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Women religious
Women Religious: Lives of mercy and justice
Feb. 17, 2010The purpose of Women Religious: Lives of mercy and justice is to draw attention to the remarkable work of women religious around the globe. You won't miss any postings to this new feature, if you sign up to receive an e-mail alert. The sign-up page is here.
New York City vigil: about 75 march in support of sisters
May. 15, 2012
(Francis Piderit)
About 75 people marched up and down 5th Avenue in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City early Tuesday evening (May 15), holding signs and singing hymns, in one of many prayer vigils planned nationwide in support of Catholic sisters criticized by the Vatican in a recent report, according to one of the event organizers.
Master of Divinity student organizes vigil to support sisters
May. 10, 2012OAKLAND, Calif. -- "I love women religious," said Christine Haider-Winnett, a 29-year-old graduate student at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley who is organizing a May 29 vigil at Oakland's Cathedral of Christ the Light to show support for U.S. sisters in light of the recent Vatican mandate.
"To me, sisters are the best example of how to live Christ's teachings in our terribly broken world," she said. "They have given me a place in the church and hope for the church when not much else has. I feel like this is the least I could do to thank them."
The prayer vigil is one of nearly two dozen being organized around the country through the Nun Justice Project, a group of Catholic organizations offering support for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) as it deals with a mandate from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to reform its statutes, programs and affiliations to conform more closely to "the teachings and discipline of the Church."
Louisville, Ky., vigil: 78 observe silence for Catholic sisters
May. 09, 2012
(Photo by R. Brayton Bowen)
Protesters observed an hour of silence Tuesday evening in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville, Ky., during the first of a series of vigils planned in May to support Catholic sisters, an effort led by the Nun Justice Project. Then, said organizer Helen Deines, “everyone went forth to live just as the sisters would want us to.”
Editorial: Consolation on LCWR rings hollow in unhealthy church
May. 08, 2012The headlines of recent days understandably announce that it's all about the sisters.
The tragic reality, however, is that this is far more about the bishops than it is about women religious.
This is the latest episode of episcopal flailing about in a search for enemies anywhere and everywhere to explain how so much has escaped their control. This isn't about authentic teaching and orthodoxy. This is about thought control and censorship.
Sartain is the right man for the LCWR job, former co-workers say
May. 08, 2012
Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle is pictured after an interview with Catholic News Service in Rome April 22. (CNS/Paul Haring)
Women religious and others who have worked with the "archbishop delegate" charged with overseeing potential new compass points and sail settings for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious describe him as a man of prayer who listens well, welcomes dialogue, defends church teaching, administrates fairly, shares authority and remembers people's names.
Most persons contacted about their views of Archbishop J. Peter Sartain as an episcopal leader declined any comment because of avoid-the-media directives from their diocese or their religious community issued in the wake of an April 18 statement from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Others point out that Sartain's credibility will continue to be dogged by his role in the ordination of a man for the Joliet, Ill., diocese who seven months later was arrested for child molestation and is now serving four years in prison for criminal sexual assault of a minor.
LCWR crackdown more complicated than 'Rome vs. America'
May. 03, 2012
U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2010 (CNS/Paul Haring)
Analysis
ROME -- At first blush, one compelling frame for the crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Woman Religious would seem to be "Rome vs. America," and in a sense, that's perfectly correct. This is, after all, an overhaul of an American body decreed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's powerful theological watchdog agency.
Yet drilling down, the picture becomes more complicated. At least part of the original momentum for the overhaul actually came from America, not Rome, and meanwhile, not everyone in Rome is quite on the same page.
Understanding that complexity not only helps explain where the action against LCWR came from, but it may also hint at some of the variables involved in handicapping where the process could go from here.
NCR spoke to a cross section of both Vatican personnel and American church officials about the LCWR story in late April, all of whom spoke on background, both because they're not authorized to speak publicly and also to allow LCWR time to ponder its response.
From Oregon to Ohio, a swell of support for Catholic sisters
May. 03, 2012
More than 50 people gathered April 25 outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City in support of LCWR. (NCR photo/Brian Roewe)
St. Andrew parishioners in Portland, Ore., are making no secret about it: They love the sisters.
They demonstrated their support during a parish liturgy April 22, when Fr. Leo Remington, the celebrant, opened the prayers of the faithful with the following: "For women religious in the U.S. and throughout the world, in thanksgiving for their service to the church and world, may we stand in solidarity with them during these turbulent times, we pray."
US bishops discuss LCWR reform, visitation with Vatican officials
May. 02, 2012
Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M., concelebrates Mass with bishops from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming at the Altar of the Tomb in the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican May 2. Also pictured at the altar are Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., and Bishop Fernando Isern of Pueblo, Colo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
VATICAN CITY -- Recent Vatican investigations of religious women have created opportunities for growth through reflection and for dialogue with their bishops, two U.S. bishops said after discussing the matter with Vatican officials.
Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M., and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., told Catholic News Service May 2 that they had discussed the Vatican visitation of U.S. communities of religious women and the more recent order to reform the Leadership Conference of Women Religious earlier the same day with officials from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
LCWR annual assembly to go forward
Apr. 26, 2012
Artwork taken from the LCWR's 2012 Assembly website.
When the Vatican put the largest organization representing U.S. women religious into church receivership, saying it needed to submit to the control of an archbishop and reform its statutes, a major criticism cited was the group’s annual assemblies, which were said to have presented viewpoints that were “a serious source of scandal.”
Despite that concern, this year’s assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, planned for August, is to go forward with Vatican acknowledgement, NCR has learned.
LCWR leadership and Cardinal William Levada, the head of the Vatican congregation that ordered the group’s reform, have “mutually agreed” the assembly will continue as planned, Sr. Annmarie Sanders, LCWR’s associate director for communications, said in a brief phone interview Tuesday.
That agreement, Sanders said, came at the April 18 meeting in Rome at which the sisters were first told of the move by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
