It's Under the Bus for Nuns

In the earliest days of his tenure, Pope Francis became one of the world's most admired religious figures – due in large part to his vocal support and actions on behalf of social justice. So, to many Catholics, there is more than a little disappointment that he is turning a blind eye to the Vatican's ongoing crackdown on America's nuns.

The really disheartening thing about the pope's unwillingness to end the nuns' censure – indeed, about his unwillingness to openly support them – is that his stated values are no different than the ones the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is being punished for carrying out. 

Instead, the church has scolded a group of highly-educated, highly-accomplished and forward-thinking women like a bunch of errant school girls.

What they really want...

The first time was in 2012, when the nuns got accused of undermining the church's hierarchy by "promoting radical feminist ideology",  and for spending too much time on poverty and social justice concerns, and not enough time condemning abortion and gay marriage.

A year later, when the more liberal Pope Francis took over, the nuns and their many supporters were hopeful that the censure would be lifted. But last week's rebuke by Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, the head of the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, dampened those hopes.

Mueller took issue with the LCRW's plans to honor a feminist theologian, Elizabeth Johnson, whose writings on conscious evolution and other matters have been criticized by US bishops. He went on to remind the "misbehaving" nuns in the strongest possible terms that their organization held its status within the church only through Vatican approval – and that if they wished to retain that status, they would have to toe the church line and focus more of their work on issues like abortion and less on social justice.

Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network (a Catholic social justice lobby) and the driving force behind the Nuns on the Bus tour. Sister Campbell's group was singled out as one of the trouble-makers in the Vatican's 2012 assessment, mostly because it came out in support of the Affordable Care Act, which the US Catholic bishops opposed.

"The Catholic sisters in the United States keep getting caught in the middle of the Vatican's infighting over political resistance to reforms," she believes. "Calming the concerns of conservatives is still a priority for the church."