VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The nuns’ case is the first challenge to Pope Francis’ pontificate
Marco Tosatti
Rome
The “honeymoon” of American “progressive” Catholics with Pope Francis could be over: this is the comment by USA Today (and by other media) after the prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, Gerhard Müller, has confirmed the desire of the Pope to continue with the reform of the US sisters.
It is the first “substantial” action of government about an open problem, and it is significant that the Pope is following and confirming what was arranged by the previous management. At the same time, on the National Catholic Reporter (the outlet of Catholic progressives), the voices of influential nuns criticizing the Vatican’s decision have already been raised.
The facts: last Monday the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a press release. Müller, the Congregation’s Prefect, had met with the leaders of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an organization that brings together about 70% of US nuns. Other religious orders have left the LCWR and have formed another group. Müller praised the work done by sisters. But at the same time he reported the Pope’s thought. That is, he reported that Pope Francis has re-affirmed the need for a reform of the group; that he has approved the critical “evaluation” written after an apostolic visit (an inspection, in lay terms) to the LCWR and that the nuns must cooperate both with individual bishops and with the US Episcopal Conference.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.