VATICAN CITY (CNS): The Vatican said it would not punish two nuns it had asked not to attend a conference on women’s ordination.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls confirmed on July 6 that the Vatican had asked the nuns not to attend the June 29-July 1 Women’s Ordination Worldwide Conference in Dublin, Ireland.
‘The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life thought it would be inopportune for the two religious to participate in the women’s ordination conference because of the possibility of outside manipulation. The congregation did not consider taking disciplinary measures,’ Mr Navarro-Valls said.
A US nun who spoke at the conference, Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, said her participation was neither ‘divisive or defiant’, but was ‘rooted in the best history of the Church’.
She told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview on July 6 that she decided to participate after her community was instructed by the Vatican ‘to do what was best for the Church’.
