The Vatican has started "two sweeping investigations of American nuns," said Laurie Goodstein in The New York Times, and many sisters are bracing for a "doctrinal inquisition." The church usually only launches such "apostolic visitations" when a church community has "gone seriously astray," but this seems more like a move to "reel in American nuns" who have moved from the convent and Catholic institutions to academia, social work, and activism.
A nun "inquisition"? said Rod Dreher in BeliefNet. It's about time. The Vatican has turned a blind eye to "heterodox nuns" for decades, letting them preach about moving to a "Post-Christian" spirituality and the like, without "so much as a peep from Rome." If that's what these nuns think Catholicism is, it's no wonder the only growing Catholic women's religious orders are those practicing "fidelity and orthodoxy."
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