Pope crackdown on nuns in US continues. Why? [View all]

[Kelvin Mace]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0505/Pope-crackdown-on-nuns-in-US-continues.-Why

The Vatican official overseeing the crackdown on the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns is pressing forward with the overhaul under Pope Francis.

Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the Vatican orthodoxy watchdog, reprimanded officers of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for planning to honor a theologian who had been criticized by U.S. bishops and said the sisters must show more willingness to cooperate.

Mueller made the remarks in a meeting last Wednesday with the group's leaders in Rome. He apologized repeatedly for speaking so bluntly, while reminding the sisters their organization held its status within the church only through Vatican approval.

The reform order was issued in 2012 under now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, after an investigation concluded the nuns' group had taken positions that undermined Roman Catholic teaching on the priesthood and homosexuality while promoting "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." Investigators praised the nuns' humanitarian work, but accused them of focusing too much on social justice and ignoring critical issues, such as fighting abortion.

The nuns' group rejected the Vatican findings as "flawed" and based on "unsubstantiated accusations." Some sisters had hoped for a new approach under Pope Francis, a Jesuit who has stressed mercy over morals and has made social justice issues his top priority.

In last week's meeting, Mueller, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said he supported the conclusions of the Vatican review.

Please note that the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" is the more Orwellian name for the Inquisition, or more accurately, the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition".

It would seem that despite the rhetoric, little is really changing in the RCC.