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In the first month of his presidency, Bush created five Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives within various federal departments—Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, Justice, and Housing and Urban Development—and charged each to conduct department-wide audits to identify barriers that prevent religious groups from taking part in government programs. This combined report, "Unlevel Playing Field" (Bush's statement | pdf), was released yesterday.

According to the report, a there is a widespread bias against faith and community-based organizations which:

· Restricts some religious groups from applying for funding

· Restricts religious organizations that are not prohibited by the constitution

· Does not honor the rights given to religious organizations under federal law

· Burdens small organizations with cumbersome regulations and requirements

The survey presents Bush with another weapon in the fight for his faith-based plans. Until now, efforts to push faith-based initiative legislation through Congress have traveled a bumpy road. Last month, the House passed a limited bill allowing charities to receive federal money while maintaining their religious character.

The survey found that agency officials and their rules—and not the law—cause most of the cited problems. Thus, faith-based initiative officials suggest action could be taken by September to remove the unneeded administrative barriers that exist and they are currently studying ways to make it happen. The recommendations are due early next month.

Meanwhile, John J. DiIulio Jr., Director of the Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, announced yesterday that he's stepping down from the position because he has accomplished the goals he set out to do seven months ago. He pointed out that he had agreed all along to take the job for six months.

Rebels with a cause, the Mount St. Benedict nuns
A Pennsylvanian nun who broke silence on the ordination of women is still making headlines and still speaking out in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

Time this week profiles Joan Chittister, the Mount St. Benedict nun, who earlier this spring attended the Dublin conference of Women's Ordination Worldwide—in defiance of a standing order from the Vatican calling for silence on the issue.

According to The Irish Times, the renowned feminist and author told conference attendees:

The church that preaches the equality of women but does nothing to demonstrate it in its own structures, which proclaims a theology of equality but insists on an ecclesiology of superiority, is out of synch with its own best self and dangerously close to repeating the theological errors that underlay centuries of church-sanctioned slavery.

But getting there was half the battle for the 65-year-old nun. Once word got to Rome of Chittister's plans, the Vatican's Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life notified the St. Benedict prioress, Sister Christine Vladimiroff, that she was to forbid attendance at the conference and threaten punishment.

After traveling to Rome in May to meet with Vatican officials, Vladimiroff sought advice from religious leaders and the Mount St. Benedict sisters who call Erie, Pennsylvania, home. After hours of prayer, she decided to decline the request of the Vatican.

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August (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45