Vatican Report on US Nuns to Be Released on 16 December

Independent Catholic News
December 4, 2014

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=26179

Good Shepherd Sisters

In less than two weeks, the long-awaited final report on women's religious orders in the United States will be released, Kathy Schiffer reports for Aleteia news service.

According to Vatican spokesperson Father Thomas Rosica, a press conference will be held at the Vatican on 16 December. At that press conference, three American nuns will join Vatican officials to publicly reveal the final report of a five-year investigation of congregations of Catholic sisters in the US. The inquiry was initiated in 2009 under now-retired Cardinal Franc Rode, following concerns by many that some congregations of women religious had become too liberal and had abandoned traditional religious lifestyles.

Speaking at the press conference will be the prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Institute of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, and the Congregation's secretary, Archbishop Jose Rodriguez Carballo.

Also participating will be three American women religious: Sister Sharon Holland, head of the Monroe-based Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) congregation and current president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR); Mother Agnes Mary Donovan of the Sisters of Life, who leads the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious; and Mother Mary Clare Millea, who led the Apostolic Visitation inquiry for the Vatican.

Fr Rosica is president of Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario, and serves as a Vatican spokesperson. He told the Detroit Free Press that while he could not divulge contents of the report, he expected it to allay the fears of many Catholic sisters about the investigation. He said, "It will hopefully be a very positive message for women religious in the United States.... There were a lot of unfounded fears."