"Sisters: Catholic Nuns And The Making Of America"
John J. Fialka
From the dust jacket: "Nuns were the first feminists. They became the nation's first cadre of independent, professional women. Some nursed, some taught, and many created and managed new charitable organizations, including large hospitals and colleges. In the 1800s, nuns moved west with the frontier, often starting the first hospitals and schools in immigrant communities. They provided aid and service during the Chicago fire, cared for orphans and prostitutes during the California Gold Rush, and brought professional nursing skills to field hospitals run by both armies during the Civil War. Their work was often done in the face of intimidation from such groups as the Ku Klux Klan and others. In the 1900s, nuns built the nation's largest private school and hospital systems, and brought the Catholic Church into the Civil Rights movement. As their numbers began to decline in the 1970s, many sisters were forced to take professional jobs as lawyers, probation workers, managers, and hospital executives because their salaries were needed to support older nuns, many of whom lacked a pension system. Cur-rently there are 75,129 sisters in America, down from 204,000 in 1968. Their median age is sixty-nine. Sweeping in its scope and insight, Sisters reveals the treasure of spiritual capital that religious women have invested in America."
Alan - Personal Reflection: "The good Mercy Sisters who formed me from kindergarten through 8th grade taught that Hell exists as a construct but there is no persuasive reason to believe any human being "ends up" there. The merciful sisters went on to emphasize our Christian obligation to remain ever hopeful, and -- in service of that hope -- we must pray for mercy and the salvation of all souls - even Hitler's. (Notably, Hitler was a cradle Catholic, heir to a "Christian" tradition of rabid anti-Semitism so deeply ingrained that it was taught to my youngest brother as part of his "Catholic upbringing." Eventually, I suspect all of us must throw ourselves on "the mercy of the court." As Jesus says in The Beatitudes, “Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy.")"
Christianity's Bedrock Commitment To Torture: Remaking Themselves In God's Image
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/christianitys-bedrock-commitment-to.html
"Mercy makes the world... more just."
Pope Francis
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Sisters is a Google book, freely available online: https://books.google.com/books?id=hZ-9r7d0I_0C&pg=PP3&lpg=PP3&dq=%22nuns+were+the+first+feminists.+They+became%22&source=bl&ots=VhOSF3_D9g&sig=Kd7cCIe1UW1Vz_aNQe5AUCX7FYQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mYuQVLSND4iagwTegIGQDQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22nuns%20were%20the%20first%20feminists.%20They%20became%22&f=false
The Vatican thanked American nuns for their selfless work Tuesday, in a long-awaited report of its three-year investigation into women's religious orders in the United States.
The investigation, known as an apostolic visitation, was initially seen by many as a punitive measure, the Catholic News Service reported.
The report gave a radically different message to another investigation conducted by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, another Vatican office. (Alan: The Congregation Of The Doctrine Of The Faith is the direct lineal heir of The Inquisition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition)
That inquiry resulted in a 2012 Vatican takeover of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents the leaders of more than 80% of the United States' nuns. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith said that the LCWR took positions that undermined church teaching and promoted "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."
"Sorry, folks, this is not a controversial document," Mother M. Clare Millea, the American nun who directed the investigation told the Vatican news conference to announce the results of the new report Tuesday, the New York Times reported. She told the audience it was "a challenge for all of us."
Some 50,000 sisters live and work in the U.S., a fraction of the 125,000 that did so in the mid-1960s — a high the report noted was an atypical spike in the history of the U.S. church. The average age of current U.S. nuns is mid-to-late 70s.
"The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is sincerely grateful for the presence of women religious in the United States and for all that they contribute to the Church's evangelizing mission," the report says.
"Since the early days of the Catholic Church in their country, women religious have courageously been in the forefront of her evangelizing mission, selflessly tending to the spiritual, moral, educational, physical and social needs of countless individuals, especially the poor and marginalized."
There was no criticism of American nuns, or demands that they shift their focus from social justice issues to emphasize Catholic teaching on abortion in the report. There was also no condemnation that a feminist, secular mentality had taken hold in their ranks.
The overwhelmingly positive report, which saw the Vatican promise to value the nuns' "feminine genius" more, was cheered by the sisters, dozens of whom swarmed the news conference in a rare moment of women outnumbering men at the Vatican.
Sister Sharon Holland, who heads the LCWR, said the investigation was initially met with apprehension and distrust, particularly among elderly sisters who "felt that their whole lives had been judged and found wanting."
She said the results showed that the Vatican had listened and heard what the sisters had to say.
"There is an encouraging and realistic tone in this report," she told the news conference. "Challenges are understood, but it is not a document of blame, or of simplistic solutions. One can read the text and feel appreciated and trusted to carry on."
The report noted that Pope Francis, who has pledged to bring more women into decision-making positions in the church, recently asked the Vatican to update a key document outlining the relationship between bishops and religious orders — male and female — amid tensions that sometimes exist.
Contributing: Associated Press
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