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No Turning Back: Two Nuns Battle With the Vatican over Women's Right to Choose
Two nuns recount their struggle with the Vatican over women's right to choose an abortion, discussing the larger issue of women's place in the Catholic Church
332 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 28, 2022
Five Stars for No Turning Back. A compelling and riveting commentary with the author(s) taking center stage in the struggle of their lives against the Vatican elite. Born Catholic, I found the book most informative, and written by two Sisters with a view from the inside of a (still) rigid patriarchy. I thought the book was very well written. There were times I was white-knuckling my way through the book as I was reading it. The authors spoke courageously about their feelings; most sentences written skillfully, while telling of their painful collective experiences. Although the book had a rocky start as there was reticence regarding their choice to join the convent, they found meaning in their lives by helping women in need in W.VA. Personally, I have the utmost respect for nuns. They are the very definition of hard work and integrity. I could easily argue that nuns were the first feminists. I applaud the authors for fighting for what is right. They stayed true to themselves. I recommend this book for any woman, young or old, who are struggling to find their own voice. The authors exposed the oppression of women by priests who’s only motivation was power and greed. And it is this power and greed that is now bringing the Catholic church to its knees all over the world today (2022). The authors’ writing about the Catholic establishment and the oppression of women was difficult to read, although I was certainly already aware of it. It is stunning to me that the Vatican speaks infallibly against abortion, while NOT taking any measurable action against priests who sexually assault young children. Thankfully, and over time, their crimes were argued in court and the victims awarded some restitution. Then and only then did the Vatican take steps to speak publicly against the crimes committed by their own. I hope the authors of No Turning Back are in support of the current activity to support the passing of the equal rights amendment in the USA. I hope, too, that the authors are considering writing a second book, as this first book was published in 1990. Would love to hear their current thoughts.
May 17, 2024
THE STORY OF THE EVOLUTION (AND ULTIMATELY, RESIGNATION) OF TWO NUNS
Authors Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey wrote in the Foreword to this 1990 book, “In the course of our struggle with the Vatican, many people have encouraged us to write a book… The astonishing thing about this is we are COMMON women. We share many common stories and experiences with a vast majority of people… if the Vatican struggle taught us anything. It taught us that it is better to walk through life with one’s integrity than to lose it because the struggle becomes too difficult. We were able to remain grounded in the reality of Covenant House… We are very grateful to the people who walk through the doors of Covenant House and to our board of directors who have supported us without question and in the face of much adversity.”
In the first chapter, ‘Pat’ recounts, “The event about to be held in the Trinity [College] parlor that spring morning, March 22, 1986… was going to be a highly unusual meaning… When it becomes necessary to address ordinary nuns such as us, the top speaks downward through the ranks… a delegation from pretty near the top was coming to see why we had not obeyed earlier messages. We were both Sisters of Notre Dame… During the election campaign of 1984, we had joined a group of twenty-four nuns who signed an ad in The New York Times… headlined, ‘A Diversity of opinion Regarding Abortion Exists Among Committed Catholics.’ The Vatican responded by ordering the nuns to recent or fact dismissal from our religious orders. By … 1986, we were the only two of the original group of nun signers whose cases had not been closed… We thought the Vatican was wrong in its teaching that abortion was always an unspeakable sin. And we had agreed to come to the meeting, because we wanted to explain WHY we thought the Vatican was wrong.” (Pg. 2-3)
She continues, “I described myself then as thirty-six years old, a Sister of Notre Dame for nineteen years… Barbara Ferraro described herself then as forty-two years old, a Sister of Notre Dame for twenty-four years… For three hours, we explained our position… and presented our facts… In challenging the church’s adamant opposition to abortion, we were championing women as responsible moral agents and as full participants in the life of the church. The representatives of the church argued for obedience and the need for the APPEARANCE of unity… We---two adult women who had given our lives to the church---were to be denied even dissent with dignity. But women are not so easily silenced these days. This book is our own story.” (Pg. 3-4)
Barbara recounts, “‘Why did you become a nun?’ people ask me now… At the time I made the decision, I believed there were only two possible choices for a young Catholic woman. I could either get married or enter a convent. Looking back I can see myself moving toward a religious vocation … inevitably…” (Pg. 5) She continues, “We believed that the Catholic church NEVER CHANGED, that the church of the Apostles and martyrs was exactly the same as the church now… For us, the church always and forever and everywhere was the same. We learned not history, but certainty… And in that world, the most independent girls became nuns. At least, so it seemed to me. I thought of a convent as a kind of feminist commune… full of strong women working in sisterhood doing good.” (Pg. 7-8)
But soon, “I learned the first and most important lesson of convent life. If I was going to make it I needed to be obedient to every rule and regulation. I needed to keep the letter of the law under all circumstances. And I did!” (Pg. 21) She continues, “By January of 1965 there were only thirty-two novices left in my group. But I had survived… I believed then, as I still to today, that my vows were spoken to God and not to the institutional church… Luckily… at that very moment, Vatican II had begun to change the church. For almost the next two decades I would have the profound satisfaction of being free to search for a way to live my vows as I myself understood them.” (Pg. 31)
Pat recalls, “I arrived at the novitiate… Only two of us [out of nine] were still around to take our first vows in 1970… I was seventeen years old… It was 1967. My entire generation was on the march… Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam War, saying it was wrong in itself, and its cost was destroying the hopes of the civil rights movement and of the poor.” (Pg. 42) Later, she adds, “I was a young girl in 1967, sheltered and naïve… But change for the better was in the air I breathed, and my church was part of the change. For a very long time it seemed that the church and I were changing together, and in the same positive direction.” (Pg. 52)
Barbara recounts, “It was a wildly exciting time to be a Catholic nun. Every weekend that we possibly could, some of us… piled into our little car and drove all over New England to one of a never-ending series of conferences on religion and theology. I heard men and women from all over the nation talking about doing the same work I was trying to do… I was not alone in believing that our actions must begin to match our words… God is among the people and they have something to teach us.” (Pg. 90)
She recalls being in a college classroom, and asking, “Why can’t women practice birth control? Why can’t women be ordained? … What if God is a WOMAN?’ The women in the room applauded… My questions turned out to be everyone’s questions. Well known church scholars such as Rosemary Radford Ruether, Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Daniel Maguire, and Charles Curran had begun to develop a whole new understanding of God and of life in the church… I was discovering a new and much larger community of people whose lives were committed to realizing justice and love.” (Pg. 99-100)
Later, “What particularly disgusted me and enraged me was the ‘boys will be boys’ acceptance of men’s behavior and the simultaneous callous disregard the church showed or the reality of women’s lives. Finally it struck me that my anger was not only a result of the fact that the church discriminated against ‘women.’ It was also the effect of the church’s discrimination against ME, a church woman.” (Pg. 115) She observes, “Gradually, our women’s group was becoming a little more forceful. It was extremely EMBARRASSING to be a feminist and to stand up for our own dignity. And we were learning there is no pain quite as numbing as the pain of feminists who must fight the very people they love.” (Pg. 144)
Pat states, “I think God wants each life to be redeemed ON EARTH, and God’s church should be doing all it can to help instead of just preaching patience. I was astonished that anyone even showed up for mass when they were expected to sit in their pews and accept instructions to remain poor and overburdened and helpless. I thought they deserved better.” (Pg. 151) Later, she recalls, “Nearly ten years have passed since that day [when she made her vows]. I am still trying to live out my vows just as I wrote them. Only one thing changed. It turned out that the only way to keep my promise to God was to stop being a nun.” (Pg. 159)
Barbara recalls, “My own United States government was supporting the people who had killed those four [El Salvadoran nuns]… If these women were now valued as martyrs, why were they not valued enough to become priests? The Catholic church was no more willing to admit the dignity of women than the government of El Salvador was willing to admit the dignity of the peasants.” (Pg. 190-191)
Pat recounts, “I believe Barbara and I signed that document because we had finally realized that we, too, are WOMEN… I think that I was trying to choose a protective difference—to avoid being merely female---when I entered the convent. Becoming a nun made me special, and separate, and then I would never have to deal with the contradictions of being human and a female… But it turned out that there is no way to void the contradictions. Certainly not inside the Catholic church.” (Pg. 197) She adds, “Now we knew that wherever we stood on the issue of choice, we did no stand alone. And we knew that not all Catholics, not even all the most faithful and thoughtful Catholics, agree with the Vatican’s teaching that abortion is always, in every case, an unspeakable crime.” (Pg. 208)
Barbara explains, “All over the world… there are twice as many Catholic nuns as priests. In the United States, the nuns are far better educated, harder working, more experienced, and have broader ministries than the priests… In fact, in the Vatican’s eyes, there were two problems: The nuns they had were too independent. And the kind of nun they wanted were too few.” (Pg. 226) She adds, “By March of 1986 we were no longer calling for dialogue. We were publicly, urgently, demanding recognition of women’s right to choose.” (Pg. 243)
She argues, “Never, in all those centuries, was the issue of abortion a central concern for the church. Discussion was erratic, even indifferent. Women and children were never considered really exciting subjects for theological power plays… Pat and I began to understand that the church’s present.. preoccupation with condemning abortion is really a continuation of that drive to preserve male prerogatives… And so, at the end of that year, we decided we were pro-choice. We agreed to speak publicly at a rally… ” (Pg. 250-251, 254)
They conclude, “We might have been able to face each other if we had found a way to be cleared. But we would never again have been able to face the people who come to Covenant House. We ask them to risk their jobs, their homes, and their fragile security by standing up for better working conditions, for freedom from violent marriages, for their basic rights as citizens. How could we do that if we failed to stand up for ourselves?” (Pg. 295) “On July 13, 1988, we … resigned from the community of the Sisters of Notre Dame. We said there were two reasons for our decision. To truly stand with people who are struggling, one must be in a relationship of equality with them… And, sadly, we had realized that the violence of the process used with us by the leadership, the lack of respect… of our motivation… are for us insurmountable barriers to the reconstruction of a positive covenant relationship.” (Pg. 315)
This book will be of great interest to ‘progressive’ Catholics, and to religious feminists.
Authors Barbara Ferraro and Patricia Hussey wrote in the Foreword to this 1990 book, “In the course of our struggle with the Vatican, many people have encouraged us to write a book… The astonishing thing about this is we are COMMON women. We share many common stories and experiences with a vast majority of people… if the Vatican struggle taught us anything. It taught us that it is better to walk through life with one’s integrity than to lose it because the struggle becomes too difficult. We were able to remain grounded in the reality of Covenant House… We are very grateful to the people who walk through the doors of Covenant House and to our board of directors who have supported us without question and in the face of much adversity.”
In the first chapter, ‘Pat’ recounts, “The event about to be held in the Trinity [College] parlor that spring morning, March 22, 1986… was going to be a highly unusual meaning… When it becomes necessary to address ordinary nuns such as us, the top speaks downward through the ranks… a delegation from pretty near the top was coming to see why we had not obeyed earlier messages. We were both Sisters of Notre Dame… During the election campaign of 1984, we had joined a group of twenty-four nuns who signed an ad in The New York Times… headlined, ‘A Diversity of opinion Regarding Abortion Exists Among Committed Catholics.’ The Vatican responded by ordering the nuns to recent or fact dismissal from our religious orders. By … 1986, we were the only two of the original group of nun signers whose cases had not been closed… We thought the Vatican was wrong in its teaching that abortion was always an unspeakable sin. And we had agreed to come to the meeting, because we wanted to explain WHY we thought the Vatican was wrong.” (Pg. 2-3)
She continues, “I described myself then as thirty-six years old, a Sister of Notre Dame for nineteen years… Barbara Ferraro described herself then as forty-two years old, a Sister of Notre Dame for twenty-four years… For three hours, we explained our position… and presented our facts… In challenging the church’s adamant opposition to abortion, we were championing women as responsible moral agents and as full participants in the life of the church. The representatives of the church argued for obedience and the need for the APPEARANCE of unity… We---two adult women who had given our lives to the church---were to be denied even dissent with dignity. But women are not so easily silenced these days. This book is our own story.” (Pg. 3-4)
Barbara recounts, “‘Why did you become a nun?’ people ask me now… At the time I made the decision, I believed there were only two possible choices for a young Catholic woman. I could either get married or enter a convent. Looking back I can see myself moving toward a religious vocation … inevitably…” (Pg. 5) She continues, “We believed that the Catholic church NEVER CHANGED, that the church of the Apostles and martyrs was exactly the same as the church now… For us, the church always and forever and everywhere was the same. We learned not history, but certainty… And in that world, the most independent girls became nuns. At least, so it seemed to me. I thought of a convent as a kind of feminist commune… full of strong women working in sisterhood doing good.” (Pg. 7-8)
But soon, “I learned the first and most important lesson of convent life. If I was going to make it I needed to be obedient to every rule and regulation. I needed to keep the letter of the law under all circumstances. And I did!” (Pg. 21) She continues, “By January of 1965 there were only thirty-two novices left in my group. But I had survived… I believed then, as I still to today, that my vows were spoken to God and not to the institutional church… Luckily… at that very moment, Vatican II had begun to change the church. For almost the next two decades I would have the profound satisfaction of being free to search for a way to live my vows as I myself understood them.” (Pg. 31)
Pat recalls, “I arrived at the novitiate… Only two of us [out of nine] were still around to take our first vows in 1970… I was seventeen years old… It was 1967. My entire generation was on the march… Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out against the Vietnam War, saying it was wrong in itself, and its cost was destroying the hopes of the civil rights movement and of the poor.” (Pg. 42) Later, she adds, “I was a young girl in 1967, sheltered and naïve… But change for the better was in the air I breathed, and my church was part of the change. For a very long time it seemed that the church and I were changing together, and in the same positive direction.” (Pg. 52)
Barbara recounts, “It was a wildly exciting time to be a Catholic nun. Every weekend that we possibly could, some of us… piled into our little car and drove all over New England to one of a never-ending series of conferences on religion and theology. I heard men and women from all over the nation talking about doing the same work I was trying to do… I was not alone in believing that our actions must begin to match our words… God is among the people and they have something to teach us.” (Pg. 90)
She recalls being in a college classroom, and asking, “Why can’t women practice birth control? Why can’t women be ordained? … What if God is a WOMAN?’ The women in the room applauded… My questions turned out to be everyone’s questions. Well known church scholars such as Rosemary Radford Ruether, Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Daniel Maguire, and Charles Curran had begun to develop a whole new understanding of God and of life in the church… I was discovering a new and much larger community of people whose lives were committed to realizing justice and love.” (Pg. 99-100)
Later, “What particularly disgusted me and enraged me was the ‘boys will be boys’ acceptance of men’s behavior and the simultaneous callous disregard the church showed or the reality of women’s lives. Finally it struck me that my anger was not only a result of the fact that the church discriminated against ‘women.’ It was also the effect of the church’s discrimination against ME, a church woman.” (Pg. 115) She observes, “Gradually, our women’s group was becoming a little more forceful. It was extremely EMBARRASSING to be a feminist and to stand up for our own dignity. And we were learning there is no pain quite as numbing as the pain of feminists who must fight the very people they love.” (Pg. 144)
Pat states, “I think God wants each life to be redeemed ON EARTH, and God’s church should be doing all it can to help instead of just preaching patience. I was astonished that anyone even showed up for mass when they were expected to sit in their pews and accept instructions to remain poor and overburdened and helpless. I thought they deserved better.” (Pg. 151) Later, she recalls, “Nearly ten years have passed since that day [when she made her vows]. I am still trying to live out my vows just as I wrote them. Only one thing changed. It turned out that the only way to keep my promise to God was to stop being a nun.” (Pg. 159)
Barbara recalls, “My own United States government was supporting the people who had killed those four [El Salvadoran nuns]… If these women were now valued as martyrs, why were they not valued enough to become priests? The Catholic church was no more willing to admit the dignity of women than the government of El Salvador was willing to admit the dignity of the peasants.” (Pg. 190-191)
Pat recounts, “I believe Barbara and I signed that document because we had finally realized that we, too, are WOMEN… I think that I was trying to choose a protective difference—to avoid being merely female---when I entered the convent. Becoming a nun made me special, and separate, and then I would never have to deal with the contradictions of being human and a female… But it turned out that there is no way to void the contradictions. Certainly not inside the Catholic church.” (Pg. 197) She adds, “Now we knew that wherever we stood on the issue of choice, we did no stand alone. And we knew that not all Catholics, not even all the most faithful and thoughtful Catholics, agree with the Vatican’s teaching that abortion is always, in every case, an unspeakable crime.” (Pg. 208)
Barbara explains, “All over the world… there are twice as many Catholic nuns as priests. In the United States, the nuns are far better educated, harder working, more experienced, and have broader ministries than the priests… In fact, in the Vatican’s eyes, there were two problems: The nuns they had were too independent. And the kind of nun they wanted were too few.” (Pg. 226) She adds, “By March of 1986 we were no longer calling for dialogue. We were publicly, urgently, demanding recognition of women’s right to choose.” (Pg. 243)
She argues, “Never, in all those centuries, was the issue of abortion a central concern for the church. Discussion was erratic, even indifferent. Women and children were never considered really exciting subjects for theological power plays… Pat and I began to understand that the church’s present.. preoccupation with condemning abortion is really a continuation of that drive to preserve male prerogatives… And so, at the end of that year, we decided we were pro-choice. We agreed to speak publicly at a rally… ” (Pg. 250-251, 254)
They conclude, “We might have been able to face each other if we had found a way to be cleared. But we would never again have been able to face the people who come to Covenant House. We ask them to risk their jobs, their homes, and their fragile security by standing up for better working conditions, for freedom from violent marriages, for their basic rights as citizens. How could we do that if we failed to stand up for ourselves?” (Pg. 295) “On July 13, 1988, we … resigned from the community of the Sisters of Notre Dame. We said there were two reasons for our decision. To truly stand with people who are struggling, one must be in a relationship of equality with them… And, sadly, we had realized that the violence of the process used with us by the leadership, the lack of respect… of our motivation… are for us insurmountable barriers to the reconstruction of a positive covenant relationship.” (Pg. 315)
This book will be of great interest to ‘progressive’ Catholics, and to religious feminists.
February 18, 2023
4.5 stars
This was published in 1990, but still has incredible relevance today (2023). The authors became nuns during the implementation of Vatican II, where Catholic institutions were encouraged to re-define themselves and become more integrated with the outside world. They (the authors) took positions on Central America, workers' rights, poverty, and women's role in the church. Ultimately they became known for refusing to recant their pro-choice views.
This was published in 1990, but still has incredible relevance today (2023). The authors became nuns during the implementation of Vatican II, where Catholic institutions were encouraged to re-define themselves and become more integrated with the outside world. They (the authors) took positions on Central America, workers' rights, poverty, and women's role in the church. Ultimately they became known for refusing to recant their pro-choice views.
April 20, 2020
Wonderful book which tells in detail how women, even nuns, are looked at by the hierarchy of the church. These two fought back in any way they could, but -- not so successfully. Got to love them for their courage and intelligence.
Currently reading
March 14, 2011I was reluctant to start reading this book. I thought it would be boring. I only chose to read it because it was one of the few books in my house that I have not read. I'm glad I finally decided to give it a try. It's an entertaining read so far! The nuns in this book aren't your typical old school nuns. They certainly are not the nuns that my mother endured during her school days. I like the fact that they are willing to stand up for what they believe in.
Want to read
April 28, 2010stumbled on this book while looking for another!
January 3, 2011
Great story and lots of church history as it pretains to women
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews