Prophetic and Deliberative Responses to the Doctrinal Voice: A Study of the Rhetorical Engagement Between Catholic Nuns and Church Hierarchy

Abstract

This paper analyzes the rhetorical exchange between the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which is responsible for safeguarding Catholic doctrine, and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization of U.S. Catholic nuns, concerning charges that the LCWR’s practices deviated from official Catholic teaching. The essay examines how each rhetorical entity addressed the other in a distinct rhetorical voice. The doctrinal genre explains the rhetorical approach of the Church hierarchy, whereas the prophetic voice and the deliberative voice illustrate how the women of the LCWR chose to respond to the censure by balancing their advocacy for a more responsive Church with their fidelity to Catholicism. I argue that although the LCWR’s rhetorical amalgam succeeded in ensuring a mutually satisfactory dialogue with the Vatican representatives, public statements about the resolution of this controversy reflect the ability of the doctrinal voice to subsume prophetic and deliberative voices, revealing an ongoing tension between the hierarchical and communal visions of the Church.