Religion: The Nun vs. the Archbishop

(2 of 2)

"It really hurts and disappoints me to find that I can't even find support here," Szoka told the council. "This is not a personal issue. It's not a man-woman issue. It's not a question of my trying to flaunt authority. It is a question of my absolute duty to stand for, to protect and to defend the doctrine of the church which has to do with human life." Szoka said that all he wanted from Mansour was a simple statement: "I am opposed to Medicaid funding for abortions."

Mansour was not about to make that concession when she appeared last week at her confirmation hearing in the Michigan senate. The nun testified, "I recognize that we live in a morally pluralistic society that government must be respectful of, and that my morality may not be someone else's morality." Evoking the memory of John F. Kennedy, she asked, "Are all Catholics once again suspect and possibly denied the privilege of public service?" Sister Agnes also said she saw no ecclesiastical "obstacle" to accepting the post. The senate confirmed her nomination, 28 to 9.

Mansour's appointment has also been backed by Bishop Kenneth Po-vish, whose diocese includes the state capital, Lansing, where Mansour works. Said he: "I would rather have a Sister of Mercy exercising whatever influence she can over that department than some feminist floozy who is an abortion advocate." Szoka, however, has maintained jurisdiction over Mansour, since her home convent is in Detroit.

The nun's superiors in the Sisters of Mercy have refused Szoka's appeal that they compel her to step down. Unless a compromise can be worked out, the issue will end up at the Vatican's Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes. The congregation's deliberation would take months, if not years, and by then the church's new code of canon law will be in effect. If the congregation goes by the book, it will back Szoka. New canon No. 285:3 "flatly forbids a nun or priest to hold public office in any circumstances.

- By Richard N. Ostling.

Reported by Barbara B. Dolan/Detroit

In New Hampshire, four members of a separate branch of the Sisters of Mercy are engaged in a struggle with Bishop Odore Gendron of Manchester; in January 1982, without any formal charges, he had dismissed them as teachers at a parochial school in Hampton. Rather than obediently bowing out, the sisters sued the bishop in a civil court for reinstatement, arguing that their contracts guaranteed an explanation and a hearing. The New Hampshire Supreme Court last December rejected the bishop's contention that secular judges had no business ruling on a purely ecclesiastical dispute, declaring that it was a civil matter with no bearing on doctrine. The supreme court remanded the case to a county superior court for a hearing to begin next month. Insists Sister Catherine Colliton: "The bottom line is the contract. The bishop is the employer, and I'm the employee." -