Sister Teresa Forcades and the Spanish indignados campaign for radical social change.
Sister Teresa Forcades, a Catalan Benedictine nun belonging to the Convent of St Benet on Montserrat Mountain, has joined with economist Arcadi Oliveres of the Spanish indignado movement to call for radical social change. Their manifesto, which has collected thousands of signatures, calls for: a reversal of public spending cuts and renationalisation of all public services; government takeover of all banks and measures to curb financial speculation; decent housing for all; an end to job cuts, fairer wages and pensions; genuine participatory democracy; green economic policies and the nationalisation of energy companies; non-violence, international solidarity, not war; an individual's right to control their own body, including a woman's right to choose over abortion. 'Why should there be a tax on basic goods and no tax on financial trading?' she asks. But while Sister Teresa says she is against the abuses of capitalism, she does not oppose private enterprise. Crucially, 'we think it is imperative, necessary and possible to change society by non-violent means. A break is needed because it is what people want.'
Sister Teresa, a medical doctor who also studied theology in Spain and the USA, has described the Catholic Church as a misogynistic and patriarchal organisation which is in need of urgent modernisation. She dissents from orthodox teaching on abortion and contraception and is an advocate for women priests. There has been a longstanding conflict between women's religious communities and the Vatican. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith issued a recent condemnatory report of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. But Sister Teresa has the strong backing of her own community and up till now her own bishop has not condemned her.
BBC World Service, 14th September 2013, and other online sources.