Vatican demands reform of American nuns' leadership group

April 18, 2012

The Vatican has called for a thorough reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the umbrella group that represents most of the women’s religious orders in the US.

After a thorough investigation of the LCWR, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) concluded that “the current doctrinal and pastoral situation of LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern.” The CDF concluded that a Vatican intervention was necessary to reform the group. Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle has been appointed as the Vatican’s delegate to supervise the reform of the LCWR. The archbishop has been charged with helping LCWR leaders to revise the group’s statues, plan its programs, review liturgical texts, and reconsider the group’s affiliations with other organizations.

The CDF assessment—based on the results of an apostolic visitation conducted by Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio—detected “serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life.” The CDF report found that many American women religious have drifted away from “the fundamental Christological center and focus of religious consecration.”

More specifically, the Vatican report found that LCWR meetings regularly included speakers who “often contradict or ignore magisterial teachings.” The group’s statements “do not promote Church teaching” on questions of human sexuality, the Vatican noted, and “it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.”

“Moreover, occasional public statements by the LCWR that disagree with or challenge positions taken by the Bishops, who are the Church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals, are not compatible with its purpose,” the CDF said.

The Vatican report called attention to ties between the LCWR and the liberal social lobby, Network, which has strongly supported the Obama administration’s plans for health-care reform despite the US bishops’ opposition. The report suggested a review of the LCWR affiliation with Network. The LCWR did not immediately respond to the announcement of the Vatican’s reform plan. But a former president of the group demonstrated the strength of dissent within the LCWR by saying that the Vatican’s action was “actually immoral.” Sister Joan Chitester told the National Catholic Reporter that instead of cooperating with the Vatican, the group should “disband canonically and regroup as an unofficial interest group.”

 

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Further information:

• Vatican Names Archbishop Sartain To Lead Renewal Of LCWR (USCCB)
• Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (Summary of Vatican report)
• Vatican orders LCWR to revise, appoints archbishop to oversee group (National Catholic Reporter)
• Vatican orders crackdown on US nun association (AP)