Authors explore religious sisters in crisis, in transition and
in film
Reviewed byAllan F. Wright
Catholic News Service
In
“Sisters in Crisis Revisited,”
Ann Carey offers
the best-documented study of the collapse of Catholic
women’s religious orders to date.
The documentation is taken from original sources
such as essays, journals and firsthand accounts that il-
lustrate that the demise of traditional religious commu-
nities was not a result of happenstance or the “spirit of
change” during the 1960s, but rather a well-thought-out
and intentional dismantling of traditional religious life
from within.
The current state of the majority of women’s reli-
gious communities in America, many of which have not
witnessed a new vocation in decades, is a result of a
theology based on a new vision of ecclesiology formu-
lated and packaged as a legitimate interpretation of the
Second Vatican Council even before Vatican II came to
a close.
“Every major study of religious life done since the
early 1990s has found that religious communities that
embraced (this) philosophy of democracy and libera-
tion ... have experienced diminishing membership, loss
of corporate identity, fracturing of community, and an
uncertain future,” Carey writes.
Her terminology throughout the book reflects a suc-
cessful attempt to be balanced in her assessment of the
causes for the demise of women’s religious orders.
“Change-oriented” sisters are held in contrast to
“traditional sisters.” While the book is filled with docu-
mentation, it is not laborious to get through and speaks
forcefully of the intentions of a small group in leader-
ship who had their own vision for religious life which
was not in line with the magisterial thinking of the
church. Despite the depressing raw statistics of vanish-
ing religious life today, many in the leadership of dy-
ing religious orders would rather see the community die
than admit that mistakes were made.
Carey first documented the demise of orders of re-
ligious sisters in her 1997 book,
“Sisters in Crisis: The
Tragic Unraveling of Women’s Religious Communi-
ties.”
Her latest book covers much of the material while
adding very little about the renewal or signs of life that
are evident and emerging in the Catholic Church. Those
who read the previous book may find little added value
to this “revisited” assessment. The story is painful to
read, but Carey documents how once-thriving commu-
nities chose the path of self-destruction.
I
n “Religious Life at the Crossroads: A School for
Mystics and Prophets,”
Sister Amy Hereford, a Sister
of St. Joseph of Carondelet, acknowledges the obvious
fact that religious life in the United States over the past
60 years has changed dramatically.
This change, however, is not to be viewed in despair
or through the eyes of nostalgia, but is seen through
the lens of hope for new and invigorated communities
are emerging. These communities reflect “the renewed
commitment to the choice of radical Christian commu-
nity that inspired, attracted, and sustained the religious
of every age.”
In the introduction she states that many of the re-
ligious orders that are dying are not “giving up,” but
rather “letting go” of ministries and of many of the
works and institutions they have served admirably for a
century or more. It is not defeat but rather the comple-
tion of an impressive chapter in the history of religious
life.” She is charitable in her assessment.
The overall aim of the book is to explore the re-
imaging of religious life with its new expressions. In
doing so she brings forth the perspectives of St. Au-
gustine, St. Benedict, St. Francis and St. Clare as well
as Dorothy Day and Jean Vanier. Those who have only
a traditional idea of religious life are asked to consider
small Christian communities as the emerging, broader
expression of religious life.
“Veiled Desires; Portrayals of Nuns in Postwar An-
glo-American Film”
by Maureen Sabine, a professor of
literary, cultural and religious studies at the University
of Hong Kong, explores the portrayal of religious sisters
through films such as
“The Bells of St. Mary’s,” “Black
Narcissus,” “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison,” “Sea Wife”
and
“Agnes of God,”
to name a few.
Behind every portrayal of religious life on film
there is an underlying theology that is often implied. In
“The Bells of St. Mary’s,”
there is a scene where Father
O’Malley asserts that he will not overrule the school’s
principal and will not “order her to do anything.” Yet,
as he says this the cinematography is clear in portraying
the pre-eminent power of his priestly position.
Sabine observes, “As he says this, Father O’Malley
stands in the right-hand side of the frame while a high-
angle shot looks down over his shoulder to where the
nun is sitting. The high angle of the camera erases her
authority as school principal at her desk and gives the
impression that she is lower, kneeling in a quasi-con-
fessional mode ad looking up in a beseeching manner
at the priest.”
These observations are interesting and do give an
insight into the mind of professional actors, writers and
directors who depict and characterize Catholics with
whom they have little or no real contact with. As with
most secular representations of nuns, there is always
the fascination and tension with sexuality and eroticism
which the author explores.
Also of interest:
“Dedicated to God: An Oral His-
tory of Cloistered Nuns”
by Abbie Reese. Oxford Uni-
versity Press (New York, 2014). 272 pp., $34.95.
Wright is academic dean for evangelization in the
Diocese of Paterson, N.J., and the author of several
books. He lives with his wife and three children in New
Jersey.
These are the covers of
“Sisters in Crisis Revisited: From
Unraveling to Reform and Renewal”
by Ann Carey,
“Religious Life at the Crossroads: A School for Mystics
and Prophets”
by Amy Hereford and
“Veiled Desires:
Intimate Portrayals of Nuns in Postwar Anglo-American
Film”
by Maureen Sabine. The books are reviewed by
Allan F. Wright.
CNS
Some Australian bishops suggest restoring year-round Friday abstinence
By Matthew Biddle
Catholic News Service
PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Several Australian bish-
ops said they would support re-establishment of year-
round Friday abstinence in Australia, following the lead
of England and Wales.
Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne, Bish-
op Geoffrey Jarrett of Lismore and Bishop Michael
Kennedy of Armidale are among prelates who said they
support Friday abstinence from meat -- without sanc-
tion of sin -- almost 30 years after it became non-com-
pulsory in Australia.
In 2011, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales
restored Friday abstinence.
Friday penance regulations in England and Wales
were relaxed in 1985, as they were in Australia, allow-
ing Catholics to perform an alternative form of pen-
ance. U.S. bishops ended obligatory abstinence in 1966.
Looking back at the decision to end Friday absti-
nence in Australia, Bishop Elliott said it was a “big pas-
toral and spiritual mistake.”
“I can understand why that happened, in the mood
of that era, but I believe it failed to take into account
human psychology,” he said.
Friday abstinence was a universal practice that Cath-
olics were obliged to fulfill under pain of sin until Pope
Paul VI issued his apostolic constitution on penance in
1966. The document gave bishops, acting through their
episcopal conferences, the ability to establish the norms
“they consider the most opportune and efficacious” in
regards to fasting and abstinence.
See Year-round fridayabstinence, page 23
22
Gulf Pine Catholic
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March 28, 2014
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