FLORIDA
National Catholic Reporter

Joshua J. McElwee | Aug. 15, 2013 NCR Today

ORLANDO, FLA. The archbishop given expansive oversight by the Vatican of U.S. Catholic sisters met Thursday here with some 825 of their representatives, speaking for about 40 minutes in a closed-door session held under lock and key.

Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain was meeting with members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), over whom the Vatican has placed the prelate as “archbishop delegate” and given wide power to revise statutes and programs.

The meeting was the first between Sartain and the full membership of the sisters group since the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith gave him his authority in April 2012.

Standing outside the assembly hall where Sartain was speaking, the prelate’s voice could be heard faintly for about 37 minutes. Afterwards, there was about a minute of clapping before voices…