When Cardinal Franc Rode, the Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, announced that his office would conduct an Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Religious Women of apostolic life in the United States, many people were confused. Letters I received raised questions to me about the appropriateness of such an undertaking and/or the implications of a visitation. Some were concerned about its possible impact on the lives of women religious and on the life of the Church in the United States where women religious are held in such high esteem. The media tried to put their spin onto it, time and again calling it an “investigation.” They said or implied that the Holy Father and his collaborators in the Vatican had already made up their minds about the quality of apostolic religious life in our country. For them, the Vatican had already made a judgment that was negative. Some found my partially reported comments in Newsday objectionable when I tried to say that there was no need to fear and that such a visitation is not intended and should not be seen as some kind of rejection of all the good women religious do in our Church.

The first I knew of such a visitation was when the announcement was made last spring that Mother Clare Millea, Superior General of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was named to conduct a visitation on the quality of life of congregations of women religious in apostolic life. At the meeting of the bishops in San Antonio in June, Mother Clare spoke to the bishops and outlined the three-step process she and her colleagues would be following. This and all other information can be found on their Web site, www.apostolicvisitation.org. She made it clear that the visitation would be conducted by sisters under her leadership and that, while we bishops will be asked our opinion at some point in the process, the whole project was outside the hands of the U.S. bishops.

Annually I meet with the leadership of the three congregations of women religious of diocesan right whose motherhouses are in our diocese: the Congregation of the Infant Jesus in Rockville Centre, the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Brentwood and the Dominican Sisters of Amityville. In my meetings with the latter two I shared with them what I had heard and we discussed what it might mean. We were all agreed that the sisters were living their lives, faithfully following their constitutions and other documents which reflect their updating of their congregations according to their original charisms and the Second Vatican Council. It was my conviction that an honest and forthright presentation of the quality of life of their congregations was the best way to proceed and that there was nothing to hide. If the visitation found some issues that needed to be re-examined in a particular case, that could and would be addressed with calm and serenity that springs from the confidence born of an honest desire and a sincere commitment on the part of all the sisters to live their vocations faithfully and courageously. That remains my conviction and it is one that has the agreement of both Sister Jean Amore, CSJ and Sister Mary Hughes O.P., the president and prioress respectively of these two congregations.

This does not mean that we think religious life is perfect and being lived perfectly. Like all of us, priests, deacons, brothers and lay faithful, sisters too know they have to grow in holiness and seek always a deeper union with God as they dedicate themselves to the many apostolic works that so beautifully enrich our lives thanks to them. That honesty and openness is required of us all and indeed is part of our lives as disciples of Christ and members of His Body, the Church.

And that, I believe, is a key point to keep in mind. We are members of the Church which is the instrument of Christ calling us into a visible community of communion in which we are responsible for ourselves and for one another. Theologically that means that, what we have and are, we have received through and from the Church, whether it be baptism, priesthood, episcopacy or religious profession. We don’t baptize ourselves or make ourselves priests or religious. These are gifts Christ entrusted to the Church and the leadership of the Church has the right and the responsibility to oversee and regulate them.

Practically that means that “visitations” are a normal part of the life of the Church. For example I am responsible to the Pope and every five years must go to Rome and give him and his colleagues a detailed report on my pastoral care of this diocese. They will question me on any aspect they deem needs greater clarification. That also happens when people write to the Holy Father with complaints. We bishops are expected to be able to give an accounting for our decisions and to accept correction if in some way we may have made a mistake. When I first came here in 2001, our seminary in Huntington had just completed a visitation by the secular Middle States Association and the ecumenical Association of Theological Schools. I asked the bishops conference to have a visitation from the Priestly Formation Committee of the bishops. It was a very favorable visitation. Still that visit helped me to make some changes which both they and I thought would improve the formation process and benefit the seminarians being formed there. In turn these changes would bring further good to our parishes and our diocese. That is what I would expect from the present visitation of women religious in our country.

On October 23 I went to the motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters to pray at the mortal remains of Sister Rose Taranto O.P. who had spent many years of her life working with the students at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School. They loved her and she them. She was a powerful influence for the good in their lives! As I sat in the chapel praying, it struck me that she like all the other sisters there at Amityville and at Brentwood and in all the houses of religious across our diocese, have lived and continue to live faithful lives of virtue, at times of heroic virtue. And then it struck me that the key to understanding this visitation is respect. These sisters deserve and must always have our respect, the respect of the Holy See and the Visitation Committee, the respect of the entire Church. Their dignity must never be compromised and their commitment to a vowed life of consecration to God always honored. None of them should have to be afraid of a visitation from a sister from Rome or from anywhere. All of them can with serenity and in good faith give an accounting for their lives, lives carried on with great sacrifice and deep love of the Lord and His Church and the many, many people whose own lives have been shaped and guided by sisters of yesterday and today, sisters across our diocese for whom all of us are forever grateful.