In the view of the Vatican, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the US has espoused “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” Disagreements between American nuns and the hierarchy of the Church are part of US Church history, according to Anne M. Butler.

In an article in the New York Times, Ms Butler outlines something of this history and points out that “some bishops, dismissive of the laity, underestimated the loyalty secular Catholics felt for their nuns”.

 

• Read Anne M. Butler’s article
• Image: Sisters of St Benedict

 

Anne M. Butler is the author of the forthcoming book “Across God’s Frontiers: Catholic Sisters in the American West, 1850-1920.”

News category: Opinion.