I think we’re getting a flow of truth from one area in the upper hierarchy. Rock‘s Twitter feed had this link to Cardinal João Braz de Aviz’s displeasure with the lack of communication in the LCWR-CDF dust-up. Another good example of a situation in which the burning question is to be put to prelates under fire: where’s the truth?
Saying that different Vatican offices will sometimes give the pope varying viewpoints on situations like the LCWR matter, Braz de Aviz said “there’s a sort of like ‘Who is going to win?’”
“This struggle of who is going to win is not good, he continued. “But Peter and Paul also had problems. The answer is: ‘the Holy Spirit’ will win.”
This statement is credible. And in the past, possibly more than just the recent past, we have a window onto a CDF that seems to have gone rogue on its brother cardinals. And the sisters, obviously. And on the Gospel itself, quite possibly. So I think we can rightfully ask: has careerism overtaken the Gospel in one of the Church’s most powerful agencies? The one, perhaps, with more baggage than all the others combined.
More from the head of Religious Life:
We are in a moment of needing to review and revision some things. Obedience and authority must be renewed, re-visioned.
Authority that commands, kills. Obedience that becomes a copy of what the other person says, infantilizes.
Infantilization also reflects on the perpetrators. And there’s no escape from it in this spotlight.
I’d have to say this sorry episoide has now bypassed the sisters. There’s little to no credibility left in the CDF case. The Sartain Commission is pretty much hanging out there like lame ducks. They are pretty much dependent on the grace and good will of the sisters to emerge from this with saved faces. And these guys have to be intelligent enough to know it.
I’m not a member of the LCWR. And I don’t need to be in order to be a faithful Catholic and servant of the Gospel. It’s entirely possible for the sisters, if they don’t like what the bishops are spooning out to just say, “no, thanks.” And leave the organization. Membership isn’t required for faithfulness, to serve the Church, or even to meet in conferences. The sisters of the alternative group, the CMSWR, certainly don’t.
And then it’s up to Pope Francis, the CDF, and the bishops to come, hats in hand, and ask if and when the dialogue may open again. That was the whole point of organizing this body in the first place. Maybe the CDF has lost track of why it was instituted.
Catholic Sensibility 
Blessed are those from whom you expect nothing, for you will not be disappointed.
This man is young (b 1947) and a “newbie” cardinal (2012). Unless the wrong people get a chance to undercut him completely with the pope, he could be the beginning of a new way of doing things in the Curia.
Francis needs to make a very strategic appointment as the new head of the CDF which will send a clear and present signal that what was will not be.
Who better than Braz di Aviz … unless it could be Mary McAleese, former President of the Republic of Ireland and currently getting an advanced degree in Canon Law in Rome?