Documentary About Vatican Investigation Of Feminist Nuns Screens In San Diego

This is KPBS Midday Edition I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. Last spring the Pope Francis ended a formal inquiry into the activities of a group of American nuns. His predecessor, Pope Benedict appointed three bishops to oversee the leadership Council of women religious to stop the group's alleged radical actions. An account of the church's crackdown on the American nuns is the subject of a new documentary called Radical Grace. This is screening in San Diego tomorrow night. Earlier I spoke with Rebecca Parrish, the filmmaker of Radical Grace. Helen Hillix is codirector of the inner revolution.org. That is a nonprofit spiritual community sponsoring the screening of Radical Grace in San Diego. And Judith Sheridan, a Marist Missionary sister in San Diego. Here is that interview. Rebecca, tell me about the name of this documentary, medical grace. Is that the way you yourself would characterize the actions of these nuns? Absolutely. To me, radical means that you are not living in accordance with the status quo. You think that things need to be dramatically different. And these sisters are working for justice in church and in society. That means they are looking for dramatic change. And the grace is really how they approach their work. Both from a religious or spiritual angle but also just of the love and compassion with which they do their ministries. We are introduced to a group that is called the leadership Council of women religious in this documentary. Is it made up of different orders of nuns of Rebecca Yes. The leadership conference of women religious is an umbrella organization that the majority of US orders of belong to. And the film starts after the Vatican opened an investigation in 20,000 -- 2009 about concerns over a feminist spirit among American nuns. What did the Vatican mean? That was some commentary that some of the bishops who had initiated the investigation mentioned. It was really about I think, they were not falling in line or towing the Vatican's party line. Instead, they were doing social justice to work. They weren't really advocating for women to not have abortions are not use contraception or, they were not advocating for the issues that the Vatican was pushing on. In the past they had also advocated for women priests. That was before that act was banned by the Vatican. Sister Judith, what was your reaction to all of this news that happened in 2009, 2010, 2011, this investigation by the Vatican? Well, it's very interesting because, actually I was provincial for our American province at the time. What happened is in a way, it mobilized the sisters. It was interesting to see because now the leadership conference of religious women is broken into units all across the United States. We were unit 1 out there in Boston, Massachusetts. When we got together to meet, usually we were talking about health care for our sisters, retirement, our average age of being 75 four sisters in the United States. All of the sudden it became, what, were not good religious it was just a shock. I can remember myself saying to Cardinal Sean of Valley at one of the meetings we had come with an average age of 75, it's time for religious women to be told how well done. Here we are trying to defend ourselves. It does not seem fair. In a way, they did us a service because it began -- all of us came together. All the religious women. We began to look at our lives and say, you know, we are really very, very faithful women. We are women who have gone the long-haul from pre-Vatican until today. We've done the best we could. It gave us a new strength to go forward and to be the profits that they were called to be. They did come and investigate -- sorry not supposed to use the word investigate -- they did come and visit our community. It became -- the two women that came were lovely, religious sisters. They were so impressed with our sisters. Our sisters are mystics. They were saying, wow, and I think this is what came out of the investigation. Helen, why did you want to bring this down to San Diego Our organization, the inner revolution.org has a radio show called in a revolutionary radio with Beth Green and looking for in a revolutionaries around the globe. Beth came upon sister Simone Campbell who was -- who was featured in this documentary Exactly. We just fell in love with her passion, with her energy, with her compassion. We decided even though we were not affiliated that we wanted to promote that message of people coming together. That's what I really understood from the film. Sister Judith is talking about that too. How the investigation galvanized the sisters. We felt like the film was an opportunity to galvanize our community around the message of complex stand up and fight for what we believe to make a better world. Let's come together. That's why we wanted to promote it. Rebecca, your documentary, Radical Grace, just ground is for a minute. What was at risk for the nuns in your story was the church crackdown challenging their lacework Yes. I'm sure sister would Judith what have a lot to say about this as well but, I think it was partially an identity risk or maybe a struggle over what is the heart of the Catholic Church. Is it a church that I think is embodied by the sisters in the film and sisters across the country of a believe that God is love and we are all interconnected? Or is it about judgment? Some people are closer to God and some people are further. If you follow these rules you get to heaven. For me, that was the biggest stake. Justin this definition of what it means to be a person of faith or spiritual person in the 21st century. I think a sister Judith could speak to, best into what the experience was for the sisters Did you feel your life's work was at risk in any way by this investigation? Or this inquiry? Are these questions that were asked? I personally did not feel that way because one of the things I said to the other major superiors was, I'm not going to give this power over me. I know that we are good religious and we have been missionaries all our lives. We've worked in far-flung countries of the world. We've worked under great interests for the mission of Christ. That's what it is all about. I'm not going to get too involved with letting other people decide were not being the religious we should be. It became more of an inner affirmation. We are on the right track. We are people who have been called to go to margins. We are doing that. We are doing that in the name of Christ. It became a very, I don't know, affirming anyway. I want to play a clip from the documentary in which one of the people who is charged with investigating some of these claims puts the situation -- this is Bishop Thomas You speaking in the dome. Let's just say that religious life is changing and evolving but I think the question then is what are the limits of that. How far can the prospectus the question is are you still religious? Are you still nuns are you so Christian? Sister Judith, women in Catholic religious orders have changed their appearance. Dave expanded their religious work outside the traditional schools and hospital settings. Why do you think those changes have occurred? Well, we are talking about a span of about 50 years, is it? What has happened in society in those years religious life does not exist outside of the world we live in. There are so many changes. One of the big changes that came after Vatican 2 which was a major time in the church, a renewal. They asked the religious to go back to their foundation roots to look at why they were founded and what was their main way of living. We did that. When you do that, you look at these women that started religious orders all through the centuries. They were responding to the great needs of the times. That was one of the biggest things. What are the great needs of our times. As it was we had hundreds and thousands of sisters in schools, and hospitals. The American sisters started the schools and hospitals in the United States. Now, we have a new looking at, what if we look at the poor? What if we look at other areas of need? How can we respond to that as a Marist Missionary sister we always did that. We did not have one work. We could do many different works. We always work with women and children. And we worked with the marginalized. That was not different for us. In the states, the bishops had a great work in force in the nuns. When they started to move out, that became a whole new way of being. The sisters were following what they believed was there carry some, what they believed was the spirit of God working in them and this was not just defiance, this was a response to need. Helen, every member in we see it in Radical Grace that there was an outpouring of support for the nuns cause. Once this inquiry became public knowledge. Once it was in the news. There were demonstrations. There were protests in support of American nuns. Why do you think there was that reaction? Is interesting because the same kind of reaction happened when I started calling people in the community and saying, would you take a look at this clip do you want to cosponsor the film screening? People from all walks of life Soroptimist, women's clubs, different churches, different religions put different denominations, different individuals, all came together and said yes, we want to support this message. I think it buyers and something up in our hearts. The inner revolutionary. The inner radical in all of us that was really touched by the plight of these nuns who cared about making the world a better place. We all have that in us. It just me goosebumps now to talk about it. We all have that in us. We want to contribute to making the world a better place. We need people like these nuns to fire that up in our hearts. Rebecca, in the documentary Radical Grace, some people were saying that this outpouring of support was also because it was the nuns who really touched people can't touched people in schools and in outreach programs. In a way that perhaps priests seem more remotes, nuns were involved in a lot of social organizations. Actually touching and helping people Yes. I think that's part of the root of some of the differences that you see between the sisters and some of the clerics and the hierarchy of the church. The sisters are the ones who are really on the ground with people. They understand what the needs are. I think often they do not see things in black and white terms as some of the more conservative elements of the hierarchy often do. Rebecca, when Pope Francis ended the investigation a few months ago, did he explain why? No. There was really -- I wouldn't say there was an explanation. It will be hard to really ever know what the inner workings of that were or even what Pope Francis, how much he even really knew about it. I think the fact that it ended can be attributed to many things. One of them is definitely that Pope Francis is very different than his predecessor, Pope Benedict. But also it has to do with the way that the sisters engaged with the hierarchy as the investigation was going on. With compassion and respect as well as self-respect. And also that outpouring of support. Some people think that the fact that Pope Francis will be visiting the United States had something to do with it. They did not want it news crews filming people holding signs saying I stand with the sisters, bishops stop stepping on women, and that kind of thing. They wanted to nip that in the bud. That's one theory but I guess, I think there are a lot of dynamic that later. Sister Judith, what are your hopes for the Pacific it of Francis. You know, he's already exceeded my wildest dreams. In his very being. He seems to be a person who is so steeped in Christ and so steeped in the world. And the needs of the poor. He doesn't seem to have this legalistic mentality. This is an article that was written to sisters and priests of the villages. This is the year of consecrated life. It says, I want -- I do not want to say radical evangelical, radical this is not only for religious, it's demanded of all. But religious follow the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way. It is this witness that I expect of you. I expect men and women to wake up the world. The questions we must ask ourselves, do we have a great vision? Are we daring to our dreams apply high? Does it feel consumers? Any moment I will tell everyone how they can see, Radical Grace, here in San Diego. But Rebecca, for people who cannot make the screening, is there another way they can see it? Absolutely. Our website is radical race film.com. Through the website people can sign up to be notified when the film is available for online streaming or DVD release as well as sign up if they are interested in hosting their own community screening or if anyone is part of an educational institution, the educational DVD is available for presale. So for universities and libraries and things like that. Rebecca Parrish, Helen Hillix, and sister Judith Sheridan, thank you all very much. Your welcome. Thank you for having us. Thank you, so much.