CathNews New Zealand

Accused of promoting radical feminism and promoting social issues incompatible with the Church, United States Leadership Committee of Women Religious President Sister Pat Farrell and Executive Director Sister Janet Mock said they “were grateful for open dialogue” with Cardinal William Levada, and Archbishop Peter Sartain, on Wednesday.

The nuns, who requested the meeting, told Reuters their next step was to return to the United States and consider their next move.

Leaving the Vatican the two nuns seemed confident, “we’ll take it one step at a time,” Farrell (pictured on the right) told a Reuters’ reporter.

The Vatican, who on Tuesday said it hoped the meeting would bring about “reciprocal understanding” but also according to John Allen of NCR, warned of a possible “dialogue of the deaf”.

In a statement after the meeting the Vatican said, the meeting provided an opportunity to “discuss the issues and concerns raised by the doctrinal assessment in an atmosphere of openness and cordiality.”

However, Vatican said, Levada and Sartain reinforced to the nuns that their group “remains under the supreme direction of the Holy See”.

In April, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Cardinal Levada heads, issued a blistering report on the LCWR, which represents some 80% of the more than 60,000 American Catholic nuns.

The assessment was issued after a Vatican investigation, lasting four years, determined the nuns had “serious doctrinal problems” and they promoted “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

Sources

• Reuters
• Independent
• VIS
• Reuters video
• Image: Reuters

Additional reading

• A medical doctor and Catholic nun represents views of many in differences with the Vatican
• Interview with Archbishop Sartain
• Vatican official warns of 'dialogue of the deaf' with US Nuns
• If the Sisters of the LCWR 'sever ties' with Rome, then they stop being Sisters (Comment)
• Will the Vatican's crackdown on Nuns work? (Several comments)
• Analysis: Tensions between Vatican, US nuns grew from decades-old dispute
• Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley laments discord on nuns

News category: World.