An unprecedented Vatican investigation of U.S. women’s religious orders that alarmed Roman Catholic sisters when the inquiry began years ago ended Tuesday with a report signaling a softer approach under Pope Francis.
The report praised sisters for their selfless work caring for the poor and promised to value their “feminine genius” more, while gently suggesting ways to serve the church faithfully and survive amid a steep drop in their numbers. There was no direct critique of the nuns, nor any demand for them to change — only requests that they ensure their ministries remain “in harmony with Catholic teaching.”
“There is an encouraging and realistic tone in this report,” said Sister Sharon Holland, head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the umbrella organization for most U.S. religious orders. “Challenges are understood, but it is not a document of blame, or of simplistic solutions. One can read the text and feel appreciated and trusted to carry on.”
The laudatory language contrasted sharply with the atmosphere in which the review started under Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Franc Rode in 2008 initiated the nationwide study when he led the Vatican office that oversees religious orders.
Rode left the post while the review was under way, and his successors had said they wanted a friendlier relationship with the sisters.
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, based in Maryland, said in a statement the document signaled “a hope for future dialogue and communion among and between women religious and church leaders.”
“The report is clearly focused on cooperation. It’s clearly focused on dialogue, which I think is not necessarily what people expected back in 2008 when this issue came up,” said Jana Bennett, a specialist in Catholic theology and ethics at the University of Dayton, Ohio.
Theological conservatives have long complained that after the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, women’s religious orders in the U.S. became secular and political while abandoning traditional prayer life and faith.
The nuns insisted prayer and Christ were central to their work.
