Visitation Report ‘Soon’

The Vatican Congregation for Religious hopes to release its final report on the 2009-10 visitation of U.S. women’s communities “soon.” Speaking to reporters on Jan. 31 at the Vatican, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, O.F.M., secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said: “We are working intensely on the final report, and after careful study and consideration, we think it will be made public soon. We’re at a good point. I think we can conclude it before the beginning of the Year for Consecrated Life” in November. The former prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Franc Rodé, initiated the visitation in January 2009, saying its aim would be to study the community, prayer and apostolic life of the orders to learn why the number of religious women in the United States had declined so sharply since the 1960s. Cardinal Aviz noted that the visitation of U.S. communities of women is completely separate from the ongoing “doctrinal renewal” of the U.S.-based Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which is being undertaken through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.