The decision to enter into a "conversation" with Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle was announced at the end of the LCWR's annual assembly in St Louis.

Outgoing president Sister Pat Farrell told reporters that "we are charged to enter into a process of dialogue", but matters of doctrine would not be the LCWR's starting point.

Rather, the dialogue would start with "our own lives and our understanding of religious life". She also said the LCWR would reconsider if it was forced to "compromise the integrity of its mission".

An assessment by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in April said a reform of LCWR was needed to ensure its fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women's ordination and homosexuality.

Sister Farrell said the LCWR members hoped its leaders would have "open and honest dialogue" that would lead to greater understanding and to greater opportunities for women to have a voice in the Church.

She said members of the LCWR wanted to be "recognised as equal in the Church", to have their style of religious life "respected and affirmed", and to help create a climate in which everyone in the Church could talk about "issues that are very complicated".

Sister Sandra Schneiders, professor emeritus of New Testament studies at the Jesuit School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, said: "There is definitely a desire to de-escalate the conflict, because fighting is not what we're about."

But she said there were also "non-negotiables", including the belief that God speaks through many people, not just through the bishops.

Archbishop Sartain praised the sisters, saying: "We must also work toward clearing up any misunderstandings, and I remain truly hopeful that we will work together without compromising Church teaching or the important role of the LCWR."

Sources:

St Louis Review

New York Times

Image: St Louis Review

Franciscan Sister Pat Farrell was addressing the 900-strong assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in St Louis, Missouri.

The LCWR's 1500 members represent about 80 per cent of US congregations of female religious.

The assembly is the first since the Vatican's doctrinal assessment, which said reform was needed to ensure fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas that include abortion, euthanasia, women's ordination and homosexuality.

Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, who is to supervise the reform, is not attending the assembly. Mercy Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of media relations for the US bishops' conference, said he offered to come, but was told his presence "would not be helpful".

In a telephone media conference before the assembly, Sister Farrell said it would work on normal business as its response to the Vatican. "We don't want to allow this doctrinal assessment to really take over the mission and the entire agenda of our organisation because we do have other important things to be about," she said.

Asked if a democratic vote of the membership would be taken, she said "a sense of the membership" would be determined. "Our process of discernment is typically not taking a vote," she explained.

In a welcoming address, Archbishop Robert Carlson of St Louis praised the work of the sisters and their influence on his own life. Referring briefly to the standoff with Rome, he cited as a model the conflicts between apostles Peter and Paul in the early days of the Church. "They managed to work things out then, and I pray that you will work things out now," he said.

In a blog post on the eve of the assembly, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the US bishops' conference, wrote "We Catholics love the Sisters!" and voiced confidence that they would survive the "examination by Rome".

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Catholic News Agency

National Catholic Register

Image: New York Times

Last April the Vatican announced a major reform of the 1500-strong association, under which it will be supervised by three bishops.

The national assembly (under the theme of "Mystery Unfolding: Leading in the Evolutionary Now") will be in St Louis, Missouri, from August 7 to 11.

Interviewed by National Public Radio, the LCWR president, Sister Pat Farrell, said the options include fully complying with the Vatican mandate, not complying with the mandate and seeing if the Vatican will negotiate, or "to remove ourselves [and] form a separate organisation".

"In my mind, [I want] to see if we can somehow, in a spirited, nonviolent strategising, look for maybe a third way that refuses to define the mandate and the issues in such black and white terms," she said.

In the interview, Sister Farrell defended the LCWR against Vatican criticisms and said these centred on the group's unwillingness to follow the policy directions of the hierarchy, rather than active resistance.

On the issue of ordaining women, the LCWR president said the group had not advocated that since the Vatican's definitive statement that women cannot be ordained.

She defended LCWR members' periodic letters to the Vatican on issues of sexuality, including gay/lesbian issues, saying, "We have been in good faith raising concerns about some of the Church's teaching on sexuality. The teaching and interpretation of the faith can't remain static and really needs to be reformulated, rethought in light of the world we live in and new questions, new realities as they arise."

On abortion, she described the work of women religious as "very much pro-life". But she added: "We would question, however, any policy that is more pro-fetus than actually pro-life. You know, if the rights of the unborn trump all the rights of all those who are already born, that is a distortion, too."

Sources:

National Public Radio

National Catholic Reporter

Image: National Pubic Radio