Interrogating and Constructing the ‘Authentic’ Roman Catholic Church: Feminist Perspectives Among Canadian Women Religious
Tóm tắt
Based on qualitative interview and questionnaire data among 32 current and former women religious, this article explores the alternative constructions of the church by Canadian women religious and the corresponding practices they have engendered. It reviews the insights of feminist women religious with respect to their understandings and experiences of patriarchal structures and practices within the Roman Catholic Church, their resistance to, and dismissal of these structures and practices, and the construction of understandings and practices which, for the women religious in our study, more closely correspond to their vision of the ‘authentic’ church than to the hierarchical and patriarchal practices with which they are institutionally familiar. In so doing, we highlight examples of the sisters’ divergence from the patriarchal church, including their promotion and practice of feminist spirituality and activism. Our theoretical discussion of the constructions of the ‘authentic’ church within and alongside the hierarchical Catholic Church, as well as of the significance and challenges of these, are integrated throughout the recounting of the experiences of feminist women religious as they navigate the spaces they create in their relationship to the Church.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Akers, Louise. 2013. Speaking from her own silencing experience. The seed keepers. Catholic Network for Women’s Equality [Canada’s National Working Group] (CNWE) 25(3): 3–4.
Barr Ebest, Sally. 2003. Evolving feminisms. In Reconciling catholicism and feminism? Personal reflections on tradition and change, ed. S. Barr Ebest, and R. Ebest, 263–279. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Baum, Gregory. 2005. Amazing church: A catholic theologian remembers a half-century of change. Ottawa: Novalis.
Beaman, Lori G. 2001. Molly mormons, mormon feminists and moderates: Religious diversity and the latter day saints church. Sociology of Religion 62: 65–86.
Berg, Bruce L. 2007. Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Biale, David. 1982. The God with breasts: El Shaddai in the Bible. History of Religions 21(3): 240–256.
Bonaglovia, Angela. 2006. Good catholic girls: How women are leading the fight to change the church. New York: Regan Books.
Bruce, Tricia C. 2011. Faithful revolution: How voice of the faithful is changing the church. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bruno-Jofré, Rosa. 2007. The Process of renewal of the missionary oblate sisters, 1963–1989. In Changing habits: Women’s religious orders in Canada, ed. E.M. Smyth, 247–273. Ottawa: Novalis.
Canadian Religious Conference. Retrieved 17 November 2014 (http://www.crc-canada.org/en).
Chittister, Joan. 1983. Women, ministry and the church. Ramsey, NJ: Paulist Press.
Chittister, Joan. 1995. The fire in these ashes: A spirituality for contemporary religious. Kansas City: Sheen & Ward.
Chittister, Joan. 1998. Heart of flesh: A feminist spirituality for women and men. Ottawa: Novalis.
Chittister, Joan. 2004. Called to question: A spiritual memoir. Oxford: Sheed & Ward.
Chittister, Joan. 2013. ‘Tainted by radical feminism’? More like ‘living the Gospel’. National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 7 June 2013 (http://ncronline.org/node/50416/%C2%A0).
Christ, Carol P., and Judith Plaskow (eds.). 1979. Womanspirit rising: A feminist reader in religion. San Fransisco: Harper and Row.
Coburn, Carol K., and Martha Smith. 1999. Spirited lives: How nuns shaped catholic culture and American life, 1836–1920. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.
Carter, Lewis F. 1996. The issue of authenticity in the study of religions. In Religion and the social order, ed. David G. Bromley. Greenwich, CO: JAI Press.
Daly, Mary. 1991. The spiritual dimension of women’s liberation. In A reader in feminist knowledge, ed. Sneja Gunew, 335–341. London: Routledge.
Daly, Mary. 1968. The church and the second sex. New York: Harper and Row.
Dillon, Michele. 1999. Catholic identity: Balancing reason, faith, and power. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Dionne, E. J. Jr. 2013. The best choice for Pope? A nun. The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 May 2013 (http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-15/opinions/37114895_1_american-nun-catholic-church-priests).
Dumont, Micheline. 1995. Les religieuses sont-elles féministes?. Québec: Bergeron.
Ebaugh, Helen R.F. 1993. Women in the vanishing cloister: Organizational decline in catholic religious orders in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Ebaugh, Helen R.F. 1977. Out of the cloister: A study of organizational dilemmas. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Gervais, Christine. 2011. Alternative altars: Beyond patriarchy and priesthood and towards inclusive spirituality, governance and activism among catholic women religious in Ontario. Canadian Woman Studies 29(1–2): 8–15.
Gervais, Christine. 2012. Canadian women religious’ negotiation of feminism and catholicism. Sociology of Religion 73(4): 384–410.
Gervais, Christine, and Amanda Watson. 2014. Discipline, resistance, solace and the body: Catholic women religious’ convent experiences from the late 1930s to the late 1960s. Religions 5(1): 277–303.
Fox, Diana J. 2009. The anthropological collaborator: Feminist scholarship and activism in Africa. In Power, gender and social change in Africa, ed. M. Ndulo, and M. Grieco, 112–141. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Harding, Sandra. 1991. Whose science? Whose knowledge?. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Helman, Ivy A. 2012. Women and the Vatican. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Hooks, Bell. 2000. Feminism is for everybody: Passionate politics. Cambridge: South End Press.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. 1993. Women, earth, and creator spirit. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. 2002a. She who is: The mystery of god in feminist theological discourse. New York: Crossroad.
Johnson, Elizabeth A. (ed.). 2002b. The church women want: Catholic women in dialogue. New York: Crossroad.
Kaylin, Lucy. 2000. For the love of god: The faith and future of the American nun. New York: Perennial.
Kristof, Nicholas D. 2010. A church Mary can love. New York Times. Retrieved 27 May 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/opinion/18kristof.html?_r=2&.
Kristof, Nicholas D. 2012. We are all nuns. New York Times. Retrieved 29 June 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/kristof-we-are-all-nuns.html?_r=2&.
Leming, Laura M. 2007. Sociological explorations: What is religious agency? Sociological Quarterly 48(1): 73–92.
Leonard, Ellen. 2007. The process of transformation: Women religious and the study of theology, 1955-1980. In Changing habits: Women’s religious orders in Canada, ed. E.M. Smyth, 230–246. Ottawa: Novalis.
Leonard, Ellen. 2012. Vatican II… the role of women religious. Scarboro Missions Magazine. Retrieved 27. May 2013. http://www.scarboromissions.ca/Scarboro_missions_magazine/Issues/2012/Jan_Feb/women.php.
Lux-Sterritt, Laurence, and Carmen M. Mangion (eds.). 2011. Gender, catholicism and spirituality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mander, Harsh. 2010. ‘Words from the heart’: Researching people’s stories. Journal of Human Rights Practice 2(2): 252–270.
McElwee, Joshua J. 2013a. “Pope Francis’ LCWR reaffirmation leads sisters to hard questions.” National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 4 November 2014. http://ncronline.org/news/sisters-stories/pope-francis-lcwr-reaffirmation-leads-sisters-hard-questions.
McElwee, Joshua J. 2013b. Pope Francis reaffirms critique of LCWR, plan for reform. National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 4 November 2014. http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-francis-reaffirms-critique-lcwr-plan-reform.
Monk Kidd, Sue. 1996. The dance of the dissident daughter: A woman’s journey from christian tradition to the sacred feminine. New York: HarperCollins.
Murdoch, Cassie. 2012. Settle down sisters: American nuns busted for being a crazy bunch of radical feminists. www.jezebel.com. Retrieved 29 June 2013. http://jezebel.com/5903343/vatican-pissed-at-american-nuns-for-being-a-crazy-bunch-of-radical-feminists.
Pittaway, Eileen, Linda Bartolomei, and Richard Hugman. 2010. ‘Stop stealing our stories’: The ethics of research with vulnerable groups. Journal of Human Rights Practice 2(2): 229–251.
Reed, Cheryl L. 2004. Unveiled: The hidden lives of nuns. New York: Berkley Books.
Ruether, Rosemary. 1983. Sexism and god-talk. Toward a feminist theology. Boston: Beacon Press.
Schneiders, Sandra M. 2013. Buying the field: Catholic religious life in mission to the world. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Schneiders, Sandra. 2004. Beyond Patching: Faith and feminism in the catholic church. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. 1976. Interpreting patriarchal traditions of the Bible. In The liberating word, ed. L. Russell, 39–61. Philadelphia: Westminster.
Smith, Dorothy. 1987. The everyday world as problematic: A feminist sociology. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Smyth, Elizabeth M. (ed.). 2007. Changing habits: Women’s religious orders in Canada. Ottawa: Novalis.
Uebbing, David. 2013. Pope Backs Reform of Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a doctrinal assessment of the LCWR a year ago. National Catholic Register. Retrieved 4 November 2014. http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pope-backs-reform-of-leadership-conference-of-women-religious.
Weaver, Mary Jo. 1985. New catholic women: A contemporary challenge to traditional religious authority. San Fransisco: Harper & Row.
Wills, Gary. 2012. Bullying the Nuns. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 14 June 2013. http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/apr/24/bullying-nuns/.
Winter, Miriam Therese. 2002. Feminist women’s spirituality: Breaking new ground in the church. In The church women want: Catholic women in dialogue, ed. E.A. Johnson, 23–31. New York: Crossroad.
Winter, Miriam Therese, Adair Lummis, and Allison Stokes. 1994. Defecting in place: Women taking responsibility for their own spiritual lives. New York: Crossroad.
Wittberg, Patricia. 1989a. Nonordained workers in the catholic church: Power and mobility among American nuns. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 28(2): 148–161.
Wittberg, Patricia. 1989b. The dual labor market in the catholic church: Expanding a speculative inquiry. Review of Religious Research 30: 287–290.
Wittberg, Patricia. 1994. The rise and decline of catholic religious orders: A social movement perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Wittberg, Patricia. 1996. ‘Real’ religious communities: A study of authentication in new Roman Catholic religious orders. In The issue of authenticity in the study of religions, ed. Lewis F. Carter, 149–174. Greenwich, CN: JAI Press.
Wittberg, Patricia. 2012a. A Lost Generation? America Magazine: The National Catholic Review. Retrieved 12 November 2013 (http://americamagazine.org/issue/5129/article/lost-generation).
Wittberg, Patricia. 2012b. Building strong church communities: A sociological overview. New York: Paulist Press.
Zagano, Phyllis. 2011. Women & catholicism: Gender, communion, and authority. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.