Archbishop Gerhard Müller To LCWR Nuns: “Shhh!”

VATICAN––Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Archbishop Gerhard Müller met with leaders of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious this week. The meeting had been requested by the LCWR to address what they called deficiencies in regards to the doctrinal assessment of their organization released by the CDF in April. “We were hoping for a more open discussion about our issues,” former LCWR president Pat Farrell told Eye of the Tiber. “Unfortunately we weren’t really able to accomplish as much as we’d hoped. The Archbishop seemed a bit put off, if you ask me.”

One insider at the closed door meeting explained how Müller, who he described as having the “honest to goodness look of someone utterly bored to death with yet another of the sisters’ ridiculous arguments,” said that “Just after Farrell had begun speaking about fostering dialogue and collaboration among religious congregations within the church or some crap like that,” that Müller interrupted with an emphatic “Shhh!” “Every time she’d try to continue after that, he’d go ‘Shh!’ After every word, he’d do it. Hilarious, I swear.”

Ferrell said that it was the most humiliating moment of her life. “We just want equality. Women’s rights in the church. It’s our church…we are church after all. But as I tried to tell the Archbishop that, he actually leaned over and put his finger on my lips and went, ‘Shhhhhhhhut up…just shut up. Now you’re just embarassing yourself.”

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Correction: Earlier this morning EOTT incorrectly stated that Cardinal Levada spoke to the LCWR. It was in fact Archbishop Müller. We apologize for this error, and we have contacted the CDF to apologize.