UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
by NCR Editorial Staff | Apr. 22, 2013
The sister’s voice cracked with emotion as she explained her disappointment. She and the sisters in her community were “sad, so sad” when they heard the news from the Vatican April 15 that Pope Francis had “reaffirmed” the conclusions of the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the program of reform ordered last year by the Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith.
Was this the dose of cold reality — the other shoe falling — that would signal that despite all the lovely symbolism of this young papacy, over the long haul the status quo would prevail? We fully understand the sadness the sister who called NCR expressed. Women religious in the United States have been ill-treated over the last four years, targets of a humiliating and, in the end, unjust takeover of their leadership organization. The Vatican has attempted to place their fate in the hands of three men, none of whom has experienced life in a religious community. Their dioceses have only benefited from the work of sisters who increasingly are the last vestige of Catholic presence in some of the most neglected corners of our cities. They stay where others — priests and bishops among them — have fled.
We also know the LCWR leadership has spent many hours and considerable resources to convey the nature of their organization and the work and lives of the women religious so that church figures better understand why the women feel they have been so unjustly treated.
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