The Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia, Social Justice, and Gender Consciousness After Vatican Ii
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BREAKING THROUGH THE GLASS CLOISTER: THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF PHILADELPHIA, SOCIAL JUSTICE, AND GENDER CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER VATICAN II A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Ryan P. Murphy May 2017 Examining Committee Members: Dustin Kidd, Advisory Chair, Sociology Judith Levine, Sociology Rebecca Alpert, Religion Lucy Bregman, Outside Examiner, Religion i ABSTRACT Since the Vatican‘s widely-publicized criticism of American Catholic nuns in 2012, religious sisters have risen into the public consciousness. For decades, thousands of religious sisters in the United States have served within a rigid patriarchal Church that does not always recognize their contributions, yet relies on them to carry out its ministries. Through an emphasis on their missions of service to the poor and work for social justice, religious sisters emerged from this contentious situation with Rome as intelligent and dedicated women who lead dynamic lives that often go unnoticed. Through a case study of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia, I analyze individual sisters‘ lived experiences. In this research, I seek to understand the congregation‘s institutional culture to uncover how religious sisters develop strategies to live out their mission of service to the poor and marginalized, and how they continue to advocate for social and structural change in the Catholic Church and in secular society. Specifically, I conducted interviews with 23 Sisters of St. Joseph and analyzed archived writings, letters, and congregational documents dating back to the late 1960s. I submit that over the past 50 years since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), the Sisters of St. Joseph actively embraced gender consciousness and social justice as a means of empowerment toward social change, despite the institutional pressures within the Church and society that discourage this. I argue that the progressive spirit and commitment to social justice indicative of a feminist orientation created a dissonance between religious sisters and Church leadership, while simultaneously increasing their integration into secular society. Ultimately, I contend that their congregational mission of unity and ii reconciliation, their status as sisters in a religious community, and privilege as educated women allows the Sisters of St. Joseph to be courageous risk-takers in advancing social and structural change in both the Catholic Church and the world. In addition to the 23 semi-structured interviews, I used qualitative content analysis to explore the congregation‘s primary archival documents, especially those published from the periodic general chapters just after Vatican II through the most recent chapter in summer 2014. These chapter meetings are called roughly every five years, during which time the Sisters of St. Joseph elect congregational leadership and articulate the community‘s organizational vision and direction. At each chapter‘s conclusion, the congregation publishes a document(s) that informs its mission and work for the next several years. In addition to these public documents, I was granted access to the Sisters of St. Joseph congregational archives, where I analyzed notes, letters, minutes, voting records, proposals and enactments, and personal recollections of the general chapter meetings. In total, I analyzed nearly 300 documents from the Sisters of St. Joseph congregational archives. In my textual analysis, I used subjective interpretation of language in the text with particular attention placed on its content and contextual meaning in order to identify themes or patterns. Once I identified the major themes, I grouped them into three theoretical areas, which became the empirical chapters 4, 5, and 6 of this study. Chapter 4 argues that the sisters‘ move toward active social justice work and advocacy after Vatican II is evidence of lived religion for this congregation. Chapter 5 analyzes how the Sisters of St. Joseph navigate issues of gender and sexuality in the Church, in their congregation, and in society. Chapter 6 looks at how the congregation contends with race and ethnicity iii within their own community, but also in the lives of the people they serve in their various ministries. Finally, in chapter 7, I conclude by examining how the congregation moved toward a more democratic, corporate structure focused on long-term viability in the decades after the Second Vatican Council. Ultimately, I argue that as the congregation evolved after Vatican II, they broke through what I call a ―glass cloister.‖ Through the renewal process, the Sisters of St. Joseph emerged from decades of restriction as sisters reborn, reclaiming their original congregational focus and eager to live out their lives in service to others. As convent rules loosened and the sisters claimed their voices within the Catholic Church structure and in secular society, the congregation defined itself as a dynamic community of women dedicated to social justice and advocacy for the poor and marginalized. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have many people to thank who supported me through graduate school and the completion of this project. First, Dustin Kidd, my advisor and dissertation chair provided me with countless hours of direction and editorial guidance. Dustin‘s Classical Sociological Theory course was one of the first ones that I took at Temple University, and I have appreciated his mentoring presence in the department ever since. When choosing an advisor and chairperson for this dissertation, I wanted someone who would afford me the autonomy to write and conduct research as I saw fit, but who would also keep me on task and call me out if I was heading in a wrong direction. Dustin was all of this and more, and I am so grateful for his help with this project. Thank you also to the Temple University Sociology faculty who challenged me to think in new ways, and who always go out of their way to care for their students. Judith Levine and Rebecca Alpert were both instrumental in serving on my dissertation committee, and also for providing much of the impetus for this project. I will always be grateful for their encouragement that this study was not only an interesting project, but a good project for me. When I returned to graduate school in 2011, slightly older than most students, I was not necessarily looking for friends. However, I will never forget the support, collegiality, and friendship that I gained from my cohort in Sociology. Kim, Danielle, CiAuna, AJ, Amanda, Robert, Lin, and Kelly—thank you. I look forward to many more years of laughter, friendship, and support for one another as we move into our respective careers. v Thank you, most especially, to the many Sisters of St. Joseph who agreed to be part of this study and who trusted me enough to let me in and learn about their extraordinary lives. Thanks to Sister Anne Myers, congregational President, for her support and encouragement on this project, and for helping to open doors and unlock keys to the past. Thank you to Sister Patricia Annas, congregational archivist who provided me with hours of help in locating archival material, and for wheeling dozens of boxes and folios into the Motherhouse Scholasticate for me to explore. I appreciate your professionalism and the trust you had in me to care for your rich congregational history, and to tell your community‘s story. Thank you also to Sister Roberta Archibald, who was my cheerleader from the beginning of this project, and whose keen eye for detail and pride in her congregation inspired me to uncover these amazing stories. Thank you to all the librarians at Chestnut Hill College, and particularly Carol Consorto, who because of her help with Interlibrary Loan, saved me hundreds of dollars and countless hours of travel to and from Temple University. There was never a request that Carol could not fulfill for me. Carol retrieved dozens of books, texts, and unpublished dissertations for me quickly, cheerfully, and at no cost. Thank you also to all of my friends, family, and colleagues at Chestnut Hill College who were quick with encouragement, easy with pressure, and genuinely curious about my findings. Finally, and most importantly, thank you to my loving and supportive wife Krista and our beautiful, hilarious, and sweet son William ―Liam.‖ Daddy is really looking forward to not having to go to his room ―to do work‖ for a while so that we can spend more time enjoying our amazing and blessed lives, exploring the world together. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 Background and Context..........................................................................................1 Purpose of Study ......................................................................................................4 Research Questions ..................................................................................................7