Rome, Italy, Nov 6, 2009 / 12:58 pm
Speaking to Vatican Radio on Tuesday, Cardinal Franc Rode shed more light on the reasons behind the ongoing apostolic visitation of female U.S. religious orders, saying that a “secularist mentality” and a “feminist spirit” evident in the communities were among the factors leading to the visitation.
The apostolic visitation was launched earlier this year with the stated aim of helping strengthen religious communities in the U.S., which are suffering from a sharp decline in vocations.
In his Tuesday interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Rode said “some criticism arrived from United States and an important representative of the U.S. Church warned me about certain irregularities or deficiencies in the lives of American women religious.”
Though Cardinal Rode did not say who the representative was, he also revealed the problems include “a certain secularist mentality that has spread among these religious families, perhaps even a certain 'feminist spirit.'”