VATICAN CITY
The New York Times
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
DEC. 16, 2014
A Vatican investigation of American nuns started under the previous pope, which prompted protests from outraged Catholics, ended in Rome on Tuesday with the release of a generally appreciative report that acknowledged the achievements and the challenges the nuns face given their dwindling ranks.
The relatively warm tone in the report, and at the Vatican news conference that released it, was a far cry from six years ago when the investigation was announced, creating fear, anger and mistrust among women in religious communities and convents across the United States.
“Sorry, folks, this is not a controversial document,” Mother M. Clare Millea, an American nun who directed the investigation, said at the news conference. Instead, she said, it was “a challenge for all of us.”
Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Tuesday with some of the women and men in religious orders who were involved with the long investigative process. Mother Millea said that Francis told them he knew that it was an “arduous experience,” and said of the nuns in the United States, “Please give them all my blessing.”
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