National Catholic Reporter

The Independent News Source

Sisters' Stories

Pope Francis expresses gratitude for global sisters, stresses obedience

by Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis told leaders of global orders of Catholic sisters that the lives of consecrated persons are a "light in the world."

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Sisters grasp the extended hand

by Thomas C. Fox

Commentary: The time Cardinal João Braz de Aviz spent with women religious is a sign of good intent and a step into greater communication.

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Global sisters' leader: Dialogue with Vatican is key

by Joshua J. McElwee

Q and A: Attempts by U.S. sisters to pursue dialogue with Vatican officials could strengthen relations with sisters globally.

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Vatican religious prefect: 'I was left out of LCWR finding'

by Joshua J. McElwee

The Vatican's decision to criticize the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was made without the knowledge of a key Vatican office, its leader said Sunday.

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Pope Francis reaffirms critique of LCWR, plan for reform

by Joshua J. McElwee

A year ago, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the US sisters' work contained "themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." Pope Francis has reportedly reaffirmed the assessment.

by Joshua J. McElwee

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious is giving its highest honor to former president Sr. Pat Farrell, for leadership “through an exceptionally challenging time.”

Women's ordination advocates protest at Vatican

Luigi Sandri Religion News Service | Jun. 10, 2010

ROME -- A group of women demonstrated in Rome's St Peter's Square on Tuesday (June 8), saying they want "full and equal participation" in the Roman Catholic Church.

The small group held a banner stating, "Ordain Catholic Women," to the apparent curiosity of passers-by in the Via della Conciliazione, the boulevard that leads to the square, before they were asked to move on by police.

Tuesday's protest followed a media conference organized by groups campaigning for women's ordination in the Catholic Church, to protest against a Vatican celebration to mark the end of a "Year for Priests" proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

"Our church urgently needs large numbers of male and female pastors to serve our parishes. Charisma should be important, not gender," said Angelika Fromm, a German representative from the International Movement We are Church.

Fromm said the past 12 months had been "a disastrous year," referring to the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the Catholic Church.

Teaching a chicken to walk backwards

Sr. Rose Pacatte | May. 21, 2010

On the season finale last year of ABC's hit drama "Lost," alert viewers would have noticed that the mysterious character, Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), was reading the book Everything That Rises Must Converge. The tome is a collection of short stories by the American Catholic novelist, Flannery O'Connor who was born in Savannah, Ga. March 25, 1925 and died from lupus in Milledgeville, Ga., outside of Atlanta in 1964.

The book's title story is about an arrogant young man, Julian, whose bigoted mother cajoles him into accompanying her downtown to her weight loss class because it is evening and she doesn't want to go alone in the newly integrated South. Things become tense when an African-American mother and son get on the bus, the mother wearing the exact same outlandish purple hat as Julian's mother. Julian tries to teach his mother a lesson that the world is different now and she must change. His meanness results in tragedy and he races for help for his mother who collapses. O'Connor ends the tale with, "The tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow."

Cincinnati bishop among sponsors to pull support from women's conference

Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 29, 2010

Reacting to complaints by antiabortion activists that a keynote speaker at a “violence against women” conference was pro-choice, Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr and other sponsors this month withdrew support for the gathering, planned in part by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.

Their actions forced organizers to rescind an invitation to Charlotte Bunch, founding director and senior scholar of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University in New Jersey and a consultant to the United Nations. She was replaced at the April 24 gathering by Charity Sr. Caroljean Willie, the order’s U.N. representative.

Charity Sr. Patricia A. Cruise, president of Cincinnati’s Seton High School, where the gathering was held, had also notified conference organizers that they would need to change venues were Bunch to be kept on the program.

After the invitation to Bunch was rescinded, the conference went on at the high school as planned. However, despite the speaker change, the archdiocese refused to renew its support.

Is women's ordination old news?

Heidi Schlumpf | Apr. 12, 2010

Janine Denomme has been fighting two courageous battles. First, the 45-year-old Detroit native has struggled with a persistent, compelling sense of being called to the priesthood that, sadly, has not been honored, affirmed or recognized by the institutional church.

19 women religious communities chosen for site visits

Thomas C. Fox | Apr. 1, 2010

Editor's note: NCR incorrectly reported April 1 a prayer and a list of 19 U.S. religious communities, chosen for site visits as part of a Vatican investigation, came from Apostolic Visitator Mother Mary Clare Millea. In fact, the communication came from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Apostolic Visitator details on-site visit guidelines

Thomas C. Fox | Mar. 1, 2010

Mother Mary Clare Millea last month sent out the first wave of letters to U.S. women religious communities being visited this spring as part of a three-year Vatican study, officially called an Apostolic Visitation.

Church 'has silenced women's rights debate'

UCA News | Feb. 25, 2010

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — The church's catechism opposing the Reproductive Health Bill, which is now before Congress, has silenced election candidates on women's rights, a leading advocate of the proposed law says.

Politicians seem to have "all meekly acquiesced to the dictates" of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, which issued the "Catechism on Family and Life" for the 2010 elections, former Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez said. National, provincial and local elections will be held nationwide May 10.

More of a conversation with Mother Millea

John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 23, 2010

Last week, we posted an interview by NCR senior correspondent John L. Allen Jr. of Mother Mary Clare Millea, the sister in charge of a Vatican-sponsored apostolic visitation of women religious in America. Here are more excerpts from that interview.

Mother Millea speaks about the visitation

John L. Allen Jr. | Feb. 18, 2010

A little over a year ago, Mother Mary Clare Millea became the most talked-about nun in America almost overnight. In December 2008, the Vatican tapped Millea, a Connecticut native and superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to run arguably the most controversial "apostolic visitation" ever carried out in this country: A sweeping review of women's congregations, capping decades of tension about the state of the soul of religious life in America.

Sometime in the next few days, the first wave of letters will be reaching a sample of women's orders to say they've been selected for an on-site visit, with those visits slated to begin one week after Easter and to continue throughout the spring and fall of 2010. The visits mark "phase three" of the process, after exchanges between Millea and major superiors (phase one) and the collection of written responses to questionnaires sent to every congregation in the country (phase two).

The fourth and final phase will be the preparation of detailed reports on all 420 "units" of women's religious in America, meaning congregations as well as their individual provinces, to be shipped off to Rome, plus a comprehensive report at the end. What the Vatican may do with all that input, of course, is the great unknown.

Challenging globalization head-on

Beverly Bell | Feb. 17, 2010

Women: Birthing justice, birthing hope. Part 11 of 12

Mary Ann Manahan helps rural women in the Philippines build their knowledge, strength and political voice. Here she speaks of how women are creating alternatives to violence and poverty in their lives. They use strategies for change that start at the household and community, and then connect to the global level.