- Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) - Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter in which he reaffirms that the priesthood is reserved to males only.
- Dominus Iesus (2000) - Declaration on the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church
- The Church's teaching on homosexuality
Cardinal Levada came to his decision while in communication with Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo, Ohio - a native metro-Detroiter, and a member of the USCCB's Committee on Doctrine, will conduct the assessment. (N.B.: Our own Abp Allen Vigneron is also a member of the Committee on Doctrine)
For those who may not be familiar with the subject, there are two councils that I am aware of for women religious in the US (at least two with significant numbers). One is the Leadership Conference for Women Religious, which is the larger of the two (and shrinking rapidly with a high average age). The other is the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious which has fewer communities, but is seeing a steady increase and, in some of them, explosive growth. The LCWR has been around since 1956. The CMSWR is a canonically approved organization founded in 1992 whose members are committed to orthodoxy and follow a more traditional form of religious life (some moreso than others). One only needs to click around the two sites to see the difference (I almost missed it, but to see the site menu at CMSWR you need to put your cursor over the blue, vertical bar on the left that moves up and down as you scroll).
A younger generation is rejecting communities that have lost their way when it comes to Catholicism. This is evident by contrasting the average age, and the number of new candidates. New age practices have permeated some of them and they have abandoned the basics. Thankfully, the CDF has turned it's attention to this conference for the good of the Church.
For those of us who have followed their "activities and initiatives" online, this doctrinal assessment of the LCWR is long over due. On this point, I'm going recommend you read an entry by Jack Smith of the Catholic Key - the blog of Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph: Why the LCWR is being investigated.
Further reading:
- Second Women's Visitation (Tom McFeely, NC Register)
- Amy Welborn blogs the LCWR investigation (Beliefnet)
- Great news: Vatican to investigate America's bossy feminist nuns (Damian Thompson, UK Telegraph)
- Vatican will also have a doctrinal investigation of women’s religious communities (Fr Z) - note the combox is up to 60 comments as of this posting.....more reading material.
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