Angela Bonavoglia of The Nation frames the Vatican’s April attack on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious as part of a long struggle for the soul of the church:
Liberal voices in the Church have been under attack ever since Vatican II. A number of vocal Catholic women, including nuns, have been among the most persistent and influential leaders of the fight to save the church from what they see as soul-crushing conservatism. This has galled the hierarchy, which has responded with silencings, firings, excommunications and public denunciations. Seeing that picking their targets off one by one wasn’t working, the Vatican, in taking on LCWR, decided to go for broke.
Back in 1968, Kartemquin’s Thumbs Down (above) focused on some of those liberal voices- young people who believed that Christianity meant social action.
