New York City, USA - Protesting the Vatican’s criticism of the United States’ largest organization of Roman Catholic nuns, a group of people gathered outside the annual spring meeting of U.S. bishops in Atlanta on Wednesday and delivered a petition asking the bishops to intervene on the nuns’ behalf.
The Nun Justice Project, made up of several Catholic groups, began coordinating nationwide vigils for nuns after the Vatican reprimanded the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in April for “serious doctrinal problems” that included promoting “radical feminist themes.”
“Our goal with the petition was to ask the bishops to work with the Vatican to rescind its judgment,” said Erin Saiz Hanna, a spokeswoman for the Nun Justice Project and executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, who said signatures were gathered for each of the 57,000 nuns in the United States.
“With the nationwide vigils and this petition, Catholics have made it clear that they stand in solidarity with the sisters and their good work among the poor and marginalized,” Ms. Hanna said.
A photo posted online Wednesday showed the petition being accepted outside the hotel by a spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The nuns’ conflict with the Vatican was not among the items listed on the public agenda for the meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The discussion Wednesday was dominated by the church’s effort to prevent clergy sexual abuse, threats to domestic and international religious freedom, the economy and plans to celebrate the Year of Fair, starting in October. Parts of the three-day meeting can be seen on video.
On Tuesday, Sister Pat Farrell and Sister Janet Mock, two of the leaders of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, met with Vatican doctrinal officials in Rome and the Seattle archbishop, J. Peter Sartain, who has been assigned to manage the conflict with the nuns in the United States, to discuss the “doctrinal assessment.”
The report criticized nuns for supporting the Obama administration’s overhaul of the health care system and for not speaking out enough on same-sex marriage and abortion. They said the nuns should not “disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals.” Those positions include homosexuality and female priests.
The meeting was described in an official Vatican statement as being held in an atmosphere of “openness and cordiality.”
Speaking to BBC reporters after the meeting, Sister Farrell said: “We’re grateful for the opportunity for open dialogue, and now we will, the next step will be, again, we go to our members to decide how to proceed from here.”
The National Catholic Reporter published its account of the meeting, saying that the “Vatican official responsible for the recent crackdown said he still believes the relationship can work, but also warned of a possible ‘dialogue of the deaf,’ reflected in what he sees as a lack of movement on the Vatican’s concerns.”
“Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, floated the possibility that should the LCWR not accept the reforms outlined in an April 18 assessment, the result could be decertifying it in favor of a new organization for women’s religious leaders in America more faithful to church teaching.”
The group, representing about 80 percent of the nation’s nuns, holds its annual meeting in August, and some members have said it might be time for the nuns to create a separate group apart from the Vatican, which set up this organization in the 1950s.
Starting on Monday, a group of nuns will begin a nationwide bus tour, as my colleague Laurie Goodstein reports, to highlight the social justice work that nuns provide and draw attention to the impact on the poor of budget cuts under the plan put forth by Representative Paul Ryan, a Republican.
The group, Network, was cited in the Vatican report for putting too much of an emphasis on social justice issues. Now it is using its Facebook page, a Twitter account, a Web site called Nuns on the Bus and an interactive map showing its planned stops in nine states to highlight the social services and social justice work that nuns perform.
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director for Network, also made a television appearance on “The Colbert Report.”
It turns out their tour will run during the same time the Catholic bishops are organizing a “Fortnight for Freedom,” two weeks of rallies and prayer services on religious freedom.
Ms. Hanna from the Nun Justice Project is among the people and readers discussing the Vatican’s approach in The Times’s Room for Debate forum on the issue. Join the discussion at Room for Debate, or please leave your comment here.