11701 Maplewood Road,
Chardon, Ohio 44024-8482

Dear Bishop Quinn,

     Note: Throughout this document, words will occasionally appear in Italics. Please accept this as my method of emphasis, not necessarily the emphasis of the original author of the quotations Thank you!

     “Lay persons are bound by the obligation and possess the right to acquire a knowledge of Christian doctrine adapted to their capacity and condition so that they can live in accord with that doctrine, announce it, defend it when necessary, and be enabled to assume their role in exercising the apostolate.”¹

     “It (Code of Canon Law) corresponds perfectly with the teaching and the character of the Second Vatican Council. The Code is to be regarded as an indispensable instrument to ensure order both in individual and social life, and also in the Church’s own activity. Finally, by their very nature canonical laws are to be observed. I therefore exhort all the faithful to observe the proposed legislation with a sincere spirit and good will in the hope that there may flower again in the Church a renewed discipline and that consequently the salvation of souls may be rendered ever more easy under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. Joannes Paulus PP. II.”²

     Your Eminence, following the above introduction, I draw your attention to canons 392 and 669. “Religious are to wear the habit of the institute made according to the norm of proper law as a sign of their consecration and as a testimony of poverty.”³ On 09/10/03 I wrote to you regarding the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine assigned to St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio not wearing the required habits. In said letter I indicated my ignorance of who would be responsible to bring compliance to Canon 669 for the good sisters. You never responded to my letter so I did additional research on my own. First, Canon 392 gives responsibility for compliance of the law to the bishops. “Since he must protect the unity of the universal Church, the bishop is bound to promote the common discipline of the whole Church and therefore to urge the observance of all ecclesiastical laws. He is to be watchful lest abuses creep into ecclesiastical discipline, etc.”⁴ Mutuae Relationes frequently emphasizes the bishop’s role and responsibility in overseeing the religious within his diocese. “The bishop with the collaboration of his priests renders a three-fold service to the community of the faithful, namely that of teaching, sanctifying and ruling.”⁵ “No one in the Church other than a bishop carries out an organic function of fecundity, unity, and spiritual authority which is so basic that it influences all ecclesial activity.”⁶ “Bishops are responsible for perfecting the entire flock. In this way, by fostering religious life and protecting it in conformity with its own definite characteristics, bishops fulfill a real pastoral duty.”⁷

     As a lay member of the Church in the See of Cleveland, I am overjoyed and extremely pleased to see a religious out in public donning the garb commonly called the religious habit. Ask the average Catholic what they think of the ‘habit’ and their response will usually be one of two answers: It reminds me of their vow of poverty and renouncement of worldly attachments, or it identifies them as a holy member of ‘The Church’ whom I can immediately approach with a faith-question or ask for a prayer! Mutuae Relationes seems to agree, “It (religious state) consists in the following of Christ, by publicly professing the evangelical councils of chastity, poverty and obedience.”⁸ Again, “Superiors should see to it with all solicitude that their religious remain faithful to their vocation. They should foster opportune adaptations to cultural, social and economic conditions, according to the needs of the times, being vigilant however, lest these adaptations go beyond just limits in the direction of customs contrary to religious life.”⁹ Once again in Mutuae Relationes, “In promoting ongoing formation of religious, it is necessary to insist on the renewal of the witness of poverty.”¹⁰ Holy Church again wrote, “The totality of religious consecration requires that the witness to the Gospel be given publicly by the whole of life. Values, attitudes and life-style attest forcefully to the place of Christ in one’s life. The visibility of this witness involves the foregoing of standards of comfort and convenience that would otherwise be legitimate. To insure this public witness, religious willingly accept a pattern of life that is not permissive but largely laid down for them. They wear a religious garb that distinguishes them as consecrated persons.”¹¹ “Religious should wear the religious garb of the institute, described in their proper law, as a sign of consecration and a witness of poverty.”¹²

     Maybe we laity do not tell the ordained and religious often enough about how you positively influence our lives. Long before I ever read a canon or any document that referred to the requirement for religious to wear habits, seeing you wearing habits or clerical clothing had formed habits of modest dress within me. I sensed that your modesty in dress was a detachment from worldly values and outwardly suggested a vow of poverty. This, in turn, influenced me to put very little value in worldly clothing for most of my life. I have just enough clothing to get by and I have no problem of pride in wearing used clothing or even used shoes. For those of you who choose habits or clerical cloths, thank you for your good example for me personally! You evangelized me without speaking a word!

     It is commonly known and held that religious take vows, one most important vow is that of obedience. We know that obedience must be to superiors, bishops and the laws and regulations of Holy Church. “Religious are obliged to observe all those prescriptions which episcopal councils or conferences legitimately decree as binding on all.”¹³ “All religious, even exempt, are bound by the laws.”¹⁴ “The religious is pledged to obey the directives of lawful superiors according to the constitutions of the institute and further accepts a particular obedience to the Holy Father in virtue of the vows of obedience.”¹⁵ “The evangelical counsel of obedience, lived in faith, is a loving following of Christ who was obedient unto death.”¹⁶ “In professing obedience, offer the full surrender of their own will as a sacrifice of themselves to God and so are united permanently and securely to God’s salvific will.”¹⁷ “All religious are obliged to obey the Holy Father as their highest superior in virtue of the vow of obedience.”¹⁸ I quoted obedience to the Holy Father because it was he who ordered and approved the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which includes the canon requiring religious to wear the habit. Pope Paul VI reminded religious that they must live in the world but not be a part of it. “Members of each institute should recall first of all that by professing the evangelical counsels they responded to a divine call so that by being not only dead to sin but also renouncing the world they may live for God alone.”¹⁹ “Their (religious) withdrawal from the world and the exercises proper to the contemplative life should be preserved with the utmost care.”²⁰ “With regards to religious poverty it is not enough to use goods in a way subject to the superior’s will, but members must be poor both in fact (my note: wearing of religious garb) and in spirit, their treasures being in heaven.”²¹ In 1983 the Sacred Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes said, “In accepting God’s gift of vocation, religious respond to a divine call: dying to sin, renouncing the world, and living for God alone.”²²

     Your Eminence, I never received responses from anyone (Sr. Caram, Mother Superior Erb or yourself) regarding my letters about the good sisters at St. Vincent Charity Hospital failing to wear their religious habits. After doing all of the research that I did, I did not find any authorization anywhere that does or could provide an exception to Canon 669. So, my question(s) to all of you has not changed, what will be done and when to cause the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine to don therequired religious habits as mandated by Holy Church. If I am in error on my conclusions I expect and ask my bishop to correct me. If I am in error, it is not intentional. What I have quoted in my letters is what my research has revealed. If something exists that supercedes my research, I have failed to find it.

     None of you have any obligation to meet any deadline set by myself. My self-imposed deadline to hear back from your Eminence will be 11/01/03. If I have not received a positive response by that time I will go forward to the next step in the ecclesiastical reporting process. I will take the liberty to send copies of this letter to Sr. Caram and Mother Superior Erb.

     As always, I thank you for saying yes to becoming a priest and bishop and I thank the sisters for saying yes to their vocations. It is so important to us laity to have all of you to help us on our walk and growth in faith. We are most fortunate to have such a fine hospital in our diocese. I ask you to say a blessing for me and I ask the good sisters to pray for me, particularly as I undergo some extensive heart tests this week. You are each in my prayers.

     Sincerely in Christ,

     Ronald Smith