The National Catholic Reporter has done a great job of covering the Apostolic Visitation of women religious in the U.S. and of being clear, articulate and also challenging the Visitation. They have had gifted columnists writing, including editor Tom Fox, Ken Briggs and now Sister Sandra Schneider, a professor at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and a member of Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM). Her article here seeks to answer two questions: 1) Why are religious disturbed about hte apostolic vistation? and 2) What is the real motivation for this investigation. But even more than that, she talks about the women who left religious life in large numbers after Vatican II (from the 1960s-1980s) and she talks about the women who stayed, also in large numbers, as well as those entering religious life today.
To read the article, click here.