NEW YORK - The American nuns who were harshly condemned by the Vatican in April as failing to uphold Catholic doctrine responded Friday in strong terms, saying the Vatican’s assessment was based on “unsubstantiated accusations’’ and a “flawed process’’ and has caused scandal, pain, and polarization in the Roman Catholic Church.
The nuns issued a statement after six weeks of virtual silence, during which their religious communities across the country mulled over the Vatican’s startling pronouncement and Catholics across the country rallied to support the nuns.
The Vatican had announced it would dispatch three American bishops to lead a complete makeover of the sisters’ principal organization, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents about 80 percent of American nuns.
After three days of discussion and prayer in Washington this week, the 21 national board members of the group decided they could not accept the Vatican’s verdict and would send their president and executive director to Rome on June 12 to open a dialogue with Vatican officials.
Sister Pat Farrell, president of the leadership conference, said Friday in a telephone interview, “We do want to go and speak the truth as we understand it about our lives.’’ She said the sisters had been “stunned by the severity’’ of the Vatican’s pronouncement, which accused them of such transgressions as promoting radical feminism and contradicting the bishops.
The sisters were also concerned that the assessment was conducted almost entirely by written communication, she said, with only “minimal contact’’ with officials at the Vatican office that issued the conclusions, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Among the accusations the nuns considered “unsubstantiated’’ was the Vatican’s charge of promoting “radical feminist themes,’’ Farrell said.
“Even large sectors of the church itself have legitimate concern and want to continue to talk about the place of women in the church, and rightful equality between men and women,’’ said Farrell, who is a member of the leadership team of the Sisters of St. Francis, of Dubuque, Iowa. “So if that is called radical feminism, then a lot of men and women in the church, far beyond us, are guilty of that.’’
The Vatican ordered a “doctrinal assessment’’ of the women’s leadership conference in 2008 after years of concerns about its direction.
The conference was formed in 1956 to provide communication and coordination among communities of sisters, and is a canonical organization, which means it answers to the Vatican.