Power of Sisterhood

Women Religious Tell the Story of the Apostolic Visitation

Edited by Margaret Cain McCarthy and Mary Ann Zollmann

In 2008, the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life initiated an Apostolic Visitation to examine the quality of life of women religious in the United States. Power of Sisterhood: Women Religious Tell the Story of the Apostolic Visitation serves as an historical record of the event and describes the experience of the women who participated in it. This book, initiated by a group of women in leadership in their communities during this unprecedented time, grew out of a survey that gleaned the essence of the experience from as many congregations of women religious as possible. After framing the Visitation as a story, situating it in an historical and theological context, tracing its chronology, and detailing the experience as revealed in the survey, the book delves into the deeper meaning of the Visitation for women religious as they experienced it and as they move into the future.

University Press of America

Pages: 243 • Trim: 6½ x 8¾

978-0-7618-6430-1 • Paperback • September 2014 • $48.99 • (£38.00)

978-0-7618-6431-8 • eBook • September 2014 • $46.50 • (£36.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christianity / Catholic, History / Modern / 21st Century, Religion / Christian Living / Leadership & Mentoring, Religion / Christian Living / Social Issues, Religion / Christian Living / Women's Interests

Power of Sisterhood

Women Religious Tell the Story of the Apostolic Visitation

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In 2008, the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life initiated an Apostolic Visitation to examine the quality of life of women religious in the United States. Power of Sisterhood: Women Religious Tell the Story of the Apostolic Visitation serves as an historical record of the event and describes the experience of the women who participated in it. This book, initiated by a group of women in leadership in their communities during this unprecedented time, grew out of a survey that gleaned the essence of the experience from as many congregations of women religious as possible. After framing the Visitation as a story, situating it in an historical and theological context, tracing its chronology, and detailing the experience as revealed in the survey, the book delves into the deeper meaning of the Visitation for women religious as they experienced it and as they move into the future.

Details

University Press of America

Pages: 243 • Trim: 6½ x 8¾

978-0-7618-6430-1 • Paperback • September 2014 • $48.99 • (£38.00)

978-0-7618-6431-8 • eBook • September 2014 • $46.50 • (£36.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christianity / Catholic, History / Modern / 21st Century, Religion / Christian Living / Leadership & Mentoring, Religion / Christian Living / Social Issues, Religion / Christian Living / Women's Interests

Author

Margaret Cain McCarthy, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Graduate Education and Leadership at Canisius College and an associate member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Diocese of Buffalo.

Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM, PhD, has been a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for 55 years. Holding a doctorate in spirituality, Mary Ann has served in numerous leadership roles, including as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious from 2001 to 2004.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Framing the Apostolic Visitation as a Story
Mary Ann Zollmann
Chapter 1
What Is an Apostolic Visitation?
Mary Ann Zollmann
Chapter 2
Situating the Apostolic Visitation in Historical and Theological Context
Patricia F. Walter
Chapter 3
Tracing the Apostolic Visitation through a Chronology of Primary Sources
Jean Wincek and Nancy Reynolds
Chapter 4
Experiencing the Apostolic Visitation: Part One of the Apostolic Visitation Survey
Margaret Cain McCarthy
Chapter 5
Experiencing the Apostolic Visitation: Part Two of the Apostolic Visitation Survey
Margaret Cain McCarthy
Chapter 6
Living It Twice: Sources of Support and Inspiration
Marcia Allen
Chapter 7
Theological Reflection on the Apostolic Visitation: “Were not our hearts burning within us?”
Addie Lorraine Walker
Chapter 8
Balanced on Thin Ice: The Most Important Part of the Story
Donna Day and Cathy Mueller
Chapter 9
The Experience of the Apostolic Visitation: Remembered, Revisioned, Reclaimed, Released
Mary Ann Zollmann
Epilogue
The Power of Silence
Mary Ann Zollmann
Bibliography
List of Contributors

Reviews

Editors Margaret Cain McCarthy and Mary Ann Zollmann, BVM, have rendered a valuable service in gathering these chapters about the Vatican's 2009-2011 Apostolic Visitation (AV) of U.S. congregations of women religious. . . .This book succeeds very well in analyzing how a significant number of sisters experienced the AV. The chapters are very well researched, clearly written, and insightful. They express an inspiring degree of faith and charity. . . .[This book] will be especially useful to scholars of Catholicism, religious history, and women's studies.
— American Catholic Studies

Power of Sisterhood is a multifaceted vehicle for recording the responses of surveyed women religious to the Apostolic Visitation. . . . The authors develop a lively and engaging narrative which captures insightfully individual and communal reactions, providing a rich portrait of the present status of American women religious and an invaluable historical record. I recommend this study highly.
— Howard J. Hubbard, bishop emeritus, Diocese of Albany

If you really want to know what is going on between the nuns and the Vatican, read Power of Sisterhood. This work is clear: the problem is not that the nuns did not “think with the church” (sentire cum ecclesia). The problem is that they did. Power of Sisterhood is a story, a reference book, a history, and most of all, an insight into what happened in every diocese, parish, and convent in the country—as well as what it has meant to be Catholic—in the last 50 years. This book is a landmark in the history of women and a gift to the church. If it will only listen.

— Joan Chittister, OSB