IDENTITY: CLAIMING LEADERSHIP

“We are faithful; therefore we are not afraid.”

I have worked with women religious (nuns and sisters) for more than twenty-five years. Shortly after the publication of Leadership and the New Science in 1992, a colleague gave me great advice. He said that if I was interested in organizations that worked from a strong sense of values, as I’d written about, then I should be working with the military and nuns. At the time it seemed an outrageous mix, but it was absolutely true. (You have already read of my work with the Army Chief of Staff, and in later chapters, you’ll read two more stories that involve either the military or nuns.) What you read here are my personal descriptions and interpretations of events, not those of any of the sisters involved.

In 2012, acting on information gleaned from a doctrinal assessment, the Vatican exerted its patriarchal power in demanding that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) come into compliance with the doctrines of the Catholic Church. LCWR is the membership organization of sisters/nuns who lead the many orders and chapters of women religious in the United States. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) informed LCWR that “in order to implement a process of review and conformity to the teachings and discipline of the Church, the Holy See through the CDF will appoint an Archbishop delegate assisted by two bishops for review, guidance and, where necessary, approval of the work of LCWR.” From my perspective, the women were being told to surrender their autonomy and come into obedience under Vatican rule.

LCWR functions like most professional associations in what they offer to 1,200 leader-nun members: retreats, seminars, mentoring, advisement, publications, lobbying, and an annual assembly that focuses their leadership on the world’s most pressing needs. Just the titles of these assemblies are inspiring: Embracing the Mystery: Living Transformation; Leadership Evolving: Graced, Grounded & Free; Springs of the Great Deep Spring Forth: Meeting the Thirsts of the World.

I have spoken at two of these assemblies, most recently in 2016. The Vatican doctrinal assessment, with the Mandate for Implementation, seriously questioned the sisters’ explorations of new cosmology, homosexuality, Christ in the world, and their choice of some of the speakers at these assemblies. So from the start, I had somewhat of a personal interest in how LCWR would respond. But much more important, over the years, I had developed deep relationships with several of the LCWR members. It was pure privilege to be in the background, walking with them as they undertook a three-year journey with patriarchal abuse, a journey that ended well because of many influences, including the atmosphere created by Pope Francis of inclusion and dialogue and their own reliance on contemplation and prayer as they sought direction. LCWR’s journey was the steadiest and most enlightened embodiment of leading from integrity I have ever witnessed.

In late 2009, the Vatican began a different investigation of U.S. women religious, the Apostolic Visitation. All four hundred chapters or institutes of U.S. sisters were investigated by Vatican representatives (see Section Five: Perception, “A Tale of Two Stories”). These investigations began shortly after the revelations of the pedophilia scandals. As is common among leaders in trouble, they attempted to shift the spotlight off themselves and pivot attention onto the women. (The pedophilia scandals had already caused thousands of American Catholics who were still devoted to their faith to leave the official church and start home churches.)

Why the men in power ever thought this would work shows how blind they were: They believed they could act with total power and impunity when it came to the women of the church.

There were two separate investigations, aimed at different levels. The first series of investigations (described in Section Five) involved all women religious in the United States, more than 50,000 nuns and sisters. The second move by the Vatican was to insist that the more than 1,200 leaders of nuns and sisters come into obedience and docilely submit to Vatican control. So it was that in April 2012, the Vatican turned attention to the LCWR: they issued a doctrinal assessment that included their plans, a Mandate for Implementation. The first display of their blinding arrogance was how they issued the mandate. In April, the Leadership of LCWR (composed of three presidents—past, present, future—working as one and also the executive director) were at the Vatican for their annual visit; these were regular yearly meetings between the many offices of the Vatican and LCWR to strengthen relationships between the sisters and the Church.

Their most significant meeting was with a cardinal and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (a title that gives me the shivers). In this meeting, an eight-page document was read to them. The first pages delineated the doctrinal assessment (their failings), and the second half described the Mandate for Implementation, laying out a five-year process to bring them into compliance (i.e., obedience) with Church doctrine. The document was severely critical of the work they had been doing, even saying they had not been living as faithful Catholics. The four women were completely blindsided by this—it had come with no warning. And before they even had left the chamber, the Vatican released the mandate to the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops website.

These two acts—intentionally surprising the leaders and releasing it immediately to the world—completely backfired. Why the Vatican thought they could go public (before the leadership of LCWR could inform their members) and not incite a reaction is nearly beyond belief, but very revealing. (There were many times in the ensuing three years when it felt to me as an observer that certain men in the Vatican would have preferred the good old days of the Inquisition. Seriously.)

American and Catholics worldwide reacted in outrage. Over 800,000 emails and letters were sent to LCWR, and others were sent to the Church hierarchy. People treasured the nuns and their lives of dedicated service—some wrote of the gifts they had received from nuns in schools, hospitals, and service to the poor. The Vatican demands for orthodoxy dishonored all their contributions: their dedication to living a vowed life, doing Christ’s work, serving the poor and suffering. Instead, the measure of their good work was to be their compliance with orthodoxy.

I can only describe their three-year journey as a walk in ever-deepening faith. The sisters were well prepared for this. A few years prior, in another difficult situation, one of them had responded to a challenge by voicing what now became their mantra: “We are faithful; therefore we are not afraid.” Each time they encountered opposition, dealt with meanness, felt betrayed, stood their ground, became weary, it was their faith that supported them. And so it deepened and, in contemplation, showed them the way forward.