Religion: What to Wear?

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James Francis Cardinal Mclntyre of Los Angeles, who has had more than his share of troubles with unruly young priests, is currently at odds with a covey of nuns: his city's Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The roots of the quarrel go back to last fall, when the sisters, who have 182 teachers in 35 of the archdiocese's schools, approved a number of experimental changes in their rules—most notably the right to wear secular clothing, including skirts and blouses in classrooms. Mclntyre, an archfoe of Catholic renewal, let the sisters know that unless they modified the reforms they could no longer teach in his schools. The nuns refused, on the ground that they are directly under the jurisdiction of the Vatican, and last month sent an open letter to parents of parochial-school children declaring that "after 82 years in Los Angeles, we are being asked to stop teaching." The Los Angeles chancery responded with a frontpage editorial in the archdiocesan weekly, The Tidings, insisting that the sisters, of their own accord, were threatening to leave.

As the battle heightened, Los Angeles Catholics began choosing up sides. Public manifestos of support for the nuns have come from the recently formed Los Angeles Association of Laymen, 29 Jesuits from Loyola University, and ten priests and brothers from the city's Franciscan Theological Seminary. A rival lay group, affiliated with the conservative National Federation of Laymen, rallied to Mclntyre's cause. Worried about the developing schism, 28 other Loyola Jesuits asserted that the support voiced by their 29 colleagues for the sisters "does not represent the entire religious community at Loyola," and suggested that judgment not be made "until competent authorities in the church have rendered their decision."

Whether the sisters quit the schools —or are pushed out of them—the real losers would be their students. The Immaculate Heart nuns have a reputation as exceptional teachers. Moreover, good teachers are hard to come by in the city, especially since parochial-school salaries are $1,500 to $2,000 a year less than those in public schools.