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Women
8th Day Center for Justice pressured over women's ordination
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Woman deacon recants, seeks reunion with church
Two groups, two paths for US women religious
May. 26, 2012
Members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious hold a vigil Dec. 2, 1981, in memory of four church women slain in El Salvador the previous year. (NCR photo/Mary Reiser)
In the United States, there are two canonically approved organizations for leaders of congregations of women religious. The majority (80 percent) are members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, headquartered in Silver Spring, Md. The remaining congregations belong to the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, based in Washington, D.C.
Nationwide vigils aim to demonstrate solidarity with sisters
May. 23, 2012
Protesters gather in front of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ building in Washington, D.C., on May 8, in support of Catholic sisters. (Photos by Ted Majdosz)
From Alaska to South Texas, to Washington, D.C., people gathered outside Catholic churches and cathedrals in about a dozen cities earlier this month to pray, sing and show support for the American nuns criticized in a recent Vatican report.
Organizers of the vigils say they hope these acts of solidarity will inspire the Vatican to rescind the document that places the Leadership Conference of Women Religious under the authority of an archbishop -- a move that has left many bewildered and angry.
LCWR the 'elephant in the room' at celebration of San Francisco archbishop
May. 22, 2012
San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer (CNS/Catholic San Francisco)
COMMENTARY
San Francisco Catholic Charities honored Archbishop George Niederauer at its annual Loaves and Fishes event April 29. While he was being honored for his leadership and support of Catholic Charities programs and services, it was obvious that everyone at the banquet, regardless of where they come down on religious liberty, women religious, gay marriage or any of the other hot issues within our church wanted also to honor this good man for his most important role -- being the pastor and shepherd of his flock.
The main speaker of the evening was his friend and predecessor Cardinal William Levada.
I have always loved the phrase "elephant in the room," a metaphor for an obvious truth or controversial issue momentarily unaddressed. The elephant in the Grand Ballroom of the Palace Hotel that night was Rome's recent crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, perhaps initiated by bishops in America, but led by William Levada, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Protection of the Faith.
Vatican concerns puzzle resource center leaders
May. 21, 2012SILVER SPRING, Md. -- One of two organizations named in the Vatican-ordered reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious advised women religious on their canonical and financial rights during the Vatican’s recent three-year apostolic investigation of U.S. women’s orders.
In its eight-page April 18 document calling for a reform of LCWR, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith mentions the Resource Center for Religious Institutes twice.
Speakers explore what Loretto order has to offer today
May. 19, 2012
From left: Loretto Sr. Delores Kincaide, co-member Kim Klein, and Sr. Maureen Fiedler (Margie Jones)
NERINX, KY. -- “Today’s youth and young adults want what Lorettos already have,” Loretto Sr. Delores Kincaide told the Loretto jubilee gathering of hundreds of members and co-members here April 25. “A deeper spirituality, a supportive community, and a purpose that will change the world in which they live. Loretto is in a position now to consciously promote expansion by reaching out to these youth and others who desire what we already possess.”
Pope praises American nuns
May. 18, 2012VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI on Friday (May 18) expressed his "deep gratitude" to American nuns for their "fidelity and self-sacrifice," and he praised the U.S. bishops for their efforts to welcome immigrants.
The pontiff's comments on the sisters come just a month after the Vatican crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group that represents most American nuns. The group was accused of not speaking out strongly enough against gay marriage, abortion and women's ordination.
Addressing a group of bishops from the United States who were in Rome for a regularly scheduled visit, Benedict said he hoped that the current phase of "discernment" would bear "abundant spiritual fruit" and revitalize women religious communities "in fidelity to Christ and the Church."
The pope called on the nuns to rediscover the "sublime dignity and beauty of the consecrated life" and stressed the need to strengthen communication between women religious and local church authorities.
In his speech to the bishops, Benedict also praised the church's "great generosity" towards immigrants in the United States.
Lorettos celebrate two centuries of touching lives
May. 18, 2012
Loretto Srs. Dorothy Scheopner and Mary Ellen McElroy visit the Loretto Heritage Center in Nerinx, Ky., during its official dedication April 24. (Donna Mattingly, SL)
Theirs was a meeting of the minds, and of faith. Like a Christ-impelled pebble dropped into the sea of humanity, their meeting created waves of movement.
She was Mary Rhodes, a young Maryland woman come to Kentucky to visit her brother, Bennett.
He was Fr. Charles Nerinckx, a transplanted Belgian priest who’d fled the European anti-Catholicism stoked by the French Revolution.
Mary's Pence marks 25 years of women’s gifts
May. 02, 2012
Keynote speaker Edwina Gateley, lay missioner, points to the future for the assembled Marys Pence supporters. (NCR photos/Schlumpf)
CHICAGO -- If the founders of Mary’s Pence thought women’s gifts would be more valued by the Catholic church a quarter century later, the Vatican’s recent ordering of the reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) was hardly evidence of such improvement.
Gates: Women need birth control on global health agenda
Apr. 05, 2012
Melinda Gates, co-chair and trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation speaks at the TEDx Change event in Berlin. (Photo courtesy Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)
In an address with potentially far-reaching health care consequences, Melinda Gates today called upon governments to set as goals universal access to birth control for women who want it. She said the measure could save hundreds of thousands of lives each year.
A Catholic, Gates is a co-chair and trustee of the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, which distributes billions of dollars annually in the developing world to raise agricultural productivity, health care and education levels while it works to eradicate global diseases.
Ladies in White arrested before pope's Havana Mass
Mar. 28, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives Tuesday at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana. Behind the pope is Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, and Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino of Havana. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
HAVANA -- A few hours before they planned to attend an outdoor Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, members of a Catholic dissident group were reportedly arrested by Cuban police.
Alejandrina Garcia de la Rivas and Laura Maria Labrada Pollan, members of the Ladies in White -- "Damas de Blanco" -- were arrested before 6 a.m. Wednesday, said Blanca Reyes, a member of the organization who now lives Madrid, Spain.
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