Important Background Information About the CDF-LCWR Situation

Catholic World Report ^ | 4/21/12 | Carl E. Olson

[marshmallow]

Author and journalist Ann Carey, who has for many years researched and covered the situation of women's religious in the U.S., reacted yesterday to the news of the CDF statement about the LCWR and the response, so far, of the LCWR:

Ann Carey is author of the book "Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women’s Religious Communities", so she’s not remotely surprised by the Vatican’s call for reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

“Some people have speculated that the CDF renewal of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was prompted by the LCWR and Network support of Obamacare in opposition to the bishops,” she observes. “That may have been the last straw, but the CDF move was a long time coming,” she tells me.

Carey provides the background:

The LCWR has disagreed with the Vatican on major issues since the early 1970s. The renewal model promoted by LCWR was a misinterpretation of the Vatican II mandates, and the Vatican tried to issue guidelines to correct the situation several times over the years, only to be rebuffed by LCWR. The LCWR leadership has been open about its right to “loyal dissent” and its determination to re-make religious life, and has influenced many religious orders to follow its path.

Read the entire piece on National Review Online. Carey has written several pieces for Catholic World Report about the LCWR and related matters. They are helpful in dispelling the dominant media image of sweet, little nuns doing nothing more than helping the poor and fighting the forces of injustice. In one, "In Denial" (May 2011), readers are given a sense of how badly some orders have gone off the rails, failing to observe even the most basic doctrines of orthodox, "mere" Christianity, never mind robust, authentic Catholicism.