A step forward???

Fr. Joseph Tobin was appointed as the new Secretary of the Congregation for Religious on August 2.  This Congregation is headed by Cardinal Franc Rode and is responsible for the Apostolic Visitation currently underway in the United States.  The secretary coordinates the day-to-day work of the Congregation for Religious.  Fr. Tobin is a Detroit native and a Redemptorist who served as their Superior General from 1997-2009.  In an interview with National Catholic Reporter's John Allen, Fr. Tobin said "Maybe I can offer a different picture of American women religious than the one that sometimes has been presented in Rome, my own impression is extremely positive." (a point in Fr. Tobin's favor)

The NCR also reported that Fr. Tobin speculated that perhaps the choice of an American for the secretary's role in the Congregation for Religious could "suggest some awareness of just how badly this thing (the Visitation) has gone down."

While this seems like it might be good news for women religious in the U.S., a centuries long history of astute political savvy as practiced by Vatican clerics suggests that may not be the case.  If Vatican officials really think that the Apostolic Visitation is probably not going to result in restoring life as they knew it in the 1950s, why not instruct Cardinal Rode to shut the Visitation process down?  Most unlikely, way too much water under the bridge for that.

Fr. Tobin also said that "his main aim will be to find a way to 'bring life' out of the Apostolic Visitation, meaning to convert it into a positive experience."  The hierarchical Church's continuing practice of treating women as second class citizens makes converting the Visitation to a positive experience equally unlikely.