UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
By Maureen Fiedler | May. 7, 2013 NCR Today
I read with fascination Joshua J. McElwee’s story about Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, the prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and his talk to the International Union of Superiors General in Rome. And in it, I saw some glimmers of hope.
After all, how often do cardinals complain about their fellow cardinals in public? And how often do they suggest the need for women’s leadership in the church? Braz de Aviz did both.
First, Braz de Aviz made public his personal “pain” over the fact that he was “left out” of the discussions about the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) and the mandate that came down last year from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
That issue was no doubt on the minds of the 800 women attending the meeting. Franciscan Sr. Florence Deacon, the current president of LCWR, gave a presentation to the group detailing the “serious misunderstandings” between LCWR and the doctrinal congregation.
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