Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Progress on the Apostolic Visitation of Women Religious

Dear Friends in Christ!
I am so happy to greet you at the beginning of this Easter Season.
I wish all of you abundant blessings for a grace-filled season of joy and peace!

Your membership in the Apostolic Visitation Prayer Support group is a sign of great hope to me that you believe in God’s unconditional love and providence for tens of thousands of women religious in the United States. The power of the Risen Lord deepens and renews the vocation He so generously bestowed on each of us who have been called to the religious life. What a joy it is that the Apostolic Visitation Prayer Group now numbers more than 1000 members!

It is my hope that many more men and women will come together through this communications network to thank God for the gift of the consecrated life and to intercede for intentions of the Apostolic Visitation.Phase One of the Apostolic Visitation is well underway. In this phase, the Superiors General of religious communities have been invited to meet individually with me. Their voluntary input of their hopes, joys, and concerns is assisting me in my role as Apostolic Visitator. I have personally been enriched and encouraged by my conversations with the Superiors General I have already met in Rome.
My calendar remains full of new appointments for the next several weeks.As many of you already have read, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently announced a study centered on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. This activity is being conducted by Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo, Ohio and is independent of the Apostolic Visitation.

The two studies, each with distinctly different goals, are being conducted under the auspices of two separate departments of the Holy See.Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers, as together we deepen our mutual love for the vocation to which God has called us.
I assure you of my prayers for each of you and your families and friends!

Gratefully yours in Christ,
Mother Clare Millea, ASCJ

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