Nuns who are active in society and the Church are under review. It won't affect cloistered, contemplative nuns. (Pier Paolo Cito/Associated Press)

Annette Ciketic is praying for the Roman Catholic Church to have an "open ear and an open heart."

Ciketic's plea is prompted by a large-scale review of women's religious institutions in the United States, the first of its kind in history.

Many nuns are worried that the so-called Apostolic Visitation is an attempt by the church hierarchy to rein in increasingly liberalized women's orders by sending them back to convents and ordering them into traditional garb such as habits.

But Ciketic, whose group suffered fallout from a similar such review, says she has faith the sisters will come out stronger.

"I worry for the church but not for the sisters," Ciketic told CBC's The Current from San Pedro.

Ciketic is a member of a group of nuns, the Immaculate Heart Community, that separated from the church in 1970 after a review process. The group describes itself as a non-profit, Catholic lay apostolate.

Their break with the church happened after a conservative cardinal refused proposed changes such as nuns not always wearing habits and entering other professions.

Now Ciketic helps run Beacon House, a hostel for men recovering from addiction, and teaches literacy and women empowerment at a public school.

"When the investigation came [in the late 1960s], we in all innocence believed they would hear our story, and go back to Rome and say, 'This is a good thing.'

"However, when it went back to Rome, it was a group of nuns against the cardinal. Now, figure out who would win."

Defining dissent

The current review is being done by Mother Mary Clare Millea, and involves visiting and assessing nuns active in society or the church. Cloistered, contemplative nuns aren't part of the probe.

Based on her investigation, Mother Millea will submit a confidential report to the Vatican on the state of each of about 400 women's religious orders and overall recommendations. It is expected to be complete by mid-2011.

In an interview with the New York Times, Millea described it as an opportunity for the sisters to re-evaluate themselves and be challenged to live authentically.

Meanwhile, another less prominent investigation is also underway — a doctrinal assessment of an umbrella organization that represents most of the women's religious orders, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR).

It will look at the organization's promotion of the church teachings on male-only priesthood, homosexuality and the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church as a means of salvation. At issue are the LCWR's addresses at annual assemblies in the past years.

Old habits

Some believe the comprehensive review of the women's religious orders is long overdue.

Helen Hitchcock, director of Women for Faith and Family, says women's orders in the U.S. have been moving away from traditional teachings in the last few decades.

Some nuns don't wear habits, live independently instead of in convents, and work in various fields outside the old standards of the Catholic schools and hospitals.

"What does religious life mean, you know, if you're basically living in an apartment by yourself and you have a mostly secular job?" asks Hitchcock.

She says it undermines the tradition of religious life and the basis of communities of women "committed to devoting their lives to the church and the mission of the church.

"It does destroy community, and a lot of times it's important to worship together and to be a real community instead of a group of separate individuals."

She stresses, though, that the current review is not about reining in dissent, but rather "to identify, clarify it and find out what is the situation" because of questions raised about the religious women's communities and "their commitment to the Catholic faith."

Back to the roots

In the past four decades, the numbers of nuns in the U.S. have diminished dramatically from about 180,000 in 1965 to 60,000.

And some believe a return to the church's roots might, in fact, increase membership at women's religious orders.

Hitchcock says the more traditional orders are attracting the most new adherents.

"One of the things the younger women are attracted to is a distinctive way of life, not just like everybody else, but a distinctive way of life … where they live in community, they wear a recognizable, religious habit," says Hitchcock, describing the traditional garb as a "mute witness" to their commitment.

But Ciketic warns that the church can't ignore a changing world.

"It would just be a lot more comfortable if sisters stayed in habit and lived together under a convent roof and taught in schools. But that was then and this is now.

"Things have rapidly changed in this world and the communities of today … need to be of high tolerance to racial, discriminations, economic discriminations, cultural differences."

With files from The Current