Vatican oversight of US sisters comes to abrupt end

Tuesday, April 21st, 2015

A three-year programme of Vatican oversight of the main leadership group of United States religious sisters has come to a sudden end.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has accepted a final report of a doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The LCWR represents 80 per cent of US religious sisters.

Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain was appointed three years ago to oversee a programme of reform for the LCWR.

But on April 16, the Vatican “mandate” ended at a meeting between LCWR and CDF representatives and Archbishop Sartain.

The archbishop and the LCWR officers presented a joint report on the implementation of the mandate, which the doctrinal congregation approved.

The report addresses two main issues: updating the organisational statutes of LCWR and the process by which the group chooses speakers and writers for its annual conferences and publications.

The report stresses the need for LCWR speakers and writers “to have due regard for the Church’s faith”.

The report also stated that LCWR publications “need a sound doctrinal foundation”.

“Measures are being taken to promote a scholarly rigour that will ensure theological accuracy and help avoid statements that are ambiguous with regard to Church doctrine or could be read as contrary to it,” the report continued.

The report also stated that LCWR manuscripts “will be reviewed by competent theologians, as a means of safeguarding the theological integrity of the conference”.

The report says that “a revised process” for choosing the winner of the group’s annual Outstanding Leadership Award “has been articulated”.

LCWR president Sr Sharon Holland said in a statement that the oversight process brought the sisters and the Vatican to “deeper understandings of one another’s experiences, roles, responsibilities, and hopes for the Church and the people it serves”.

“We learned that what we hold in common is much greater than any of our differences,” she said.

Former LCWR president Sr Joan Chittister said the most important thing was that the LCWR has not lost its ability to operate freely.

Sources