Sisters in Crisis by Ann Carey - Catholic Current Issues, Hardcover, 367 pp.
Sisters in Crisis by Ann Carey discusses the tragic unraveling of women's religious communities. It is by far the finest and best-documented study of the collapse of the Catholic orders of religious women in the postconciliar period. The author provides immense documentation (much taken from original archival sources) to illustrate how these orders collapsed when they pursued a path of renewal that clearly contradicted the documents of Vatican II and the postconciliar directions indicated by the Vatican. It may seem superficial, but the decision to abandon the habit, communal prayer, corporate apostolate, and the convent has spelled death for many of these orders. And the bitter New Age theology (often tinged by anti-Catholicism) adopted by some of these groups only indicates the spiritual depth of this suicide. The story is painful to read, but Carey documents how one once-vigorous order after another chose the path of self-destruction. And the treatment of nuns who wanted to follow the authentic path of renewal remains a scandal.
