UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Jun. 23, 2014 NCR Today
Pope Francis has received a letter from a number of prominent U.S. theologians and nonprofit Catholic groups criticizing the Vatican’s treatment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), according to a group that organized signing of the letter.
The effort, announced Monday by the group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, may represent the first direct appeal known to be received by the pontiff regarding LCWR, a group that represents some 45,000 U.S. Catholic sisters and has been placed under a sort of receivership by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
There have also been a number of other efforts undertaken by U.S. Catholics to reach Francis on the LCWR issue, including an online petition organized in May that reached nearly 10,500 signatures.
“We believe the recent criticism of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) has been unjust,” reads Monday’s letter, which is signed by half a dozen theologians, the heads of Catholics in Alliance and the Franciscan Action Network, and former leaders of the Center of Concern and the Catholic Theological Society of America.
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