American nuns encouraged by Jesuit pope's focus on poor

Vatican City — The election of a Jesuit pope devoted to the poor and stressing a message of mercy rather than condemnation has brought a glimmer of hope to American nuns who have been the subject of a Vatican crackdown, according to interviews with several groups.

The nuns were accused of having focused too much on social justice at the expense of other church issues such as abortion.

The 2012 Vatican crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest umbrella group for U.S. nuns, unleashed a wave of popular support for the sisters, including parish vigils, protests outside the Vatican embassy in Washington and a U.S. Congressional resolution commending the sisters for their service to the country.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered up the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR in 2009 around the same time another Vatican department launched an investigation into the 340 women's religious orders in the country in a bid to try to stem the decline in their numbers. The results of that review haven't been released.

But the doctrine investigation led the Vatican to impose a full-scale reform of the conference after determining the sisters had taken positions that undermined 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 ignoring critical issues, including fighting abortion.

In an interview with the Associated Press this week, U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the head of the U.S. bishops' conference, said he expected Pope Francis would bring "freshness" and understanding to the debate with the Leadership Conference, given Francis' own experience as a Jesuit familiar with the problems of life in religious orders.

Dolan said: "I think the greatest thing he's going to bring is to say to everybody 'Be not afraid. We're friends. We're on this journey together. We can speak openly to one another. We both have things to learn. We both have changes we need to make and let's serve one another best by being trusting and charitable yet honest to one another.'"

Dolan said it was "too early to say" whether Francis would take a softer approach on the crackdown than his predecessor, German theologian Pope Benedict XVI, and his then-chief doctrinal watchdog, Cardinal William Levada, who has since retired.

Sister Nancy Sylvester of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary from Monroe, who has held leadership posts in U.S. sisters' groups, said she has been encouraged by Francis' emphasis on the poor.

"I am really trying to be hopeful," Sylvester said. She said there were signs in Francis' public comments as pope and his track record "that he would be much more sympathetic to women religious."

"He's an intelligent man, his experience clearly has changed him and I think those are good signs," Sylvester said.

U.S. Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who preceded Dolan as head of the U.S. conference bishops, said he didn't expect any major shift in the process and said Francis' Jesuit background would actually bring the Vatican's reform greater credibility to its critics.

"He is a religious who governed a province through a lot of these difficulties," George said in an interview.

"It's one thing to be for the poor, it's another thing to be for the poor in a way that compromises the teaching of the church. He showed that. And if anybody can bring credibility to the religious superiors ... it will be a religious pope."

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, a social justice lobby founded by nuns four decades ago, said "it can make a big difference" to have a pope who knows about life in religious orders.

"This is a time of wait and see. I've talked to a lot of people (who) are more hopeful than they have been in a very long time," said Campbell.

"There is a huge hunger for spiritual leadership, real spiritual leadership, and I hope it goes to that and not to the internal political fights. ...."