Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities

Rating:
Summary: What Happened to the Good Sisters
Review: After I read Carey's work, I finally understood why the majority of nun's communities were marching toward extinction. Whenever there is an article in a periodical about the decline in vocations, religious are quick to claim that their numbers are declining because "society has changed and there are more opportunities for women" or "young people are more materialistic and do not want to make sacrifices." At no time does one hear them admit that the reason they no longer attract new members is because they have lost their communal and distinctive identities and life style. Surprisingly, there are orders of nuns in 2003 who have retained the essentials of religious life (communal prayer, religious garb, community life and a corporate apostolate) and they are thriving. These are the women who will lead the people of God into the next century.

Rating:
Summary: Thorough history of the decay of womens' religious orders.
Review: Ann Carey has expended a great deal of effort in writing a book that is a fair history of the "unraveling of women's religious communities" in the United States. Her attempts at fairness leads her to use "change oriented" in place of 'liberal" and "traditonal" in place of "conservative". (p. 9). Further, Ann Carey does not describe as a catastrophe (as I would!) the "88% drop in just 30 years" of the number of teaching sisters in Catholic Schools, nor does she attribute it to a change in vocation from "selflessnes: to selfishness", but she does quote, "Many sisters flet that their time would be better spent working with adults or children who were not enrolled in Catholic schools". (p. 33) The women's religious institutes "...lost their corporate identity" when they opted for "...occupational diversity". (p. 167) In another example of understatement, Ms Carey wonders if these institutes could be taxed on their profits. Selling of convents bought by the donations of the laity, competing with the laity in the work forces, not wearing habits despite the express wishes of the Pope and a collection of other incidents are recorded. Finally, Ms. Carey writes a prescription for dealing with Religious who are "procceding down the path of self-destruciton": "... the best way to deal with these sisters is simply to allow them and their institutes to die out quietly..." p. 324. I purchsed this book... for use in my MA Thesis in History, and Ms. Carey has filled a large hole in recent history, which is so often writen about the bishops, presidents and large scale events, rather than how these events affect the daily routine of the sisters and of the laity. In rejecting their vows, in not wearing their habits, in competing in the work force and in the political arena, the "new nuns" have become just like the rest of the lay people. The "new nuns" are off their pedestals and are no better, and perhaps worse, than the remainder of the laity. Ann Carey's book, "Sisters in Criisis", goes a long way towards explaining what happened and how it happened. I would recommend it to both the general reader and to the Historian.

John Peter Rooney, Plymouth, Massachusetts (For the record,I have had sixteen years of Catholic education, from grammar school through the only Catholic Engineering college in NYC.)

Rating:
Summary: Solid and interesting background in many areas
Review: Anne Carey's exploration of such areas as the conditions which Sisters faced in previous decades, the LCWR beginnings, and the total confusion in which many communities found themselves is extensive and solid. For example, one can see the dilemma which many congregations faced when they sought to educate their Sisters for apostolic work. She does not glorify the "old" ways of convent life, and offers a quite vivid picture of how renewal, in many areas, went awry. There is a pleasing tone of compassion and respect as well as thorough reporting.

Though some of the material in this book would rate five stars for depth and accuracy, Mrs Carey loses her journalistic detachment somewhere along the way, and becomes something of an apologist for fidelity to the magisterium. (For the record, I am neither a feminist nor one who sees no value in teaching authority.) It would be totally inaccurate to imply that conservative religious congregations are thriving - in fact, one community which is praised for its fidelity had only one novice, where there are particular "change oriented" groups which have a higher count. There is no attention to the problems which certain communities, seeking to return to "old ways" in order to attract candidates, created for themselves. It would have been helpful if, for example, approaches to prayer, spirituality and the vows, were explored, rather than solely fidelity to Vatican documents.

In a few cases, Mrs Carey (doubtless unintentionally) provides comments from Sisters which are intended to point out deficiencies, yet have another effect. For example, she references one Sister who cannot manage to say her prayers unless she rises at 5, but who finds she sleeps in unless the bell calls everyone to rising at that hour. Obviously intended to show how critical common prayer is, this example makes the Sister seem very childish.

Devastating though New Age and related practises are to the spiritual life, it would be highly inaccurate to imply that Sisters who disagree with the Vatican on points about common life and religious garb necessarily have fallen from the faith or commitment to their consecrated life. Sisters who have fallen into such practises are a definite minority!

It is an interesting book, with well developed sections and strong historical significance in many areas. However, it comes across as biased and naive in others.

Rating:
Summary: Exhausting
Review: Believing that communal prayer, religious outfits, community life and a corporate apostolate exercised in the name of the institutional church are the essentials of religious life, Ann Carey, a writer for the conservative Catholic press, relates the demise of the Catholic women's orders. Blaming the women themselves for this outcome who were, in her opinion, not mindful of Vatican directives to modernize prior to Vatican II and too radical in their reforms after the council, the author does not account for the similar significant demise of men's orders. Lavishing praise on the Church hierarchy, she is a strict traditionalist. If you believe that the essentials of religious life have something to do with spreading the good news of Christianity to all people, not just traditional Catholics, you will hate this book. Always deferential to the male clergy, Ms. Carey never identifies with most of the women about whom she writes. For a scholarly and historical treatment of the subject, no matter on what side of the debate you stand, I would recommend Patricia Wittberg's "The Rise and Fall of Catholic Religious Orders, Helen Ebaugh's "Women in the Vanishing Cloister, or Carole Roger's "Poverty, Chastity and Change."

Rating:
Summary: What Happened to the Good Sisters
Review: This is by far the finest and best-documented study of the collapse of the Catholic orders of religious women in the postconciliar period. The author provides immense documentation (much taken from original archival sources) to illustrate how these orders collapsed when they pursued a path of renewal that clearly contradicted the documents of Vatican II and the postconciliar directions indicated by the Vatican. It may seem superficial, but the decision to abandon the habit, communal prayer, corporate apostolate, and the convent has spelled death for many of these orders. And the bitter New Age theology (often tinged by anti-Catholicism) adopted by some of these groups only indicates the spiritual depth of this suicide.

The story is painful to read, but Carey documents how one once-vigorous order after another chose the path of self-destruction. And the treatment of nuns who wanted to follow the authentic path of renewal remains a scandal.

The book is weaker when it tries to get at the causes of the decadence of religious orders. I'm not so sure that the "elites" of LCWR were really that much different from the average nun back in the school or the hospital. I also don't think that the key Church documents on reform of religious life were somehow hidden from nuns. Most of these documents were published in the local diocesan paper or could be easily picked up (at modest cost) from a Catholic bookstore. Many nuns simply chose to move in a different direction---and they and the church are immensely poorer for it.

Rating:
Summary: Painful Truths
Review: This is by far the finest and best-documented study of the collapse of the Catholic orders of religious women in the postconciliar period. The author provides immense documentation (much taken from original archival sources) to illustrate how these orders collapsed when they pursued a path of renewal that clearly contradicted the documents of Vatican II and the postconciliar directions indicated by the Vatican. It may seem superficial, but the decision to abandon the habit, communal prayer, corporate apostolate, and the convent has spelled death for many of these orders. And the bitter New Age theology (often tinged by anti-Catholicism) adopted by some of these groups only indicates the spiritual depth of this suicide.

The story is painful to read, but Carey documents how one once-vigorous order after another chose the path of self-destruction. And the treatment of nuns who wanted to follow the authentic path of renewal remains a scandal.

The book is weaker when it tries to get at the causes of the decadence of religious orders. I'm not so sure that the "elites" of LCWR were really that much different from the average nun back in the school or the hospital. I also don't think that the key Church documents on reform of religious life were somehow hidden from nuns. Most of these documents were published in the local diocesan paper or could be easily picked up (at modest cost) from a Catholic bookstore. Many nuns simply chose to move in a different direction---and they and the church are immensely poorer for it.