Women of Faith: The Chicago Sisters of Mercy and the Evolution of a Religious Community by Mary Beth Fraser Connolly (review)

From their foundation in 1846 to the merger with other regional communities in 2008, the Chicago Sisters of Mercy established hospitals, schools, and other ministries of mercy throughout Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. While Connolly’s study includes timelines of major historical events in the congregational history, her main focus is the process of women religious who followed – and embodied – the spirit of Catherine McAuley in ever-changing contexts.

Part One focuses on the period of foundation building, from 1846 to 1929, when Chicago Mercy ministries established safety nets for the largely immigrant Catholic population. Connolly traces the lives of several Mercy Sisters, including siblings, whose spiritual lives informed their roles as teachers, nurses, and caregivers. Novitiate training emphasized McAuley’s “ministries of Mercy,” which wrought salvation of body and soul.

Part Two considers how the Chicago Mercies achieved professional status in education and health care in the decades 1930-1960 leading to Vatican II, while at the same time negotiating the restrictions placed on women religious by the institutional church. Having united in 1929 as Sisters of Mercy of the Union, the Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin community experienced expanded ministries, centralized formation, and professional education. Connolly examines how specific sisters followed the traditional trajectory that required women religious to learn by doing, while still bound by earlier spiritual disciplines. The Sister Formation Movement and scripture study opened up much new thinking about ecclesiology and religious life, making the sisters some of the most ready for the “open windows” of Vatican II.

Part Three analyzes how the dramatic changes following Vatican II led to new identity for individuals and for the Chicago Mercy community. Considerable attention is given to the various responses sisters made to the renewal of religious life immediately following 1965 and in later years. With the decrease in numbers and the shift from apostolic communal work to individualized ministries, the Mercies sought to re-imagine their identity as “ministers of Mercy” into the twenty-first century. In 2008, the new merger of Mercy communities brought the Chicago region into the larger West Midwest community, which is where Connolly’s history concludes. She ends with two quotations which show the spirit of Mercy continues to evolve. The first is from a sister reflecting on the community’s future in 2007: “Mercy is important, but the People of God served well is more important than Mercy.” The second is from a letter written by Catherine McAuley in 1840: the sisters are “centered in God – for whom alone [they] go forward – or stay back.”

As a historian for this regional community, Connolly worked closely with Chicago Mercy sisters in archival research, individual interviews, and collaborative editing throughout the writing process. The result is an integrated and balanced case analysis, written in a lucid style appropriate for both academic and general audiences. Her study is a valuable addition to scholarly histories of women’s religious communities written in the past twenty years. She has included extensive references, critical bibliography, index, and extensive illustrations, making this a good source for both undergraduate and graduate course readings in religious studies, women’s studies, and American studies.