Recent Material related to the Apostolic Visitation:

Official Website: includes the timeline for each phase along with the Instrumentum Laboris, letter to superiors, and prayer support on FaceBook. The site has an extensive Reference Material section.

Here are some materials you may find helpful:

Essays and Conversations:

A V isitor's Guide
How the Vatican investigation could prove beneficial
Doris Gottemoeller | America Magazine November 23, 2009 | America Magazine November 23, 2009

Discerning Ministerial Religious Life Today, Sandra Schnieders, IHM, September 11, 2009 essay in National Catholic Report.

The Lives of Modern American Nuns,” NPR interview with Laurie Goodstein, New York Times religion correspondent; Kenneth Briggs, author of Double Crossed and Sister Mary Pellegrino, congregational moderator of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, PA (transcript also available)

"We Did What the Church Asked Us to Do" Commentary by Anne Marie Mongoven, OP (Sinsinawa) which appeared in National Catholic Reporter, August 7, 2009

"Why They Stay(ed) Commentary by Sandra Schnieders, IHM appeared in National Catholic Reporter, August 17, 2009

A good source of downloadable Church documents related to religious life can be found on the website of CMSWR. CLICK HERE

The Foundations of Religious Life Revisiting the Vision, a collection of essays published by CMSWR offers a perspective on religious life that includes chapters on: Religous Consecration: A Particular Form of Consecrated Life, The Spousal Bond, the Threefold Response to the Vows, among others.

A Symposium on Apostolic Life offered by Cardinal Rode, September, 2008 which offers some useful insight into the origins of the Visitation. The symposium took place at Stonehill College. Cardinal Rode is the The prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The Symposium papers can be downloaded here.

Leadership Conference of Women Religious website offers a page of public statements including a comment on the announcement of the visitation. READ MORE

updated November 13, 2009