Vatican Goes After U.S. Nuns and Women

On Monday, the National Catholic Reporter reported that the Vatican rebuked the largest umbrella organization for U.S. nuns for planning to honor Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a theologian whose work has been criticized by U.S. bishops for containing “misrepresentations” and doctrinal errors. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) was sharply criticized by the Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, in a speech that was made public on Monday. He said that after this disagreement, all LCWR honorees must be pre-approved by the Vatican, a reform first proposed under Pope Benedict XVI after an investigation concluded that U.S. nuns were promoting “radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.” The LCWR would only comment that Mueller’s staff was “respectful and engaging.”