The Nun Justice Project responds to Apostolic Visitation Report (media round-up)

The Nun Justice Project is a grassroots movement supported by the following organizations: American Catholic Council, Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church, Call To Action, Catholics for Choice, CORPUS, DignityUSA, FutureChurch, New Ways Ministry,Quixote Center, RAPPORT (Renewing a Priestly People, Ordination Reconsidered Today), Voice of the Faithful, WATER: Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual, Women’s Ordination Conference.

The Women’s Ordination Conference worked in collaboration to release a statement following the Vatican’s report on the Apostolic Visitation, released 16 December 2014. Here are a few of the articles where the “Nun Justice Project” was mentioned:

Vatican report on U.S. nuns is conciliatory, stresses teachings (Reuters)

The Nun Justice Project, a U.S. group which organized demonstrations to defend the nuns, said the investigation had been a waste of time.

“(The nuns) had to divert precious resources away from ministries to the marginalized just so Rome could discover what Catholics have known all along: U.S. women religious are among the most inspiring and faithful of Catholics,” it said.

Vatican “Nun Report” Is Surprisingly Uplifting — But What About Those “Radical Feminist” Sisters? (Bustle)

“While this first Vatican report on the nuns may have been successful, the LCWR is still under pressure from the Vatican — a fact that continues to anger Catholic laypeople, who have been rallying behind the religious sisters through the Nun Justice Project. The leaders of the project called on the Vatican on Tuesday to immediately rescind the mandate placed on the LCWR and apologize to the American sisters.

“Until the mandate is removed, the faithful and creative leadership of U.S. sisters remains under unjust Vatican scrutiny,” the Nun Justice Project said, adding that “reconciliation will not be fully accomplished” until the Vatican relinquishes control of the 50,000 religious sisters.”

Vatican Report Cites Achievements and Challenges of U.S. Nuns (New York Times)

The Nun Justice Project, a coalition of Catholic groups organized to defend the sisters, on Tuesday called the visitation process “demeaning and a huge waste of time” that diverted the sisters from vital work.

Women religious and others react to apostolic visitation report release (Global Sisters Report/NCR)

American Nuns React To New Vatican Report, Saying It ‘Reflects Our Reality’ (International Business Times)

The Nun Justice Project, a Catholic group that is opposed to the mandate the LCWR faces, said the latest report represents a positive “first step” to reconcile with American sisters. Still, the group called the investigation “demeaning and a huge waste of time.”

The resources the Vatican and religious communities spent on the investigation led to a conclusion that “Catholics have known all along,” the group said. “U.S. women religious are among the most inspiring and faithful of Catholics and led the way in implementing Vatican II reforms.

Vatican Praises U.S. Nuns After Years-Long Investigation (Democracy Now!)

The Vatican has praised the role of nuns in the United States following a controversial years-long probe into their adherence to Catholic doctrine. The report marks a shift in tone from a 2012 Vatican reprimand which resulted in an all-male takeover of the largest group of U.S. nuns. The nuns were accused of promoting “radical feminist” ideas and challenging teachings on homosexuality and the all-male priesthood. At a news conference Tuesday, Sister Sharon Holland, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, praised the latest Vatican findings.

Sister Sharon Holland: “As the report itself acknowledges, the visitation was met by some religious with apprehension and suspicion. The expressed purpose — to look into the quality of life of religious women in the United States — was troubling. Some congregations reported that their elder sisters felt that their whole lives had been judged and found wanting. Despite the apprehension, however, today we are looking at an affirmative and realistic report which we know is based on the study of written responses and on countless hours of attentive listening.”

In a statement, the Nun Justice Project called the investigation into Catholic women “both demeaning and a huge waste of time and energy.”

American Nuns and the Vatican: More Pain than Promise (Religion Dispatches)

Vigorous pushback by the nuns and other Catholic lay people, especially the Nun Justice Project of which I am a part, was an attempt to end clerical dominance and to reshape the top-down structure of the church, as much as it was a defense of the women religious’ right to live by their own lights. While women religious do seem to have won a victory in the latter case, nothing has shifted in the direction of a horizontally integrated model of church.

A Week of “Good News” Shows How Bad Christian Women Still Have it (Slate)

It’s tempting to think of the report as a six-year nuisance that ultimately reinforced the nuns’ relevance. But the very existence of the inquiry was a chauvinistic exercise that rightly outraged many Catholics. The Nun Justice Project deemed it a “huge waste of time” and “demeaning.” And on WBUR last week, Simone Campbell of Nuns on the Bus reminded us of some of the other things that the church had to worry about in 2008—like pedophilia, lack of fiscal responsibility, and generally poor management. In light of those troubles, it’s baffling that the church chose to pick on the Catholic sisters for scrutiny.