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Marlboro Country. In addition to the internal reforms being made by many communities similar to the Loretto, U.S. nuns have organized their reform activities in a proliferation of groups that bear a marked similarity to secular Women's Lib federations. The feeling among many sisters, says Jesuit John C. Haughey, an associate editor of America magazine, is that the church has been "Marlboro Country as far back as they can see, and will continue to be so as far in the future as they care to look." The organizations include small ethnic groups such as the National Black Sisters' Conference and an association of Spanish-speaking nuns called Las Hermanas. Best known of the larger nuns' groups are the National Assembly of Women Religious (N.A.W.R.), organized in 1970, and the National Coalition of American Nuns (N.C.A.N.), founded by Sister Margaret Traxler in 1969. Sister Traxler's hope: to end "domination by priests, no matter what their hierarchical status" in the internal affairs and renewal of sisters' orders.
Pope Paul VI shows no sign of bending his definition of religious life to accommodate the new nuns. In an exhortation to sisters promulgated last summer, the Pontiff warned against deviations from "the essential commitments" of religious life. Last month the Vatican explicitly forbade nuns to discard "distinctive religious garb" for secular dress. Besides the Pope and many of the all-male hierarchy, some sisters are openly opposed to what they consider the excesses of renewal. About 120 of them have organized their views in a group called Consortium Perfectae Caritatis (Association of Perfect Charity). Nevertheless, the new nuns are confident that they are moving with a historical tide. With secessionist Sister Anita Caspary, they maintain that the church "stands to lose the whole community if it stands in the way."