Vatican II and Beyond: The Changing Mission and Identity of Canadian Women Religious

Description

The year 2015 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council, which aimed to align the Church with the modern world. Over the last five decades, women religious have engaged with the council’s reforms with unprecedented enthusiasm, far exceeding the expectations of the Church. Addressing how Canadian women religious envisioned and lived out the changes in religious life brought on by a pluralistic and secularizing world, Vatican II and Beyond analyzes the national organization of female and male congregations, the Canadian Religious Conference, and the lives of two individual sisters: visionary congregational leader Alice Trudeau and social justice activist Mary Alban. This book focuses on the new transnational networks, feminist concepts, professionalization of religious life, and complex political landscapes that emerged during this period of drastic transition as women religious sought to reconstruct identities, redefine roles, and signify vision and mission at both the personal and collective levels. Following women religious as they encountered new meanings of faith in their congregations, the Church, and society at large, Vatican II and Beyond demonstrates that the search for a renewed vision was not just a response to secularization, but a way to be reborn as Catholic women. Cover VATICAN II AND BEYOND Title Copyright Contents Figures and Tables INTRODUCTION Women Religious after Vatican II: Navigating the Turbulent Waters of the “Age of Fracture” CHAPTER 1 Smaller Numbers, Stronger Voices: Women Religious Reposition Themselves through the Canadian Religious Conference, 1960s–80s CHAPTER 2 The Missionary Oblate Sisters: Renewal and the Tortuous Journey of the Prophetic Feminist Vision of Alice Trudeau CHAPTER 3 Living Religious Life on a Broad Canvas: Vatican II and Sister Mary Alban (Bernadette) Bouchard, csj CONCLUSION Notes Bibliography Contributors Index