“Polarized Perspectives on a Woman’s Place in the Church: Leadership Conference of Women Religious and Consortium Perfectae Caritatis, 1970-1974”

In 2012, the Vatican accused The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) of “radical feminism,” and yet only five years after the Council, LCWR faced similar accusations from other women. In 1971, Mother Mary Elise SND founded Consortium Perfectae Caritatis (CPC) with like-minded women to protest LCWR’s interpretation of Council documents, and to protect the preconciliar traditions of religious life. Using archival documents from LCWR and CPC, I argue that Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes, and Perfectae Caritatis gave some ecclesial women the language to contest their relationship to the Church hierarchy, and for others to sacralize traditional gender roles for women religious. Even though the male council never discussed women’s place in the Church, women engaged with each other to decide what the masculine language of the Council documents meant for their gender. The disagreement between these women is an important yet untold part of that story.