Sister Pat Farrell told participants in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious assembly that talks with the Vatican will go on so long as the group is not made to change its goals.

“The officers will proceed with these discussions as long as possible,” she told the conference's annual assembly Aug. 10, “but will reconsider if LCWR is forced to compromise the integrity of its mission.”

Sister Pat's remarks were made in response to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith's April 18 report following a four-year study, which revealed “serious doctrinal problems” throughout the group.

“While acknowledging deep disappointment with the CDF report, the members proclaimed their intention to use this opportunity to explain to Church leaders LCWR's mission, values and operating principles,” she told conference members in St. Louis.

The Vatican assessment noted that the group has regularly hosted presentations that demonstrated theological and doctrinal errors, as well as a “prevalence of certain radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith.”

In response to its findings, the Vatican placed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle in charge of carrying out a reform of the group.

The conference originally stated April 19 that it “was stunned” to hear about the Vatican's assessment, saying that it already “follows canonically approved statutes,” but that it would take time to prepare a thorough response.

“The assembly instructed the LCWR officers to conduct their conversation with Archbishop Sartain from a stance of deep prayer that values mutual prayer, careful listening and open dialogue,” Sister Pat said, following a series of private talks that were held with members during the annual assembly.

In her presidential address to the conference, entitled “Navigating the Shifts,” Sister Pat told the assembly that it would be a “mistake to make too much of the 'Doctrinal Assessment.'”

“We cannot allow it to consume an inordinate amount of our time and energy or to distract us from our mission,” she told the sisters.

However, she said, “I think it would also be a mistake to make too little of the 'Doctrinal Assessment.'”

Either way, Sister Pat said she hopes that the conference can “go forward” in a manner “that contributes to the good of religious life everywhere and to the healing of the Church we so love.”

This year's annual meeting hosted futurist author and “conscious evolution” promoter Barbara Marx Hubbard, who praised the “evolutionary leadership” of the LCWR, calling them the “best seedbed” for “evolving the Church.”

In light of Hubbard's talk, Sister Pat said “it is easy to see this LCWR moment as a microcosm of a world in flux.”

“The cosmic breaking down and breaking through we are experiencing gives us a broader context,” she said.

She believes the reason “many institutions, traditions and structures seem to wither” is that “the philosophical underpinnings of the way we hold reality really no longer hold.”

“The human family is not served by individualism, patriarchy, a scarcity mentality or competition,” she explained.

Moreover, the LCWR president asserted that the world is “outgrowing the dualistic constructs” of “good/bad” and “domination/submission.”

“Breaking through in their place are equality, communion, collaboration, synchronicity, expansiveness, abundance, wholeness, mutuality, intuitive knowing and love,” she said.

Archbishop Sartain is expected to meet with the conference’s national board on Aug. 11 for a discussion that is expected to last two hours.


National Catholic Register correspondent Ann Carey contributed to this report.