Leadership Conference of Women Religious

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is one of two associations of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States (the other being the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious). In 2025 LCWR includes "nearly 1270 members, who represent approximately 66 percent of the 35,000 women religious in the United States" (i.e. approximately 23,100 women religious). Its members belong to 302 religious congregations in the United States as of 2018.

Founded in 1956, the conference describes its charter as assisting its members to "collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today's world." The canonically-approved organization collaborates in the Catholic Church and in society to "influence systemic change, studying significant trends and issues within the church and society, utilizing our corporate voice in solidarity with people who experience any form of violence or oppression, and creating and offering resource materials on religious leadership skills." The conference serves as a resource both to its members and to the public who are seeking resources on leadership for religious life.

In April 2015 the Vatican closed a controversial, multi-year investigation initiated in 2012 by Cardinal Gerhard Müller of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. According to Associated Press' Vatican correspondent, Nicole Winfield, the investigation "embittered many American Catholics against what they perceive as heavy-handed tactics by Rome." While Pope Francis, elected after the investigation began, reaffirmed it and the organization's members were ordered to review their statutes and reassess their plans and programs, the Holy See in its conclusion praised the nuns' work.