Nun says Hume will defend her book

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BY PATRICK WEST
THE BRITISH nun whose book discussing the ordination of women was condemned by the Vatican has claimed that Cardinal Hume is to intervene on her behalf. Woman at the Altar, by Sr Lavinia Byrne, was removed from sale in the US at the request of Bishop John Kenney of St Cloud, Minnesota. because it infringed the Pope's prohibition of discussion of women's ordination.
In a letter to friends, seen by The Catholic Herald, Sr Byrne writes: "I saw Cardinal
Hume a fortnight ago and he undertook to write immediately to Cardinal Bertone at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, proposing that they drop the investigation of me."
Sister Byrne—the selfdubbed "cybernun"—said that this latest move had been "a great burden off my mind" after a "difficult summer" which has been "a far tougher experience than you might imagine".
The Cardinal's support, she claims, stems from the fact that she wrote the book in 1993, before the Pope spoke out on "Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone", and therefore she "could not be judged retrospecti vely". Although her (IS publishers said in July that they had incinerated 1,300 copies of the book, it is understood that they have in fact been keptin storage.
Both Sr Byrne and a spokesman for the Cardinal declined to make any further comment.