This has me concerned.
Now we read this.
SCANDAL: Pope Leo appoints pro-female ordination and pro-LGBT consultors to the Vatican’s religious life dicastery.
Appointees include Sister Patricia Murray, who has pushed women’s priesthood and addressed the “pain” and “woundedness” of LGBTQ people.https://t.co/J2nOqorSJ7 pic.twitter.com/jKjzUYVKkx
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) August 10, 2026
Why does it have me concerned?
Because “personnel is policy”.
An institution’s formal policies matter less if the people charged with implementing them disagree with their substance or priorities. Consequently, appointments are themselves policy decisions.
Who is Sister Patricia Murray?
From the LCWR site we start collecting the pieces. Lots of pieces, ’cause they do specialize in logorrhea at LCWR. Here’s the cliffnotes version:
Education: Undertook extensive studies at:
University College Dublin
Trinity College Dublin
Catholic Theological Union, Chicago [The Smoking Gun, perhaps. MA in 2005 and DMin in 2011]
Particular study in areas concerning justice and interculturality.
Secondary school teacher
Secondary school principal
Peace Education Officer for the whole of Ireland
Director of the Loreto Education Office
University lecturer
Frequent conference speaker
Member of the General Council of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto Sisters) for eight years, exercising leadership in a congregation with ministries in more than 20 countries.
Executive Director of Solidarity with South Sudan, an intercongregational initiative involving women and men religious working together in South Sudan.
Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) [the organization of women religious who in general don’t wear habits], beginning in 2014. In this position she fostered international networking among women religious and expanded UISG programs and services.
Consultor to the Pontifical Council for Culture, appointed by Pope Francis in 2019.
The profile also associates her UISG leadership with the development or expansion of Talitha Kum (anti-trafficking), the Sicily Project (migration), the Laudato Si’/Sowing Hope for the Planet project, global canon-law services for religious, and Catholic Care for Children International.
CTU looms large here. CTU was, and is, one of the worst schools in these USA.
Why is CTU important for understanding this pontificate?
Robert Prevost attended CTU where he obtained the coveted MDiv (Master in Divinity) in 1982. It is his highest theological degree. Otherwise he studied Mathematics and then Canon Law.
So, what was/is CTU like?
Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago has long had a distinctly progressive reputation. That reputation has substantial historical basis. In the 1970s and 1980s CTU [when Leo was there] became associated with advocacy for women’s ordination, and conservative Catholic writers later criticized faculty such as Kathleen Hughes and Carolyn Osiek [taught at CTU for 26 years and head’s up “Women Preach” and promotes ordination of women] for arguments challenging the Church’s restriction of priestly ordination to men. Prevost/Leo’s wiki entry says that when he was in seminary he chose Sr. Osiek as his spiritual director. Catholic World Report noted that current faculty member C. Vanessa White publicly supported LGBTQ-related initiatives at odds with positions defended by the U.S. bishops. CTU’s own programming strongly emphasizes intercultural theology, social justice, feminism, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, and questions concerning women’s ministry.
You get the picture.
Personnel is policy.
That’s the food roundup, other than to say that more is to come. I have another day in Chicago now and something will come up.
fac on This has me concerned because personnel is policy.: “It’s like Chicago of the 1970s and 1980s superimposed on Rome. I’ve endured the Church in Chicago for some seventy-something…”
