What do you think?
Rate this book
Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns
This groundbreaking exposé of the mistreatment of nuns by the Catholic Church reveals a history of unfulfilled promises, misuse of clerical power, and a devastating failure to recognize the singular contributions of these religious women.
The Roman Catholic Church in America has lost nearly 100,000 religious sisters in the last forty years, a much greater loss than the priesthood. While the explanation is partly cultural—contemporary women have more choices in work and life—Kenneth Briggs contends that the rapid disappearance of convents can be traced directly to the Church’s betrayal of the promises of reform made by the Second Vatican Council.
In Double Crossed, Briggs documents the pattern of marginalization and exploitation that has reduced nuns to second-, even third-class citizens within the Catholic Church. America’s religious sisters were remarkable, adventurous women. They educated children, managed health care of the sick, and reached out to the poor and homeless. They went to universities and into executive chairs. Their efforts and successes, however, brought little appreciation from the Church, which demeaned their roles, deprived them of power, and placed them under the absolute authority of the all-male clergy.
Replete with quotations from nuns and former nuns, Double Crossed uncovers a dark secret at the heart of the Catholic Church. Their voices and Briggs’s research provide compelling insights into why the number of religious sisters has declined so precipitously in recent decades—and why, unless reforms are introduced, nuns may vanish forever in America.
The Roman Catholic Church in America has lost nearly 100,000 religious sisters in the last forty years, a much greater loss than the priesthood. While the explanation is partly cultural—contemporary women have more choices in work and life—Kenneth Briggs contends that the rapid disappearance of convents can be traced directly to the Church’s betrayal of the promises of reform made by the Second Vatican Council.
In Double Crossed, Briggs documents the pattern of marginalization and exploitation that has reduced nuns to second-, even third-class citizens within the Catholic Church. America’s religious sisters were remarkable, adventurous women. They educated children, managed health care of the sick, and reached out to the poor and homeless. They went to universities and into executive chairs. Their efforts and successes, however, brought little appreciation from the Church, which demeaned their roles, deprived them of power, and placed them under the absolute authority of the all-male clergy.
Replete with quotations from nuns and former nuns, Double Crossed uncovers a dark secret at the heart of the Catholic Church. Their voices and Briggs’s research provide compelling insights into why the number of religious sisters has declined so precipitously in recent decades—and why, unless reforms are introduced, nuns may vanish forever in America.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 20, 2006
13 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 23, 2022
This book struck a deep chord with me. It is a window, or perhaps a mirror, to my life time. I was born in 1956 and attended Catholic school from 1962-1971 taught by Franciscan sisters. I am a 65-year-old, female, cradle-to-grave Catholic.
I clearly remember Vatican II changes in my parish. No more Latin mass. To a child hearing mass in English for the first time it was STUNNING. It was literally life altering. Sitting among my classmates in church I was completely mesmerized by the whole thing.
I remember when the Franciscan’s habits changed drastically. My 5th grade teacher, Sister Azarius at age 80, struggled with the change. I don’t recall her ever wearing anything but the most restrictive of all habits. All of the rest of the sisters seemed to jump at less restrictive habits. While the sisters could always beat us at kickball, with their new habits they could trounce us with utter joy.
I also remember the darker side (for a child) of these times. So many of our favorite teachers just up and left us. We loved those sisters. We cried so at our loss. Sister Diane who taught me math in both 7th and 8th grade was among the casualties. The most dramatic loss of all was when Sister Pauline and Father Felenz left together. It was beyond my comprehension as a child.
This is the time that the author Kenneth Briggs refers to as renewal. This is when sisters were told by Rome to re-examine their daily lives, their work, their very mission. In 1975 I was examining my life and future as I stepped onto the campus of UW-Madison right into second wave feminism. Wow. I was having a mirror experience to the Franciscan sisters back home. Could I be in charge of my life? Was I to always be under someone’s thumb.
My University Newman Center was far ahead of what Rome ever imagined would result from sisters reviewing and renewing their lives. I actually attended a mass there conducted by a sister. The reproach was swift and cost her her sisterhood. So much drama!
Overall, this book left me angry. The clergy including popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests have done so much harm to American Catholic sisters. One hundred thousand sisters have left over 40 years. I can’t even wrap my head around that. And the financial betrayal is perhaps worst of all. The sisters, for all intents and purposes, were slaves to the church. They received neither acknowledgment or monetary compensation.
I can not begin to determine what is a bigger scandal; the treatment of American Catholic sisters or the worldwide sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy. It is utterly amazing that the Catholic Church still exists. Clericalism and patriarchy needs to end within the Catholic Church.
I feel Kenneth Briggs did a good job with this book. I felt his use of vocabulary was good. The only suggestion I would offer would be to place Catholic terms, abbreviations, organizations, and Vatican documents at the start of the book for reference rather than repeating such items at length throughout the text.If you are Catholic and this book does not make you weep, I do not know what will.
I clearly remember Vatican II changes in my parish. No more Latin mass. To a child hearing mass in English for the first time it was STUNNING. It was literally life altering. Sitting among my classmates in church I was completely mesmerized by the whole thing.
I remember when the Franciscan’s habits changed drastically. My 5th grade teacher, Sister Azarius at age 80, struggled with the change. I don’t recall her ever wearing anything but the most restrictive of all habits. All of the rest of the sisters seemed to jump at less restrictive habits. While the sisters could always beat us at kickball, with their new habits they could trounce us with utter joy.
I also remember the darker side (for a child) of these times. So many of our favorite teachers just up and left us. We loved those sisters. We cried so at our loss. Sister Diane who taught me math in both 7th and 8th grade was among the casualties. The most dramatic loss of all was when Sister Pauline and Father Felenz left together. It was beyond my comprehension as a child.
This is the time that the author Kenneth Briggs refers to as renewal. This is when sisters were told by Rome to re-examine their daily lives, their work, their very mission. In 1975 I was examining my life and future as I stepped onto the campus of UW-Madison right into second wave feminism. Wow. I was having a mirror experience to the Franciscan sisters back home. Could I be in charge of my life? Was I to always be under someone’s thumb.
My University Newman Center was far ahead of what Rome ever imagined would result from sisters reviewing and renewing their lives. I actually attended a mass there conducted by a sister. The reproach was swift and cost her her sisterhood. So much drama!
Overall, this book left me angry. The clergy including popes, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests have done so much harm to American Catholic sisters. One hundred thousand sisters have left over 40 years. I can’t even wrap my head around that. And the financial betrayal is perhaps worst of all. The sisters, for all intents and purposes, were slaves to the church. They received neither acknowledgment or monetary compensation.
I can not begin to determine what is a bigger scandal; the treatment of American Catholic sisters or the worldwide sexual abuse perpetrated by clergy. It is utterly amazing that the Catholic Church still exists. Clericalism and patriarchy needs to end within the Catholic Church.
I feel Kenneth Briggs did a good job with this book. I felt his use of vocabulary was good. The only suggestion I would offer would be to place Catholic terms, abbreviations, organizations, and Vatican documents at the start of the book for reference rather than repeating such items at length throughout the text.If you are Catholic and this book does not make you weep, I do not know what will.
September 18, 2024
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO CATHOLIC NUNS OVER THE LAST FORTY YEARS?
Kenneth Briggs has also written 'Holy Siege: The Year That Shook Catholic America' and 'The Power of Forgiveness.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 2006 book, "No figure has etched a more indelible impression on the nation's psyche than the nun. A vivid picture of the sister... remains deeply embedded in the mind's eye of Catholics and non-Catholics alike... Meanwhile, most nuns these days have moved so far from that portrayal that connections between the past and the present are often difficult to trace. Nearly everything from the old days---housing, work, prayer, dress---has been drastically altered...
"The fact that most Catholic sisters now work largely outside Church institutions has done little to curb the old-fashioned, in-house depictions such as our found in the films 'Sister Act' and 'Agnes of God,' in which nuns remain in fanciful, antiquated convents of yesteryear... That image has been swept away by immense changes seemingly approved by the Church and enthusiastically embraced by the sisters...
:"A shocking picture of another kind emerged in 1985 when the Wall Street Journal reported that legions of retired nuns were suffering because their communities... were too sort of funds to provide adequate support. Some nuns... were actually living in poverty, on food stamps... something had changed since Vatican II: there were fewer women entering convents, and of those who remained fewer were bringing in income; at the same time, more and more nuns retired...
"Their subjugation to a male clerical order, I believe, not only kept them out of the public eye but also ultimately crushed their efforts to refashion themselves boldly and creatively. Much of the demise of religious orders... can be traced to the hierarchy's refusal to make good on the promise of renewal made by the Vatican forty years before. My purpose in this book is to examine those four decades to see what happened."
He points out in the Introduction, "The species as a whole is fast disappearing, on the verge of extinction. In 1965, at the peak of membership, sisters numbered 185,000 in more than five hundred orders. By 2005, the total had dropped by more than half, to 69,963. Nearly 60 percent of those were over seventy years old; fewer than 6,000 were under fifty. Only a handful of women have entered religious communities in recent years... the applicant pool has nearly dried up. A few hundred still come knocking each year---most of them at least twice as old as the teenage girls who once joined---but many of them leave before taking final vows." (Pg. 1-2)
But he observes, "nuns quietly set a striking example for young girls by assuming leadership in fields that were at the time monopolized by men. For decades, sisters attained what was otherwise restricted to a few upper-class women: a college education, professional work, and a role in running major institutions... Thus emerged the paradox of sisters... living a medieval lifestyle... while pursuing careers that in secular culture would have marked them as liberated...
"For a long stretch of U.S. history, nuns were, as a group, the best educated women in the nation and even the best educated among all its Catholics." (Pg. 2-3) After Vatican II, "Eventually it seemed that Rome had changed its mind and wanted to turn back the whole process, leaving only a few outward changes. To put the matter indelicately, the sisters had been double-crossed." (Pg. 7)
He suggests, "To restore vitality to communities, it would take only a few of the millions of young Catholic women to take vows. The pull toward marriage and family surely remains powerful, but to many women, Catholic and otherwise, the ideal of marriage has suffered the disillusioning realities of failure and divorce. It would be hard to argue that wedding bells sound better now than then had in the 1950s ... Likewise, the opening of so many fields of work to women could explain why most young Catholic women don't consider convent life..." (Pg. 21)
He argues, "departures swept away much of the leadership corps of early- to late-middle-aged women who served as models and guides to young sisters. The loss of skilled professional teachers, nurses, doctors, and administrators dealt a severe blow to many schools, hospitals, and service agencies run by the sisters. The trend toward allowing sisters to choose their own work rather than being assigned to their orders' institutions had begun to weaken a closed system, so the exodus of worker-nuns only hastened the process of shutting the institutions down." (Pg. 118)
He adds, "The translation of vows into action altered the work sisters did---often drawing them from classrooms to antipoverty programs and peace centers---and the purposes of their ministries, from seeking holiness to pursuing social justice." (Pg. 145)
He says, "By the end of the 1960s, no significant women’s' movement had emerged among the sisters. One reason... was that the defection of nuns to opportunities opening for women in secular employment had drained religious communities of feminist strength. Some nuns recoiled from the sharp feminist critique on the grounds that it impugned them as victims of oppression or was basically unchristian." (Pg. 155)
Yet "by the mid-1980s... Vatican officials were branding U.S. sisters as 'radical feminists,' although the huge majority of sisters weren't any such thing... feminists were inclined to believe that the Vatican's stereotyping revealed a hysterical overreaction and a heavy-handedness that would help prove the feminist case. Many other sisters across the country were appalled. To their dismay, the Vatican had apparently lumped them in with the fringe extremists who pressed women's rights way too far." (Pg. 159)
This is an absolutely fascinating treatment of a little-known subject; anyone interested in modern Catholicism will be very interested in this book (even if they don't necessarily agree with all of Briggs' conclusions).
Kenneth Briggs has also written 'Holy Siege: The Year That Shook Catholic America' and 'The Power of Forgiveness.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 2006 book, "No figure has etched a more indelible impression on the nation's psyche than the nun. A vivid picture of the sister... remains deeply embedded in the mind's eye of Catholics and non-Catholics alike... Meanwhile, most nuns these days have moved so far from that portrayal that connections between the past and the present are often difficult to trace. Nearly everything from the old days---housing, work, prayer, dress---has been drastically altered...
"The fact that most Catholic sisters now work largely outside Church institutions has done little to curb the old-fashioned, in-house depictions such as our found in the films 'Sister Act' and 'Agnes of God,' in which nuns remain in fanciful, antiquated convents of yesteryear... That image has been swept away by immense changes seemingly approved by the Church and enthusiastically embraced by the sisters...
:"A shocking picture of another kind emerged in 1985 when the Wall Street Journal reported that legions of retired nuns were suffering because their communities... were too sort of funds to provide adequate support. Some nuns... were actually living in poverty, on food stamps... something had changed since Vatican II: there were fewer women entering convents, and of those who remained fewer were bringing in income; at the same time, more and more nuns retired...
"Their subjugation to a male clerical order, I believe, not only kept them out of the public eye but also ultimately crushed their efforts to refashion themselves boldly and creatively. Much of the demise of religious orders... can be traced to the hierarchy's refusal to make good on the promise of renewal made by the Vatican forty years before. My purpose in this book is to examine those four decades to see what happened."
He points out in the Introduction, "The species as a whole is fast disappearing, on the verge of extinction. In 1965, at the peak of membership, sisters numbered 185,000 in more than five hundred orders. By 2005, the total had dropped by more than half, to 69,963. Nearly 60 percent of those were over seventy years old; fewer than 6,000 were under fifty. Only a handful of women have entered religious communities in recent years... the applicant pool has nearly dried up. A few hundred still come knocking each year---most of them at least twice as old as the teenage girls who once joined---but many of them leave before taking final vows." (Pg. 1-2)
But he observes, "nuns quietly set a striking example for young girls by assuming leadership in fields that were at the time monopolized by men. For decades, sisters attained what was otherwise restricted to a few upper-class women: a college education, professional work, and a role in running major institutions... Thus emerged the paradox of sisters... living a medieval lifestyle... while pursuing careers that in secular culture would have marked them as liberated...
"For a long stretch of U.S. history, nuns were, as a group, the best educated women in the nation and even the best educated among all its Catholics." (Pg. 2-3) After Vatican II, "Eventually it seemed that Rome had changed its mind and wanted to turn back the whole process, leaving only a few outward changes. To put the matter indelicately, the sisters had been double-crossed." (Pg. 7)
He suggests, "To restore vitality to communities, it would take only a few of the millions of young Catholic women to take vows. The pull toward marriage and family surely remains powerful, but to many women, Catholic and otherwise, the ideal of marriage has suffered the disillusioning realities of failure and divorce. It would be hard to argue that wedding bells sound better now than then had in the 1950s ... Likewise, the opening of so many fields of work to women could explain why most young Catholic women don't consider convent life..." (Pg. 21)
He argues, "departures swept away much of the leadership corps of early- to late-middle-aged women who served as models and guides to young sisters. The loss of skilled professional teachers, nurses, doctors, and administrators dealt a severe blow to many schools, hospitals, and service agencies run by the sisters. The trend toward allowing sisters to choose their own work rather than being assigned to their orders' institutions had begun to weaken a closed system, so the exodus of worker-nuns only hastened the process of shutting the institutions down." (Pg. 118)
He adds, "The translation of vows into action altered the work sisters did---often drawing them from classrooms to antipoverty programs and peace centers---and the purposes of their ministries, from seeking holiness to pursuing social justice." (Pg. 145)
He says, "By the end of the 1960s, no significant women’s' movement had emerged among the sisters. One reason... was that the defection of nuns to opportunities opening for women in secular employment had drained religious communities of feminist strength. Some nuns recoiled from the sharp feminist critique on the grounds that it impugned them as victims of oppression or was basically unchristian." (Pg. 155)
Yet "by the mid-1980s... Vatican officials were branding U.S. sisters as 'radical feminists,' although the huge majority of sisters weren't any such thing... feminists were inclined to believe that the Vatican's stereotyping revealed a hysterical overreaction and a heavy-handedness that would help prove the feminist case. Many other sisters across the country were appalled. To their dismay, the Vatican had apparently lumped them in with the fringe extremists who pressed women's rights way too far." (Pg. 159)
This is an absolutely fascinating treatment of a little-known subject; anyone interested in modern Catholicism will be very interested in this book (even if they don't necessarily agree with all of Briggs' conclusions).
July 3, 2019
Kenneth Briggs' groundbreaking exposé of the mistreatment of nuns and religious sisters by the Roiman Catholic Church reveals a history rife with unfulfilled promises, misuse of clerical power, and a devastating failure to recognise the important contributions women religious since the earliest days of the institution, when many of them still served as mitred abbesses (female bishops) and presided over the Eucharist, just as their brother priests did.
Remarkably, Briggs is not Roman Catholic, but the depth and thoroughness with which he researched this material comes shining through, making it compelling, clear and accurate.
The role that these incredible women have played in both Catholic and American history deserves to be recognised and the mistreatment they've suffered (and continue to suffer at the hands of the current papacy) deserves to be exposed. Briggs does an excellent job of seeing to that on both counts.
Highly recommended!
Remarkably, Briggs is not Roman Catholic, but the depth and thoroughness with which he researched this material comes shining through, making it compelling, clear and accurate.
The role that these incredible women have played in both Catholic and American history deserves to be recognised and the mistreatment they've suffered (and continue to suffer at the hands of the current papacy) deserves to be exposed. Briggs does an excellent job of seeing to that on both counts.
Highly recommended!
January 27, 2015
Engrossing study of women's religious life in the 20th century. From what I know about it (and I've read a fair amount and know people in the religious life), this isn't far off. It tells the story of the struggles and misconceptions that almost all Catholic laypeople have about the religious life of vowed women, the hardships and privileges of religious life, and attempts to trace why the collapse of women's religious life has occurred, as it most definitely has. I am very deeply of the opinion that it's not as simple as most Catholics believe it is. This is a decent treatment of the history, told on the same level of the problem, as the problem has occurred. Towards the end of the book there is some repetitiveness, but that's not a serious fault because the situation in the time period circa 1980-current has been tedious and drawn-out, largely a story of decline and confusion.
That said, this is a good presentation, although it doesn't take into consideration much in the way of evangelism, and it's not a theology book. But then again, much of what has happened in the local parishes of the Catholic church in the last century or so, believe it or not, hasn't been primarily driven by either positive work on theology or evangelism, contrary to the belief of most people, particularly Catholics. (And indeed, probing that for myself is one of the reasons that I've read such a variety of books about the Church. There are striking conclusions that a person can draw about the commonsense frameworks of Catholics.)
There is nearly nothing said about men's religious orders and congregations. although dramatic declines have also happened there--particularly among non-ordained male religious. And there is nothing about the difficulty with recruiting diocesan priests, which is nowhere as severe as the drop in female & male religious vocations in the last quarter of the 20th century, all grumbling to the contrary. (Note: diocesan priests are not male religious)
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about 20th century life in women's congregations, anyone who wants to know more about Vatican II and its aftermath or anyone who persistently holds the common stereotypes about "nuns" and desperately needs more accurate information.
That said, this is a good presentation, although it doesn't take into consideration much in the way of evangelism, and it's not a theology book. But then again, much of what has happened in the local parishes of the Catholic church in the last century or so, believe it or not, hasn't been primarily driven by either positive work on theology or evangelism, contrary to the belief of most people, particularly Catholics. (And indeed, probing that for myself is one of the reasons that I've read such a variety of books about the Church. There are striking conclusions that a person can draw about the commonsense frameworks of Catholics.)
There is nearly nothing said about men's religious orders and congregations. although dramatic declines have also happened there--particularly among non-ordained male religious. And there is nothing about the difficulty with recruiting diocesan priests, which is nowhere as severe as the drop in female & male religious vocations in the last quarter of the 20th century, all grumbling to the contrary. (Note: diocesan priests are not male religious)
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about 20th century life in women's congregations, anyone who wants to know more about Vatican II and its aftermath or anyone who persistently holds the common stereotypes about "nuns" and desperately needs more accurate information.
December 6, 2007
This is an interesting little book about the post-Vatican II changes in the lives of American nuns, the ways in which many orders changed and wished to change, and the barriers that were put in their way by Catholic officials. It's all very interesting stuff to me, as I know almost nothing about Catholicism. I wanted more information about the specifics of the nuns lives in and outside convents, but I suppose that would be already known by most people interested in this book. Another interesting thing it went into was the retirement problem American nuns are facing--there are not nearly enough young working nuns to support all of the elderly retired nuns. In part this is due to lack of interest in entering the convent in recent decades, and in part it's due to the pittance nuns have traditionally been paid for their work. I had never even considered how nuns are funded (or not funded, as seems to be the case), so that was really interesting. All in all, this is a quick and fascinating read.
August 26, 2009
This book tells an important story, but it doesn't tell it very well. As someone who has worked closely with sisters, I had some familiarity with the topic, and I wish the book were more compelling. For one thing, Briggs repeats things a LOT. By about the 2/3 mark, I was starting to feel like he could have said everything he had to say in a pamphlet, although it did pick up again toward the end. I would also have liked to see more info generally about different communities, why there are so many, which ones were very successful, which ones struggled... I think that would have been more interesting than repeating a few points again and again.
I hope someone else will take on this topic. There's a lot to be said.
I hope someone else will take on this topic. There's a lot to be said.
March 29, 2013
Lovely read. I despise all religious institutions that "need" insane wealth to cover their fat asses
yes they need 170 billion dollars in the Americas alone...also they need "in house secretaries" to release tension!!!
also dont molest kids and certaintly dont pay these molesting priests to go on vacation
yes they need 170 billion dollars in the Americas alone...also they need "in house secretaries" to release tension!!!
also dont molest kids and certaintly dont pay these molesting priests to go on vacation
November 18, 2009
Everyone who attended Catholic schools has their own nun stories.
What I remember especially on the high school and college level is their dedication. scholarship and outstanding teaching. They were bright and strong women who always had the time to discuss class work and share ideas.
This book is a view into their personal lives and their battles with the bishops for a voice in the Catholic Church. They really have had a rough time fighting for independence from Rome on really small issues.
Another huge black mark on the current Church.
I read this book after it was cited in a Maureen Dowd column in the New York Times.
What I remember especially on the high school and college level is their dedication. scholarship and outstanding teaching. They were bright and strong women who always had the time to discuss class work and share ideas.
This book is a view into their personal lives and their battles with the bishops for a voice in the Catholic Church. They really have had a rough time fighting for independence from Rome on really small issues.
Another huge black mark on the current Church.
I read this book after it was cited in a Maureen Dowd column in the New York Times.
July 21, 2008
This was really thought-provoking for me, esp. since I didn't realize how harsh a world nuns had before Vatican II, and how difficult it was to create changes. I also had different sisters I have worked with in my mind and thought about when they might have become involved with their particular orders, and what 'side' they took (pro-renewal and change or anti-renewal and change) after Vatican II. If you're Catholic and had sisters as teachers, or if you have worked with sisters, I would recommend the book as very enlightening.
February 20, 2015
Such a provacative read. A must read, in my opinion, whether you are Catholic or not. It says so much about the patriarchal church and what what they call poverty and chastity but it only seems to cover the nuns. It says a lot about a church when they do not take care of the women who taught future priests, cardinals and popes the ways of Catholicism. It's a crying shame how these godly women have been treated by the church they gave their life and service to.
June 17, 2007
As you might guess from the title, Briggs is awfully proud of his nun puns: the title of the chapter on changing forms of monastic dress is, of course, "Old Habits Die Hard." This book could have benefitted from some rigorous editing, as it tended to be repetitious and a little dry, but the subject matter was interesting enough that I stuck with it.
November 22, 2008
This book was very boring, but contained some interesting facts. I knew very little about nuns or their history despite being raised Catholic. The title is misleading. (I'm beginning to suspect that authors have very little say in the titles of their books.) It's not malicious, but informative and despite dragging on in points, held my interest at times.
July 27, 2011
A must read for anyone who wants to understand what was going on with the Sisters who taught us. It certainly was NOT what the priest told us, and really makes me disgusted with the Church I am part of. The Clergy (most) priest, Bishops, Cardinals and the Pope should all be ashamed of themselves for their political and power posturing with Christ's church!
July 22, 2009
This is a pretty sad recounting of the Catholic church's indifference and in some cases abandonment of American nuns. It gets pretty indepth and a little too technical in some spots but it is an over all interesting read.
Read
March 18, 2016The author writes with compassion, but leaves out an important piece of the pie: he ignores male monks who have taken vows of stability which in essence make them cloistered as well. In fact, his preface is in gross error where he says the Church has no such cloistered institution for men.
August 25, 2011
I read this several years ago. It was informative, well-written, and covered a lot of ground that I was not familiar with. It is primarily about the changes caused by Vatican II in convent life and vocations.
September 23, 2012
I found this quite thought provoking. I did find some sections repetitive. What I particularly liked was the author's efforts to challenge stereotypes of nuns- rather to view them as individual people.
March 27, 2010
This is a book about what the Catholic Church has done to nuns.
April 9, 2013
I so wanted to love this and I did at first but later chapters get mired in insignificant detail and clouds the real story of tthe nuns themselves.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews