A GROUP of Catholic nuns has been reprimanded by the Vatican for focusing too much on poverty and not enough on fighting gay marriage and abortion.

A male bishop has been appointed to bring to heel the US' most influential group of Catholic Nuns, The Leadership Conference of Women religious, after the Vatican announced it would be completely overhauling the group, reported The New York Times.



The Vatican has been secretly investigating the group since 2008 because of its support for health care reform and after it questioned the Church's position on homosexuality.

An assessment report released yesterday found the group had "radical feminist themes" incompatible with the Catholic Church.

The report also zeroed in on a social justice sub-group started by the sisters called NETWORK, finding that it and the Leadership group focused too much on poverty and economic injustice while keeping silent on abortion and same sex marriage.

The sisters were reprimanded for making public statements that "disagree with or challenge the bishops, who are the church’s authentic teachers of faith and morals," reported The New York Times.

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network, said she believed the Vatican and American Bishops were particularly annoyed when the nuns made statements supportive of the Obama Administration’s 2010 health care reforms.



“I would imagine that it was our health care letter that made them mad,” Sister Campbell said. “We haven’t violated any teaching, we have just been raising questions and interpreting politics.”



The report released yesterday paints a scathing portrait of the Leadership Conference of Women's Religious as consistently violating Catholic teaching.



Nick Cafardi, a canon lawyer and former dean of Duqesne Law School, said he has worked over the years with many nuns and that the description in the report does not reflect his experience with them.



"I don't know any more holy people," Cafardi said of American religious sisters. "I see a lot more holiness in the convents than I see in the chancery."