Sisterhood is indeed powerful

If you could bottle nerve, the Vatican would look like a Coca-Cola plant at full throttle. The father-ship of the Church, that same institution that has enabled its clergy to misuse its power in the most heinous possible ways, then made an art out of covering it up, is now looking into its feisty sisterhood.

The Vatican is not happy with the independent nature of American Roman Catholic nuns, and they’re wielding the most effective device available to modern-day witch hunters: The “doctrinal investigation.”

As the New York Times reports, the nuns under scrutiny are not fooled by this latest Vatican-speak. They know what powerful women have always known: Get too smart, call too much bullshit and before you know it, someone in power is citing your wardrobe choices as proof that you need reining in.

These nun-rebels are a nervy bunch too. They teach, feed and care for people our government can’t seem to help. They pray for people they’ve never met, people who want nothing to do with God, Jesus, and certainly not organized religion.

Some think impure thoughts, such as “Maybe we should ordain women or married men” and “clergy who abuse children should be prosecuted.” Some are clearly unable to grasp the Vatican’s point that homosexuality is evil. Most of these women don’t wear habits; some teach meditation and practice healing arts. They are shamefully inept at kissing Vatican butt.

I wrote about the Stonewall anniversary earlier this week — the historic week in which gay and lesbian citizens got pushed too far and rioted. There’s another historic riot brewing and this time it won’t rage outside a Greenwich Village bar. And I bet it won’t take 40 years for the rest of us to wake up and support the cause this time.