The NCR article is by Dan Morris-Young, not by John Allen.

I have not really followed this dispute in detail but have a question that is probably tangential.  Yesterday I came across an article about a group of nuns some time about 20 years ago who left their order and formed a new association of women but one that was not under any Church authority.  In other words they were still Catholic women but were independent of any Church authority and determined what they did with their lives.


Sounds like an ok thing to me but I had just never heard of it before.  I could see where lay men or women could decide to form some association in order to do good works and promote Catholic values.  Is this common?  Would something like the Knights of Columbus be like this or other organizations that one often associates with Catholic charities?

Hey Jim... there is always pics of the bishop. in every church rectory, school and cemetery office.

The first sisters to set themselves free from Rome and the mercies of their ordinary were the Immaculate Heart Sisters of Los Angeles, who got in a fight suring the Seventies with their cardinal.  Macintyre(?) over their modern religious habits.  One of the finest minds the eleventh century ever produced, his priests used to say.  I read an article some time ago which said the sisters are doing fine, thank you. 

Anybody who has worked in a huge hierarchical organization (I was in the Army) knows the problem of a commander who has ordered something genuinely stupid. The solution is to dither and obfuscate and temporize, to make an ostentatious show of enthusiastically carrying out your orders, to diligently ask a lot of questions about the details, as if you think it's essential to get every point exactly right, and to surreptitiously show him all the reasons it was an atrociously bad idea. This gives the him a chance to gradually realize how asinine his plan was. If it's done right, he loses interest, allows the thing to fall off the agenda, declares it was never really a priority and lets a little window-dressing pass for a completed mission.

LCWR seems to know how to pull this trick off. Sounds like maybe Sartain does too.

Why is there a picture of Sartain, but not Deacon?

JM SJ:  I am sure you know that where there is a will, there is a way.

  A smaller number of sisters are affiliated with CMSWR which is not being censured.  Their median age is around 30,  they wear their habits and their numbers are growing rapidly.
CMSWR stands for Catholic Major Superiors of Women Religious.   Here's their site: CMSWR.org

The median age of the LCWR sister is 70 and their orders are not growing.  I suspect that there are many nuns and sisters true to Church teaching who are trapped in LCWR affiliated orders who have gone of the deep end and who are relieved that this is happening.

Correction:  CMSWR stands for Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious