Scottish Catholic Observer

A prominent US Catholic nuns group said it was left ‘stunned’ that it had been reprimanded in a Vatican report saying it had defied Church doctrine.

In a report issued last week, the Vatican said the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the main US association of Catholic nuns, had been ‘silent on the right to life’ and had failed to make the ‘Biblical view of family life and human sexuality’ a central part of its agenda.

It also reprimanded American nuns for expressing positions on political issues that differed, at times, from views held by American bishops.

The nuns’ group said in a statement on its website: “The presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was stunned by the conclusions of the doctrinal assessment.”

Sr Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, also rejected condemnation from the Vatican report.

“We haven’t violated any teaching,” Sr Simone said, insisting the group would not stop ‘caring for the least among us on the margins of society.’

Network was singled out for supporting women’s health rights in the Vatican report but Sr Simone (above) said the group, which works with the LCWR and vocally supported President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform legislation, would not shy away from its mission, calling the Vatican report ‘painful’ and puzzling.

The report accused members of the LCWR, which represents around 80 per cent of the 45,000 nuns in the US, of ‘corporate dissent’ with the Church’s teachings against homosexuality, and claimed it was pursuing ‘radical feminist themes.’

LCWR has come under criticism from the Catholic hierarchy for endorsing President Obama’s US healthcare reform, including its provisions on abortion and contraception, in the run-up to the US election in November.