Starred review from July 11, 2016
Award-winning journalist Wexler tells the stories of 10 women (including herself) of various ages, ethnicities, and life experiences who have wrestled with their Catholicism and the institutional church’s approach to women. Each finely crafted profile includes a biographical story interwoven with a faith journey in progress, all of which include a strong sense of a call to service. Certain themes recur: the question of women’s ordination, ordination in general, issues of social justice, and a commitment to a “faith that transcends the institutional church.” Those profiled include Sister Simone Campbell, of “Nuns on the Bus” fame; Barbara Blaine, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests; and Marianne Duddy-Burke, “a full-throated advocate for gay Catholics.” Wexler quotes liberally, conveying the women’s own voices; for example, Frances Kissling, longtime president of Catholics for Free Choice, says, “Abortion is very serious for me. It is a moral issue”; Diana L. Hayes, an African-American womanist theologian and adult convert, says, “God knew not to ask me into this church prior to Vatican II.” These thought-provoking profiles brim with hope and concern for the future of the Catholic Church.
July 1, 2016
Wexler, a journalist and lifelong Roman Catholic, offers 10 biographical portraits developed from interviews with women who continue to practice Catholicismor have returned to itin spite of social, political, theological, and psychological issues they have faced with the Church. In addition to the well-known Sister Simone Campbell (Nuns on the Bus), the subjects include Sharon MacIsaac-McKenna, present at Vatican II before leaving the religious life; Marianne Duddy-Burke, active in the American Church's LGBT DignityUSA; women who have persevered in Catholic academia in spite of its sexism; and those who have suffered deeply and personally through abuse by clergy or racial injustice. Each woman's story of internal conflict, theological development, and spiritual growth is, of course, unique, and yet together they form a nuanced account of women in the American Church today and offer models for those who experience both deep belief and religious structural doubt. An excellent companion to Sarah Bessey's Jesus Feminist (2013) and Michal Smart and Barbara Ashkenas' Kaddish: Women's Voices.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)