Vatican probes nuns' heterodoxy

By Julia Duin
April 20, 2009

The Vatican is investigating a Silver Spring-based umbrella group for nuns for deviating from Catholic doctrine after the group failed to toe the church's line on male priesthood, homosexuality and salvation being chiefly obtained through the Catholic Church.

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), encompassing some 1,500 leaders of the nation's 63,032 nuns, is undergoing a "doctrinal assessment" overseen by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), which safeguards church teachings.

Its prefect, Cardinal William Levada, informed the group of his investigation in a Feb. 20 letter, according to the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), which broke the story last week. It apparently is not related to a separate "apostolic visitation" or study of America's nuns the Vatican announced in January. the rest