UNITED STATES
The Sacramento Bee
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 18, 2012
The Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog announced Wednesday a full-scale overhaul of a group representing most U.S. nuns and named an American archbishop to oversee the reform.
The Vatican agency cited the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest umbrella group for Roman Catholic religious sisters in the United States, for using materials that “do not promote church teaching” on family life and sexuality, for sometimes taking positions in opposition to the nation’s bishops and for being “silent on the right to life from conception to natural death, a question that is part of the lively public debate about abortion and euthanasia in the United States.”
Representatives for the women’s group, based in Silver Spring, Md., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain will manage the five-year reform, which will include rewriting the group’s statutes, reviewing all its plans and programs – including approving speakers – and ensuring the group properly follows Catholic prayer and ritual.
The report specifically cites a social justice group associated with the conference called NETWORK, which played a key role in supporting the Obama administration’s health care overhaul despite the bishops’ objections. The announcement Wednesday made no direct mention of President Barack Obama’s health care law, but said Sartain will review the Leadership Conference’s ties with NETWORK.
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