… A few weeks ago, approximately 800 members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious gathered in Nashville, Tenn. Against a backdrop of Vatican criticism of their organization and of the sister who would receive LCWR’s annual award, the sisters listened as a Vatican representative listed eight points for their reflection.
“A letter from the prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life — the acronym they use is CICLSAL — challenged the sisters, asking: 1) about their return to the sources of Christian life; 2) had they adapted in an evangelical way to the changed conditions of the times; 3) if their supreme rule is to follow Christ in the Gospel; 4) do they preserve their founding charisms; 5) do they “think with the church”; 6) are their members made aware of the needs of the church so they may live in communion with others; 7) is each member loved personally; and, 8) whether obedience and authority are dimensions of the life of true fraternity amongst them or instruments of power and of enslavement, perhaps disguised by an unhealthy spirituality?
“My friends, can we not surround clericalism with this octagon of statements? Can we not consider the specter of an unfeeling church bureaucracy that ignores real situations? Can we not reflect on the ways some clerics personally and institutionally treat others?”
By Phyllis Zagano, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this column
Notes for Sunday’s sermon (on clericalism) / National Catholic Reporter
Voice of the Faithful
A lay movement for governance reform in the Roman Catholic Church, responding to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and supporting survivors.
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Voice of the Faithful ® 
#1 by Ed Wilson on August 27, 2014 - 11:02 PM
To the Editor:
The prefect of the Vatican¹s Congregation for religious orders (Actual name much lengthier) is Brazilian Cardinal Bras de Aziz, who has not been unfriendly to the sisters. He was upset, and said so, when the Doctrinal Congregation, headed by Moeller, issued their blast at the LCWR around 2012. The eight questions Professor Zagano cites from the religious orders congregation strike me as softballs that the nuns can easily knock out of the park.
The big issue, in my view, is what will Moeller and the USCCB do in the face of the very string, defiant, and fact based reaction of Elizabeth Johnson and the LCWR to the almost comically ignorant blasts from the USCCB Committee on Doctrine in 2011 and Moeller last April, wherein the American bishops and the Vatican doctrinal guys condemned Johnson¹s book, ³Quest for the Living God² as heretical. Neither statement by these high-ranking prelates would indicate that any of them had bothered to read the book they were condemning. As Johnson said in her speech accepting an award from LCWR on August 15, this level of carelessness with the truth is not worthy of the teaching office of bishops. So let¹s see whether our spiritual leaders find a graceful way to back off the awkward position into which they have placed themselves. Or will they plow ahead and condemn the sisters¹ defiance?
Ed Wilson Brooklyn
on 8/27/14 1:19 PM, Voice of the Faithful ® at comment-reply@wordpress.com wrote:
> Voice of the Faithful posted: ” … A few weeks ago, approximately 800 members > of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious gathered in Nashville, Tenn. > Against a backdrop of Vatican criticism of their organization and of the > sister who would receive LCWR’s annual award, the sisters” >
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