Letters

US religious women

Richard Congram

Contents - Jul 2012 - Buy a copy now Homily: Benedict XVI: Sts Peter and Paul and the priesthood - Pope Benedict XVI Religious Freedom: Prague's Cardinal Duka thanks Australians for helping religious prisoners - Peter Westmore News: The Church Around the World Campus Life: A new model for Catholic university chaplaincy in Brisbane - Br Barry Coldrey Obama and same-sex 'marriage': Shaking his fist at God - Babette Francis The climate alarmist 'religion' and Third World poverty - David Legates Benedict XVI calls for reform of US Catholic higher education - Hilary White Austrian Chancellor's son: How faith helped to survive the Nazis - Michelle Baumann Update: 'Jesus Abandoned' aid reaches the needy in Nigeria - Madonna Brosnan 'Born again': how to change from a nominal to a "living" Christian - Andrew Kania Benedict XVI: Grave threats to the Church's moral witness - Donald R. McClarey Letters: Papal infallibility - Peter D. Howard Letters: Reasons for Hope - Anthony English Letters: Transubstantiation - Frank Mobbs Letters: US religious women - Richard Congram Letters: Anti-Catholicism - Fr. M. Shadbolt Letters: Caritas - P.W. English Letters: Communion reception - Ken Bayliss Letters: Patron Saints - Fred Preshaw Books: ANSWERING THE ANTI-CATHOLIC CHALLENGE, by Robert M. Haddad - Angela Schumann (reviewer) Books: FR ALEXANDER MEN: Martyr of Atheism, by Michel Evdokimov - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: THE FACE OF GOD and THE TRUE ICON, by Paul Badde - Paul MacLeod Books: Order books from www.freedompublishing.com.au Letters: The Year of Grace and the New Evangelisation - Fr Dennis Byrnes

Four years ago the Vatican ordered an investigation into the activities of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the US. In January 2011 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) concluded that grave doctrinal and pastoral problems existed within LCWR. Those deviations included avoiding or rejecting Church teachings on abortion, euthanasia, family life, human sexuality and the ordination of women, as well as public disagreement with positions adopted by the American bishops.

Last month the CDF announced a program for reform of the LCWR, under the supervision of the Archbishop of Seattle (see June AD2000 article).

Now we know very well that Rome never acts in haste, and we can be sure that the CDF decision was based on solid evidence of infidelity to true Catholic teaching. Yet, incredibly, the president of Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) has written to the president of LCWR expressing the CRA members' unqualified support for their American colleagues ( Catholic Leader, 13 May 2012). Sadly, dissent remains alive and well within the Church.

RICHARD CONGRAM
Carindale, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 25 No 6 (July 2012), p. 14