TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
BY DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
The Vatican has called on Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo to help lead reform of an organization representing 80 percent of American nuns, saying the “doctrinal and pastoral situation” of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious “is grave and a matter of serious concern.”
The appointment announced Wednesday follows Bishop Blair’s lead role in a two-year “doctrinal assessment” of the nuns’ group, which included reviewing a decade’s worth of the nuns group’s annual conferences, keynote speeches, and documents and publications. The assessment, released Wednesday, found the group’s teachings to be “problematic” in certain areas, citing concerns over the organization’s position on homosexuality and the ordination of women and its “silence” on some foundational Catholic doctrines such as the right to life.
The Vatican said Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle will lead the new reform initiative, assisted by Bishop Blair and Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., and working with nuns in the group’s leadership.
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