Vatican seeks 'reciprocal understanding,' Bishop Blair goes on YouTube

As the head of the largest organization representing U.S. women religious is preparing to meet with officials at the Vatican Tuesday, a spokesman has said the Vatican is seeking a "reciprocal understanding" with the sisters.

Franciscan Sr. Pat Farrell, the head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), is due to meet Tuesday with Cardinal William Levada, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

The expected meeting comes nearly two months after news that the CDF has ordered LCWR, which represents some 80 percent of U.S. women religious to revise and place itself under the authority of an archbishop.

In an NCR interview June 1, Farrell said she partly wanted to use the Tuesday meeting to "clarify what we think are misrepresentations of LCWR and of women religious in the United States."

During an interview with NCR Monday, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said Monday he hoped the meeting Tuesday would forge a "reciprocal understanding of the reasons" between the Vatican and the sisters.

Meanwhile, one of the three bishops appointed by the Vatican to oversee LCWR has taken to YouTube to argue that the bishops "have a legitimate cause for doctrinal concern" about the group.