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Countless tears have been shed this month up at Mount St. Michael's. As they watch their fellow nuns pack their belongings and leave the convent, the remaining sisters of the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen are grieving.
"It's been painful for all the sisters – for those who felt the need to leave and those who remain here," said Sister Mary Dominica, the acting superior of the religious order, a group that most people recognize as "The Singing Nuns."
"We've been a family for so many years," she said, her voice quivering with emotion. "We feel like they are still our sisters."
About a dozen of the roughly 50 nuns in the order moved out of the convent earlier this month. Three more sisters are preparing to leave by the end of the week.
Their departure was caused by theological differences, according to those familiar with the situation. A Traditionalist Catholic community also known as CMRI for "Congregatio Mariae Reginae Immaculatae," the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen believes in the papacy but does not recognize Benedict XVI as the true pope. It also doesn't adhere to the changes established more than 40 years ago by the Second Vatican Council. That means that at Mount St. Michael's, only the traditional Latin Mass is offered.
About two years ago – prompted perhaps by the election of a conservative pope in Rome – some of the nuns began to rethink the way they dealt with the changes of Vatican II, said Sister Dominica. The convent was never at war, she explained; the sisters simply agreed to disagree about the papacy and other issues.
"Everybody was doing their best to respect each other," she said.
Their theological differences, however, could have been problematic in the classroom, some said. As teachers at St. Michael's Academy, a private Catholic school of about 180 students located on the mount, there was a fear that the sisters would teach contradictory lessons.
Sisters who "will continue to speak or act against the theological position of CMRI, whether in public or private," will be required to leave by June 27, according to a May 17 letter from Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas, the Nebraska-based superior general of Mary Immaculate Queen.
Those who "do not hold to the CMRI position" but refrain from speaking out against it will be allowed to stay but will not be permitted to teach or hold positions of authority, according to the letter.
"There is no greater contradiction today than for any member of CMRI to attempt 'to serve two masters' – to recognize Benedict XVI and to remain in a Congregation separated from him," Pivarunas wrote. "The issue of the papacy is the crux of the matter and the CMRI Sisters need to decide whether they will belong to CMRI or not."
The 15 or so nuns who are leaving the convent are scheduled to move to Immaculate Heart Retreat Center, which is owned and operated by the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.
The Rev. Steve Dublinski, the diocese's vicar general, declined to comment on the diocese's efforts to support the sisters. "The diocese wishes to respect the sisters' privacy and their need to discern God's call," Dublinski wrote in an e-mail.
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