Without sanction from Rome, LCWR would be just another private group, notes English cleric
CWN - June 14, 2012
Writing in London's Catholic Herald, Father Alexander Lucie-Smith observes that if the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) chooses to surrender its status as a conference formally recognized by the Holy See, then the group would lose its special character. He reasons that without that Vatican approval, "they would then cease to be Catholic women religious in any public sense; they would merely become private associations of lay women."
Father Lucie-Smith notes that the Vatican would also likely resist any move to decertify the LCWR, because taking that step would have implications for members of the religious congregations represented by the LCWR. Although the leaders of those communities might support the LCWR, many of the individual members would surely wish to retain a clear tie to Rome.
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Posted by: hartwood01 -
Jun. 17, 2012 11:23 PM ET USA
Aw,who cares! The media will continue to hang on their every word,regardless of their status. We will continue to be fed every inane pronouncement the LCWR makes.
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Posted by: filioque -
Jun. 15, 2012 12:37 AM ET USA
I don't follow Fr. Lucie-Smith's reasoning. The members of the religious communities do not depend on the LCWR for their canonical status. They are public religious by virtue of their public vows within their respective congregations, which are canonically erected independently of the LCWR. If the LCWR loses its canonical recognition, then it becomes merely a private association of women who also happen to belong to religious communities. The nature and status of the communities and their members would not change.
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Posted by: Chelle,SFO-MI -
Jun. 14, 2012 8:50 PM ET USA
Hey, here’s a quote the feminists could borrow… “But we are currently in a state of war in the Church. It would be a contradiction to wish to ‘regularize the war.’” Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais
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Posted by: lauriem5377 -
Jun. 14, 2012 7:54 PM ET USA
There are so many good and holy religious congregations - and they need to belong to this LWCR because..........??? It seems to me that dissolution of the LWCR would take a great weight off the shoulders of most religious congregations. Good sisters must find this all a distraction from the day to day work they undertake in serving our Lord.
