Dialog Editor
Last week, the Vatican thanked 50,000 sisters in the United States for faithfully serving the church in challenging times. That was the heart of a 5,000-word report on a six-year Vatican ordered “apostolic visitation” of U.S. communities of religious women.
The visitation of American sisters was met with surprise and some suspicion among religious orders when it was announced in December 2008.
However, the official result promotes church unity and helps women strengthen their communities in fidelity to Christ, said Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, the prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL), the Vatican office that called for the visitation.
“I felt glad there was a conclusion,” said Franciscan Sister Ann Strohminger, who heads the Office for Religious in the Diocese. She also said she’s happy the final report was “pastoral in tone.”
The process had been announced by the former prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Franc Rode, who said the process would study community and prayer life of the religious women and why their numbers had dropped sharply during the last 50 years.
Last week’s report, written under a new prefect and also a new pope, was called “affirmative and realistic” by American sisters at its release, including Mother Mary Clare Millea, superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the apostolic visitor appointed by the Vatican; Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, superior general of the Sisters of Life and chairperson of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious; and Sister Sharon Holland, vice president of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).
See the full report at the Vatican’s website: http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2014/12/16/0963/02078.html
In Wilmington, Sister Ann noted the report “praised the sisters for their commitment; affirmed their vocation calling; and was realistic about the evolutionary changes [in religious life] since Vatican II.”
Those changes include a decline of about 125,000 women religious in the United States in the last 50 years, but the report notes the high numbers of sisters then was unusual and “not a norm to which we can return,” said Sister Sharon Holland of the LCWR.
Sister Ann said the Vatican’s tone about the assessment evolved during the process — “Something that happens when there’s a systematic change in the organization,” such as the change in prefects and the transition from Pope Benedict XVI to Pope Francis.
While there was “pain and anxiety” when the study of U.S. women religious was announced by the Vatican, Sister Ann said, “the grace of the process” was that it called forth “transformation within and among religious communities of women.”
As a result, religious communities “seriously engaged in discussion with one another exploring spirituality, mission and communal life,” Sister Ann said.
Because Rome wasn’t specific about what the visitation was about, or what would happen after the information was collected, Sister Ann said, “the unknown made people talk to one another. It made them trust God was with them in the process. “I think what came forth was a profound sense of hope and courage, because the future of religious life has gotten reignited, more energetic,” said Sister Ann.
The support from the laity of the United States for the sisters, during the process was a “strengthening factor” for U.S. sisters as well, Sister Ann added.
“We will move forward as faithful women who are committed to prayer and discern for mission in the life of the church,” she said.
The final report from the congregation cited both the “feminine genius” of women, a term often used by St. John Paul II, and called for continued dialogue with American religious.
“What do they mean by that?” Sister Ann asked.
“I would like to see the women religious and the congregation engage in a conversation and theological reflection about ‘ecclesial dialogue’ and ‘feminine genius’ and discover what we could learn from each other and this process. “I wonder where the Spirit would lead us if we opened that door?”
Last week’s findings from the Vatican’s office for religious (CICLSAL), were separate from the 2012 result of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s doctrinal assessment of the LCWR, when the Faith office called for a major reform of that organization to ensure its fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality, according to Catholic News Service.
The Vatican appointed Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain to implement the assessment of the congregation, by providing “review, guidance and approval, where necessary, of the work” of the LCWR. That process continues.
