Hindus have welcomed Vatican’s changed stance on American Roman Catholic nuns, calling it a “step in the right direction”.
Vatican reprimanded US Catholic nuns’ group, Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), founded in 1956, last month for reportedly raising the subject of ordination of women and other issues. But on May 18, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI praised the American nuns.
Meeting with the final group of US Bishops on their ad limina Vatican visits, Pope reportedly said: “I wish to reaffirm my deep gratitude for the example of fidelity and self-sacrifice given by many consecrated women in your country, and to join them in praying that this moment of discernment will bear abundant spiritual fruit for the revitalization and strengthening of their communities…”
Welcoming the change in Vatican’s attitude, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that attempts at constraining the voice of LCWR, an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in USA, were very unfortunate. Mission of LCWR included “fostering dialogue and collaboration among religious congregations”, “developing models for initiating and strengthening relationships with groups concerned with the needs of society”, etc.
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged Vatican to be more kind to Roman Catholic women. Talking about women ordination, Zed argued that women could disseminate God’s message as skillfully as men and deserved equal and full participation and access in religion. Women were equal partners in the society, so they should be equal partners in the religion also. Exclusion of women from religious services, just because they were female, was very unfair and ungodly, Zed added.
Roman Catholic Church, largest of the Christian denominations with about 1.2 billion adherents, is headed by Pope and headquartered in Vatican. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal.
