When the Sisters Said Farewell: The Transition of Leadership in Catholic Elementary Schools by Michael P. Caruso (review)

As a short study, this delightful, substantive book traces the nineteenth-century roots of Catholic education in the United States and demonstrates how both the influx of nearly eight million Catholic immigrants and the Nativist movement directed against them created the momentum for the establishment of Catholic schools, particularly in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and other urban centers. While the main points of this book correspond to major historical developments, the author illustrates these points with carefully researched individual case stories. For example, the reasons for controversy over Catholics' required reading of the King James version of the Bible in Philadelphia in the 1840s are explained. In turn, the cases are described in such clarity combined with simplicity that one gets the sense of almost having been there. Through Caruso's narration, the reader learns why the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 both mandated the establishment of a Catholic school in every parish where feasible and also strongly urged parents to send their children to these schools.

Having established the historical context for the Catholic parochial school system, the book then focuses on (1) the search for a most precious resource, qualified teaching and administrative personnel (the sisters), (2) the implications of Vatican II for those same personnel and thereby for the schools, and (3) the consequent transition to lay teaching and administrative personnel, with the hope of maintaining the schools as vibrant centers of Catholic life into the future.

While the focus of the book is on the schools, the author comments early on that "The sisters reached out not only to Catholics but to all people of goodwill; for many Americans they were the face of Catholicism in the United States." Drawing upon correspondence between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Sisters of St. Louis in Ireland, Caruso delineates the sometimes intricate process of negotiation which led to the mutual decision that a given religious congregation of sisters would teach in a particular parish. Thus, the book sheds light on relatively little-known internal aspects of the staffing of the schools. Further, while many would have assumed that the sisters were academically prepared to teach, Caruso delineates the struggle for professional teacher education, and highlights the mentoring process whereby a more experienced sister was assigned to provide direction in teaching for younger sisters. He points to the ingenuity of the sisters who, in addition to completing degrees, spent additional time in collaborating through the mentoring process. In what may be a seminal insight, Caruso also describes some strong similarities between the setting of the novitiate where the sisters received their religious training on the one hand, and the school where the sisters provided education to children on the other. Hence, the discipline and habits (no pun intended) in which the sisters were themselves formed had implications for the sometimes memorable style they later exercised in the classroom and school. The concluding chapters of the book offer the author's insights towards the legacy of the schools, including possible roles the sisters might continue to play.

The book is well-researched and contains two appendices, one of letters and another with titles of pertinent documents. It will have genuine appeal for anyone associated with Catholic elementary schools in the United States due to the rich variety of perspectives it offers.