Leadership Conference of Women Religious

8808 Cameron Street

Silver Spring, MD 20910

301-588-4955

www.lcwr.org

For immediate release

Contact: Annmarie Sanders, IHM

Director of Communications

301-588-4955; 301-672-3043 (cell)

April 19, 2005

Statement of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious on the Election of Pope Benedict XVI

[Silver Spring, Maryland] The Leadership Conference of Women Religious offers its prayer and blessings for the new pope as he assumes the leadership of the Catholic Church. We hope that like his predecessor, he will be a courageous advocate for peace, an unwavering champion of the oppressed and an untiring voice for the protection of the rights of all persons.

We hope that Pope Benedict XVI will continue to uphold the value of religious life and will make the promotion of vocations to the religious life a priority and urgent mission of the church. We look forward to working with Pope Benedict XVI in continuing to build a church that is inclusive of the gifts and wisdom of all of its members.

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The members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) are approximately 1000 women religious leaders who are responsible for more than 450 Catholic institutes in the United States. The conference’s members represent approximately 70,000 of the country’s Catholic sisters.