Pope Unexpectedly Cuts Short “Overhaul” of “Radical” US Nun Group

Pope Francis I General papal audience in St. Peter's Square, The Vatican, Rome, Italy - 04 Mar 2015 (Rex Features via AP Images)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican has announced the unexpected conclusion of a controversial overhaul of the main umbrella group of U.S. nuns — a major shift in tone and treatment of American nuns under the social justice-minded Pope Francis.

The Vatican said Thursday 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.”

When the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith took over the LCWR in 2012, it accused the group of taking positions that undermined Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality while promoting “certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

It envisioned a five-year overhaul, fueled by concerns among U.S. conservatives that the group had strayed from church teaching.

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  1. I’m not a Catholic, but it will be interesting to see what this means on the ground, out in the field, where it affects real humans. When living in San Francisco, I always had a special place in my heart for the nuns I saw. (I am not speaking about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, though they are rather special in their own way, too).

  2. It’s one of the great untold and unappreciated stories of American Catholic history:
    19th century Catholic women – thousands of them – spreading across the United States, founding hospitals and schools where ever they stopped, building them ( sometimes literally) themselves from the ground up

    America owes a debt to Catholic nuns…priests, not so much.

    http://www.amywelborn.com/reviews/sisters.html

  3. It’s most un-Christian of me, but I’m interested in seeing whether he manages to create a wave of bishops and cardinals retiring because of blood pressure problems.

  4. LOL. I second that!

  5. Very true. Modern hospital policy regarding cleanliness, housekeeping, proper patient care, even the back office–and more–all owe their beginnings to the many selfless, countless nuns who started or restructured so many hospitals all across America, including Hawaii.

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