The beginning of the end?

Word has come out that the Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious has come to an end.  The results of the assessment are devastating for the LCWR.

As posted by Rocco Palmo:

Citing "serious doctrinal problems" found over the course of a four-year study of the umbrella-group representing the majority of the US' communities of nuns, the Holy See has announced a thoroughgoing shake-up of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), naming Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle as its delegate to conduct an overhaul of the group.

Among other concerns raised in an eight-page summary of the doctrinal inquest released today, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cited addresses at LCWR conferences that, it said, manifested a "rejection of faith," protests of church teaching on homosexuality and the ordination of women by officers of the group, and a "prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith" in some of the conference's events.

"The current doctrinal and pastoral situation of the LCWR is grave and a matter of serious concern," the dicastery said.

The eight-page summary written by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is pretty straightforward.  In part, it gives the LWCR cudos for "a great deal of work on the part of LCWR promoting issues of social justice in harmony with the Church’s social doctrine".  

Nonetheless,  "it is silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States."

The LWCR is silent because it doesn't believe, for the most part, in any type of "right to life" as the Church defines it.  Many sisters in the LWCR are vocal proponents of abortion and/or artificial birth control.  Sister Barbara Battista, SP, is one of those sisters of dissent.


Hopefully, real change is in store.  If not, we may see the wholesale collapse of the LCWR.  Maybe their charter will be revoked, and the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) will be the sole representative for women religious in the United States.

The congregations that are part of the CMSWR are traditional, young....and growing.  Compare photos of members of the CWSWR to those of the LCWR. 

This is a photo of LCWR members from the Sisters of Providence:

Shown are the Sisters of Providence 2010 general officers, from left, Sister Dawn Tomaszewski, Sister Jeneen Howard, Sister Mary Beth Klingel, Sister Lisa Stallings and Sister Denise Wilkinson, who was re-elected general superior

Below,  a photo of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist:

The average age:  28.