Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities by Ann Carey (review)

BOOK REVIEWS597 Sisters in Crisis: The Tragic Unraveling of Women's Religious Communities. By Ann Carey. (Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Press. 1996. Pp. 367. $19.95.) Sisters in Crisis has already evoked strong responses from various points of view. It was predictably unacceptable to the Leadership Conference ofWomen Religious (LCWR), which issued a press release and circulated a critique among its members. Yet many of the book's numerous footnotes refer to the LCWR records. As in so much contemporary Catholic controversy, the argument is not about facts. It represents a profound difference of opinion about what constitutes good news. Ann Carey's convictions are shared by many American Catholics: that the widespread transfer of the services of Sisters out of education and health care is unfortunate for the Church and society; that religious congregations should be unconditionally obedient to the Holy See and the New Code of Canon Law; that the drastic decline in religious vocations is at least partly due to the secularization of religious life, and that much of its leadership is in denial of this clear reality. The leadership and much of the membership of the groups involved operate from very different convictions: that concern for the survival of religious congregations should not preoccupy their leaders; that the diversification of services which has replaced the traditional commitment of most to education and health care represents a growth and development, not loss of direction; that what Sisters share is a "contemplative attitude toward life that demands a constant réévaluation of work and lifestyle to adapt to the needs of the times."1 The debate is not really about what is in religious life but about what should be. Ann Carey believes that present practice falls short of what should be. The LCWR appears to equate what should be with what is. Ann Carey, however, does agree that some changes made since the Council were long overdue, and no doubt the LCWR sees room for improvement. No one knows how many members ofthe LCWR communities actually agree with its strongly feminist and egalitarian positions, nor how many lay people see the present condition of Sisters as Ann Carey does. In defense of some of the measures taken to change the structures and mystique of religious life, one can say that those who took them were genuine crusaders , convinced that they were saving women from a degrading slavery to masculine authority. On the other hand,we do not know how many so rescued wanted this kind of deliverance. The often uncanonical autocracy of our past prepared a membership disposed to docility regardless of their personal preferences or even at times of their personal convictions. Perhaps there is still ' Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Press Release: "LCWR" sees "Sisters in Service" not "Sisters in Crisis":April 16, 1997. 598BOOK REVIEWS "blind obedience." Some see the widely used consensual process as more oppressive than the structures of the past, without the canonical safeguards. Though the pressures are more subtle, they may not be less effective. Mrs. Carey's account is largely limited to the American scene. She is not writing about religious life abroad and the International Union of Superiors General is not mentioned. But in fact some groups heavily represented in the United States were affected by the slower and sometimes more considered rate of change preferred in other cultures. On the other hand the generally more articulate and aggressive American delegates often had a disproportionate influence in the chapters of international communities. This reviewer has two convictions about the phenomenon described in this book—that the LCWR leaders, some ofthem personally known to her,were and are sincere in their choice of objectives and that, on some occasions, they have made tragic mistakes. Joan Bland, S.N.D. Educationfor Parish Service Foundation Trinity College, Washington, DC. Canadian Marguerite Bourgeoys and Montreal, 1640-1665- By Patricia Simpson. [McGill-Queens Studies in the History of Religion, Series 2.] (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. 1997. Pp. xxvi, 247. $49.95 cloth; $19.95 paper.) Patricia Simpson begins this first of a projected two-volume biography of Marguerite Bourgeoys by describing the restoration, some thirty years ago, of a portrait...