Vatican acts to rein in ‘feminist’ U.S. nuns

‘Radical’ sisters told to stick to church’s age-old doctrines.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican insisted after a high level meeting Tuesday that American nuns must faithfully promote ageold church teachings, after the women were accused by Rome of flouting core doctrine and taking an overly liberal “feminist” bent.

Sister Pat Farrell and Sister Janet Mock, respectively president and executive director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), met with the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada and the American bishop tasked by the Vatican to overhaul the group which represents about 80 percent of American sisters.

Farrell and Mock came to Rome to present their concerns about the Vatican’s April decision to reform the LCWR from the ground up. Levada’s office had determined that the LCWR had strayed too far from church doctrine and was imposing certain “radical feminist themes” that were incompatible with Catholicism.

The LCWR had termed the Vatican assessment flawed and unsubstantiated, and said Tuesday that Farrell and Mock had brought those concerns directly to Levada and Archbishop Peter Sartain, who, along with two other bishops, will overhaul the group, rewrite its statutes and review its plans and programs.

“It was an open meeting and we were able to directly express our concerns to Cardinal Levada and Archbishop Sartain,” Farrell said in a statement.

The Vatican said the meeting was conducted in an atmosphere of “openness and cordiality.” But in its own statement, it stressed that the LCWR must promote church unity by stressing core church teachings.

The Vatican’s crackdown on the nuns has prompted a remarkable outpouring of support from ordinary Catholics and clergy alike, who have touted the good work the sisters do in education, health care and tending to the poor. Mock told reporters such support has been “very affirming” for the sisters.

Atlanta hosts U.S. bishops conference this week.

AP Pope Benedict XVI, greeted by nuns earlier this month in Milan, has been trying to restore Catholic traditions he believes were lost in modernizing reforms.