Cardinal for Religious Tells of 'Pain' over Cdf Probe into US Nuns

The Tablet UK
May 7, 2013

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/latest-news/5274

Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, head of the Vatican congregation that deals with religious orders, has criticised the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith carried out a controversial investigation of a body representing more than eighty per cent - 46,000 - of US nuns.

The Brazilian cardinal spoke on Sunday at the tri-annual general assembly of the Rome-based International Union of Women Superiors General (UISG), telling the women leaders he was never consulted on the investigation into the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Cardinal Braz said that his office first learned of the move against the LCWR in a meeting with the CDF after the formal report on the matter had been completed. He said he told Cardinal William Levada, who was then-prefect of the doctrinal congregation, that the matter should have been discussed between their two Vatican offices.

"We will obey what the Holy Father wants and what will be decided through you," Cardinal Braz told the sisters he had said to Levada, adding: "But I had so much pain within me."

The US-based National Catholic Reporter quoted Cardinal Braz de Aviz as telling the sisters that the doctrinal congregation's judgment about the LCWR was reached without discussions with his office and caused him "much pain".

"We have to change this way of doing things," he said. "We have to improve these relationships."

The Vatican today played down Cardinal Braz's account of the relations between the two congregations. A statement published on Vatican Radio said "media commentary ... has suggested a divergence between the CDF and the Congregation for Religious in their approach to the renewal of Religious Life. Such an interpretation of the Cardinal's remarks is not justified."