CDF tightens curbs on US nuns

THE PREFECT of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has rebuked the organisation that represents most American nuns for honouring a sister whose work it deems “seriously inadequate” and for promoting ideas “opposed to Christian revelation”.

In both instances, Cardinal Gerhard Müller said the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) had alienated itself further from the US bishops. Addressing the LCWR presidency in Rome, Cardinal Müller told officials they would not be completely free to determine whom they invite to speak to meetings or whom they honour with awards.

The LCWR represents more than 80 per cent of the 57,000 religious sisters in the United States. In 2012, the CDF published the results of a three-year investigation into the group’s fidelity to church teaching.

In his address, Cardinal Müller admitted he was speaking “bluntly” and rebuked the LCWR for conferring its 2014 Outstanding Leadership Award on Sr Elizabeth Johnson, a feminist theologian whose book Quest for the Living God, according to Müller, contains “doctrinal errors”.

“This is a decision that will be seen as a rather open provocation against the Holy See and the doctrinal assessment. Not only that, but it further alienates the LCWR from the bishops as well,” warned Cardinal Müller.

The cardinal criticised the group’s invitation to Barbara Marx Hubbard, an exponent of conscious evolution, to address its 2012 annual assembly, saying the ideas behind the concept are “opposed to Christian revelation”.

In the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR, published in 2012, Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle found “serious doctrinal issues” and a focus on social justice above “the fundamental Christological centre”.

In a statement to the US-based Catholic News Service, LCWR officials said the interaction with Müller and his staff was “respectful and engaging”.

n Asked about Cardinal Müller’s critique of Sr Elizabeth Johnson, Cardinal Walter Kasper, former president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, replied: “This is not a tragedy … St Thomas Aquinas was suspect, too. She is in good company.”