Regarding my question on "where are the men?", the first Google result in my search was this: Franciscan brothers, priests declare support for LCWR (National Catholic Reporter, June 7, 2012)

In what appears to be the first public message of support sent from orders of men religious to U.S. sisters in the face of a sharp Vatican rebuke last April, seven provinces of Franciscan brothers and priests have published an open letter to the sisters, saying the Vatican's move against them seems "excessive."

The full letter is at the link. In the letter they refer more than once to a concern that the public media will misinterpret the nature of the conflict. Certainly, I have learned a lot by reading just a little, and seen the tendency in the media and commentary to oversimplify the situation. I have to say some of the orthodox Catholic response seems to oversimplify, too. I always prefer look beyond the "black & white" - "either/or" perspective to understand nuance and complexity...

The friars say,

Rather than excessive oversight of LCWR, perhaps a better service to the people of God might be a renewed effort to articulate the nuances of our complex moral tradition. This can be a teaching moment rather than a moment of regulation -- an opportunity to bring our faith to bear on the complexity of public policy particularly in the midst of our quadrennial elections.

Here's a post on the Catholic blog "Adam's Ale" (appears to be the work of one Cleveland priest) that briefly compares and contrasts the LCRW and the two other comparable groups in the U.S.:

Leadership Council of Religious Women (LCRW): represents more than 80 percent of the 57,000 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956.

The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR): The other religious women… "a canonically approved organization founded in 1992"

He quotes Wikipedia: "In October 1995 Pope John Paul II (and the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life) designated the CMSWR as a canonically approved national association of Women Religious for the United States who felt the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) did not represent their views."

Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM): "CMSM serves the leadership of the Catholic orders and congregations of the more than 17,000 vowed religious priests and brothers of the United States, ten percent of whom are foreign missionaries."

His conclusion on the conflicts:

So consider this: there are approximately 57,000 religious women in the United States give or take. You can't get two Catholics in one room to agree that the temperature is correct – there is no way that all religious are going to agree on everything. Many (in all three of these groups) have welcomed everything that the Vatican has to say, some agree with a lot of it but not all, and some are aggrieved that anything was ever said. More than likely you only heard from one subset of persons out of these three possibilities. That is because they are the only ones that will sell news. It is much more interesting to buck Rome than it is to say, "Gee, isn't that swell."

No matter how you might fall in these debates, remember that you are dealing with a diverse and intelligent group of people with different ideas on how to make the Church and the world a better place. Do not think that there is a single will in these matters. That would be a ridiculous assumption for any group of people on any topic.

Yeah. Like I said before, an obvious mirror to other places that these differences in worldview appear in our society… which are also more complex than we often give them credit for. Especially in an election year.

~ Becky in Tucson