They've taught legions of Detroit-area Catholics.They've taken on major corporations.
They are watchdog nuns who have urged U.S. companies to be socially responsible.
But to the Vatican, the Adrian Dominican congregation of 850 progressive nuns may be a problem, especially under the conservative papacy of Pope Benedict XVI.
For five days this spring, a Vatican-backed team studied the Adrian Dominicans at their motherhouse in Lenawee County. They are among at least 19 sister congregations being investigated under a process called the Apostolic Visitation.
The investigation hits at a time when the Vatican is dealing with escalating criticism of its oversight of priests accused of sexually abusing children.
While church officials have said the study is necessary to account for the shrinking number of American nuns, the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center, called it a "disastrous PR move by the Vatican."
"When American Catholics find out (nuns) are being investigated by the Vatican, they scratch their heads and say, 'What is this all about?' " said Reese, a Catholic commentator. "There has always been at the Vatican a deep suspicion of U.S. nuns because they are educated, outspoken and don't like to be pushed around."
Sisters' acts of faith lauded amid inquiry
One by one, several people deeply touched by the work of the Adrian Dominican nuns told a Vatican-sanctioned panel of investigators about the ways the Michigan-based order of Catholic sisters serves people in need and honors God.
"I said very positive things regarding their community life. That's one of the things that seems to be questioned," said Bishop Gerald Wiesner, head of the Prince George Diocese in British Columbia.
During the inquiry in late April of the Adrian Dominicans, an order based 70 miles southwest of Detroit, Wiesner described how four Adrians work in rural British Columbia as a hospital chaplain, a pastoral minister, a counselor and a retreat director.
"They live out their vows very ideally. They are exemplary," the bishop said. "What I would really highlight among them is their reaching out to the poor and social justice."
In an interview with the Free Press, Wiesner provided a rare glimpse into the Apostolic Visitation, an ongoing investigation of American nuns, long considered the workhorses of the Catholic Church. He said the encounter made him feel that "I had been in a court of law trying to defend a friend."
Critics of the investigation say the goal is to scale back reforms that allowed many sisters to shed their habits, live outside a traditional convent and work outside Catholic schools and hospitals.
But the Vatican maintains the study will address the declining number of American nuns and confront concerns about some sisters straying from church teachings -- such as challenging the doctrine on female priests and homosexuality.
Reason for study questioned
Cardinal Francis Rodé said nuns are in crisis. He runs the Vatican office that oversees Catholic sisters.
"The secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world," said Rodé, in a talk this year.
The Adrian Dominicans declined to comment but acknowledged that the Vatican-backed panel visited April 25-29, coincidentally witnessing a ceremony in which two women joined the 850-member order.
"We just don't believe that it's appropriate for us, or helpful to us, or to the Apostolic Visitation process, to be commenting at this time," said Sister Kathleen Nolan, the Adrian Dominicans' general councilor.
The Adrians are among 19 orders from across the country undergoing on-site visitation, according to the National Catholic Reporter weekly. The congregations, which include both traditional and progressive orders, were selected to represent a sampling of 340 U.S. congregations with 59,000 Catholic nuns, according to www.apostolicvisitation.org.
The Adrians asked several outsiders, such as Wiesner and Lansing Bishop Earl Boyea, to meet with the visitation panel.
Lenawee County Circuit Judge Margaret Noe also met with the investigators. She said the three religious sisters, two of whom wore habits and one who wore secular dress, were open-minded, delightful women. But Noe left wondering why the Vatican had undertaken the study.
"My own personal opinion is that with all that is of importance and (at) issue in our church communities today -- particularly our Catholic Church -- this seemed to be a poor choice for focus," said Noe, who chairs the trustees of Siena Heights University, which is operated by the Adrians.
Debate on women's roles
The Vatican's inquiry plays into the debate about women's roles in many denominations and illustrates the conservative-liberal polarization that permeates American politics.
"This visit is part of the longer-term tensions between the liberals and the conservatives in the Catholic Church, and also is part of the tensions between the Vatican and the American Catholic Church," said Professor John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron and a scholar on religion's impact in America. "I expect this visitation will create more negative reactions from those on the liberal side and more positive reactions from those on the conservative side."
Sister Nancy Schreck, who leads the 310-member Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, Iowa, said she is dismayed by the tone of the inquiry, even though her order isn't scheduled for an on-site visit.
"I think the thing that has most people upset is the way it came about, and the comments that are made that sound very judgmental to us about our lifestyle, and our call and our place in the church," Schreck said. "That's more of a concern to us than the exploration of our lives. If it didn't feel (like) it came about in a very manipulative way, I think people would be much less suspicious."
After the visits are completed, a report will be prepared for Cardinal Rodé, who has said a statistical analysis of American religious orders will be released. It's not known whether any plan of action regarding congregations will be issued.
Author Ann Carey, who writes for Catholic publishing company Our Sunday Visitor and established a Yahoo group for supporters of the current inquiry, suggested the Vatican could direct congregations to cull from its rank the sisters who don't want to live a more traditional religious life.
Some back inquiry
Carey, the Indiana-based author of "Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities," said the Vatican inquiry is warranted because many American sisters live on their own, separate from religious communities, work outside church-related institutions, and may take stances that contradict the church.
"The church is not trying to put the sisters back into the 1950s ... back in long habits and behind convent walls," Carey said. "But what the Vatican might say is, 'You need to figure out who is really with the church and wants to live a religious life.'
"I don't think the Vatican is going to come in and start shutting orders down. I think they're going to encourage them to do some serious re-evaluation."
America's nuns are continually exploring their calling and mission, said Schreck, regardless of a Vatican inquiry.
"There's probably nothing the Vatican is going to ask us," Schreck said, "that comes anywhere near the challenging questions we've asked ourselves over the years."
SIC: DFP