Pope Francis has reaffirmed the reprimand of American nuns issued by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, and endorsed the plan to have three bishops supervise an overhaul of the nation’s largest umbrella group of American nuns.

The announcement from the Vatican on Monday dashed the hopes of Catholic sisters and their supporters, who had hoped that the new pope might not want to meddle with women’s religious communities because of his experience in the Jesuits, a men’s religious order.

The news came after a meeting in the Vatican on Monday between the heads of the nuns’ group, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious; Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, which ordered the crackdown one year ago; and Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, who was appointed last year to oversee the five-year process.

Archbishop Müller, according to a statement released Monday by the Vatican, had “recently discussed” the situation with Pope Francis, who was elected last month after Benedict resigned. Pope Francis “reaffirmed” the critical doctrinal assessment that the Vatican made of the nuns’ group last year, and endorsed the “program of reform,” the statement said.