Archive for category Religious Women
Pope names three women to Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops / Vatican News
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, church reform, Future of the Church, Pope Francis, Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on July 13, 2022
“… the first time women have been appointed to the Dicastery responsible for identifying future bishops globally.”
By Deborah Castellano Lubov, Vatican News
Pope Francis on Wednesday named three women to the Dicastery for Bishops, the first time women have been appointed to the Dicastery responsible for identifying future bishops globally.
The Holy See Press Office published the Pope’s latest appointments to the Dicastery in a statement on Wednesday.
The female members are Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State; Sister Yvonne Reungoat, F.M.A, former Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; and, Dr. Maria Lia Zervino, President of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations.
The nomination of Ms. Zervino also marks the first appointment ever of a laywoman to the Vatican Dicastery.
By Deborah Castellan Luboc, Vatican News — Read more …
Women religious blaze new trails in roles of authority at the Vatican / Global Sisters Report
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Pope Francis, Religious Women, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church, Women in the Church on May 2, 2022
Much of the change has been fueled at the top by Pope Francis, who in his nearly decadelong papacy has repeatedly elevated the work of religious women.
By Christopher White, Global Sisters Report, National Catholic Reporter
“When Pope Francis met more than 850 religious sisters attending the International Union of Superiors General plenary meeting in Rome in 2019, the pope insisted that the chair for the body’s then-president, Sr. Carmen Sammut, be seated right next to him.
“At the time, both Sammut, a Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa, and those in the room were touched by the pope’s deeply symbolic gesture to level the playing field.
“Now, as delegates from around the globe prepare to travel again to Rome for this year’s May 2-6 plenary, a wave of new appointments of sisters inside the Vatican has made it clear that Francis is backing that symbolism up with substantive changes and making room for more women religious to have a permanent seat at the table.
“‘Change takes time,’ said Sr. Patricia Murray, executive secretary of the International Union of Superiors General, which represents 600,000 sisters from around the globe.”
By Christopher White, Global Sisters Report, National Catholic Reporter — Read more ...
U.S. Catholic clergy shortage eased by recruits from Africa / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy, Future of the Church, Priests, Religious Women, Voice of the Faithful on January 3, 2022
During his 18 years in the U.S., Abanulo has filled various chaplain and pastor roles across the country, epitomizing an ongoing trend in the American Catholic Church. As fewer American-born men and women enter seminaries and convents, U.S. dioceses and Catholic institutions have turned to international recruitment to fill their vacancies.
Kwasi Gyamfi, Associated Press, in National Catholic Reporter
Fr. Athanasius Chidi Abanulo — using skills honed in his African homeland to minister effectively in rural Alabama — determines just how long he can stretch out his Sunday homilies based on who is sitting in the pews.
Seven minutes is the sweet spot for the mostly white and retired parishioners who attend the English-language Mass at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in the small town of Wedowee. ‘If you go beyond that, you lose the attention of the people,’ he said.
For the Spanish-language Mass an hour later, the Nigerian-born priest — one of numerous African clergy serving in the U.S. — knows he can quadruple his teaching time. ‘The more you preach, the better for them,’ he said.
As he moves from one American post to the next, Abanulo has learned how to tailor his ministry to the culture of the communities he is serving while infusing some of the spirit of his homeland into the universal rhythms of the Mass.
“‘Nigerian people are relaxed when they come to church,’ Abanulo said. ‘They love to sing, they love to dance. The liturgy can last for two hours. They don’t worry about that.'”
By Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, Associated Press, in National Catholic Reporter — Read more …
In Vatican magazine exposé, nuns reveal their economic exploitation / The New York Times
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on March 2, 2018
The stories amount to a distress signal about the unfair economic and social conditions many nuns experience, as well as the psychological and spiritual challenges that many face. (The New York Times)
Sister Marie told of nuns who worked long hours to cook and clean for cardinals and bishops, without being asked to break bread at the same table.
“Sister Paule pointed out that many nuns did not have registered contracts with the bishops, schools, parishes or congregations they worked for, ‘so they are paid little or not at all.’
“Sister Cécile said that ‘nuns are seen as volunteers to have available at one’s calling, which gives rise to abuse of power.’
“These stories — told by sisters using pseudonyms — were revealed Thursday (Mar. 1) in an exposé about how nuns are exploited by the leaders and institutions of the Roman Catholic Church. The article, by the French journalist Marie-Lucile Kubacki, was published in the March edition of Women Church World, the monthly magazine on women distributed alongside the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
“The stories amount to a distress signal about the unfair economic and social conditions many nuns experience, as well as the psychological and spiritual challenges that many face.”
By Elisabetta Povoledo, The New York Times — Read more …
Vatican dialogue with U.S. women religious continues, says cardinal / Catholic Herald
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Pope Francis, Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on June 17, 2016
More than a year after the conclusion of the Vatican’s apostolic visitation of US communities of women religious, the Vatican has begun asking more than a dozen orders to send their superiors to Rome to discuss concerns that surfaced.
“‘We did a very positive report at the conclusion of the visitation,’ a report that looked at the life of women’s congregations in the United States as a whole and was released in December 2014, said Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
“But ‘there remained about 15 — more or less — congregations that we needed to speak with about a few points,’ the cardinal told Catholic News Service on June 14. The cardinal had attended a news conference about a new document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith looking at the relationship between the hierarchy and communities or movements that arise from ‘charismatic gifts.'”
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, in Catholic Herald — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Global women religious leader asks them to do synod’s unfinished work / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Synod of Bishops, Synod on the Family, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on October 26, 2015
The leader of the umbrella group for some 600,000 global Catholic women religious has said that in the wake of this month’s Synod of Bishops the women are called to carry forth the pastoral work that the official church is sometimes not able to do.
“Maltese Sr. Carmen Sammut — who participated in the Oct. 4-25 Synod as one of 32 women who took part in non-voting roles alongside the 270 prelate-members — said the women religious should engage with people church institutions may not even know need help.
“‘I think that we should not give up our role at the frontiers of the church,’ said Sammut, who heads the International Union of Superiors General (UISG).”
By Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Editorial: LCWR and the Vatican: relations were fixed, not transformed / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on August 24, 2015
The U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious, meeting for the first time since the Vatican put an end to an investigation of the organization, had much to celebrate. It had survived intact, apparently free for the time being from further Vatican interference. The women expressed warm feelings toward those who helped them work through the crisis, particularly Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain, who received high marks for integrity and skill at mediating the controversy.
“In our community of faith, there is no planning or accounting for grace or the movement of the Spirit, just an expectation that both infuse our lives and actions in abundance. At the same time, the tension in the serpent and dove analogy is also always with us.
“So we dare to note, amid the celebration and despite the salutary outcome of the LCWR investigation and the earlier investigation of U.S. women religious generally, that a number of institutional realities regarding the Vatican’s attitudes toward women remain unchanged.”
By National Catholic Reporter Editorial Staff — Click here to read the rest of this editorial.
LCWR president: a new era of communion with Vatican closes ‘cultural chasm’ / Global Sisters Report
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on August 13, 2015
The controversial investigations of U.S. women religious by the Vatican — and resulting tensions — stemmed largely from a ‘cultural chasm,’ the group’s president said Wednesday (Aug. 12).
“But that chasm is closing, she said, and a new era of communion seems to have begun.
“Immaculate Heart of Mary Sr. Sharon Holland, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, told the group’s annual assembly that behavior that is very normal for a woman in American culture — such as asking questions and thinking critically — might easily be perceived as disrespectful in another setting.
“Holland understands one of those settings well: She spent 21 years as a canon lawyer in Rome, where she was one of the highest-ranking women in the Vatican. Now vice president of her community in Monroe, Michigan, and in her final days as president of LCWR, Holland gave the presidential address Wednesday (Aug. 12) morning to the approximately 800 LCWR members gathered here in Houston. The organization is made up of Catholic women religious who are leaders of their orders in the United States; communities in LCWR represent about 80 percent of the nearly 50,000 women religious in the United States.”
By Dan Stockman, Global Sisters Report — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Hierarchy’s flaws persist despite collegial end to LCWR investigation / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on May 1, 2015
It seems, in what can be gleaned from the final report of the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, that a certain reasonableness ultimately prevailed in an exercise that has rightfully been called ‘a disaster.’
“Religious women remain one of American Catholicism’s great treasures. Of all the matters in the church in need of investigation, the organization whose members are leaders of more than 80 percent of women religious in the United States was not one of them.
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s ‘assessment’ of LCWR was a disaster, an unnecessary sign of distrust. Keeping that assessment in mind should temper the celebration coming from some quarters of the church and commentariat acclaiming the success of ‘dialogue.’”
Editorial by National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this editorial.
Vatican ends controversial three-year oversight of U.S. sisters’ leaders / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Religious Women, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful, Women in Catholic Church on April 16, 2015
A controversial three-year program of Vatican oversight of the main leadership group of U.S. Catholic sisters has come to a curt and unexpected end, with the sisters and the church’s doctrinal office announcing that the goal of the oversight ‘has been accomplished.’
“The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has accepted a final report of the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, ‘marking the conclusion’ of the oversight, the Vatican announced Thursday (Apr. 16).
“The lengthy process saw the Vatican issue what the sisters called unsubstantiated sharp critiques of their work and life while appointing Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain to oversee a program of reform for LCWR. Thursday’s news release says the Vatican and the sisters both noted the ‘spirit of cooperation’ of the ordeal.
“The end of the mandate, the Vatican release says, came in a meeting Thursday morning between LCWR officers, Sartain, and officials of the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation. Sartain and the LCWR officers presented a joint report on the implementation of the mandate, which the doctrinal congregation approved.”
By Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this story.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the Religious Women category.
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.
Voice of the Faithful- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Voice of the Faithful ® 