Friday, November 6, 2009

US: Crusading Dominican Nun Rebuked

From the Chicago Tribune:
For decades, Sister Donna Quinn has championed the rights of women to use contraception, seek ordination and end unwanted pregnancies.

The Dominican nun has picketed for abortion rights in the nation's capital, petitioned the pope to select a female archbishop and escorted women into abortion clinics.

But as the Vatican turns up scrutiny of the nation's nuns and America's Roman Catholic bishops refuse to support universal health care if it covers abortion, Quinn has put her crusade on hold.

Raised on Chicago's Southwest Side, Quinn expressed her calling to serve the church when a visiting priest asked her seventh-grade class who wanted to be ordained. The boys chuckled when her hand went up. After graduating from Visitation High School in 1955, Quinn joined the Dominican Sisters in Sinsinawa, Wis.

In 1974, she returned to Chicago where she helped start Chicago Catholic Women. Six years later, she became a leader of the National Coalition of American Nuns, a national organization with a similar mission of advocating for women's rights.

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