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May 27, 2014
LCWR leaders, U.S. archbishop
respond to Vatican official’s remarks
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The recent
rebuke of the officers of the Leadership
Conference of Women Religious by the
head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office
should be viewed as one part of his
entire remarks and one aspect of the
group’s visits and ongoing dialogue
with Vatican officials, according to a
statement by LCWR officers.
In his April 30 meeting with LCWR
officials, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, voiced “increasing concern”
about the LCWR’s promotion of the
“concept of conscious evolution” in various publications and “directional statements” of some member congregations.
He also criticized the group’s plan to
honor a Catholic theologian, St. Joseph
Sister Elizabeth Johnson, whose work
he said has been judged “seriously inadequate.”
The cardinal made the remarks 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 57,000 women Religious. The
group is currently undergoing a major
reform ordered by the Vatican in 2012.
“Over the past several days, there has
been much public commentary on the
opening remarks” of Cardinal Muller,
LCWR officers said in a May 8 statement. The group’s leaders described the
cardinal’s address as “constructive in its
frankness and lack of ambiguity. It was
not an easy discussion, but its openness
and spirit of inquiry created a space for
authentic dialogue and discernment.”
They also said their meeting with the
cardinal should be viewed within the
context of all of their visits to Vatican offices where they “experienced a culture
of encounter, marked by dialogue and
discernment.”
In 2012, the Vatican announced a
major reform of the LCWR to ensure its
fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s
ordination and homosexuality. The
Vatican appointed Seattle Archbishop
J. Peter Sartain to implement the congregation’s “doctrinal assessme