ROME
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | May. 3, 2013
ROME Pope Francis is scheduled to have a private audience next week with the leadership group representing international women’s congregations meeting in Rome for their triennial assembly, the group announced Friday.
About 800 of nearly 2,000 members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) are meeting in Rome through Wednesday. They will meet privately with Pope Francis before his regular Wednesday general audience.
Leaders of the sisters’ group, which announced the meeting with the pope at a pre-assembly meeting Friday, could not recall the last time a pope had met with their general membership.
Pope Benedict XVI canceled an audience scheduled for the group during their last assembly, held in Rome in May 2010, because of preparations for his visit to Portugal the same month.
Pope Francis’ decision to meet with the group is “a sign of hope, of interest for women religious,” said Sr. Maria Theresa Hoernemann, a native German who serves on the sisters’ group’s executive board.
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