UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider
The Vatican’s inspection of the female religious institutes in the U.S.A has softened
Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City
Three years ago, the former cardinal Franc Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life had started the inspections to look into the “styles of life” of nuns in the United States. After the Vatican received reports of serious problems of doctrinal disobedience and failure to adhere to the Catholic Church’s Magisterium, Cardinal Rodé entrusted Mary Clare Millea, the American mother superior of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with the task of shedding light on the issue. Proof of this “ultra-liberal” drift was the fact that U.S. convents were pointing out groups of nuns who were giving the “go-ahead” to Obama’s health reforms which included women’s right to abortion. Visitations proceeded amid the protests of some nuns’ associations who complained of their religious orders’ loss of independence as a result of being subjected to the “Holy See’s modern Inquisition.” Meanwhile, in Rome, changes were being made to the leadership of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life. The first arrival was that of 59 year old Mgr. Joseph William Tobin from Detroit, formerly superior general of the Redemptorist fathers, who took up his post as the new Secretary of the Vatican dicastery.
He immediately put the U.S nuns at rest with regards to the effects of the Visitation underway, softening its impact before it had even concluded. Cardinal Rodé yielded his post to João Braz de Aviz, former archbishop of Brasilia. And now that the inspection is over, there seems to be a willingness on the part of the Congregation, to create ties with the nuns and to help them improve in a constructive manner without appearing as an external censor whose sole purpose is that of correcting errors. Despite this new portrayal of the Visitation, it appears that not everything has gone smoothly: indeed, it seems that at least a third of U.S. female convents have not opened its doors to the Vatican, which set up its Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Society of Apostolic Life on December 22nd, 2008.
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