US Nun's Summons to Vatican Raises Concern of Crackdown on Liberal Sisters

By Stephanie Kirchgaessner
The Guardian
June 10, 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/10/american-nun-summoned-to-vatican-liberal-minded-sisters

Pope Francis talks with a delegation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious last year at the Vatican. Photograph: L'Osservatore Romano/AP

The Vatican has summoned an American nun whose Kentucky-based order has run afoul of the church in the past to come to Rome and respond to “areas of concern”, raising questions about whether the Vatican is embarking on another crackdown on liberal-minded US sisters.

The Congregation of the Sisters of Loretto said in a statement that the Vatican had sent a letter, dated 1 January, in which it said it wanted to discuss issues with Pearl McGivney, the order’s president, that had been raised during a now-closed 2010 investigation into American nuns. That investigation by the Vatican had examined a certain “secular mentality” within some religious groups, as well as a “feminist spirit”, a church official said at the time.

The news, first reported by Global Sisters Report, comes more than a year after Pope Francis made the unexpected decision to end a separate investigation by the Vatican into the Leadership Conference on Women Religious, the major umbrella group of US nuns. That decision, announced in April 2015, was seen as an important shift by the Vatican, which had been accused of being heavy-handed in its treatment of the US sisters based on the concerns of conservatives who feared that many were straying from the church’s core teaching.

The Vatican did not respond to a request for comment.

McGivney, the head of the Loretto Community, said the order had engaged wholeheartedly in the 2010 investigation, known as an Apostolic Visitation process. She said 90 sisters and co-members, among others, had been interviewed by four sisters from other congregations during the apostolic visitation.

“The visitors seemed warm and genuinely interested in our lives. They did not inquire about these ‘areas of concern’ with our elected leadership during this visitation, and we had no expectation that six years later we would find ourselves being asked to come to Rome to address any outstanding issues,” she said.

She added that she was confident that a dialogue with the Vatican would clarify her congregation’s fidelity to papal authority.

The order declined to provide a copy of the Vatican letter to the Guardian. But according to Global Sisters Report, the group has been asked to explain “ambiguity” in its adherence to church teaching and way of living religious life.

The summons by the Vatican marks the first known instance in which the Vatican has used information it obtained in its earlier investigation, formally closed in 2014, to pursue further questioning.

While it is not clear whether any individuals are being targeted in the follow-up request by the Vatican, a sister named Jeannine Gramick, who joined the Loretto community in 2001, has been on the Vatican’s radar for years for her work with LGBT Catholics. According to the website of New Ways Ministry, a social justice centre focused on reconciliation for gay and lesbian Catholics, Gramick said the Sisters of Loretto “support her in her ministry of education and advocacy on behalf of lesbian and gay people”.