselves!
We believe at BGP that it is always important to provide a space for a variety of perspectives to engage, grow, and that through the collective sharing of knowledge, telling of our stories, and standing in solidarity with one another that we are able to enrich, broaden, and transform ourselves and our communities.
We are seeking submissions for PYT: Pleasure, Youth & Transformation around the following core pathways:
sex/uality
gender roles and identity
sex and representation in media, film, literature, and/or history
love and emotions
intimacy, communication and consent
sexual agency, rights, power and education
sexual health
sexual violence, resistance, and law
healing from trauma, heartbreak, etc.
reproductive justice, health, and rights
anti-bullying and building networks of solidarity
online and virtual representations of sex/uality
sexual orientation and queerness
challenging heteroseixm
sex/uality and people with disabilities
trans* health and activism
Additionally, this year, we will have a section of the summit dedicated solely to parents and other adult caretakers.
Questions to consider when preparing your submission:
-What are forms of healing from trauma?
-How do we build solidarity with communities that are oppressed? Are we allies?
-What are essential things to know about our bodies?
-What does intimacy look and feel like?
-How is sexual pleasure discussed and experienced among women?
-What are ways we can build virtual and 3D spaces of support?
-How do we create media representations that are realistic and represent our experiences?
-What are ways we can learn to deconstruct the messages we are sent regarding our sexuality?
These submissions can be in the form of presentations, performances, screenings, workshops, panel discussions, and/or interactive installations to name a few.
Submissions should include a 250 word abstract, a resume, accompanying portfolio (if applicable), and a letter of support from a mentor if you are 18 or younger. Application materials should be submitted to this link by July, 6 2012. We encourage applicants abroad to apply as at this year’s conference, we would like to provide an intercultural videoconferencing exchange.
About The Black Girl Project Sisterhood Summit 2012 BGP’s annual Sisterhood Summit is situated in BGP’s mission to empower young women and girls to navigate the challenging social issues they are faced with around sex, sexuality, and gender by providing a safe environment for them to connect and collaborate with peers, investigate, innovate and explore; in order to educate themselves, educate others, and take action.
About The Black Girl Project The Black Girl Project is the outreach arm of the film of the same name. The mission of The Black Girl Project is to use the issues discussed in the film–Identity, Obstacles, Goals, Love & Sex, Family and the Media–to help build critical thinking, inspire dialogue and empower young women and girls. For more information, visit us at blackgirlproject.org.
*The Sisterhood Summit is open to all people who identify as Black and women and/or girls and is inclusive of transgender women and girls as well as people who identify with any femininity/femmeness/etc. spectrum.
I had a wonderful conversation on this (and several other cinema-related topics) with Ms Terri Francis, the guest editor of this specific special issue of Black Camera (an academic film journal I strongly encourage you all to subscribe to HERE) - a conversation I wish was recorded so that I could share here.
Alas, it wasn't; but you can become a part of that conversation by considering this call for papers; no deadline date specified... yet. But if you're interested, do something.
The special issue on Afrosurrealism in film/video will be published in the fall of 2013.
In the conceptual space offered by Amiri Baraka's notion of Afrosurreal expressionism, this special issue of Black Camera invites contributions that explore the experimental, absurd, and whimsical dimensions of black filmmaking. We seek to uncover avant-garde, experimental, or noncommercial motion pictures, artists, and publics throughout the African diaspora, particularly the Caribbean and Afro-Latin America. In no way prescriptive, this issue serves as a platform to redefine [question, explore] the genres of black film and of experimental film through comparing and situating them in the larger frame of surrealism's other forms in music, literature, art, and theater as expressed in African diaspora cinemas.
While Afrosurrealist works may signify on magical or hallucinatory levels, their sense of heightened reality often arcs toward current or familiar political, cultural, and ethnic contexts and references. Experimental film/video refers to work that reflects the expansive use of surrealistic principles such as abstraction, animation, parody, symbolism, incongruous juxtapositions, disinterested play of thought, and/or direct manipulation of the film image, particularly by handcrafted or artisan techniques such as painting or scratching on the film. These films may seek to explore aspects of the unconscious, or they may approach reality through the lens of the fantastic through editing, unconventional use of sound, appropriation of found footage, or the use of film stock that is out of date, tinted, baked, or processed by unconventional means. Simultaneously, in Afrosurrealist film, the conventional opposition between the real and the imagined is displaced.
The editor is interested in essays that unpack the historical development, material conditions, or artistic/political claims or sensibilities of black experimental cinemas, possibly drawing upon interdisciplinary methods that reference music, dance, painting, photography, and theater or collaborations between filmmakers and artists who work in such fields.
Topics include: artifice, black arts movement, site of memory, LA Rebellion, the sublime, jazz and film, film clubs, shadow and act, settlement/Call for Papers 7 displacement/migration, the 1940s avant-garde movement, sound, anthropology, diary films, implied revelation, dreams, contemporary art, the body, rupture, the archive, surrealism, Black Film Audio Collective, race and representation, modernism, Afrosurreal expressionism, visual pleasure, the Harlem renaissance, editing, painting, cinematography, folklore, the unconscious, dance, physical properties of film, collage, race films, alien familiar, Afromodernism, myth, theatricality, beauty, the black interior, photography and film, abstraction, documentary, handicraft or obscure techniques for processing film, conceptual art, amateur films, quilts, literary precursors or corollaries, the marvelous, negritude, the erotic, found footage, expressionism, liberation, ambiguity, non/theatrical exhibition, "blackness as metaphor," funding sources, politics and aesthetics, and technology.
Essays, book and film reviews, interviews, and commentaries will be accepted. Essays should be 6,000–10,000 words. Interviews (6,000 words), commentaries (1,000–2,000 words), and book and film reviews (500–1,500 words) should also pertain to the theme of the journal issue. The editor welcomes work from a variety of disciplines and from a broad range of theoretical and political perspectives.
Please submit completed essays, a 100-word abstract, a fifty-word biography, and a CV. Submissions should conform to The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Please see journal guidelines below for more on submission policy.
Direct all questions and correspondence to guest editor Terri Francis (terri.francis@yale.edu).
By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity
—Mujer Dorada
The implications and dynamics of 'pelo malo' or bad hair and good hair are examined by women and men from all over the Americas and Africa. What do these terms mean? How are they interpreted and ultimately what attitudes do they reflect? Like the series: http://facebook.com/negrodocu Support the series, http://wwwgofundme.com/negrodocu
The implications and dynamics of ‘pelo malo’ or bad hair and good hair are examined by women and men from all over the Americas and Africa. What do these terms mean? How are they interpreted and ultimately what attitudes do they reflect?
I feel like there was some really good discussion here but….I am wondering why the whole thing was framed around the dominican salons and the latin@ concept of pelo malo, even when talking to ppl who werent latin@. like ok if you want to study that go ahead but as someone not from their culture you have to be careful and not try to frame the discussion to meet your political agenda. i felt like some of the questions to the latina women were a bit leading to kind of beat up on the anti-black culture of latin america. its like we all have this problem and our stuff isnt even entirely in order so who are we too beat up on the easy target of the dominicans. especially when the focus shifted to the discussion of african american women. like we have plenty of horror stories in our own salons before we go beating up on them. and this is coming from someone made to feel awful in a dominican salon or two in my time. I mean yeah anti-blackness is bad in latin america but its bad everywhere and a lot of black scholars go there and study it while acting like its some crazy brand new phenomena. Ummm boo we know exactly what bad hair is. We have used and in many cases continue to use the same language here.
On a different note I also found it interesting that a lot of the more euro/ indigenous looking women (and some of the more black Latin@’s too i think) were able to gloss over some of the racial aspects more easily. because of how race politics works in those countries no doubt and also because i dont think the messages applied to them in exactly the same way. just something random i took note of. i think this needs to be taken on by competent Latin@ women who can frame the discussion within the context of their own society while also taking it to the level it needs to go and not glossing over anti-blackness.
Not taking shots at the ppl who put this together but i see this happening a lot, it makes me think of Gates, and I have had several conversations with Latin@ women about this type of thing. But yeah it was a really good discussion and piece. one of the best Ive seen as far as relating women’s attitudes towards hair.
agreeeeeed
on all of this
especially the bolded.
^I agree as well. I think it was necessary to bring both black women and Afro-Latinas to the table to discuss this issue, because we share similar issues in life and also the same experiences such as good hair/bad hair, self esteem, light skin/dark skin etc whether it’s in Puerto Rico or in NY, or Philly. But overall this was amazing video to look at…
DontSellBodies.org is an initiative spearheaded by Jada Pinkett Smith to educate people about human trafficking and ultimately create real change toward eradicating this type of modern day slavery. She teamed up with Salma Hayak, who directed a Spanish and English version of her latest song, “Nada,” to help spread word on this domestic and international human rights issue. – Moni Vargas
“83% OF CONFIRMED TRAFFICKING CASES IN THE UNITED STATES ARE AMERICAN BORN CITIZENS :: It’s hard to believe, but more humans are being used as slaves than ever before. Between 700,000 and 4 million women and children will be trafficked this year, with the majority being forced to work in the sex trade. In America, there are an estimated 40,000 men, women and children enslaved at this very moment. If everyone who cares takes action, we can end slavery once and for all. It’s time.” dontsellbodies.org
The fact that prelates like Burke and Law, who was given a Roman refuge in 2002 after the sexual abuse scandal exploded in Boston, played such a key role in the investigation of the American women has been like salt in the wound for those who support the nuns.The Vatican recently accused U. S. nuns, specifically Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), of “radical feminism” because they focus more on the human rights and the poor, rather than pushing Church doctrine against contraception and homosexuals. One of the men behind this push to control U. S. nuns is Bernard Law, who hid pedophiles, and former archbishop of St. Louis, Cardinal Raymond Burke, who allegedly was “kicked upstairs” for his “hard right views”, among others, given refuge by the Vatican after sex abuse scandals.
John Allen, Vatican expert for the National Catholic Reporter and head reporter for the Vatican, warned that this crackdown on U. S. nuns would play into the “War on Women” in the U. S.
NCR has learned that during a meeting of Vatican personnel in early 2012 to discuss the LCWR assessment, a senior Vatican diplomat warned that launching a crackdown now might be a bad idea in light of domestic American politics, especially an increasingly nasty campaign season featuring rhetoric about a "war on women."
On June 1, the LCWR made a public statement about the Vatican crackdown, in which they stated that the eight-page assessment, by the Vatican, based on unsubstantiated accusations due to a flawed process and lack of transparency. Moreover, they believe that the sanctions imposed on the LCWR were disproportionate to the concerns raised and could compromise their abilities to fulfil their mission, which is to help the poor, homeless, and underprivileged. They stated the report caused more scandal and pain throughout the church community, creating greater polarization.
“Board members concluded that the assessment was based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency,” the conference’s statement said.
It added: “The report has furthermore caused scandal and pain throughout the church community, and created greater polarization.”
The LCWR also recognizes that this matter has touched both Catholics and non-Catholics throughout the world, as evident by the thousands of messages received by the LCWR. Some people even gathered to protest the Vatican’s assessment and statements concerning the U. S. nuns. It also shows that matters of “faith and justice, which captured the hearts of many Catholic sisters, are shared by many people around the world.”
Eileen Sammon, a protester in New York said, concerning the Vatican, “The sisters are wonderful people who work very hard, and yes, they do care about the poor, and they do care about social concerns, and the congregation of the dogma of the faith has come down on them really hard. It is unfair, unjust, unconscionable, and I'm here to support them.”
Sheila Peiffer, with The Nun Justice Project, said, “I would like to see the Vatican rescind the mandate, but I think that would be doubtful judging from past actions, but we always believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and peace. Peace and reconciliation is everyone's goal."
One of the groups that the Vatican singled out was “Network”, a group that works on social justice, which a group of Catholic sisters created over 40 years ago. The Vatican announcement admitted that the LCWR did a great deal of work promoting social justice, it failed in pushing the “right to life from conception to natural death”.
The Vatican announcement said that “while there has been a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the church’s social doctrine, it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death.”
It added that “crucial” issues like “the church’s biblical view of family life and human sexuality, are not part of the LCWR agenda in a way that promotes church teaching. Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose.”
The Vatican not only accused the group of 57,000 members and dwindling of not supporting the Church’s position on abortion and homosexuality, but many bishops were angry when the LCWR and Network supported Obama’s health care plan and endorsed Obama’s compromised concerning contraceptive provision in health insurance.
Many bishops were angered when LCWR and Network, along with the Catholic Health Association, endorsed President Obama's health care reform over the bishops' objections. LCWR and Network recently endorsed Obama's compromise with the bishop over a mandate to provide insurance coverage for birth control for employees at religious institutions, even as the bishops continue to fight it.
Sister Simone Campbell, Network’s executive director was stunned when she saw that the Vatican singled out her group in its report. Concerning the accusations made, she said, “It concerns me that political differences in a democratic country would result in such a censure and investigation.”
The LCWR, which met last week in Washington D. C., represents 80% of Catholic nuns in the U. S. concerning the Vatican’s accusations of the group supporting "certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith in some of the programs and presentations."
According to a CNN Wire on KCENTV, “the Vatican report, made public by the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the doctrinal assessment began in part because of the group's dissent on the Holy See's teaching on the ordination of women and human sexuality. The Catholic Church ordains only men to be priests and says sex is to be between a man and woman who are married in the eyes of the church,” as well as remaining silent on abortion and euthanasia. Sister Campbell believes the media will find the outcome of the Vatican crackdown anticlimactic.
Simone Campbell, a nun who's executive director of Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby in Washington, said her "hunch" is that the LCWR will put together an outline response this week to be presented to the group's full assembly during its August meeting.
"I think the results for the media will be very anticlimactic because we as Catholic sisters do things with a lot of prayer and very slowly," Campbell about this week's meeting.
"It's going to be like watching paint dry," she added in a CNN interview.
However, various groups of Catholic nuns are reading the report from the Vatican. Many were shocked by it and feeling accused of not doing enough to serve the Catholic Church.
She said the report left her feeling "as being suspect."
"For myself, the shock made me numb at first, and then I was profoundly sad that my life as a woman religious and my commitment to serving the poor would be so denigrated by the leadership of our church," Campbell said. "All we do is work for love."
For the report to say "you don't do everything," Campbell said, is "ridiculous."
"They're saying we're silent on some issues. It's not our issue. Other people do those works," Campbell said.
Sister Pat Farrell believes, after working with others, that not everything is in “black and white” concerning sexuality and women. Bill Donahue believes that if the nuns cannot follow Church doctrine and do not see things concerning sexuality as “black and white”, then they should “check out”.
According to Catholic reporter, John Allen agrees with the Vatican’s report on stating that the LCWR needs an overhaul and a tighter relationship with the bishops. He also believes that the Sisters could do one of three things in response to the Vatican’s demand “for obedience”.
"Basically, it needs to be more obedient," said Allen, who's also a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, based in Kansas City, Missouri.
The American nuns' group could do one of three options this week: it could go along with everything the Vatican is saying; it could offer to work and negotiate with the Vatican but say "let's talk"; or it could say "we're not going to play ball and we're going to walk away," Allen said.
The last option would essentially mean "we'll disband the LCWR and let it die on the vine and go off and do our own thing," Allen said.
"That's what on the table here: How do the nuns want to respond to the crackdown that they received from the Vatican," Allen added.
According to NPR, over the next five years, at least, a man, called an archbishop, will come in and take over all the groups of nuns, especially the LCWR and rewrite their statutes, approve speakers, and control every aspects of the social work they do. The archbishop will come in and force the Sisters to push the Church’s agenda concerning homosexuality, contraception, and abortion, giving less attention to the poor, homeless, and disadvantaged.
SIMON: And this battle's been brewing for a while.
HAGERTY: Yeah, that's right. About four years ago, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith – that's the division of the Vatican that deals with theological purity – they launched an investigation into the Leadership Conference. And the Vatican was really unhappy that, among other things, the sisters have challenged church teachings on things like homosexuality and the male-only priesthood. So, they investigated and they decided that, yes, the group had what it called serious doctrinal problems. According to the Vatican assessment that came out a few weeks ago, the sisters have focused too much on poverty and economic issues and kept, quote, "silent" on things like abortion and same-sex marriage. The report also said that the group promotes, quote, "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."
SIMON: The Vatican appointed an archbishop, I gather, to oversee the group.
HAGERTY: That's right. It's appointed Archbishop Peter Sartin of Seattle to reform the Leadership Conference. Now, over the next five years, Sartin will rewrite the group's statutes. He will approve or reject every single speaker that the women invite to their meetings. He's going to have control over their publications. He's going to review their connections with outside groups, like a social justice group called Network, and decide whether those connections are appropriate. You know, one sister told me it's like a hostile takeover. Sartin says it's a great opportunity for collaboration.
Sister Donna Bethell agreed with the Vatican’s decision and said that the Vatican has a responsibility to ensure the LCWR is doing its job. She stated that the LCWR put out information that contradicted the Church’s position.
Jeannine Hill Fletcher thinks that the Vatican wants the LCWR to advance the Church’s views concerning life and death, not just social justice. She also said that the document appears to criticize what they are thinking, not just what they are not doing.
While the Church and Allen see the issues with U. S. nuns as a “crisis of conscious”, Sister Campbell does not see it that way.
"It's not affecting my conscience. It affects my sadness and heart. This life is profound and deep," Campbell said. "When politics interferes, it doesn't change the depth of the spiritual. It's annoyance. It's not an issue of conscience. We're faithful."
However, Sister Maureen Fiedler, host of Public Radio’s Interfaith Voices program and an activist for social justice and equality for three decades, said that when she hears the Vatican mandate, she hears the voice of the Church in the 19th century, which was dictatorial, and not the Second Vatican Counsel when it felt refreshing to be Catholic. Concerning an archbishop controlling and overhauling what the nuns do or do not do, she said, “If this were the corporate world, I think we’d call it a hostile take over.”
One of the options that the LCWR may chose, in dealing with the Vatican, she stated, is starting a non-profit. In her opinion, radical feminism is part of being Catholic. She wants to see more decision made in a democratic way, but feels that would take a Vatican III. She would like to see a real collaborative effort between the laity and the Vatican.
According to KXLY, this is a fight between Churchmen and Churchwomen, which could mean broad implications for the global church. According to the report, the U. S. nuns went rogue and are potentially a negative global influence on the Church.
One side is pushing the nuns to fight back against a church that they think has lost its way. The other is championing the Vatican against a group of aging nuns whom they say are on the verge of extinction unless they reform.
Sister Campbell felt shocked and numb by the accusations from the Vatican at first, especially with the report stating that the nuns “don’t do everything”, which she said “is ridiculous”.
"For myself, the shock made me numb at first, and then I was profoundly sad that my life as a woman religious and my commitment to serving the poor would be so denigrated by the leadership of our church," says Sister Simone Campbell, who heads NETWORK, a liberal advocacy group in Washington. "All we do is work for love."
Others feel this is an epoch in the Church’s history, where smaller groups of devote Catholics, “the size of a mustard seed”, will “spread the good news” to the larger society.
"Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the church's history where Christianity will be characterized more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intensive struggle against evil and bring the good into the world-that let God in," he told Peter Seewald in an interview for the book, "Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millenium."
Currently the median age of nuns is 70, due to a sharp decline, much like the one before Vatican II. The career opportunities once open to only nuns, the Church opened to laity outside the Church.
"They're certainly not getting new vocations, new members, at the rate they had been before the Second Vatican Council," says Kathleen Cummings, associate director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame. "Since the late 1960s, their numbers have declined dramatically."
The LCWR use to represent 100% of the U. S. nuns in the Catholic Church, but in the 1990s, some orders broke away and formed the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, which returned to older religious traditions, including the habit.
However, Cummings feels that the Vatican is attempting to regain control of women by asserting the power they had years ago.
"What's happening here with the doctrinal assessment is just the latest, and will have the most lasting effects, of a Vatican attempt to reassert the power they traditionally held over women's religious life," Cummings says. "Power that they lost a lot of over the last 50 years."
However, another views the Vatican crackdown as a “seek and rescue” of dying groups, such as the LCWR, with the belief that the more devout groups thrive by sticking with traditional values and doctrines of the Church.
"Some communities are clearly doing something right, others are moving to extinction," says Arroyo. "Bottom line: a faithful witness is attractive and undeniably draws young people.
"The Vatican is throwing a life line to the leadership of female communities that are not thriving and attempting to facilitate a reform that will allow them to rediscover their initial calling and draw young vocations into the future," he says. "That's not a crackdown, it's a seek-and-rescue mission."
Pat Farrell and Janet Mock stated that the LCWR plans to fly out to Rome and discuss this matter with Archbishop Peter Sartain, assigned to oversee the changes, and Cardinal William Levada. Following that meeting, the nuns will convene in St. Louis in August for their national convention to discuss and further shape their response to the Vatican. Sartain was assigned to oversee the reform of the nuns “in order to implement a process of review and conformity to the teachings and discipline of the church.”
Farrell intended to convey their objections of the assessment to the Vatican in private while in Rome, but the Sisters also noted the outpouring of support and affection. Catholics in over 50 cities held vigils and even created an online petition, with the help of Nun Justice Project, in support of the Sisters. The Project told Catholics to withhold donations to Peter’s Pence, a special collection sent to the Vatican, and give the money instead to local nuns’ groups.
Sister Christine Schenk, executive director of FutureChurch, a Church liberal reform group in Cleveland, stated that the Vatican’s assessment outraged the laity, especially because it did not consult with the Sisters before making the final assessment.
"This response shows Catholic sisters are not backing down from their social justice mission and are handling a troubling situation with great dignity," said John Gehring, the Catholic program director for Faith in Public Life, a liberal advocacy group.
But Russell Shaw, former spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said a decline in women's religious communities in the United States shows there has been a serious problem under the Leadership Conference's watch. "Does it occur to them that they might need some help?" he asked.
A Catholic priest, called Fr. Doug, wrote in favour of the nuns, according to Faith in Public Life. The site pulled some quotes from Fr. Doug’s article, including his mention that the crackdown on the nuns is about making one last grasp for control over them and others:
The Vatican sounded like the Pharisees of the New Testament;—legalistic, paternalistic and orthodox— while “the good sisters” were the ones who were feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, educating the immigrant, and so on. Nuns also learned that Catholics are intuitively smart about their faith. They prefer dialogue over diatribe, freedom of thought over mind control, biblical study over fundamentalism, development of doctrine over isolated mandates.
Far from being radical feminists or supporters of far-out ideas, religious women realized that the philosophical underpinnings of Catholic teaching are no longer valid. Women are not subservient to men, the natural law is much broader than once thought, the OT is not as important as the NT, love is more powerful than fear. They realized that you can have a conversation with someone on your campus who thinks differently than the church without compromising what the church teaches.
The Vatican is hypocritical and duplicitous. Their belief is always that someone else needs to clean up their act; the divorced, the gays, the media, the US nuns, the Americans who were using the wrong words to pray, the seminaries, etc. It never occurs to the powers that be that the source of the problem is the structure itself.
US nuns work side by side with the person on the street. They are involved in their everyday lives. Most cardinals spent less than five years in a parish, were never pastors, are frequently career diplomats. Religious women in the US refuse to be controlled by abusive authority that seeks to control out of fear. They realize that Jesus taught no doctrines, but that the church, over time, developed what Jesus taught in a systematic way.
This investigation is not about wayward US nuns. It is the last gasp for control by a dying breed, wrapped in its own self-importance. It is a struggle for the very nature of the church; who we are, how we pray, where we live, who belongs, why we believe. The early church endured a similar struggle. The old order died. The Holy Spirit won.
Democracy Now interviewed Sister Campbell and brought out the many issues and problems with the Catholic Church, including showed a video recording of a priest speaking out concerning the various problems within the Church. Campbell thinks that the priest had some good points in his video statement. She also believes that the Vatican is criticizing the nuns for interacting in the U. S. culture. The Vatican still believes people should not question them and will not listen to women.
When asked whether more women in the Church might have changed the situation concerning sexual abuse in the Church, she stated that she was an attorney in California, before becoming a nun, and the cases that caused her to “rise up like a mama lion”, were the case that involved abuse. She believes that the Church, both men and women, need to weep and mourn concerning the censor of women and sexual abuse.
However, she thinks that the Vatican’s reprimand probably does concern the Networks support of Obama’s health care program and issues over abortion. She said, “They named us, I think, because we took a different position from the bishops.” She also said that she read the bill and as a lawyer, she knows what it said. Accordingly, she stated that they like the nuns’ service and work, but “don’t have thoughts, don’t have questions, don’t have criticisms.”
Mriana is a humanist and the author of "A Source of Misery". She has two grown sons and raises cats. She enjoys writing, reading, science, philosophy, psychology, and other subjects. Mriana is also an animal lover, who cares for their welfare as living beings, who are part of the earth. She is a huge Star Trek fan in a little body.
Mama said is a recreation of a TV performance made by the popular 60’s group The Shirelles. Michael Costanza alternates between the newly made recording of the group’s success Mama Said and archival pictures from the violent racial clashes in the US of the 60’s.
Watch this vid till the end. Guaranteed to send chills down your spine. (NB These are not the original Shirilles, this is A + production/costume design and genius direction)
Award winning short film screened at Sundance and in the Official Selection at Cannes. Directed by Mike Costanza. Starring Lyn McDonald, Karen Hawkins, Lorinda Hawkins, and Crystal Justine.
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