[1] Founded in 1956, the conference describes its charter as assisting its members to "collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today's world."
[4] According to Associated Press' Vatican correspondent, Nicole Winfield, the investigation "embittered many American Catholics against what they perceive as heavy-handed tactics by Rome.
"[5] While Pope Francis, elected after the investigation began, reaffirmed it and the organization's members were ordered to review their statutes and reassess their plans and programs, the Holy See in its conclusion praised the nuns' work.
Its mission is to "promote a developing understanding and living of religious life by":[8] The membership of the LCWR is composed of women who are the superiors, or leaders, of their respective congregations.
In November of that year, the committee of nuns in the U.S. called a meeting in Chicago of general and provincial superiors of pontifical communities to consider the formation of a national conference.
[24] On October 7, 1979, Theresa Kane, former president of the LCWR, issued a formal plea during Pope John Paul II's Apostolic visit to the United States at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for "providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all ministries of the church.
"[25] According to Franciscan Florence Deacon, someone doing the doctrinal assessment in 2012 may have been concerned with a statement made 35 years earlier in 1977 which was in favor of women's ordination, which the LCWR had never withdrawn.
[30] On December 22, 2008, Franc Rodé, prefect of the CICLSAL announced it would conduct an apostolic visitation of U.S. women religious to examine their quality of life, ministries, vocation efforts, and financial status,[31] which many saw as indictment against some of the less traditional communities within the LCWR by "seeking answers about 'the soundness of doctrine held and taught'.
[36] Raymond Burke, then prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, declared on a televised interview that "the question is now for conversion to the true nature of religious life" and if the LCWR "cannot be reformed, then it does not have a right to continue.
[27]: 2 The doctrinal assessment would evaluate three "major areas of concern": According to Laurie Goodstein, the controversial investigation, which was viewed by many U.S. Catholics as a "vexing and unjust inquisition of the sisters who ran the church's schools, hospitals and charities," was quietly closed in 2015 after a delegation from the conference met with Pope Francis.
[39] In April 2012, the CDF "announced a major reform of the LCWR" and described "the need to remedy significant doctrinal problems associated with the group's activities and programs ... in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women's ordination and homosexuality.
According to Cathy Lynn Grossman, reporting for USA Today, "The assembly instructed the LCWR officers to conduct their conversation with Archbishop Sartain from a stance of deep prayer that values mutual respect, careful listening, and open dialogue.
[49][50] In October 2012, when it was said in an interview that the LCWR did not speak out on abortion, contraception, and gay marriage, Florence Deacon responded that "Jesus welcomed sinners with the idea that they would be drawn to change their lives."
According to Deacon, the LCWR opposed the Bush tax cuts because the Gospel encourages Catholics to create a world in which everyone has what they need so they can live as full human beings and develop their faith.
"[53] Citing the group's choice of futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard as the 2012 keynote speaker, Father Mitch Pacwa said that LCWR has had a New Age approach for some time.
"He met with them himself for almost an hour, and that's an extravagant amount of papal time," said Eileen Burke-Sullivan, a theologian, consultant and vice provost for mission and ministry at Creighton University, a Jesuit institution.
"[38] Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times said that Francis's handling of the matter appeared to reflect that "he is less interested in having the church police doctrinal boundaries than in demonstrating mercy and love for the poor and vulnerable – the very work that most of the women's religious orders under investigation have long been engaged in.
"[59] Müller said that the Vatican is certain that the LCWR is "fostering a vision of religious life that is centered on the Person of Jesus Christ and is rooted in the Tradition of the Church."
[60] When the conclusion was announced in April 2015, Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University, noted, "Anything coming out of the Vatican this morning is nothing other than a fig leaf because they can't say 'oops' in Latin.
Father James Martin, who wrote frequently about the conflict as an editor of the Jesuit magazine America, said: "What you see with the sisters is true courage, which is being faithful to the church authority and also to who they are.
The extraordinary effort to have the Vatican take control of the sisters' main communal voice – the Leadership Conference of Women Religious – ended with none of the aggressive bombast of Rome's initial announcement of the inquiry under Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI.
[65]: t3:25 "It doesn't make sense," Sartain reasoned about the speakers selected by the LCWR, "that a conference of Women Religious would want to give a platform to somebody who would espouse ideas antithetical to what the Church teaches.
The statement expressed the organization's gratitude that Pope Francis "shed light on a reality that has been largely hidden from the public and we believe his honesty is an important and significant step forward."