Declare a Nuns' Emancipation Proclamation from Vatican Control

                    Declare a Nuns' Emancipation Proclamation from Vatican Control

Press Release:  April 23, 2012

From: The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
Contact: Janice Sevre-Duszynska: rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com; 859-684-4247
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiaBMM@aol.com; 703-505-0004
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org
http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests celebrates the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and the nearly 60,000 women religious they represent in the United States. We reject the unjust, bullying behavior of the scandal-ridden Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who has ordered the LCWR to reform itself more closely to “the teachings and discipline of the Church.”  It is the corrupt hierarchy, who has spent billions of dollars and devastated the lives of thousands of youth in the sexual abuse crisis that needs reform, not the dedicated nuns in the United States.

Now is the time for the LCWR to speak truth to power. Declare a nuns’ emancipation proclamation from Vatican control. Challenge Vatican misogyny publicly.  Affirm primacy of conscience and gender equality including women's ordination.
 
"As a Sister for Christian Community, I belong to an independent community of women religious not under Vatican control," Bridget Mary Meehan reflects. “This means that I am blessed with freedom to live my vocation as a woman priest. "

Nuns who are called by God and their communities should be able to serve as priests.

“Religious communities of women have been the backbone of the church and the heart that pumps hope through the life of the church,” said newly ordained woman priest Miriam Picconi of Palm Coast, Florida.
 In the Biblical prophetic tradition the sisters have devoted their lives to living Gospel justice and reading the signs of the times.  They have heard the cries of the poor, the exploited and the abandoned.  Lifting oppression and birthing community and right relations, women religious have been at work transforming the world.
 We as women priests express our gratitude to the sisters, our mentors and teachers, who have been inspired by the Spirit.  They have re-discovered and reaffirmed in us the Feminine Wisdom of God.  They have blessed the love and commitment of same-sex partnerships.  They have encouraged us women called to priesthood to live out our call.  They have been prophetic voices for the liberating activity of the Spirit in our church and world.  We stand in prayerful solidarity with all nuns and the LCWR in time of crisis. May women religious lead the church into a new beginning of justice and equality!