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Friday, April 20, 2012

Roman Ecclesiology at its Finest


As the largest leadership organization for U.S. women religious begins to discern what steps to take following news Wednesday that the Vatican has ordered it to reform and to place itself under the authority of an archbishop, experts say the options available to the group are stark.

Ultimately, several canon lawyers told NCR, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious has two choices: Either comply with the order or face ouster as a Vatican-recognized representative of sisters in the United States.

What’s more, the lawyers say, LCWR has no recourse for appeal of the decision, which the U.S. bishops' conference announced Wednesday in a press release. That release stated that, following a three-year "doctrinal assessment" by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain had been appointed to review and potentially revise the organization's policies.

One prominent canon lawyer, Oblate Fr. Frank Morrissey, summed up the situation facing LCWR in one sentence: “If they want to continue as a recognized conference, they’re going to have to work with this.”

Another, Jesuit Fr. Ladislas Orsy, also put it succinctly: “It’s not very complicated. The Vatican is taking control. They are taking control ... and they hope that in five years, they will put [LCWR] on a different track.”

While other canon lawyers contacted by NCR generally confirmed Orsy and Morrissey’s analysis, they declined to speak on the record, citing the sensitivity of the situation. A short press release from the LCWR on Thursday morning said the group was preparing to meet with its national board members “within the coming month to review the mandate and prepare a response.”

On the one hand, we know all these ladies are the feminist kinds of liberals, who got to where they are because of “the Spirit of Vatican II”, which enabled the liberal factions within the RCC to gain ascendancy. So here you have an organization that represents the leadership of some 80% of the “women religious” in the US.

On the other hand, now, the Vatican is doing what we’ve chastised them for not having done all along: bringing discipline to bear on its errant members, especially the errant leadership within its ranks.

I’ve got a little bit of news for the Vatican. This isn’t the 1950’s, and these are not, by and large, regenerate women they’re dealing with.

Let’s just see how this goes. Because there are other unregenerates within the Roman Catholic ranks, some in high places.

This is Roman ecclesiology at its finest.

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