ST LOUIS (CNS): Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle “listened carefully” to the concerns and feelings of board members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and asked for the board’s help in learning more about “members’ experience and understandings of religious life”, the LCWR said after an August 11 meeting with the archbishop.
Archbishop Sartain was charged with overseeing the group’s reform after an assessment issued in April by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith questioned the organisation’s fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality.
An August 13 statement from LCWR said the board had been charged by its membership at an August 7-10 meeting in St Louis with articulating “its belief that religious life, as it is lived by the women religious who comprise LCWR, is an authentic expression of this life that must not be compromised”.
The board also told Archbishop Sartain that “the expectation of the LCWR members is that open and honest dialogue may lead not only to increasing understanding between the Church leadership and women religious, but also to creating more possibilities for the laity and, particularly for women, to have a voice in the Church”.
In his own statement after meeting with the LCWR board, Archbishop Sartain said he remained “committed to working to address the issues raised by the doctrinal assessment in an atmosphere of prayer and respectful dialogue”.
“We must also work toward clearing up any misunderstandings, and I remain truly hopeful that we will work together without compromising Church teaching or the important role of the LCWR,” Archbishop Sartain said in a statement released on August 11 after his meeting with the LCWR board.
“I look forward to our continued discussions as we collaborate in promoting consecrated life in the United States.”
Archbishop Sartain said in his statement LCWR brought “unique gifts to its members and to the Church at large”.
“This uniqueness includes sensitivity to suffering, whether in Latin America or the inner-city; whether in the life of an unborn child or the victim of human trafficking,” he said.
LCWR members announced on August 10 at the close of their four-day assembly that they would continue to dialogue with Church officials about the Vatican’s doctrinal assessment of their organisation.
LCWR’s outgoing president Franciscan Sister Pat Farrell, said members hoped LCWR leaders would have “open and honest dialogue” that would lead to greater understanding and to greater opportunities for women to have a voice in the Church.
Sr Farrell said the officers would “proceed with these discussions as long as possible but would reconsider if LCWR is forced to compromise the integrity of its mission”.
