(04 Nov 09 - RV) In a statement published Tuesday, Cardinal Franc Rodé, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life said that the apostolic visit to the institutes of women religious in the United States, announced last January, was in response to concerns "on the welfare of women religious and consecrated life in general."

But what are the motivations that accompany this statement? Cardinal Rodé responds:

A. - The main aim of the statement was to clarify the intentions of the dicasteries intentions in the purpose of this apostolic visit to the religious congregations. There are indeed misunderstandings, as if it were an act of mistrust of the U.S. women's religious congregations or as if it were a general criticism of their work. Is not about that. It is mainly to see the current situation of feminine consecrated life in the United States. It is an obvious fact that the number of American women religious has dropped a lot, that their presence in schools, health and other social institutions is greatly diminished. The question then is: what are the causes for this decline in numbers and this much weaker presence in the Church and society in the United States?
 
Q. - The declaration says that the visit was decided upon following some reports being made here, to the Congregation. There was therefore the need for such an initiative. There were disciplinary problems, regarding fidelity to Catholic doctrine?
 
A. - In a certain sense one can say that some criticism arrived from United States and an important representative of the U.S. Church warned me about certain irregularities or deficiencies in the lives of American women religious. It can be said especially of a certain secularist mentality that has spread among these religious families, perhaps even a certain "feminist" spirit. However, the decision for this apostolic visit was taken in 2008, during a seminar that brought together something like 600-700 religious. There a desire was manifested to take steps to find a remedy to this situation that many say is not as good as that of past decades.
 
Q. – You announced in the declaration that a report will be published, but did not disclose whether there will be lines of action...
 
A. - The apostolic visit will have three phases. The first is the preparation of an Instrumentum laboris, then a meeting with the superior generals to see the situation of the congregations and then, in the second phase, a questionnaire to be responded to individually by each religious. The result of all these answers will then be scientifically studied by an Institute of Georgetown University and the information collected and presented will be critically studied and then made public. It will therefore present us with an image, a perspective, I think a quite global presentation of the situation of female consecrated life in the United States.
 
Q. - So you do not know yet whether the measures will be decided later, everything will depend on the outcome of this investigation?
 
A. -In this moment we can not obviously talk about actions or final decisions. I can say that we will evaluate with a great sense of responsibility, the data provided by these individual conversations with the religious sisters and then we'll see what should be done. It is still too early to talk about decisions.