These Catholic Sisters are all Mamas! Celibacy and the Metaphor of Maternity

This book presents quantitative and qualitative data from the first-ever national study of international Catholic sisters in the United States, the Trinity Washington University/CARA Study. International sisters are defined as those born outside the United States and currently ministering, studying, or in residence in this country. The book begins with a chapter that locates current international sisters in the long line of sisters who have come to this country since the eighteenth century. The book identifies the sisters of today, describes the pathways they used to come here, their levels of satisfaction, their concerns and contributions, the issue of immigration status, the challenges of sister students, and the role and mission of Catholic organizations assisting immigrants in general, and international sisters in particular. The book ends with implications of the research and recommendations regarding resources, ministries, and structures of support for international sisters.

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“Doing Hope”: Ecofeminist Spirituality Provides Emotional Sustenance to Confront the Climate Crisis

Affilia ◽

10.1177/0886109920987242 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 088610992098724

Author(s):

Finn McLafferty Bell ◽

Mary Kate Dennis ◽

Glory Brar

Keyword(s):

Thematic Analysis ◽

Work Practice ◽

The United States ◽

Social Work Practice ◽

Environmental Stewardship ◽

Catholic Sisters ◽

The World ◽

Right Relationship ◽

Environmental Work ◽

Climate Crisis

Environmental crises caused by our changing global environment evoke intense and difficult emotions, particularly the paralysis that often results from despair. Understanding how people who are deeply engaged in environmental activism deal with their emotions can help in emotionally equipping people to address the climate crisis. Ecofeminist spirituality directly addresses these issues through an environmental stewardship that offers hope and healing for the world. This study includes 14 interviews with workers at an ecojustice center founded by an order of Catholic sisters in the United States. We used thematic analysis to identify three main themes that collectively describe the participants’ perspectives on (a) experiences of difficult feelings, (b) strategies for coping with those feelings, and (c) perspectives on cultivating hope. Participants shared how they were able to cope with difficult emotions and cultivate hope that the work they are doing matters, which was essential to sustaining their ecojustice work. As social workers respond to the changing environment, understanding how to sustain environmental work at the macro-level is essential to addressing largescale problems while also attending to difficult emotions at the microlevel. Further implications for social work practice include the importance of intergenerational organizing, living in “right relationship,” incorporating spirituality, and reinhabiting the profession.

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Kathleen Holscher, Religious Lessons. Catholic Sisters and the Captured Schools Crisis in New Mexico. Oxford University Press, Oxford/New York 2012, xii + 260 pp. ISBN 978-01-99-78173-7. US$55; £35.

Church History and Religious Culture ◽

10.1163/18712428-13930417 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 93 (4) ◽

pp. 635-637

Author(s):

Timothy G. Walch

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

New Mexico ◽

Oxford University ◽

Catholic Sisters ◽

Oxford University Press

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ANNE M. BUTLER. Across God's Frontiers: Catholic Sisters in the American West, 1850-1920.

The American Historical Review ◽

10.1093/ahr/118.4.1187 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 118 (4) ◽

pp. 1187-1188

Author(s):

C. R. Prentiss

Keyword(s):

American West ◽

Catholic Sisters

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Strategic Storytelling by Nuns on the Bus

Religion and Progressive Activism ◽

10.18574/nyu/9781479854769.003.0014 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ruth Braunstein

Keyword(s):

Public Policy ◽

Government Spending ◽

Federal Budget ◽

Religious Communities ◽

Budget Cuts ◽

Catholic Sisters ◽

Policy Debates ◽

Vulnerable People ◽

Moral Necessity ◽

Religious Actors

Ruth Braunstein’s chapter examines the Nuns on the Bus campaign, launched by a group of Catholic Sisters in 2012 to raise awareness of the harm that federal budget cuts would cause struggling American families. The chapter focuses on the Nuns’ use of storytelling during this campaign. Through their storytelling performances, the Nuns framed religious communities as morally superior carriers of knowledge about the effects of cuts in government spending; framed vulnerable people and the programs that serve them as morally worthy beneficiaries of government spending; and asserted the moral necessity of taking stories seriously alongside other forms of more abstract and impersonal data that inform the policymaking process. Overall, the chapter argues that this communications strategy helped the Nuns overcome challenges they faced as progressive religious actors seeking to influence public policy debates.

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