ST. LOUIS (RNS) — American nuns facing a Vatican takeover of their leadership organization Aug. 10 rejected Rome’s plans to recast the group in a more conservative mold, but declined — for now — to respond with an ultimatum that could have created an unprecedented schism between the sisters and the hierarchy.
Instead, the nuns said they wanted to pursue a negotiated solution to the showdown that has galvanized American Catholics in recent months and prompted an outpouring of support for the sisters that left the Vatican with a black eye.
The statement from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) came at the end of the LCWR’s annual assembly in St. Louis and was the first formal response to the Vatican from the entire organization, which represents most of the 56,000 nuns in the U.S.
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