A Nun's Dangerous Talk

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And then Rome blinked. Papal spokesman Joachim Navarro-Valls stated that there were no plans for disciplinary measures "in this case." A spokeswoman for the Dublin conference crowed that "the Vatican has conceded that it can't enforce" the ban or discussion and that the conference has opened "a door that the Vatican thought it could keep closed."

Well, maybe. "In this case" hardly constitutes a white flag. "What ever happened to obedience?" complains a ranking Vatican official. "This is a cancer. Do you let it grow?" And yet, having first threatened Chittister and then appearing to honor Vladimiroff's principled refusal, the Holy See, should it reverse course again, risks looking like a faceless male bureaucracy intent on crushing a pair of modern Joans of Arc.

Chittister revives the duel each time she speaks out, as she did last week in L.A. Says a cautious Vladimiroff: "I believe we were blessed with a grace to see the issues clearly, and I'm hoping that the Vatican may also be blessed with new insights into the most loving way to deal with it." But, she adds, "I worry for me. I worry for the community. And I worry for the church, whom I love."

--With reporting by Deborah Edler Brown/Los Angeles, Greg Burke/Rome and Lucy Fisher/Dublin