Wait, She’s One of Us! American Catholic Nuns, Gender, and Sexuality

• In Event: 1580 - Section on Sociology of Religion Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Religious Leaders and Shifting Religious Landscapes

Abstract

In this qualitative study of one congregation of American Catholic nuns—the Sisters of St. Joseph oh Philadelphia—I explore the ways in which gender influences the sisters’ work and their relationship with the Catholic Church and secular society. Through interviews with 23 religious sisters, I analyze the subtle strategies of action they employ to minister to marginalized populations who may feel alienated by the institutional Catholic Church. Despite their own structural position in the Catholic Church and secular society, American Catholic nuns like the Sisters of St. Joseph emerge as powerful women who exercise agency to respond to the human and social needs of lay Catholics and non-Catholics, even when this work is counter to official Church teaching. Overall, I argue that the Sisters of St. Joseph are guiding progressive voices in the Catholic Church—particularly around human sexuality and relationships—and have the potential to shape the direction of the Church in the twenty-first century.

Author

• Ryan P. Murphy, Chestnut Hill College