| LCWR
History
1950
Pope Pius XII convenes the First
General Congress of the States of Perfection, calling to Rome the
superiors general of religious orders throughout the world.
August 1952
The heads of men and women's religious organizations meet at the
National Congress of Religious of the USA. Reverend Arcadio Larraona,
secretary of the Congregation for Religious, refers to a "movement"
requiring change: "We must live in our times and according to the
needs of our times." Mother Gerald Barry, OP, chaired a national
committee of sisters to plan the women's section of the Congress.
September 1952
At the First World Congress of Mothers General of Pontifical Right,
Larraona again asks the women present what their founders would
do if confronted with the needs of the world today.
April 1956
The Vatican's Congregation for Religious asked U.S. sisters to form
a national conference.
November 24, 1956
The U.S. sisters' committee invites general and provincial superiors
of pontifical communities to Chicago to discuss the formation of
a national conference. By unanimous vote, the Conference of Major
Superiors of Women (CMSW) is launched to:
- promote the spiritual welfare of the women
religious of the USA
- insure increasing efficacy in their apostolate
- foster closer fraternal cooperation with all
religious of the United States, the hierarchy, the clergy, and
Catholic associations.
1958
The Conference promotes its first regional program: "Revitalizing
Religious Life for the Individual and the Community through Combating
the Effects of Naturalism, Lack of Mortification, and Excessive
Activity."
1960
CMSW forms standing committees on Latin America, Catechetics, Health,
and Finance. Florence Wolff, SL, is named the first part-time national
coordinator.
1961
Second National Congress of Religious in the USA convenes superiors
of men's and women's communities at the University of Notre Dame.
Archbishop Agostino Casaroli asks U.S. communities to commit ten
percent of their personnel to Latin America over the next decade.
1963
The National Secretariat moves to Washington, DC.
1964
First "CMSW National Conference" brings together membership in a
single location for the first time with a program that included
a formal business meeting. National Chair, Consolatrice Wright,
BVM, challenges communities to listen to the "eternal now" of the
Spirit. Mary Luke Tobin, SL, is elected national chair; the CMSW
National Executive Committee sends her to Rome to "hang around the
halls of the [third session of the Second Vatican] council" to see
what she could learn. On the way to Rome, she is invited by the
Vatican to be one of a handful of women observers. Rose Emmanuella
Brennan, SNJM, becomes the first full-time executive director of
the Conference.
1965
A national gathering of CMSW with the theme, "Sisters and
the Council," marks the beginning of annual assemblies. The National
Executive Committee initiates the Canon Law Committee so that U.S.
women religious have a voice in the revision of church law. The
first of many assembly resolutions is adopted at the national meeting.
1967
The national assembly, called "The Sisters' Survey," focuses on
results of a Conference-sponsored survey of active women religious
in the United States. The study, conducted by Marie Augusta Neal,
SND, is designed to provide hard data to individual communities
about their members' readiness to adopt Vatican II's mandate for
renewal.
1968
CMSW submits Proposed Norms for Consideration in the Revision
of the Code of Canon Law to the cardinals on the Pontifical
Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law. In a follow-up
questionnaire, eighty-nine percent of members indicated that Norms
had a positive influence on renewal in their communities. The first
meeting of "the new liaison committee" marks a formal mechanism
for regular CMSW contact with American bishops.
1969
The National Executive Committee begins an organizational study
of CMSW's purpose and services.
1970
The regions are restructured with the original six replaced by the
present fifteen; and all members enjoy universal suffrage, able
to vote for national officers for the first time. The concept of
a three-stage "presidency" is defined.
1971
The national assembly, meeting in Atlanta, adopts new bylaws and
changes the name of the organization to Leadership Conference
of Women Religious . Other "firsts:" The first assembly
entrusted to a program committee; the first with pre-assembly seminar
preparation; the first mixing content with large group and workshop
sessions; turned the face of the Conference firmly toward justice
issues.
A splinter group of CMSW members holds a meeting.
With the name Consortium Perfectae Caritatis (CPC), the group drew
members concerned that the newly-named LCWR was deviating from "authentic"
church teaching about the essentials of religious life. The
first of ongoing periodic meetings among women and men religious
in Canada, Latin America, and the United States.
Meeting as we do at a moment when our
nation, our world, our Church are all "facing an uncertain future"
(Apostolic Letter from Paul VI on the Occasion of the Eightieth
Anniversary of Rerum Novarum), we have a special opportunity to
witness to the charity that fosters mutual trust, the charity
that casts out fear, the charity that is the source of joy which
we experience when, in Christian hope, we feel we can face the
future with confidence. I am confident that we can spend these
days together in Atlanta, to quote a phrase from [Paul VI's recent
apostolic exhortation to the religious of the world], in "that
understanding cordiality which nourishes hope." The theme of this
national assembly is expressed in a sentence spoken at a historic
moment by Pope Paul VI: It was November 21, 1964, the closing
of the third session of the Second Vatican Council "The Church,"
the Vicar of Christ affirmed, "is for the world!" At that moment
the Pope was stating in capsule form what the Council said at
great length and in many ways.
-- Angelita Myerscough, ASC, LCWR President 1971-72
1973
National membership numbers 648 members from 370 religious
communities. They are 241 general superiors; 267 provincial superiors,
and 140 others (regional superiors, members of executive committees,
etc.). The Assembly has been responsive to the needs of migrant
people, the displaced people of Northeast Pennsylvania, the oppressed
of Bangladesh and of others in the Third World. The United States
Catholic Mission Council, the National Sister Formation Conference,
the National Sister Vocation Conference and NETWORK have been beneficiaries
of LCWR members' support.
One danger for us is that we may become legitimators of
society's commonly held values. The values we hold and the faith
we articulate require strong supportive communities and a degree
of apartness from the dominant culture if our life and mission
are to be counter-signs to society's consumptive style, to its
power to alienate and to destroy. Can we as a Conference discover
ways to be supportive to one another in offering alternatives
to society's prevailing mores?
-- Margaret Brennan, IHM, LCWR President 1972-73
1974
Regional programs and activities emphasize evangelization, the Gospel
way of justice and the faith dimension of femininity. The creation
of communications centers; the sharing in national Catechetical
Directory (NCD) consultations; reconciliation experiences; participation
in workshops sponsored by the LCWR Global Ministry committee; days
of retreat; inter-congregational renewal experiences; actions in
reference to the displaced persons of southeast Asia; assisting
in the programming for the 41st International Eucharistic Congress;
and efforts to speak out when human rights are violated are among
regional endeavors.
1976
The Conference began a goal-setting process to clarify priorities
in programming and allocation of resources. The resulting goals:
to articulate a contemporary theology of religious life; education
for justice; prayer, study and action on women's issues; collaboration
with others to the maximum extent possible.
1977
The LCWR Office is granted non-governmental status at the United
Nations, bringing the perspective of the woman religious to issues
of disarmament, woman, and human rights through the practice of
permitting certified organizations to participate on international
committees. Marjorie Keenan, RSHM, of the LCWR staff, was appointed
to the Peace and Justice Commission of the Vatican, a first for
an American woman religious.
1978
The first joint LCWR/CMSM assembly, "Convergence," focuses
on the connection between actions of U.S. corporations and poverty
and oppression in the Third World.
Since 1973, the Conference has carried out extensive programs
related to transforming the perceptions of and about women. We
have promoted the recognition of sexism as destructive of both
women and men. If we choose to continue work on this goal, from
the position of our increased consciousness, we need to determine
what options will most effectively insure images, structures and
ways of relating consonant with God's reign.
-- Joan Keleher Doyle, BVM, LCWR President, LCWR Conference
Report 1978
1979
LCWR president Theresa Kane, RSM addresses Pope John Paul II at
the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington,
DC on October 7, 1979.
As president of the Leadership Conference
of Women Religious, it was my privilege to extend greetings to
the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, last October when he visited
this country for the first time. I thought it appropriate to pledge
our solidarity with the Pope as he called our attention to the
serious responsibilities we have to our sisters and brothers who
live in poverty and destitution. I also sensed the need of some
women to articulate their growing concern about being included
in all ministries within the church. ä Within my own heart
there were only sentiments of profound fidelity, honesty, and
sincerity to our God and to our Church. As a result of the greeting,
a few congregations withdrew from the conference. ä Through
that experience LCWR became more public; the membership gained
new responsibilities. Reflection papers commissioned by the Conference
will analyze "the voice of the faithful" as found in the thousands
of letters received.
-- Theresa Kane, RSM, LCWR President 1979-80
1982
Purchase of Silver Spring, MD, property gives National Office a
permanent home. No-interest loans and gifts from members help LCWR
secure the 8808 Cameron Street office it shares with CMSM.
The challenge of leadership in our time
is balanced in the tension of two juxtaposed realities. The first,
graphically illustrated in the recent Study of Retirement Concerns,
shows increasing numbers of aged members and dwindling financial
resources. The second, our expanding awareness of human needs
crying out for our presence, is the hard country we are called
to enter. ä We are on a frontier of vast need, desirous of
fulfilling our destiny to be servants, given that others might
have life. There are far fewer of us than the tasks demand, but
enough to begin. The exploration into prophecy does not require
large numbers, but large faith.
-- Bette Moslander, CSJ, LCWR President's Message,
1981-82
1984
The Papal Commission on Religious Life (Quinn Commission) is instituted.
LCWR members assist ordinaries and vicars in the design of listening
sessions. Bette Moslander, CSJ, is appointed the Commission's official
liaison with LCWR. In her response to Archbishop John R. Quinn's
presentation about the Commission at the November 1983 National
Conference of Catholic Bishops' meeting, she became the first woman
to address the NCCB body. The 1984 National Assembly in Kansas
City resolved LCWR had a legitimate role to play in assisting members
facing ecclesiastical problems. After a statement on plurality and
abortion appears in the New York Times (October 7, 1984),
the Conference provides canonical and theological resources to members
involved in the resulting controversy; the LCWR presidency met with
the apostolic pro-nuncio and the NCCB.
1986
The Tri-Conference Religious Retirement Office is formed by LCWR,
CMSM, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. (The office
is later named the National Religious Retirement Office.)
The theme of the assembly this year , uncovering the holy
, invites us to find and reveal God in every reality we encounter:
ourselves, others, the events and situations of life; it summons
us to reverence what is holy and to transform what is not. ä
Transformation calls us to justice; communion moves us beyond
justice to love with the foolishness of Christ. The feminine experience
of exclusion leads us to seek a God whose power invites, enables,
and loves. The experience of domination teaches us to embrace
conditions of life in order to use our power to transform them.
-- Miriam Therese Larkin, CSJ, LCWR
Presidential Reflection, 1986
1989
First meeting of the Tri-Conference Commission on Religious Life
and Ministry formed as the result of a Quinn Commission recommendation.
The bishops, CMSM, and LCWR choose to focus on three areas: identity
of religious life, collaboration, and procedures for ongoing issues.
The 1989 Assembly explores the future of religious
life; and results in the articulation of ten "transformative elements"
that describe how leaders see religious life of the future.
1991
LCWR establishes a framework for collaboration with the Conference
of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM) by approving a memorandum of understanding
on collaboration between the two Conferences.
. .. I see our collective efforts have focused on creating the
results we desire through active engagement with others ä
we had opportunities to be in dialogue with several groups: those
representing women religious not affiliated with LCWR, the Catholic
Health Care Coalition, the Catholic Education Futures Project,
and the InterAmerican Conference. These encounters revealed the
complexities of inter-organizational dynamics and the need for
openness and flexibility in dealing constructively with diversity
in language, process, and corporate culture.
-- Kathleen Popko, SP LCWR President
1990-91
1992
LCWR publishes Threads for the Loom: LCWR Planning and Ministry
Studies , a compilation of the comprehensive ministry survey
engineered by Anne Munley, IHM.
1994
Synod on Consecrated Life is held in Rome. LCWR members participate
in pre-synod activities, including a comprehensive critique of the
lineamenta . LCWR past president, Doris Gottemoeller, RSM,
is named an auditor of the Synod.
A think tank on the viability of religious institutes
launches the Collaborative Viability Project, a joint effort of
LCWR, the National Association for Treasurers of Religious Institutes
(NATRI), and the National Religious Retirement Office (NRRO). The
project later publishes materials to help religious institutes assess
their likelihood of survival into the future and offers consultation
teams to help religious interpret results of their viability self-assessment.
1995
Louise Akers, SC, the associate director for social concerns, and
other LCWR members participate in the UN's Fourth World Conference
on Women in Beijing.
The renewal of our congregations, accomplished
amidst unprecedented changes in culture and world order over the
past thirty years, has brought us to a moment where the only questions
that matter are profound: What is the mission God asks of religious
in this post-modern world? What is the unique contribution of
this way of life to the community called Church?
-- Doris Gottemoeller, RSM LCWR President 1994-95
1996
LCWR publishes Creating a Home: Benchmarks for Church Leadership
Roles for Women , the result of a two-year study addressing
a question from U.S. bishops: If ordination is closed to women,
in what alternate ways can they exercise leadership in the church?
The book lists 15 recommendations covering due process, personnel
policies, compensation, theological education. Prior to the
national Assembly in Atlanta, more than 400 LCWR members hold a
prayer vigil outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia,
home to the School of the Americas. The sisters call for the closing
of the School, which has trained numerous Latin American soldiers
tied to death, disappearances, and human rights abuses.
1997
A think tank on leadership results in the identification of capacities,
skills, and competencies required for effective religious leadership.
A small booklet, Dimensions of Leadership , defines these
capacities as spiritual, relational, and organizational. LCWR collaborates
in the Collaborative Viability Project to assist communities in
assessing their "health" in the areas of mission, leadership, membership,
resources, planning, and risk taking. LCWR further trains leaders
to participate in on-site consultations, along with finance experts,
to help communities evaluate their responses to the self-assessment.
1998
Another LCWR collaboration, the Center for the Study of Religious
Life, opens in June at its headquarters at Chicago Theological Union.
Its mission is to undertake interdisciplinary reflection on the
experience of religious life since Vatican II. LCWR's partners are
the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and CTU.
The CMSM-LCWR joint assembly,
"Human Rights at the Heart of Our Mission" results in "a clear call
to conversion" from participants on attitudes, understand of and
complicity in racism, sexism, unjust economic systems and other
human rights violations.
An LCWR task force begins a
study of non-ordained persons in significant leadership positions
in the church. The outcomes projected are quantitative and qualitative
data to advance the discussion of the role of women in the church.
Responding to a call from the
LCWR Women's Task Force, women religious throughout the country
organize "Gatherings of Women" to promote the roles of women in
society through dialogue with women who are socially, economically,
and culturally diverse.
Several hundred women religious join thousands
who gather at Fort Benning, the Georgia military base that houses
the School of the Americas, which trains military leaders, and some
say terrorists, from Central America. The peaceful protest succeeds
to the degree that the hundreds who crossed the line without permission
are not arrested and the publicity raises consciousness about legislation
to close the SOA.
1999
The LCWR Ministry Committee conducts a survey on the foundations
and grants which religious communities use to fund collaborative
ministries.
LCWR representatives from across the 15
regions gather to draft goals for the next five years, 1999-2004.
2001
LCWR members commit themselves to a year of
contemplation and fasting for the healing of broken relationships
within the church and society. Individual congregations commit themselves
to taking at least one day of the year to hold the church and world
in a contemplative space, thus ensuring that prayer and fasting
were happening every day of the year 2001.
The Conference of Pastoral Planning and Council
Development honors LCWR with its 2001 Lumen Gentium Award, as "an
effective vehicle for women religious in planning and process development."
LCWR publishes Women and Jurisdiction: An Unfolding
Reality, a ground-breaking benchmarks study examining how women
in Catholic church leadership roles participate in decision-making
in the church with regard to church personnel, property and policy.
2002
LCWR publishes Carriers of the Story: A Leadership Conference of
Women Religious Ministry Study, authored by Anne Munley, IHM, which
traces the ministries of US women religious in institutes led by
LCWR members.
2003
LCWR establishes its Outstanding Leadership Award to recognize and
honor persons and groups who have significantly contributed to the
ministry of leadership and who reflect the LCWR mission. The award
is presented annually at the LCWR assembly. The first award is presented
to Mary Luke Tobin, SL. Click here for more information on the Outstanding Leadership Award.
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