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Nuns Push TransgenderismCall for full inclusion of 'gender-expansive individuals'Thousands of U.S. nuns are deviating from Catholic teaching on transgenderism by rebuking recent statements from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.A coalition led by dozens of women religious groups and allies issued a public letter expressing solidarity with the so-called "transgender community." The statement was issued on March 31, timed to coincide with the International Day of Transgender Visibility.The statement titled "In Solidarity: Vowed Catholic Religious Honor Trans Day of Visibility" proclaimed that "[a]s members of the body of Christ, we cannot be whole without the full inclusion of transgender, nonbinary,...

NEW YORK — A conflict that has entangled the Vatican, American bishops and the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns may seem to have erupted suddenly, but it actually has its roots in decades-old disputes over Roman Catholic teaching. The headlines came in April, when the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, concluded that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious had strayed far from authentic doctrine and gave three American bishops the authority to overhaul the organization. The board for the nuns' group responded by calling the Vatican's investigation flawed and its conclusions unsubstantiated. Top...

We need an update on the Assembly of the Great Swirly, the LCWR annual confab at the Hyatt Regency in Houston.They had a speech by one Fr. Stephen Bevans, SVD.  No, he’s a priest.  He couldn’t be bothered to dress like one to talk to the sisters, however.  He’s from CTU, after all.These neck-tie priests… how pretentious!  If you are not going to wear a Roman collar, why wear a tie? Why not just wear a polo shirt?  Because you are… what… a professional?  You are… German?He has the Great Swirly before him but he has Katsushika Hokusai’s Wave behind him.  It’s...

The Vatican on Thursday unexpectedly ended its controversial reform of the main umbrella group of U.S. nuns, cementing a shift in tone and treatment of the U.S. sisters under the social justice-minded Pope Francis. The Vatican said it had accepted a final report on its overhaul of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and declared that the “implementation of the mandate has been accomplished” nearly two years ahead of schedule. It was an abrupt about-face given that just last year, the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, sharply rebuked the LCWR for its “regrettable” attitude and behavior...

There is some speculation about what may be said on 16 December in Rome about the Apostolic Visitation that was conducted of communities of women religious in these USA by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (aka Congregation for Religious).   Some suggest (hopefully, even triumphantly) that a rosy picture, or at least not a black picture, will be painted of religious life in female institutes and orders.  Or, perhaps, there will be the usual positive comments about the many “fruits”, just like all the “fruits” we have obviously been granted since the Second...

Fireworks this week, as the Leadership Conference of Women Religious met in Nashville for their 2014 annual meeting.The meeting marks the first time the women’s religious had met since Vatican officials imposed a requirement last April that the group pre-clear its speakers’ lists with Rome.LCWR leadership had snubbed their noses at that request–instead presenting their highest award, the Outstanding Leadership Award, to Fordham University’s Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, who is considered one of the architects of feminist theology. Sister Johnson’s book Quest for the Living God has been called by the U.S. Bishops’ Conference “seriously inadequate as a presentation of...

In November, I gave a talk about Pope Francis at the Call to Action conference, and every story, every quote I gave about him was greeted with smiles, cheers and laughter. It was something like a papal pep rally. In my inbox on Friday morning were no fewer than four no-nonsense messages from very upset Catholic organizations urging the signing of petitions calling on Pope Francis to apologize for Cardinal Gerhard Müller's harsh words to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and urging him to tell the Vatican to back off the "unjust reform agenda" it imposed on U.S. nuns....

The catholic Left will turn on Pope Francis when they finally realize that he is not going to conform to their liberal and heretical notions and agenda. The cracks are already appearing. Most liberals have been gushing about him since his election, because they took his folksy style and lack of papal decorum as a sign that he is a fellow traveller. But this Pope is not going to, for example, give approval to the ordination of women. He is not going to smile on gnostic ravings. He is not going to give the nod to moving beyond Jesus.And so...

I’ve been following with some bemusement the interchanges between Cardinal Mueller, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). For readers unaware of the developments, I'll present them here in abbreviated form:CDF: “Sisters, do you believe and affirm that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of the Father, begotten and not made, the second Person of the Holy Trinity?” LCWR: “Why are you asking us that question? What gives you the authority to ask it?”
     CDF: “Again, Sisters, do you believe and affirm that Jesus Christ is the eternal...

On May 8, the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR) issued a statement on their April 30 meeting with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.The statement is significant in that it’s a hopeful sign that the organization has heard the concerns expressed by Rome and may, in fact, be ready to listen–valuing its canonical status which has been conferred by the Holy See more than it values its autonomy.Because it’s so important a document, I’m permitting the Sisters to represent themselves, reprinting it below in its entirety.* * * * *First, the background. I outlined the problem in...

ROME, May 6, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The American Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which was placed under a mandate of reform by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last year, must drop its New Age ideas and return to the central teachings of the Catholic religion on Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and the nature of the Church, or risk being expelled as a recognized Catholic institution. In an address to LCWR officials in Rome on April 30, Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle,...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Using what he acknowledged was unusually "blunt" language, the head of the Vatican's doctrinal office rebuked officers of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for honoring a Catholic theologian whose work was judged "seriously inadequate" and for promoting futuristic ideas he described as "opposed to Christian revelation." Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, made the remarks April 30 in an address to the presidency of the LCWR, a Maryland-based umbrella group that claims about 1,500 leaders of U.S. women's communities as members, representing about 80 percent of the country's...

Orlando, Fla., Aug 24, 2013 / 10:15 am (CNA).- Sister Carol Zinn, the newly elected head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, said the Vatican’s doctrinal assessment of the conference is “much more about the future” of the Catholic Church and not primarily about the conference itself. “As women of the Church, we will discern how to move through the turbulent aftermath of the doctrinal assessment,” Sr. Zinn, a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, said during her remarks to the LCWR Leadership Assembly, held Aug. 13-16 at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Fla. “The processes...

Sr. Florence Deacon, OSF, outgoing president of the LCWR. Credit: Lisa Johnston for CNA. South Bend, Ind., Aug 24, 2013 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite a shift in tone, virtually no progress has been made toward the Vatican's goals for the reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, says an author who has closely followed the group. Group members “are making an effort to be more conciliatory, at least verbally,” said Ann Carey, author of the 1997 book “Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities” and the newly-released “Sisters in Crisis Revisited: From Unraveling to...

The Conrad Hilton Foundation has awarded a $2.3 million grant to the National Catholic Reporter to establish as “global sisters’ net,” providing “greater voice to countless Catholic sisters around the globe.” The grant to the National Catholic Reporter-- a newspaper with a long history of dissent from Catholic teaching—comes at a time when women religious in the United States are under Vatican scrutiny. Annette Lomont, the chairman of the board for the Reporter, said: “We’ve been standing with sisters from the beginning, and I consider the grant encouragement to go on telling their stories.” The Reporter explained that the grant...

The LCWR Woodstock 2013 has begun at Yasgur’s Farm … er… the Caribe Royale Resort near Disney World in Orlando.Today they had a talk from their featured speaker, Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF.Excerpts from the National Catholic Register coverage: LCWR Keynote Speaker Advocates ‘Cosmological Rethink’ of ReligionSister Ilia Delio discusses an ‘evolutionary’ approach with the women religious gathered in Orlando for the group’s 2013 annual assembly.ORLANDO — Sister of St. Francis Ilia Delio, melding science and theology, took her fellow women religious on a journey through the cosmos yesterday in her two-part keynote speech, “Religious Life on the Edge of...

The inimitable Sr. Maureen Fiedler has taken it upon her broad shoulder to be spokesone for the LCWR.Sr. Maureen Fiedler We know that a past mentor of the LCWR is annoyed that Archbp. Sartain (appointed by the CDF to keep his eyes on the nuns) is attending the proceedings (starting today) at the Caribe Royale in Orlando. HEREThe old guard is piping up.From the National Schismatic Reporter (aka Fishwrap) with my emphases and comments: LCWR: The coming assembly Maureen Fiedler | Aug. 13, 2013The website of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) offers this headline: “We welcome new members...

Here is something that I never thought I would write.Fr. Z kudos to Jamie Manson of the National Schismatic Reporter.One of Fishwrap‘s headliners, a darling of LCWR, the openly-lesbian, Margaret Farley-mentored Jamie Manson has sobered up about Pope Francis.She has a piece in the Fishwrap today in which she tosses Francis under the bus. Be clear about this: she is wrong in her positions, but she is honest enough to state her case clearly and she sees accurately what is going on.Context: she starts with the high hopes which the liberal, dissenting LCWR-ers had for Pope Francis, how jazzed they...

Vatican City, 8 May 2013 (VIS) – “The men and women of the Church who are careerists and social climbers, who 'use' people, the Church, their brothers and sisters—whom they should be serving—as a springboard for their own personal interests and ambitions … are doing great harm to the Church.” This is what Pope Francis asserted in his address to the participants in the plenary assembly of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) whom he received in audience this morning. The pontiff spoke to the sisters of obedience, poverty, and chastity: “Obedience as listening to God's will, in...

Rome Pope Francis is scheduled to have a private audience next week with the leadership group representing international women's congregations meeting in Rome for their triennial assembly, the group announced Friday.About 800 of nearly 2,000 members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) are meeting in Rome through Wednesday. They will meet privately with Pope Francis before his regular Wednesday general audience.Leaders of the sisters' group, which announced the meeting with the pope at a pre-assembly meeting Friday, could not recall the last time a pope had met with their general membership.Pope Benedict XVI canceled an audience scheduled for...