The cover story in our latest issue is a response from an (anonymous) American sister to the Vatican's visitation and "doctrinal assessment" of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. It probably won't surprise you that she's not entirely pleased.

I want to offer my own view, as an ordinary member of a congregation that belongs to the LCWR, of what is happening to American sisters.Let me begin by saying that I want to believe in the good will of the institutional church. An essential part of my commitment to Christ is a belief in the holiness of the church; that is what I professed when I took my vows. For me, religious life outside the structure of the institutional church is hardly imaginable. I love the church. I love its vision of God, its Scriptures and sacraments, its heritage, its tradition of faithful change, its saints and thinkers. I believe in its mission and future.Yet my reaction to the visitation, and especially to the prospect of doctrinal assessment, contains more than a little skepticism. While Im glad for a chance to let Rome know the truth about our lives and our devotion to Christ, I cant help suspecting that those behind these initiatives are not primarily interested in the quality of my spiritual life. To put it bluntly, I feel that American women religious are being bullied. The fact that the visitation is apparently being paid for by anonymous donors, and that the leaders of our communities will not be permitted to see the investigative reports that issue from it, does not engender trust. And indeed, the dynamics of the visitation and investigation so far have been experienced by women religious as secretive, unfriendly, and one-sided.

Please read the whole thing. (And then you might want to check out another response in the current issue of America -- that's next on my own reading list.)

Mollie Wilson O’​Reilly is editor-at-large and columnist at Commonweal.

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