Vatican Makes Peace With American Catholic Nuns: Pope Francis Seeks Harmony Before Visiting The US In Fall 2015

In a gesture of kindness, Vatican has decided to end its protracted confrontation with the Leadership of American Nuns, the largest Catholic women group in the United States. Clearly, Pope Francis wants to put to rest all tussles that his predecessor had kicked off. It only sowed rancour among many American Catholics who rallied behind the sisters’, defending their service and work.

Pope Francis is expected to visit the United States in the fall. So, Vatican and the American bishops also wanted to end all tussles, which are viewed by many Catholics as a vexing and unjust inquisition on the sisters who ran the church’s schools, hospitals and charities.

Surprise Meeting

In a benign gesture, the Pope held a meeting with the American nuns on April 16. The four representatives of the leaders of the Leadership Conference met the Pope and they were photographed at the Papal office. They were deeply heartened” by Francis’ “expression of appreciation” for the lives and ministry of Catholic sisters.

The previous pope, Benedict XVI had appointed three bishops in 2012 to overhaul the nuns’ group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, on the charge that it hosted speakers and published materials that strayed from Catholic doctrine on matters such as all-male priesthood, birth control and sexuality, and the centrality of Jesus to the faith. On the contrary, Pope Francis, with his benign outlook is not interested in the church policing doctrinal boundaries and is more keen on demonstrating mercy and love for the poor and destitute.

Welcome Change

Signals are out that Vatican under Francis is taking a more conciliatory approach to American sisters. In December 2014, it announced the scrapping of another investigation on American women’s orders. That investigation process had questionnaires to 350 religious communities and teams of “visitors” to 90, probing about everything from their prayer practices to living arrangements.

The investigations were started at the behest of American and foreign prelates, who accused the sisters of disobeying the bishops and departing from Catholic doctrine. That time, an American cardinal, William Levada issued a report indicating that the Leadership Conference had “serious doctrinal problems” and the sisters were promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” The nuns were also accused of spending more time working against poverty and social injustice than abortion and same-sex marriage.

In 2012, Vatican appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle with assistance from Bishop Leonard Blair of Hartford and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., to spend as many as five years assessing and overhauling the Leadership Conference.

Nuns Defense

However, leaders of the nuns’ group, which represents 80 percent of Catholic sisters in the United States insisted that the accusations were unfounded and Vatican does not understand the “culture and process of American women’s religious orders, many of which harp on open discussion and communal decision-making.”

Finally that confrontation approach is now ending thanks to the grace of Pope Francis and rigorous dialogue will happen with Archbishop Sartain and others to iron out the misperceptions. In a statement, Sister Sharon Holland, president of the Leadership Conference, said, “We are pleased at the completion of the mandate, which involved long and challenging exchanges of our understandings of and perspectives on critical matters of religious life and its practice.”

Archbishop Sartain in a conciliatory tone said, “Our work together was undertaken in an atmosphere of love for the church and profound respect for the critical place of religious life in the United States, and the very fact of such substantive dialogue between bishops and religious women has been mutually beneficial and a blessing from the Lord.”

(For feedback/comments, contact the writer at k.kumar@ibtimes.com.au)