Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Pope Francis meets with representatives of the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican April 16.

Pope Francis spent 50 minutes with a delegation from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious on April 16. The symbolic encounter came after the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the L.C.W.R. announced that they had reached a positive conclusion to a three-year effort by the congregation to ensure that the L.C.W.R. carries out its work in harmony with the Catholic Church’s teaching. Thus ended, on an amicable note, a controversial process involving the C.D.F. and the leadership of the umbrella organization of over 80 percent of the 57,000 American sisters that had made international headlines. “We learned that what we hold in common is much greater than any of our differences,” Sharon Holland, I.H.M., president of the L.C.W.R., commented afterward. It had been known for some time in Rome that Pope Francis wanted to bring closure to this contentious and unhappy chapter in the relations between the Vatican (spurred on by some U.S. bishops) and the L.C.W.R. and to open a new, positive and constructive relationship with the sisters.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

On this episode of “Preach” for the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year C, Amirah Orozco joins host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., to offer a woman’s perspective on the adulterous woman that draws insight from liberation theologies.
PreachMarch 31, 2025
The altercation capped a month-long saga surrounding the Satanic group’s “black mass,” which founder Michael Stewart had sought to perform in the Capitol so that “God will fall and Kansas will be embraced by the black flame of Lucifer.”
As people of faith, we must defend migrants and refugees at a time when the state is increasingly moving to dehumanize them.
Rafael García, S.J.March 31, 2025
Francis' willingness to be seen in all his infirmity serves as an example to young and old alike that fragility is part of the human condition—and should be embraced.