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Sisters Pleased with Vatican Report

a screenshot of the press conference held in Rome Tuesday morning to announce results of a report about nuns in the U.S.

In 2012, the Vatican accused Catholic nuns in the US of straying from church doctrine, but in a report released this week, the church now says it welcomes the efforts of the sisters.

Sister Simone Campbell, a Roman Catholic nun and Executive Director of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, and Sister Mary Ann Zollman, who has co-edited the book “Power of the Sisterhood: Women Religious Tell the Story of the Apostolic Visitation” joined host Ben Kieffer to talk about the report during River to River.

“This really is a clear affirmation of our commitment to the gospel, and that it has led us to places of systemic change,” said Sr. Campbell. “I’ve never seen a Vatican repot that says that working on socially responsibility investment is part of our ministry, and that is affirmed.”  

Both sisters say they were encouraged by their first look at the report that was released early Tuesday morning. It was the end of an unprecedented investigation into the behavior of nuns in the US by the Vatican, formally known as an Apostolic Visitation.

During the interview, Campbell and Zollman also noted that the Church’s attitude toward women and how it has changed, in their view, for the better under the leadership of Pope Francis. They pointed to the fact that at the press conference when the report was released, there were both men and women at the table. 

rtr141216_nuns.mp3
Hear Ben Kieffer's conversation with Sr. Simone Campbell and Sr. Mary Ann Zollman.

Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River