UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
by Joshua J. McElwee | Apr. 17, 2013
Within hours of the Vatican’s announcement Monday that Pope Francis had reaffirmed a controversial takeover of the primary group of U.S. Catholic sisters, reactions from prominent American sisters ranged from “wait and see” to the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
It may be too early to tell what the news means for the country’s 57,000 Catholic sisters, said several former leaders of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Others said it could signal it is time to reconsider their energy in trying to tamp down potential tensions with bishops.
“LCWR has spent an enormous amount of energy in conversations and in preparation materials and in actual meetings” with Vatican prelates, Mercy Sr. Helen Marie Burns, a former LCWR president, said. “The question becomes, How fruitful is the continued use of that energy for the church as well as for the LCWR organization?”
“It’s a question of limited energy and what’s the best use of that energy in the present moment,” said Burns, who served in LCWR’s presidency from 1988 to 1990.
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