To the editors:
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Please be more careful with terminology that tends to exclude. By using “the Church” (as in “Insubordination”‘s subtitle) to identify the Roman Catholic Church, you may be unconsciously espousing a very specific doctrinal position. Such a usage effectively excludes non-Roman Catholic groups from “church” status, and it implies that there is, indeed, only one normative path for Christians. As a member of a religious/ethnic minority–a Greek Orthodox believer–I experience the identification of a majority group with the whole “Church” as both discounting and exclusionary of alternative paths.
But what is by far most ironic and compelling in Sister Teresita’s case is the context. It all took place in a church dedicated to Saint Catherine–a woman of the African see of Alexandria! Catherine, “the Great-Martyr and Philosopher” as she is still known in the East. Catherine, whose very martyrdom occurred because of her perceived insubordination to the authoritarians of her day. She was put to death, according to ancient legend, precisely because her brilliant orations put dozens of her male opponents to shame. She knew that she spoke the truth. They knew that her insubordination could be silenced by no means other than death, and a very cruel death at that. Which leaves a person wondering. Wondering what Catherine of Alexandria would have to say about silencing insubordinate voices!
