UNITED STATES
Reuters
Fri Jun 1, 2012
By Stephanie Simon
(Reuters) – The largest organization of U.S. Catholic nuns on Friday rejected a Vatican assessment that they had fallen under the sway of radical feminism and needed to hand control of their group over to a trio of bishops.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious, whose members represent about 80 percent of nuns in the United States, issued a sharp statement calling the Vatican’s rebuke “unsubstantiated” and “the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency.”
The nuns said the Vatican’s report has “caused scandal and pain throughout the church community and created greater polarization.”
Tensions between U.S. nuns and church authorities, both in Rome and in the United States, have been simmering for decades as nuns have taken an increasingly independent and outspoken role in politics and social outreach.
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