Though she is at the center of one of the biggest crises in the Catholic Church today, Sister Pat Farrell is loath to talk about herself, and certainly not in any way that would make her a focus of the looming showdown between the Vatican and American nuns. To be sure, Farrell has spoken publicly Read more
As leaders of most of the women’s religious congregations in the United States prepared for their response to the Vatican’s call for reform, their outgoing president said they would tap their collective wisdom “thoughtfully and deliberately”. Franciscan Sister Pat Farrell was addressing the 900-strong assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in St Louis, Read more
The recently completed “Nuns on the Bus” tour garnered a great deal of publicity for the sisters involved, who claimed they were making the trip to protest proposed federal budget cuts they say would hurt the poor. However, there were many more undercurrents to the nine-state, two-week trip than most people realize. The giant banner Read more
As the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States heads towards its annual assembly in August, its president says she is looking for a “third way” in dialogue with the Vatican. Last April the Vatican announced a major reform of the 1500-strong association, under which it will be supervised by three bishops. The Read more
The attack on the Nuns is a case of perception not reality according to Vatican Cardinal William Levada, who admits to being saddened by people’s assessment of him, his office and the report on the nuns. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), insists neither he, nor the Vatican is picking on the nuns. “We’re sad if people Read more
Bishop Leonard Blair is one of the three bishops (the other two being Bishop Thomas Paprocki and Archbishop J. Peter Sartain), that made up the committee formed by the Holy See to undertake the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR. Bishop Blair says that since the assessment has been completed he “can only marvel at what is Read more
In moments of crisis, there’s a natural desire among many Catholics to rally around the flag, meaning to show support for the church and the pope. It’s not about denial, because Catholics are nothing if not sober realists about the church’s failures. It’s instead about saying to the world that despite it all, there’s still Read more
The Vatican’s treatment of LCWR (the Leadership Conference of Women Religious) has raised eyebrows outside the Church as well as within it. In his column in NCR, Bill Tammeus, a Presbyterian elder, writes: “Those of us outside of Catholicism find it unfathomable that the church … would exploit or disdain the women who have committed Read more
Cardinal Levada has issued regulations “regarding the manner of proceeding in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations.” The regulations, updated from the time of Pope Paul VI, are aimed at helping pastors “in their difficult task of discerning presumed apparitions, revelations, messages, or extraordinary phenomena of presumed supernatural origin.” In his column in NCR, Eugene Cullen Read more
The action of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in taking the US LCWR to task has resulted in vast public support for women religious, while the US Catholic bishops look foolish. This is the opinion of Phyllis Zagano, writing in National Catholic Reporter. She says that according to the CDF, the “women religious Read more