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8 - Women Religious

from Part II - Catholic Life and Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2021

Margaret M. McGuinness
Affiliation:
La Salle University, Philadelphia
Thomas F. Rzeznik
Affiliation:
Seton Hall University, New Jersey
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Summary

In 1966, Catholic philosopher Michael Novak published a story on the “New Nuns” in the popular American magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, that portrayed a new image of Catholic sisterhood. The new fresh face of American sisters, or Catholic women religious, sported a modified habit that altered the veil to expose a sister’s hair (her bangs) and a shortened skirt that may have revealed that nuns did have legs, but also allowed for freer movement.1 Sisters appeared to be on the move by the mid-1960s, leaving behind traditional ministries such as parish schools. This first modification of religious life was followed by another, as many congregations shed their religious habits for secular dress by the 1970s.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Butler, Anne M. Across God’s Frontiers: Catholic Sisters in the American West, 1850–1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Coburn, Carol K., and Smith, Martha J.. Spirited Lives: How Nuns Shaped Catholic Culture and American Life, 1836–1920. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Cummings, Kathleen Sprows. New Women of the Old Faith: Gender and American Catholicism in the Progressive Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Fraser Connolly, Mary Beth. Women of Faith: The Chicago Sisters of Mercy and the Evolution of a Religious Community. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koehlinger, Amy L. The New Nuns: Racial Justice and Religious Reform in the 1960s. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
McGuinness, Margaret M. Neighbors and Missionaries: A History of the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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