HEART, MIND AND SOUL: CATHOLIC WOMEN AND SOCIAL ACTION

by

Catherine Holtmann MDiv, University of St. Michael's College, 1994 BA, University of Winnipeg, 1987

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

in the Graduate Academic Unit of Sociology

Supervisor: Nancy Nason-Clark, PhD, Sociology

Examining Board: Gary Bowden, PhD, Sociology, Chair Vanda Rideout, PhD, Sociology Linda Kealey, PhD, History

This thesis is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK

June 2009

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1*1 Canada Abstract

Building on the findings of sociological research on women and religion that highlight

the ways in which women exercise agency in patriarchal religious institutions, this

study, exploring the lived religion of Catholic women, illustrates that their involvement

in social action was as prevalent a form of religiosity as was participation in liturgy and

prayer. Six focus group discussions with a total of forty four participants and personal

interviews with seventeen Catholic women and six religious leaders in New Brunswick

revealed that the particular social concerns of Catholic women and the ways in which they address these concerns are dependent on a variety of religious and social factors.

These factors included the socio-economic context of their churches, family situations, career, role models, involvement in faith organizations, and the quality of social action leadership. Increased engagement in the work of social change could be achieved through a strengthened cooperation of clergy and laity.

n Table of Contents

Abstract ii

Table of Contents iii

1.0 Introduction 1

2.0 Literature Review 5

3.0 Identity, Context and Questions 22

3.1 Research identity 22 3.2 Research context 24

3.3 Research questions 30

4.0 Methods 32

4.1 Ethical considerations 32 4.2 Textual analysis 33 4.3 Focus groups 35 4.4 Interviews 44 4.5 Questionnaires 46

4.6 Analytical method 47

5.0 Data Analysis 50

5.1 Analysis of data from questionnaires 50

5.2 Analysis of qualitative data 52

5.2.1 Analysis according to socio-economic context 55

5.2.1.1 Low socio-economic contexts 56 5.2.1.1.1 Low socio-economic focus groups 71 5.2.1.1.2 Low socio-economic women interviews 73 5.2.1.1.3 Low socio-economic leader interviews 77 5.2.1.1.4 Summary of low socio-economic contexts 79 5.2.1.2 High socio-economic contexts 80 5.2.1.2.1 High socio-economic focus groups 91 5.2.1.2.2 High socio-economic women interviews 92 5.2.1.2.3 High socio-economic leader interviews 94 5.2.1.2.4 Summary of high socio-economic contexts 95

in 5.2.2 Analysis according to social action leadership style 96

5.2.2.1 Weak social action leadership churches 98 5.2.2.1.1 Weak social action leadership focus groups 103 5.2.2.1.2 Weak social action leadership women interviews 104 5.2.2.1.3 Weak social action leadership leader interviews 107 5.2.2.1.4 Summary of weak social action leadership 108 churches

5.2.2.2 Strong social action leadership churches 108 5.2.2.2.1 Strong social action leadership focus groups 115 5.2.2.2.2 Strong social action leadership women interviews 117 5.2.2.2.3 Strong social action leadership leader interviews 117 5.2.2.2.4 Summary of strong social action leadership 119 churches

5.2.2.3 No social action leadership 119 5.2.2.3.1 No social action leadership focus group 121 5.2.2.3.2 No social action leadership women interviews 122 5.2.2.3.3 Summary of no social action leadership 123

5.3 Summary of data analysis 123

6.0 Discussion and Conclusions 126

6.1 Discussion of findings 126

6.2 Conclusions 136

References 141

Appendix A - Research Ethics Board Application Documents

Appendix B - Socio-Economic Maps

Appendix C - Vignettes for Focus Groups

Appendix D - Questions

Appendix E - Anonymous Questionnaire

Appendix F - Data from Questionnaire

Appendix G - Key Points from Churches and Lapsed Group Appendix H - Women Interview Data

IV Curriculum Vitae

v 1.0 Introduction

With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before [God] with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand of river of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for m y transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? [God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:6-8, NRSV)

I was never someone who could sit still during mass. My parents were always trying to keep me quiet as a young child, futilely trying to stop me from waving my arms, when I tried to imitate the gestures of the priest. It was not so long before I, along with my older sister, was singing and playing guitar with the choir. Like other aspects of my life, such as competing in sports, practicing music and studying for school, I actively engaged in the rituals of my religion. I did so, not only because my lanky frame needed release from the confines of the pew, but because the hymns, readings, prayers and homilies of my Catholic church spoke to my search for meaning. Perhaps my farming background was equally as strong an influence as my religious quest, but as a young adult I took my personal responsibility for the common good seriously.

It was for these reasons that I studied theology at graduate school and worked in lay ministry. I believed that if I had the right information and if I worked hard, I too could participate in the long history of women and men of faith working for social change. But I began to realize, slowly, that people were not simply moved to action by words. There were complex situations and social processes at work in their lives that both enabled and prevented them from taking action for change either individually or collectively. This research project - an exploration of the connections between the lived

1 experiences of Catholic women and their involvement in social action - was the logical

"next step" in my search for understanding the dynamics of faith-based social change.

My academic and activist work proceeds from the assumption that knowledge claims are, to a large extent, socially constructed. The feminist struggle, while grounded in women's experiences of sexism, is about working with all people, regardless of gender, class, race, or sexual orientation, to gain the political consciousness that will help them critique current social structures and work towards a new society based on

"mutual respect, cooperation and social responsibility" (hooks, 1984, p. 66). This is not only an epistemological claim - it is also a motivation for social change (Sprague &

Zimmerman, 2004). Feminist scholarship and activism have proven time and again that many of the socially accepted differences between people do not in fact reflect the real capabilities of individuals or groups. Oppression is rooted in differences of power often based on assumptions that some people in society are less human than others or less deserving of equal rights. And even when claims to natural or essential superiority are dropped, the practices and systems of social interaction that were supported by these claims are maintained. Old habits are hard to break.

It became important for me to explore the motivations of faith-based activists. If

I could uncover the personal and social, religious and secular influences that moved them from words to action, then perhaps I could communicate that to others and thus help in the work for social change. I began asking sociological questions even before I enrolled in graduate studies in sociology. Three years ago I interviewed the founding members of the New Brunswick local chapter of the Catholic Network for Women's

Equality (CNWE) and discovered that while they believed that transforming patriarchy

2 was part of their faith journey, they also had transferred knowledge and skills gained from participation in other social movements to their work for religious change

(Holtmann, 2008a). Then I interviewed Catholic nuns, icons of faith and works, and wrote of their ability to adapt to change through the building of bridges uniting the dualisms of clergy/laity, public/private, and sacred/secular. Their lives were dedicated to the work of transforming church and world (Holtmann, 2008b). Both of these studies highlighted how women on the margins of the Catholic church are working for social justice in a variety of ways. This led me to the research project described in this thesis, in which I asked questions about the social action involvement and lived experiences of

Catholic women in the pews - those who remain in the mainstream of Catholic religious practice. This study is not focused on issues pertaining to the leadership of the Catholic hierarchy or the question of women's ordination. It is about Catholic women as agents of social change and how the resources of their faith and the particular circumstances of their lives impact their levels of involvement in social action.

The ever-increasing social inequalities in our world are fueling polarization and conflict. Many of those at odds with Western neo-liberal capitalist agendas that benefit a few at the expense of the world's majority are contesting these agendas on the basis of religious ideologies. The current financial crisis presents us with an opportunity for change. In 2006, Catholics comprised 17.4% of the world's population with more than one billion adherents (Aloisi, 2008). Catholics are found in every country, eco-system, social class and among every race. Therefore Catholic contributions to the critique of

Western economic hegemony and their participation in the work of social change should be considered significant. Catholics are also the largest Christian group in New

3 Brunswick (Statistics Canada, 2005) - an historically economically disadvantaged province in Canada. The following study reveals the religious and social factors that influence local Catholic women's commitment to social justice and action for social change in this particular time and place.

4 2.0 Literature Review

There are numerous sociological studies that relate to my research. The studies that are most relevant to this project on Catholic women and social action can be grouped into three general themes - women and religion, institutional church cultures, and lived religion. Studies of the experiences of women in relation to religion highlight

"both the constraints under which women operate and their personal resistance to the structures that would oppress them" (Nason-Clark & Fisher-Townsend, 2005, p. 212).

Studies of the institutional church include analyses of national survey data that point out trends and changes in institutional religion as well as those that focus on other factors related to religious change. Research in the area of the sociology of lived religion points to the creativity and complexity of the everyday spiritual practices of ordinary people.

Religious institutions in North America maintain a structural bias towards patriarchy in a society that increasingly accepts and legitimates women's fundamental equality (Anderson & Dickey Young, 2004, pp. xi-xii). This is as true for Catholicism as it is for Protestantism, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism. The study of women's religious experiences within patriarchal institutions reveals the ways in which women exercise agency in these contexts. Women are not merely oppressed and without power, even in the midst of the problematic experiences of their lives. Studies show that religious women are able to manage multiple identities in their everyday lives (Nason-Clark &

Fisher-Townsend, 2005). This research provides an important background to the study of Catholic women and social action because it sensitizes the researcher to look to the margins of institutional life for the spaces in which women have found room to exercise their religious agency. In small groups and Catholic associations within institutional

5 cultures, women can come to know more fully and interpret the teachings of their tradition and learn the skills they need to engage in faith-based social action.

In the mid-nineties, Winter, Lumis and Stokes explored Christian women's ways of "being church" through "defecting in place" (1995). The writers outlined how

Christian women in the United States, from a variety of political positions along the spectrum from conservative to radical, adapted to or resisted the patriarchy of their religious traditions. The research showed that lay Catholic women, because of their long-standing exclusion from ordained ministry in their church, chose to form alternative communities, or women-church, in order to exercise their leadership abilities and to better express their feminist spiritualities. However, while ecclesial gender justice was the raison d'etre for the women-church movement, two Catholic consultants for the Defecting in Place research project, Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza and Marie

Augusta Neal, questioned women-church groups' specific commitment to social justice

(Winter, et al., 1995). These theologians claimed that women-church groups could become that which they oppose - matriarchies instead of patriarchies - if their only purpose was to serve as enclaves for the expression of women's spirituality and neglected the concurrent Christian mandate for social action. Catholic women could use their experiences of alienation as a foundation for working for justice for others.

Feminist theory has long emphasized the importance of collective action for social change. Knowledge of oppression and action for change reciprocally inform each other

(Hartsock, 1998). Social action and experiences gained through action for change can lead to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of personal and collective agency.

6 Among American evangelical Protestants, the understanding of men as heads of

the family and leaders of the church is based on predominantly male images of God.

Sally Gallagher (2003) explores how evangelical women use what she refers to as a

cultural "tool kit" to ensure stability in family and social life in the face of strong secular

feminist influences that challenge religious patriarchy. Her research shows that

evangelical husbands and wives live within the tensions of symbolic traditionalism and

pragmatic egalitarianism when it comes to gendered relationships in family life. Their

strongly held beliefs in the husband's headship in the family correspond with beliefs in

gender hierarchy in church, society and in the nature of God. These patriarchal beliefs

are held in tension with pragmatic egalitarianism which is a product of life in modern

society. Evangelical women work outside the home in the same numbers as mainline

Protestants and secular Americans. Dual earner households cope with the demands of family life by living creatively in the tension between religious gender essentialism and secular gender egalitarianism (Gallagher, 2003).

While Marie Griffith's research (1997a, 2004) illustrates how American patriarchal religious lifestyles have supported the Western capitalist and militarist social order, she also highlights how evangelical women have used power in their restricted spheres of social and religious life to affect personal change. Within the Women Aglow fellowship, evangelical women have interpreted the religious ideologies of submission and surrender to reinvent themselves and transform their marriages from relationships of despair to ones of mutuality and hope (Griffith, 1997b). Griffith refers to this as evangelical women's ways of "making room" for themselves. She does not, however,

7 draw out the wider political implications of such religious practices (Griffith, 1997b, p.

190).

Both Gallagher's and Griffith's research into evangelical women's lived experience of religion illustrates the claim of feminist sociologist Dorothy Smith that the conflicts between patriarchal religious legitimations of male dominance and feminist religious ideals of gender equality make religious women's everyday and every night lives problematic (Neitz, 2003; Smith, 2005). In a similar vein, Deborah Kaufman's research (1991) shows how contemporary well-educated and affluent Jewish women in the US choose ultra-orthodox forms of Judaism because it provides well-defined social roles for them in defiance of a secular world in which they feel identity confusion. A strong measure of stability in their private lives feels liberating for these modern Jewish women. These studies show how women combine the discourses of feminism and patriarchal religion in order to fashion lives that work.

Robert Orsi's studies of Catholic practice in the United States, particularly among minority ethnic communities, illustrate well how women use the traditional symbols and rituals of their faith in socially powerful ways (1996, 2002, 2005). He asserts that while corporal religious practices, such as the many forms of Catholic devotionalism, may seem somewhat irrational to modern sensitivities, they nevertheless play a role in the everyday lives of minority women helping them to cope with and overcome the challenges of life in American society. Orsi argues that religious belief is not only about what people assent to with their minds, but rather includes the relationships that permeate their daily lives. Relationships established and maintained with God, Jesus, Mary and the saints, as well as with humans, through eating and

8 drinking, washing and anointing, arguing and cajoling, praying and lamenting are as

important to religious lives (maybe even more important) as are the doctrines and teachings of institutions.

All of these researchers of women's religious lives illustrate how women find

space within patriarchal religious groups to construct and manage multiple and often conflicting identities. Religious practices provide personal meaning and stability in changing religious and secular worlds. But the religious practices of women also contribute to the transformation of those religious and secular worlds. None of the above studies specifically explores the ways that women of faith deliberately engage in social action that seeks to transform the larger social structures of which they are a part.

However, research into the religious identities of vowed Catholic women does accomplish this. Studies of Catholic women's religious orders in the United States show that despite their drastic decline and possible demise, these women continue to use their remaining resources for a variety of forms of social action for the common good

(Ebaugh, 1993; Wittberg, 1994). For many Catholic nuns, social action work has been central to their religious lives. Patricia Wittberg (1994) contends that the only way religious life will continue to have purpose and attract adherents in today's society is through a renewed Catholic religious virtuosity that directly addresses the values and assumptions of current US culture. For her, faith-based social action is key to the renewal of vowed religious life for women. In contrast, Helen Rose Ebaugh (1993) concludes that the primary purpose for women's religious orders has come to an end and therefore their demise is necessary. She asserts that Catholic women no longer need exclusive female communities in order to support their aspirations for faith-based social

9 action because the feminist movement, in which nuns played a significant role, has ensured that all women can take their place in the work of social change. My study can contribute to an exploration of Ebaugh's theory as to whether or not mainstream

Catholic women today are carrying on the social action legacy of these sisters.

Feminists argue that when women assume positions of leadership, social groups can become more attuned to the specific realities and concerns of women. Ruth

Wallace's research (1992) demonstrates that the priest shortage has provided opportunities for lay women's pastoral leadership in the American Catholic church. In contrast to male priestly roles as sacramental celebrants, female pastoral assistants emphasize the importance of collaboration within the church community. Lay women in positions of pastoral leadership develop close personal bonds with parishioners and understand themselves as partners in the mission of the church. While Wallace's study does not focus on aspects of faith-based social action that resulted from Catholic women's leadership, she points out that their lay ministry however, is heavily dependent on the explicit support of priests and bishops. Elaine Howard Ecklund's study of women's involvement in parish life complements Wallace's work and reveals the diversity of leadership cultures within the Catholic parishes. Her research uncovers the mechanisms by which individual Catholic parishes might build and sustain micro- cultures that are more favorable to women's religious involvement (Ecklund, 2006).

Again, while these researchers uncover valuable data that supports theories of women's religious agency within patriarchal religious contexts, it does not specifically address the religious agency that women utilize in the work of social action. My study of Catholic women will take the insights from this body of research on women and religion and

10 build on it in terms of seeking to understand how women's engagement in social action

plays a role in their construction of identities as women of faith and their ability as such

to work for social change.

The studies of women's particular experiences of religion must be situated in and

contrasted with larger institutional contexts. This is so because, according to an

extensive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, more women than men

are affiliated with nearly every Christian group in America (Pew Research Center,

2008). Historically speaking, since the nineteenth century women have outnumbered

men in a number of denominations, especially in Protestant churches. In light of the research on women and religion that shows that church affiliation is not straightforward for women and that they have had to carve out spaces for religious agency, it is remarkable that women continue to support churches in the face of the constraints presented by the institutions themselves. There must also be beliefs and opportunities for action that women find religiously meaningful and worthwhile.

Studies of mainline Christian churches in the United States point to over-arching trends among adherents. One of these trends is declining rates of religious participation.

In a landmark study of Presbyterian baby boomers, Dean Hoge and his colleagues

(Hoge, Johnson, & Luidens, 1994) explored the reasons for declining participation among Protestants since the 1960s. A significant proportion of the study participants were found to be relatively inactive in their churches, questioned the authority of both church leaders and the bible, and had relative, rather than absolute, understandings of religious truth claims. These people were labeled "lay liberals" by the study's authors.

Those that remained actively engaged in their churches were strongly influenced by the

11 religiosity of their families of origin, had positive experiences of church as adults and

valued the religious education of their children. The researchers suggest that inactive

lay liberals could potentially be re-engaged in their churches if the institution, in

addition to providing religious education, became more committed to fostering Christian faith development in regards to the pressing moral issues of the environment, social responsibility, lifestyle, political involvement and the changing family (Hoge, et al.,

1994). Social action was identified as an important component of religious participation for modern Protestants.

Declining rates of institutional participation are not limited to church cultures.

According to Reginald Bibby who has been following social trends in Canada through the Project Canada surveys he has taken every five years since 1975, participation in all social groups by Canadians has declined in the last thirty years (2006). In 2005, only

15% of Canadians say that involvement in their community is "very important" and one in three say that their parents belonged to more groups than they do (Bibby, 2006, pp.

35-36). Bibby maintains that as Canadians, we have moved from a "we" to a "me" society and that this is detrimental to the quality of our collective lives. The same holds true for Americans. Social scientists note with concern the decline of social capital and civic participation in the United States (Park & Smith, 2000; Putnam, 1995; Schwadel,

2005). However, despite the decline in overall social participation, Canadians remain involved with religion (Bibby, 2006). Using data from the 2003 Statistics Canada

General Social Survey on Social Engagement, Bibby shows that the two most popular group activities to which people belong are sports and recreation (21%) and religion

(19%) (2006, p. 194).

12 In addition to overall declining rates of participation in religious and social

institutions, Chris Smith and colleagues (Smith, Emerson, & Snell, 2008) have

documented the concurrent decline in financial generosity among Christian groups.

Their research shows that although the real income of American Christians has

increased substantially in the twentieth century, actual giving has decreased. In fact,

high income earning Christians give proportionally less of their money away than low

income earners. Catholics were found to be among the least generous financially. The

researchers posit that the number one barrier to Christian generosity is the consumerist

nature of society. Consumer culture structures American's priorities and decisions for them and they have been convinced by corporate advertising to spend their surplus wealth on consumer goods. Even though objectively speaking, Christians have the resources to give either to their churches or to those in need, they do not because subjectively they feel like they cannot afford it.

Declining rates of institutional participation coupled with the strong influence of a consumer culture that celebrates individualism and detracts from Christian messages of generosity and social responsibility demand a response from mainstream religious institutions if leaders and adherents want to revitalize their churches. An increased emphasis on social action as a critical component of Christian belief and practice is one possible response.

For Catholics, the 1960s also marked significant declines in religious participation. The key to understanding this decline is linked to institutional changes ushered in by the Second Vatican Council that took place from 1962 to 1964. In her sociological analysis of Vatican II, Melissa Wilde (2007) shows how its relatively

13 progressive outcome was influenced by the organizational strategies of the participating bishops. Groups of progressive bishops used the same principles of participatory democracy that were engaging ordinary citizens around the world to bring about changes to Catholic teachings on religious freedom, collegiality, liturgical practice, and social action. Conservative bishops, who relied on the sanctity of tradition and hierarchical authority, were unable to mobilize support at the council for maintaining the status quo. The doctrine of the Catholic church was changed from condemning modernity to engaging it in terms of teachings and practices. This engagement resulted in increased opportunities for Catholic laity, described as sharing with the clergy in "the one priesthood of Christ" and constituting the People of God who are sent out into the world, to participate in religiously motivated social action (Flannery, 1988, pp. 359-

369). According to Wilde, this stronger emphasis on social involvement by Catholics was precipitated by the coming together of clergy from a wide variety of social contexts during the Council. Working together, they believed that Catholics around the world could tackle the problems of growing social inequalities. Another result of the changes ushered in by Vatican II was that the boundaries between Catholics and Protestants became less distinct. While strongly influenced by legitimacy concerns of the Protestant majorities in their home countries, Wilde points out that progressive Catholic bishops were less attentive to the concerns of their own laity, especially in Europe and North

America, when it came to changing church teachings on issues related to sexual morality

(2007).

Studies of Catholics in the US show the longer term effects of the doctrinal and practical changes ushered in by Vatican II within modern society. Summarizing the

14 results of national quantitative surveys of Catholics from 1987 to 1997, American

Catholics shows that gender and generation tend to determine levels of commitment

(DAntonio, Davidson, Hoge, & Meyer, 2001). Unlike earlier generations, for most

Catholics of the late twentieth century, their Catholic identity is not central but coexists with other commitments to family, health and standard of living. Core elements of

Catholicism for contemporary believers include the sacraments, spirituality and special attention to the poor. While Catholics remain in substantial agreement with teachings at the heart of the tradition, the locus of authority has shifted away from church leaders to individual consciences, particularly concerning issues related to marriage and sexuality.

Women are less likely than men to look to church leaders for guidance in these matters and there is a growing rift between the clergy and the laity. Another study specifically focusing on young Catholics, confirms these trends (Hoge, Dinges, Johnson, &

Gonzales, 2001). Based on a 1997 survey of over eight hundred Catholics from twenty to thirty-nine years old, the researchers found that young Catholics across the US want greater involvement in social issues from a faith perspective and more lay participation in their churches. Both of these studies recommend that social ties between Catholics be strengthened in order to create greater solidarity within the Catholic community and a stronger commitment to the common good (D'Antonio, et al., 2001; Hoge, et al., 2001).

This call to deepened community and commitment among diverse Catholics is echoed in Michelle Dillon's study of three pro-change Catholic movements in the US

(1999). Dillon shows that religious identity for American Catholics who are gay or in favor of increased opportunities for women, is an achieved identity (1999, p. 254). Pro- change Catholics construct their identities within special interest group contexts using

15 reinterpretations of doctrine and scripture that support their progressive views. She illustrates that even among progressive Catholics there is significant diversity in terms of some aspects of their beliefs. However, commonality exists in the prioritizing of core

Catholic symbols and values. Dillon claims that although there is much that divides

Catholics, there remains much in common. She suggests that the commonalities among

Catholics be emphasized and celebrated while at the same time encouraging dialogue across differences because differences are inherently human and make for a richer faith community.

Another factor contributing to the growing rift between clergy and laity and declining participation among Catholics is the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by priests that has rocked the North American Catholic church in recent decades. Not only was the abuse widespread, it was denied and/or covered up for years by some leaders at the highest levels of the church hierarchy. Voices of the Faithful: Loyal Catholics

Striving for Change takes a close look at one response to this scandal - the emergence of

"Voice of the Faithful" (VOTF), a lay-led movement in the US calling for greater transparency and accountability in the governance of the church (D'Antonio & Pogorelc,

2007). Members of VOTF were found to be Catholics with high levels of education, economic status, levels of religiosity and a commitment to social justice. Women make up the majority of VOTF members and rather than seeing the crisis of clergy abuse as a reason to leave the church, these long-time, engaged Catholics view it as an opportunity for church renewal. The quest for social justice is at the heart of this movement for renewal. The authors of this study claim that members of VOTF possess a "critical

16 fidelity" to the Catholic church and its mission in the world (D'Antonio & Pogorelc,

2007, p. 66).

All of the above studies of religious institutional cultures make reference to the negative effects of mainline Protestant and Catholic church's accommodation of modern society in the past fifty years. The permeability of boundaries between the sacred and secular has resulted in declining participation in formal institutional practices, particularly collective ritual participation. But at the same time, the churches' encounters with modernity have created increased opportunities for religious lay people to engage in social action on the basis of their faith traditions. In some senses, religious action was given the opportunity to move beyond the boundaries of the institutions. A plethora of faith-based social action groups have developed since the 1960s. The results of the churches' emphasis on social engagement by believers have not been so thoroughly researched, especially as they pertain to the social action activities of women. My study is an attempt to address this gap in the research and uncover the factors that influence faith-based social action involvement for Catholic women.

Recent qualitative studies focusing on lived religion look beyond the religious boundaries defined by institutional officials and quantitative social scientists to the actual day-to-day experiences of people who consider themselves religious. This research picks up on forms of religiosity ignored by institutional or national surveys and can be helpful when considering social action as a legitimate aspect of lived religion.

Nancy Ammerman's research resurrects the "lay liberals" from Vanishing

Boundaries as "Golden Rule Christians" (1997; Hoge, et al., 1994). In Hoge, Johnson and Luiden's 1994 study, lay liberals were considered relatively religiously unengaged

17 according to standard measurements of church attendance and traditionally defined

beliefs. Ammerman's research points to the fact that although Golden Rule Christians value both the scriptural foundations of Christian teachings and belief in a transcendent

God, they put more emphasis on their actions as good people in the everyday world.

Most important to Golden Rule Christians is care for relationships, doing good deeds, and looking for opportunities to provide care and comfort for people in need. Their goal is neither changing another's beliefs nor changing the whole political system. They would like the world to be a bit better for their having inhabited it, but they harbor no dreams of grand revolutions (Ammerman, 1997).

Ammerman contends that through good works, the religiosity of modern Christians is probably more pervasive than has previously been recognized. Research into the social action practices that people understand to be religiously meaningful will continue to open up this contemporary understanding of religiosity.

In her book on lived religion, Meredith McGuire takes a historical look at the construction of boundaries between the sacred and profane that took place during what she refers to as the Long Reformation (2008, p. 22). The distinctions between what is presently considered properly religious and what is not, are social constructions, the results of human struggles over cultural resources and power. McGuire's work shows that boundaries that have been used to determine levels of religiosity have been contested over time and she asks sociologists to reconsider the sacred/secular dichotomy by focusing on the everyday practices of people and the meanings that people themselves give to those practices (2008). In particular she highlights the diverse religious practices of ethnic minorities, southern US evangelicals, those seeking healing, artists and women. Just as research into women and religion has shown that modern women choose to manage the multiple identities offered by their involvement in both

18 church and society, according to McGuire, research exploring lived religion reveals individual religious identities are also constructed. Rather than fixed, they are fluid and changing in order to adapt and respond to life's circumstances.

David Martin's research (2002) posits that Pentecostalism can also be considered a form of lived religion, rather than an institutional form. It is religious flexibility that has enabled the phenomenal growth of Pentecostalism among the poor throughout the world in response to the onslaught of neoliberal globalization. Neither a church nor a system, Pentecostalism can be adapted to multiple situations by its adherents because it is a "repertoire of recognizable spiritual affinities" which constantly takes new forms

(Martin, 2002). According to Martin, women in particular value the stability that

Pentecostal practices bring to lives deeply affected by unemployment, domestic violence and alcoholism.

According to Robert Orsi, religion has never been a fixed dimension of a person's being but is rather a continual response to particular circumstances. Just as

Pentecostal women of Mexico City use their religious resources to respond to life in the barrios, Catholic women in New Brunswick likely use theirs to respond to the particular circumstances of their lives. Likewise, religious institutions themselves are not immutable. Religious institutions and religious individuals are mutually transformed in the exchanges between the two within the greater context of society, which is itself always undergoing transformation (Orsi, 1997).

These areas of sociological research - women and religion, trends in religious institutions, and lived religion - informed the field work and the analysis of the data collected for this study of Catholic women and social action. The literature reveals that

19 while religious participation is not unproblematic for women, they continue to find it a meaningful part of their lives. This research also shows that the last fifty years have been ones of great change, particularly in the shift away from traditional forms of religious participation based within institutional boundaries. This shift involves both changes to the doctrines and practices of churches and changes in society itself.

Evolving with these changes, Catholic women remain in the majority of those who are religiously engaged, perhaps in ways that are more difficult to identify. Gaps in the literature show that one aspect of women's religiosity that requires better understanding is their involvement in social action on the basis of their faith.

While emphasis on faith-based social action has been strong in official Catholic teachings since Vatican II, it is less well known how it is understood and put into practice by lay Catholic believers. Ebaugh and Wittberg (1993; 1994) have shown that

Catholic women in vowed religious communities have made a significant commitment to social action. Base Christian communities that arose in response to liberation theology in Latin and South America are also examples of faith-based social change undertaken by poor Catholic men and women in extraordinary circumstances of oppression. But what about the actions of Catholics who experience the relative privilege of Western society, and in particular, what about Catholic women? This is a perspective that also merits the attention of sociologists of religion.

Women make up the majority of active Catholics in the church today

(D'Antonio, et al., 2001, p. 145). Are they aware of their church's teachings on social action? What social issues are important to them? Do they feel empowered by their faith to act? What are their motivations? Where are the roadblocks? There is much to

20 be learned from the ways in which Catholic women in the pews integrate their faith and

daily experiences of the world. This study is an attempt to address some of the gaps

apparent in the research of women's religious lives, particularly when it comes to their involvement in social action.

21 3.0 Identity, Context and Questions

3.1 Researcher identity

As a feminist I am concerned about social action not only in the religious sphere but in the societal as well. I see the two as deeply interconnected. Social action is the work of social transformation in order to build more just social relationships and it involves two components. Firstly, the work for social action is about providing direct help to those in need, whether that be collecting funds and the necessities of life for the poor so that their daily survival is ensured or providing comfort to those who are suffering from illness, loneliness, violence, abuse, addictions or disaster. In Christian terms this form of social action or outreach is usually referred to as charity. Secondly, social action is about working for social change. This means coming to an understanding of the structural reasons for social inequality and working to change unjust structures whether they be economic, political or religious. Structural injustice has come to be known as social sin in Catholic theology. A holistic faith-based approach to social action involves both the components of charity and social change which means providing direct service to meet the immediate needs of the oppressed while also working to understand and change the social structures that foster inequality and marginalization.

I am involved in faith-based movements for social justice including the Canadian

Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (Development & Peace) and the

Catholic Network for Women's Equality (CNWE) as well as secular movements such as the Council of Canadians, the Credit Union system and the Make Poverty History campaign in Canada. For nine years I have taught courses in Religious Studies and am

22 committed to making justice integral to both the content and methods used in my

teaching. The Catholic feminist movement or "women-church" seeks to articulate the

link between women's religious and social equality and enable women like me to put

our beliefs into action.

Women-Church means neither leaving the church as a sectarian group nor continuing to fit into it on its terms. It means establishing bases for a feminist critical culture and celebrational community that have some autonomy from the established institutions. It also means sharing this critical culture and sense of community with many women who are working within existing churches but who gather, on an occasional or regular basis, to experience the feminist vision that is ever being dimmed and limited by the parameters of the male-dominated institution . . . One must refuse the institutionally defined options either of continuing on its own terms or of cutting off all connections with it and becoming sectarian and hostile to those who are working within established institutions (Radford Ruether, 1986).

Although this description of women-church was written over twenty years ago, it still rings true.

Travelling to the World Social Forum in India in 2004 with a delegation from the

Development & Peace, I was part of a group of global activists determined to defend the human right to water from corporate privatization. There I learned from the leadership of Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow that the most important work for activists was at the local level. They stressed that while international forums were important avenues in order to exchange information and build networks of solidarity, the work for social change took place in countless communities and cities around the world. It confirmed my belief that I can best work for justice in the places where I dwell day-to-day, using my skills and building on relationships of trust born from years of commitment to the common good. As a student and as a professional, I have had tremendous opportunities

23 to work with women and men from a variety of socio-economic, ethnic, political and

religious backgrounds for consciousness raising and social change.

I participated in the Women-Church Convergence 25th anniversary forum in

August 2007 when Dr. Mary Hunt, director of the Women's Alliance for Theology,

Ethics and Ritual (WATER) and a Catholic, said that women-church members are about

"being church and doing justice." As a faith-based activist working for women's

equality and social justice, and as a sociologist, I am interested in the extent that

grassroots Catholic women are making the connection between their faith and action for

social justice. After all, the dialectic between faith and works holds a central position in

the Catholic tradition, regardless of one's personal political commitments.

From a sociological perspective, I have a dual identity -1 am both an insider and

an outsider when it comes to Catholic women and social action. My insider status has

given me an obvious passion for these issues. My outsider status as a researcher, allowed me to ask questions about elements of the social context that have both enabled and restrained women's agency. I have taken seriously Robert Orsi's suggestion that the sociologist can occupy an in-between position - one that accepts neither the objectivity of science or emotional involvement of the believer (2005). I care about the women whose lives I seek to understand and explain and it is my hope that the results of this research will contribute to a more effective social action response on the part Catholics

(N. Nason-Clark, 2000).

3.2 Research context

Calls for social justice have a secure place at the heart of the modern Catholic church. Since 1891 and the publication ofRerum Novarum (On the Condition of

24 Labour) by Pope Leo XIII, popes and national bishops conferences have written

important documents outlining the Catholic church's teachings on critical social issues.

In the encyclical Pacem en Terris (Peace on Earth), Pope John XXIII specifically

addressed the role of women and social action when he wrote:

...the part that women are now playing in political life is everywhere evident. This is a development that is perhaps of swifter growth among Christian nations, but it is also happening extensively, if more slowly, among nations that are heirs to different traditions and imbued with a different culture. Women are gaining an increasing awareness of their natural dignity. Far from being content with a purely passive role of allowing themselves to be regarded as a kind of instrument, they are demanding both in domestic and in public life, the rights and duties which belong to them as human persons (1963 #41).

The documents of the Second Vatican Council of 1964 encouraged all Catholics to read the signs of the times, and emphasized the proper relationship between the church and the world - "the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men [sic] of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well" (Flannery O.P., 1988, p. 903). The 1971 worldwide Synod of Catholic Bishops published Justicia in Mundo (Justice in the

World) declaring that social action is a "constitutive dimension" of the preaching of the gospel for all Catholics (Gunn & Lambton, 1999). Pope John Paul II wrote extensively on social issues during his lengthy papacy, critiquing the extremes of both capitalism and socialism as well as ecological destruction brought about by unfettered growth. He stressed that "it is manifestly unjust that a privileged few should continue to accumulate excess goods, squandering available resources, while masses of people are living in conditions of misery at the very lowest level of subsistence" (Pope John Paul II, 1990).

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) responded to the global call for Catholic solidarity with the oppressed by establishing the international aid

25 agency, Development & Peace, in 1971. In addition to being a conduit to a global network of Catholic aid agencies in the case of disasters or emergencies, Development

& Peace also educates Canadian Catholics about development issues, engages them in action campaigns for international social justice, and supports the work of partner organizations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Development &

Peace is a non-governmental organization with paid national staff and regional animators. Its work depends on donations from Canadian Catholics which are matched by CIDA funding. The grassroots task of informing local churches about Development

& Peace resources and campaigns relies on volunteers within each parish.

In addition to the establishment of Development & Peace, the CCCB have also produced statements on a variety of social issues of concern to Canadians including hunger, families, women, housing, poverty, labour, unemployment, consumerism and inequality. In 1977 they wrote A Society to be Transformed, critiquing widespread materialism and calling it an "economic religion that inhibits the development of an ethic of sharing" (Sheridan S.J., 1987, p. 330). They urged Canadian Catholics to become more involved in transforming the country's economic and social structures. In

1983, the CCCB outlined a five step pastoral methodology for engaging in social action in its well-known statement Ethical Reflections on the Economic Crisis:

1. Being present with and listening to the experiences of the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed in our society (e.g., the unemployed, the working poor, the welfare poor, the exploited workers, native peoples, the elderly, the handicapped, small producers, racial and cultural minorities, etc.); 2. Developing a critical analysis of the economic, political and social structures that cause human suffering; 3. Making judgments in the light of the Gospel principles and the social teachings of the Church concerning social values and priorities;

26 4. Stimulating creative thought and action regarding alternative visions and models for social and economic development; and 5. Acting in solidarity with popular groups in their struggles to transform economic, political and social structures that cause social and economic injustices (Sheridan S.J., 1987, pp. 412-413).

The Social Affairs Commission of the CCCB published a pastoral letter in 2003 on the

Christian ecological imperative, reminding Catholics of their responsibilities in caring for the environment and including suggestions for action. As well, the Catholic church in Canada has been a long-time supporter of the work of ecumenical church coalitions, most notably Kairos - Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives. Kairos is best known for its part in the global Jubilee campaign, working to forgive the international debt that cripples social development in the poorest countries of the majority world. It also focuses on issues of trade and human rights, ecology, aboriginal justice, immigration and poverty.

However, in recently reflecting on the progress made by Canadian Catholics in terms of social change, the bishops were less than celebratory. In a letter written to commemorate the 40l anniversary of Development & Peace, they wrote:

.. .one must be candid in recognizing that the past 40 years have not delivered any radical change - the poor are more numerous and their conditions of life more intolerable. The situation calls for renewed commitment to seek a more just social order through concrete initiatives such as those of D&P. The social challenges of justice and peace can never be kept at arm's length from one's life as a Christian (CCCB, 2007).

Catholic women have played a part in the history of work for social change in

Canadian society. Women from vowed religious communities were among the earliest

European settlers. They were instrumental in establishing and staffing health care and educational institutions across the country and often were the first to offer these social services in remote areas to marginal populations. They frequently did this work without

27 the support of those in positions of authority. As well-educated, unmarried and respected nurses, teachers, social workers and administrators, Catholic nuns were among the earliest feminist role models for Catholic women (Ebaugh, 1993). My own research into the experiences of women religious from four different orders in the Diocese of

Saint John, New Brunswick has shown that their ministries were effectively enhanced by their ability to negotiate change by continually crossing boundaries and acting as bridges between seemingly diverse realities (Holtmann, 2008b). In their years of work for social and ecclesial change they were able to bridge the dichotomies of clergy/laity,

English/French, private/public, radical/traditional, and sacred/secular. Women religious and the Catholic women they taught, served and inspired, have been an integral part of the struggle for social change in Canada.

In 1972, the CCCB established francophone and anglophone committees of clergy, women religious and lay people to study issues of particular concern to women in both the Canadian Catholic church and society. After extensive consultations at the national and regional levels, the committees made recommendations to the CCCB at their plenary assembly in 1984 (CCCB, 2000). In response to the specific concerns expressed by Canadian Catholic women, the CCCB has published pastoral statements on a wide variety of issues including violence against women, the eradication of poverty and violence, unemployment, aboriginal issues, peace, ecology, reproductive and genetic technologies, prostitution and pornography, child care, abortion, adult education, inclusive language, child sexual abuse, and marriage and family life (CCCB, 2000).

However, given all of this analysis and writing by church leaders, the question remains: to what extent do Canadian Catholics in general and Catholic women in

28 particular, make the links between their faith and involvement in social action? My research, based on interviews with founding members of a local chapter of CNWE in

New Brunswick, has shown that their prior involvement in social justice movements was a significant factor in their decision to organize and speak out publically against sexism in their church (Holtmann, 2008a). They were able to transfer both knowledge and skill gained from social movements for justice to their work for Catholic women's equality. A faith-based yearning for social justice grounds their movement. This is reminiscent of the work of the suffragists, who had gained valuable organizational and public speaking skills in the mission movements in their churches and then brought these same skills to the political sphere. It remains to be seen what connections between religion and social action are being forged by the average woman in the pews in

Catholic churches in New Brunswick.

The first Roman Catholic diocese in New Brunswick was established in 1842 and at that time embraced the entire province. The original episcopal seat was in

Fredericton, for a short time, before it was established in Saint John. In 1860 the diocese was divided in two, with the newly established Diocese of Chatham occupying the north, and the Diocese of Saint John, the south. Subsequent divisions and amalgamations followed, and today there are four dioceses in the province: Moncton,

Bathurst, Edmundston and Saint John, with the latter being the only English diocese in the province (Diocese of Saint John, 2007). These origins are still reflected in the diverse regions of the Diocese of Saint John. The city of Saint John has a high concentration of Catholics due to the influx of Irish immigrants in the mid to late 1800s, is home to the bishop, the diocesan offices, the motherhouse of a locally founded

29 women's religious congregation, the diocesan retreat centre and a Catholic book store.

The Miramichi region also has deep Catholic roots, having hosted the episcopal seat for a time, as well as being the birth place of the province's only Catholic university.

Fredericton is the current location of St. Thomas University, which hosted a Holy Cross seminary for a period of time. The Diocese of Saint John has considerable diversity in terms of the socio-economic context of its 90 churches, some located in one of the poorest urban areas in Canada. Presently sixty-eight priests, two deacons and one hundred and twenty women religious work under the direction of the bishop to serve

112,000 Catholics (Diocese of Saint John, 2007).

It is in this historical and social context that my research set out to explore the connection between religious participation and social action activities in the lives of

Catholic women.

3.3 Research questions

I wanted to know what Catholic women's experiences of lived religion were in connection with their action for justice. Women's experiences of lived religion refer to the aspects of their day-to-day lives that are influenced by their religious consciousness.

Religious lives are never neatly packaged - clearly divided between the sacred and the secular. Religion has the potential to permeate all aspects of women's lives. Women can integrate their religious beliefs with their daily life in a variety of ways. This is particularly true for Catholics whose sacramental rituals strive to make explicit the interconnection between God and all of creation. Sacramental life is concrete and embodied. It is about washing and eating and touching and moving in the ritual sphere, but it is also about washing and eating and touching and moving in daily life as well.

30 Multiple levels of meaning can be brought to daily life through a Catholic woman's religious imagination as she strives to integrate her religion with all that she holds dear.

This can provide clarity and vision for daily actions but it can also cause problems.

Making sense of one's religious beliefs and one's ordinary actions is a continual process in a religious woman's life (Orsi, 1997).

The following questions guided the research process:

• What forms of social action are Catholic women involved in? Is there a gendered component to the issues and forms of social justice action that engage Catholic women? Which issues are most important to them?

• Is there a relationship between a woman's involvement in the inner-church life of her parish and her level of social action? What is the relationship between traditional forms of religious practice (church participation, prayer, service) and social action? Are more traditional Catholics more or less involved in social action than less traditional Catholics?

• Are women who are engaged in social action motivated by their faith? In what ways?

• Are the teachings of the Catholic church empowering or roadblocks when it comes to social action?

• Is socio-economic status a factor in a Catholic woman's ability to be engaged in social action?

• Is family life a factor in a woman's participation in social action?

• Does a woman's career affect her participation in social action?

• What other factors hinder women from being involved in social action?

• What role does priestly or vowed religious leadership play in a Catholic woman's involvement in social action?

31 4.0 Methods

A combination of methods were used in order to explore fully the religious involvement of Catholic women and the relationship of their participation to social action. I conducted textual analysis, arranged and facilitated focus group discussions and followed up these sessions with personal interviews with women and with their parish leaders. Each of these qualitative methods was used in order to provide different perspectives on my research questions.

4.1 Ethical considerations

Conducting both focus group discussions and individual interviews can have some affect on the lives of research participants. In addition to demands of time and energy, there is always the consideration that the questions asked or the discussions that take place during the study may upset or anger some of the participants. However, despite the possible but unlikely emotional responses to my data collection methods, my proposed research was not considered to pose a significant risk to the participants, according to the Tri-Council Research Ethics Policy (section 1.C1). Nevertheless, all potential research participants have the right to be fully informed of the study's subject area, methods and goals before agreeing to participate. Additionally they have the right to choose to participate or not, knowing that their identity will remain confidential. I applied to the UNB Research Ethics Board (REB) for approval for this study involving human participants before any contact was made with potential research participants and that approval was granted (see Appendix A). Included in the REB application were letters of invitation for church leaders, focus group participants, and interview participants as well as copies of the posters, church bulletin and email announcements

32 used to recruit participants (see Appendix A). The letters of invitation were sent or

given to potential research participants after initial contact was established but before

the data collection began. Both verbally and in writing, I assured all potential

participants that their confidentiality would be maintained and that they could withdraw

from the study at any time. Several priests and church secretaries were helpful in

providing contact information for potential participants and I made it clear that I would not be able to tell them who eventually chose to participate in the study. At the beginning of each focus group session, I asked participants if they would respect the confidentiality of others in the group and not repeat to outsiders what had been said during the discussion. Before turning on the voice recorder, each research participant was asked to sign a consent form indicating her/his willingness to take part in the study.

Copies of the consent forms used can be found in Appendix A. Signed consent forms, all personal contact information and data collected during the study are stored in a filing cabinet in my supervisor's office at UNB.

4.2 Textual analysis

While waiting for approval from the REB and before beginning field work, I conducted textual analysis of two popular Catholic publications available to anyone in the Diocese of Saint John - the diocesan newspaper, The New Freeman, and the CWL magazine, The Canadian League. The New Freeman is published weekly by the diocese and is delivered to every church. It is available to all parishioners free of charge.

Articles in the newspaper are written by reporters on contract with The New Freeman in each region of the diocese, by clergy or reprinted from other Catholic agencies and newspapers. Occasionally there is space given to letters to the editor or opinion pieces.

33 The Canadian League magazine is a published three times a year and sent to all members. It is also available on-line through the CWL website and therefore available to anyone who wants to read it. The magazine is produced by the executive director of the national office of the CWL in Canada and contains articles from a variety of sources.

Articles are written by members of the national staff and national executive, CWL members throughout Canada and are reprinted from Catholic agencies and sources.

Considerable space is devoted to the reporting of the proceedings of national conventions. Both of these publications are well known to average Catholics. Issues from the past eight years were reviewed in order to get a clearer idea of how social action issues were being presented to their readerships.

Articles in The New Freeman in the past eight years covered a range of issues from interfaith dialogue to war and peace, from health care to poverty and from disaster relief efforts to food banks. However, there were a high number of articles covering

Catholic approaches to particular moral issues. Many articles focused on the right-to- life or pro-life stance of the Catholic church as it pertains to issues such as abortion or euthanasia and in regards to advances in biotechnology such as stem cell research or in- vitro fertilization. An equally large number of articles also focused on the teachings of the Catholic church on the normative nature of heterosexuality particularly as it relates to the issue of the legalization of same-sex marriages in Canada. Many of these articles were reprinted lectures, featured Catholics in discussion with politicians, or urged voters to keep the Catholic position on these issues in mind when going to the polls.

The Canadian League also addressed moral issues within its pages, but the range of social issues addressed by this publication was broader than in the diocesan

34 newspaper. Articles covered such topics as teen pregnancies, aboriginal issues,

bullying, sweatshops, pornography, refugees, cancer research, international debt relief, television programming and climate change. Many issues of the magazine reported on

resolutions that were drafted by CWL councils throughout the country and presented to municipal, provincial and national politicians by CWL members. These resolutions called for specific government action on issues of concern to the CWL membership.

Resolutions were also taken to international meetings to be discussed by Catholic women globally.

From this analysis of popular Catholic publications, I was able to formulate questions and content for both the focus group discussions and the personal interviews.

I was interested in knowing whether or not the moral issues highlighted by the diocesan newspaper were important to Catholic women and their leaders and what their own views on these issues were. I also wanted to know if Catholic women in general were aware of, or concerned about, the broad range of social issues articulated by the CWL.

Did these Catholic publications reflect the concerns of women in the pews in New

Brunswick?

4.3 Focus groups

The use of focus group discussions was intended to be the heart of the data collection process. I wanted to understand the perspectives of Catholic women in the pews. I wanted to listen to the experiences of a wide range of women who were involved in different aspects of the church's life. Not only did I want to listen to women who were very committed to social action but I also wanted to hear from women whose religious focus was directed in other ways. This would help to uncover why some

35 Catholic women were involved in social action and others were not. I also wanted to hear about the different ways in which social action manifested itself in both the church and in the community of which the church was part.

The format of a directed group discussion was used for several reasons. The interactive nature of a discussion can better reveal the complexities of parish life. While an individual woman might be careful to relate a story that hides contradictions or omits uncomfortable aspects, bringing a group of diverse Catholic women from the same church together for an evening opens up many possibilities. And this was in fact the case. All of the discussions included diverse opinions and often open disagreements. I was amazed at how freely and articulately the women expressed themselves with me and with each other. It is probably rare that Catholic women with little in common other than attending the same parish come together to talk about their faith and social action.

As well, I thought that some women might find it easier to come and be part of a group discussion than to speak one on one to an interviewer, particularly when they are not used to having to explain what they believe and why. Church women are used to groups. This however, was not always the case, particularly when there was conflict within a church. Several women, when contacted, indicated that they would prefer a personal interview to participating in a focus group discussion because they were unsure if they would be comfortable speaking with certain other women in the parish present. I eventually found out the reasons for these requests during the interviews themselves.

In order to get a representative sample of Catholic women from throughout the diocese, I decided to choose parishes that represented both regional and socio-economic diversity (see Figure 1). The diocese is divided into three regions and I chose churches

36 from each of them. The socio-economic status of churches in each of the regions was

determined by using Statistics Canada data. Using information from the 2006 Census, a

librarian from the Government Documents Department of the Harriet Irving Library was

able to construct maps for me dividing each region into three areas - low, mixed and

high income (DMTI Spatial, 2006; Statistics Canada, 2008). Low income areas had

42% to 69% of the families classified as having low after-tax annual incomes in 2005

(<$20,000). Mixed income areas had after tax incomes 25% to 41% of the families with

low after-tax annual incomes and high incomes areas had 24% or fewer families with

low after-tax annual incomes. Using these maps as a guide I was able to choose at least one church from each region (see Appendix B for maps). In one region I chose three churches, one from an urban area, one from a suburban area and one from a town. Two of these churches were situated in low income areas and one was from a high income area. In the other two regions I chose one high income urban church and one low income rural church.

37 Figure 1 Socio-economic, regional and leadership diversity of parishes/group in the study.

Socio-economic context —*• Social action Low High leadership 1

Rural church Suburban church Weak (region 2) (region 1)

Urban church (region 3)

Urban church Strong (region 1)

Town church (region 1)

None Lapsed women (region 3)

The parishes were also chosen based on their history of social action leadership

(see Figure 1). While church leadership is not the focus of this study, the literature shows that leadership styles have an impact on the nature of local church cultures

(Ecklund, 2006). Church leadership in terms of social action can be considered either strong or weak, depending on personal theologies and leadership styles. Church leadership personnel include priests, nuns and lay people. The character of any particular parish is heavily determined by the leadership style and theology of the

38 resident priest. For the purposes of this study, priests were categorized as having one of

two leadership styles. One style is primarily focused inwardly, on the liturgical life and the internal needs of the parish. This style does not include an emphasis on the social teachings of the Catholic church and articulates clear boundaries between the church and the world, the sacred and the secular. This style is what I consider weak social action

leadership. The other leadership style, while not neglecting the distinct liturgical life of the Catholic church, includes an emphasis on the necessity of outreach to the marginalized through social action, understanding the church as playing a particular role among others in the larger picture of societal life. This is what I describe as a strong social action leadership style. While individual priests can have elements of both leadership styles, they tend to gravitate towards one or the other. Priests normally remain in ministry in a church for about seven years and are moved from church to church by orders of the bishop. During this time a priest with a particular leadership style (strong or weak social action) can have a significant influence on the people and activities that take place in his church. Evidence for determining the social action leadership styles of individual priests was garnered from both the textual analysis of The

New Freeman and from my own knowledge and personal contacts gained from almost twenty years of social action work within the diocese. While doing the textual analysis,

I gathered evidence of churches and their leaders that were involved in promoting social action activities in the diocese in the last eight years. I also looked for any articles pertaining to social action written by church leaders.

The presence of women religious is also a determinant of a parish's social action social action leadership style, since all of the women's religious communities present in

39 the diocese have a commitment to social justice and lay participation (Holtmann, 2008).

In fact, women religious were responsible for establishing and staffing the health care,

educational and social service institutions that many people take for granted. The work

of these communities of women is an example for local Catholics of lives lived at the nexus of faith and social action. My research with sisters had informed me of churches in which they were working or had worked.

Dedicated lay people, who are not part of vowed communities, can also demonstrate leadership at the parish level in terms of social action. Development &

Peace, Kairos and the CWL depend on the efforts of lay people at the parish level in the delivery of their social action education and programming. My familiarity with these faith-based social movements helped me to identify which churches had lay people with considerable experience in this particular form of social action leadership. In seeking to have participants in the study from parishes that are representative of these leadership styles, I chose parishes with histories of both strong and weak social action leadership on the part of priests, women religious and lay people. Two parishes, one urban and the other rural, had strong social action leadership and three parishes, two urban and one rural, had histories of weak social action leadership (see Figure 1). In an effort to minimize the effects of my identity as a Catholic activist in the diocese, I purposely chose churches that fit the above criteria for diversity of region, socio-economic context and leadership style in which I had not previously worked or volunteered.

In addition to these five parishes representing regional, socio-economic and leadership diversity, I also organized a focus group for lapsed Catholic women. These were women who still self-identified with Catholicism in some way but no longer

40 participated in parish life on a regular basis. I wanted to use this as a contrast group.

They had no obvious Catholic leadership influence in terms of social action and would come from a mixed income background. These women lived in a region of the diocese where I had only chosen one church.

Once the parishes were chosen, I began by contacting the parish priest to explain the research project and to get his consent to conduct field work with women at the church. The initial contacts were always followed up by sending a letter of invitation that outlined the study in detail (see Appendix A). No priest that I asked declined to have his church involved. For three of the churches, the parish secretaries were helpful in providing me with the names and contact information of women in the parish who were involved in different aspects of church life including parish councilors, members of the CWL, choir members, lectors, communion ministers, catechists, ministers of hospitality and members of social action groups. In two of the churches, the priests themselves provided me with this information. I put notices for several weeks in all of the church bulletins explaining the study and asking for participants to contact me; I also placed posters at the church entrances. In all of the churches, women who volunteered to take part in the study suggested the names of other women in the parish who might be interested. Through many phone calls and emails, I arranged the dates and times of the focus group sessions around the schedules of the potential participants. Four of the five church focus groups took place in their own parish halls.

For the focus group with lapsed Catholic women, I sent email notices to graduate students, faculty and staff at the University of New Brunswick explaining the study and asking for participants. I also took out a classified advertisement in the local newspaper

41 for three days seeking participants. Although initially a large number of women responded to these invitations, this focus group ended up being the smallest one with only five participants. This was probably due to the late summer timing of the session.

The largest focus group involved nine women.

Each focus group session lasted two hours and I had planned the focus group process around two basic parts. In the first hour of the session I read fictional stories or vignettes to the group and asked the women to respond to them. In the second hour I asked the group questions about their parish and social action. The stories used in the first hour were ones that I had made up about Catholic women of all ages, facing different life circumstances and varying religious and social issues. The vignettes also touched on aspects of church leadership styles. The purpose in using the vignettes to initiate discussion was two fold. First, people like listening to stories because they can connect to them in a personal way. Stories appeal to the heart and to the imagination.

Rather than starting the focus group session with questions and putting the women into an analytical frame of mind, the vignettes were used to help them get in touch with their own stories and memories and put them into a personal frame of mind. The variety of women and contexts in the four fictional vignettes was an invitation to the sharing of a variety of experiences among the women in the focus group. Secondly, the use of the vignettes was a methodological technique designed to create distance between the research participants' experiences and my own experiences and ideologies as a Catholic insider. I let the women know that I had written the stories and that they were fictional.

Thus, the stories were not directly about me - they were about "other" Catholic women - women none of us knew any more about than what was written in the vignettes. In this

42 way I could encourage the women to talk about experiences and issues related to my research questions without me having to use personal examples in which the participants could judge me. The women could, and in fact did, judge and evaluate the lives and choices of the characters in the vignettes and by doing so provided valuable data for the research.

The vignettes featured four fictitious Catholic women: Margaret, Lisa, Annie and

Margaret. The first story was about Margaret, a life-long Catholic mother of teenagers living in a town coping with the recent closure of its pulp and paper mill. The second story involved Lisa, who was also a mother, but someone who had stopped participating in the communal activities of her church after her divorce. Annie was the focus of the third story. The story described her life as a young environmentalist who questioned the relevance of her faith. The story also raised subtle questions about her sexual orientation. The fourth vignette was about a woman who had been highly engaged as a parishioner but then found herself cast a drift from her church with a recent change in parish leadership. Margaret was exploring ecumenical and Catholic feminist alternatives for ritual and social action involvement (see Appendix C for the full texts of the vignettes).

I asked the women to reflect on the stories based on their own experiences. If anything in the story struck a chord or made a woman think about a particular situation in her life or the life of someone she knew, she was invited to share that with the rest of the group. Each woman present received a copy of the stories and I read all four stories at the beginning of the session, allowing for a few minutes of silence between stories in order to give the women a chance to think and make a few notes. After all the stories

43 were read, I asked each woman in the group to offer a response while the others listened.

Usually after the second story, the women would begin to feel comfortable with the process and begin to ask questions or comment on each other's remarks. When that happened I stopped using rounds as a method of conversation but I would ask more silent participants if they had anything they wanted to say before we moved on to the next story.

After a brief break, I asked the focus group participants to answer questions about their church and the opportunities for involvement in ministry as well as social action in the second hour (see Appendix D for the questions). The questions prompted the participants to talk about their understanding of the link between social action and faith as well as social issues of concern. Each discussion ended with questions about factors that either helped or hindered them from becoming involved in social action.

Never did I have difficulty getting the women to respond to either the vignettes or the questions during the focus group sessions. In fact, for several groups I had to interrupt at times and refocus the conversation in order to get all of the materials covered. It was clear that the women found the discussions interesting and engaging. Following each focus group session I recorded my observations and personal feelings in my field notes.

All of the discussions were recorded and later transcribed.

4.4 Interviews

Personal interviews with women from each church and from the group of lapsed

Catholics were intended to complement the data gathered via the focus group discussions. In the process of organizing the focus group sessions however, it became clear that some women preferred to have an interview, rather than participate in a group

44 discussion. When that was the case I made arrangements for an interview. At the end of each focus group session I invited women who were willing to also participate in a follow-up interview to speak to me. Only three women who took part in the focus groups also agreed to an interview. Several times, women from the focus group suggested names of other women in the parish to contact for an interview. I conducted a total of twenty personal interviews, each of them lasting between forty-five minutes and an hour. After each interview I wrote about my observations concerning the interview and the context as well as my own feelings in my field notes. All of the interviews were recorded and later transcribed.

The interview questions centered on each woman's lived experience of religion and her involvement in social action. Questions about her lived experience of religion included both her participation in the sacramental life of the Catholic church and private religious practices. Questions about social action probed her understanding of social action as it related to her faith and her involvement in both church and community based activities. I also specifically asked women about their views on issues of pro-life, same sex marriage and biotechnology, citing these as concerns raised by the diocesan newspaper (see Appendix D for the women interview questions).

In order to get a better understanding of the perspective on social action from the current leader of each parish, I interviewed the priests and other lay leaders. All of the priests except one agreed to be interviewed. Initially, the priest who declined to be interviewed spoke enthusiastically about having his church involved in the study. He asked me to send him a copy of the interview questions and shortly thereafter, his secretary called me to say that he was no longer interested. I was able to interview the

45 president of the parish council at that parish. At another parish in addition to

interviewing the priest, I interviewed a lay leader of social action who is well-known throughout the diocese. My previous research with women religious in the diocese had included an interview with a sister who had worked in at least two churches in the study.

The parish leaders were instrumental in helping to paint a picture of the history of their parish. Interview questions focused on their understanding of the link between

Catholicism and social action and reasons why (or why not) they thought Catholics participated in social action. Our discussions were engaging and I was struck by the care they took in explaining the complexity of the relationship between social action and faith to me. They were also quite aware of contemporary social issues. I took the opportunity to ask each leader about his thoughts on the Catholic position on moral issues such as right-to-life, same sex marriage and biotechnology, pointing out to them that these issues were prevalent in the diocesan newspaper (see Appendix D for the leadership interview questions).

In total, sixty-seven people took part in the study: forty-four women took part in the six focus group sessions; three of these women plus seventeen others participated in personal interviews; and six religious leaders (four priests and two laymen) were also interviewed.

4.5 Questionnaires

Each woman that took part in the study, either in the focus group sessions or in the personal interviews, was invited to fill in a brief, anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaires included questions about age, marital status, number of children, years of

Catholic involvement, employment, level of education, and income (see Appendix E for

46 the questionnaire). The completed questionnaires were identified according to parish or focus group for analytical purposes. After all of the field work was completed, the data from these questionnaires was entered into SPSS and the frequencies for each variable were analyzed in order to give an overview of the women who took part in the study as well as a snapshot of the various parishes and lapsed Catholic group.

4.6 Analytical method

After having transcribed all of the focus group and interview recordings, I organized them according to parish and/or focus group and spent time carefully reading through them all and through the associated field notes. A copy of my research questions and a highlighter were always before me as I read. Then I reread just the focus group transcriptions. After reading them a second time, I wrote page long summaries of each focus group discussion, highlighting key themes for each group, common themes between groups and subthemes unique to each particular group. When reading the parts of the focus group discussions about the vignettes, rather than focusing on what the women said about the fictional characters, their ritual and social action practices, their churches or their parish priests, I looked for responses from the women's own experiences that were relevant to my research questions. I marked potentially interesting quotes for use later in the writing process.

Following this, I reread all of the interview transcriptions from the women of a particular parish or focus group, also marking significant quotes. Then I wrote a summary of a couple of paragraphs for each interview. These summaries made note of key points and themes that were also present in the focus groups as well as those subthemes that were not. At this stage, I paid particular attention to the personal

47 religious practices described by each woman as well as examples of her specific involvement in social action. After I completed this process for all of the women's interviews, I turned to the transcripts of religious leaders. Again I carefully reread each interview and then wrote a summary, highlighting passages that related to themes that were present in the focus groups and interviews with women and making note of those subthemes that were exclusive to the leadership data. In this way I was able to develop a hierarchy of themes and subthemes.

Using all of the themes and subthemes found in the summaries of the data, I reread them, grouping them according to the two criteria of socio-economic context and leadership styles that I used in selecting my research sites. First I looked at them from the perspective of socio-economic context and in light of my research questions. I compared the themes and subthemes from low socio-economic contexts to that from high socio-economic contexts to see what effect socio-economic context had on the responses to the research questions. Then I did the same from the perspective of social action leadership style. I looked at the differences in themes and subthemes from parishes with strong social action leadership compared to the themes and subthemes from parishes with weak social action leadership and also compared to the themes and subthemes from the focus group with no social action leadership. In these stages of analysis, which involved grouping the themes and subthemes according to the criteria of socio-economic context and leadership styles, there was data from at least two parishes in each category.

After this over-all analysis was done, I turned to look at the data, breaking it down by method of collection. First I looked at how the differences in the socio-

48 economic contexts influenced the themes and subthemes found in the data collected via

focus groups. Then I looked at how differences in leadership styles affected them. I did the same for the women's interview data and for the leadership interview data. This thorough and methodical analysis of the data allowed me to compare results based on the method of collection and to see the influence that the social factors of socio­ economic context and leadership had on the agency of Catholic women in regards to their participation in social action. The hierarchy of themes and subthemes found in this study were then compared to theoretical models found in the relevant sociological literature.

49 5.0 Data Analysis

The quantitative data from the questionnaires provided an overview of all the

Catholic women who took part in the study in terms of their age, marital status, length of participation in the church, education, and level of income as well as a description of the participants from each parish and the lapsed group for comparative purposes. The qualitative data from the focus groups and interviews with the women and their religious leaders offered an insight into the religious and secular factors that influence the level of involvement of these women in social action. The analysis of the qualitative data from the study will systematically proceed from a very broad perspective of themes and subthemes found in the data to the more detailed perspective offered by attempting to interpret the data according to the influence of socio-economic context and social action leadership styles.

5.1 Analysis of the data from the questionnaires

Of the sixty one different women who took part in the study, sixty of them completed anonymous questionnaires. The average age of the women who participated in the research was 54 years old. The youngest participant was twenty years old and the oldest was eighty. The youngest focus group was made up of lapsed Catholics and this was because most of them were university students. The oldest focus group was from the low income urban parish. Sixty per cent of the women had been active Catholics for twenty five years or more indicating that the majority of women who participated in the study were life-long, older Catholics. Twenty-eight per cent of the women were employed full-time and thirty per cent were retired. Only ten per cent of the participants were stay-at-home mothers.

50 This was a fairly well-educated group overall with forty eight per cent of the women having either post-secondary training or an undergraduate university degree.

However, when the parishes are divided by their socio-economic contexts the differences in education levels are striking. While 26% per cent of the women from the low income parishes had a high school diploma or less, only 5%> of the women from high income parishes indicated this level of education. Fifty eight per cent of the women from high income parishes had either post-secondary training or university degrees.

The survey question with the most missing values was the one about annual household incomes. While 27% indicated that their annual household income was between $25,000 and $50,000, 22% of the responses to this question were missing overall. Again, there was a contrast between the responses based on the socio-economic context of the parishes. Forty two per cent of the responses to this question were missing from the two parishes from the highest income areas (N=19) and only 12% of the responses to this question were missing from the three churches from lower income contexts and from the lapsed Catholic women (N=41). Overall 12% of the participants who did complete this question had household incomes of less than $25,000 annually while 17%> earned more than $100,000 annually. These high income participants were spread evenly across all parishes as well as in the lapsed group. For a more detailed summary of the data from the anonymous surveys according to church and the lapsed group, see Appendix F.

51 5.2 Analysis of the qualitative data

A general overview of the themes and subthemes that emerged from all of the data collected through focus group discussions and personal interviews reveals a variety of religious and social factors that either contributed to or hindered Catholic women's involvement in social action in their particular contexts.

The data clearly highlights the fact that Catholic women who are engaged in various forms of social action are also involved in the liturgical, educational and governance ministries within their churches. Their experiences of activities like cooking for church fundraisers, chairing meetings of the CWL, asking people to sign petitions or delivering Easter baskets to women and their children in transition houses was as much a part of their lived religion as helping distribute communion at mass, teaching catechism or serving on parish council. For the majority of the women in the study, members of their families, priests and women religious had served as role models of such engagement in all aspects of the life of the church. Some research participants mentioned the significant impact that certain individuals, lay and ordained, who were engaged in social action had on their lives. It was difficult for many of the women who took part in this study to articulate the link between their Catholic faith and their involvement in social action - they assumed it was self-evident. The women that were best able to describe the relationship between their Catholic faith and social action had been involved in movements such as the CWL or Development & Peace or had received theological training either through the diocesan lay formation program or their involvement in catechetics.

52 For the most part, the women in the study were able to participate in both individual and collective acts that expressed both their faith and their social concern.

Collective religious acts of spirituality and social action were particularly meaningful to

Catholic women because of the feelings of solidarity they produced. Lapsed Catholic women sought ways to experience a sense of community outside of church participation.

Almost all of the women mentioned the value of individual prayer in their lives.

Opportunities to connect with the natural world were considered to be experiences of the sacred, even for those who did not pray. Prayer was particularly important for women who had experienced serious illness. A few women in the study were regular readers of scripture, but these were the exception. However, women who felt alienated in their churches, used bible study groups as a means of maintaining religious solidarity and deepening their faith. Feelings of alienation most often arose in response to conflicts in the churches.

Generally the women in the churches studied were concerned about the lack of participation of young Catholics in the life church and in all forms of social action in society. In every church there was talk about a core group of aging Catholics that seemed to be doing all the work. Yet the women and their religious leaders acknowledged the pressures placed on young families with children when both parents were working. They expressed a desire for their churches to better meet the spiritual needs of this younger generation of Catholics but were not sure how this could be done.

Being involved in the community and reaching out to help others in need was a meaningful form of religiosity for the Catholic women who took part in this study.

Poverty was an important social issue and their primary response to poverty on the basis

53 of their faith was charity. Catholic women who were wealthy or lower income; married, single or widowed; highly educated or without high school diplomas were all able to devote time and resources to helping those in poverty. In addition to caring for the poor through individual donations, fundraising or collecting some of the necessities of life, a history of strong social action leadership in a parish resulted in participation in the work of social change by its members. Some women understood their professional careers as a form of social action. There was less evidence of social outreach in churches that were preoccupied with maintaining their infrastructure.

Many of the women spoke about a gap between what they perceived as the social action priorities of their churches and communities and the focus of their religious leaders. Official church practices or teachings that the women perceived as unjust or inconsistent were critiqued on the basis of personal experience, scripture and theological reflection. Compassion and nonjudgmental attitudes were highly valued by the

Catholic women who took part in this research. They struggled with institutional doctrines when real lives came into conflict with principles. The value of personal conscience and disagreement with official church positions or conflict with particular priests was the main reason why women chose to switch to another denomination or discontinue active participation in the Catholic church.

What follows is a detailed description of these themes and subthemes according to the sampling criteria of socio-economic context and leadership style. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Catholic women from five different churches were recruited for this study based on the socio-economic context, regional diversity, and the social action leadership style of the parish (see Figure 1 in the previous chapter). Three

54 of the five churches were located in low socio-economic contexts and two were located

in high socio-economic contexts. One of the low income parishes was located in a large

city, another was in a town and the third was in a sparsely populated rural area. Of the two high income churches, one was in an upscale suburban area of a city and the other

was located in a different city. Two of the five churches had histories of strong social

action leadership and the other three had histories of weak social action leadership. In addition, a group of lapsed Catholic women participated in the study. The majority of participants that responded to the call for lapsed Catholics were university students and this group was included in the low income category and considered to be without social action leadership.

Some of the key points that arose from the analysis of the data collected from these five churches and the lapsed group of Catholic women have been charted according to socio-economic context and social action leadership style in order to provide a general comparison. This chart can be found in Appendix G. The chart also incorporates some of the key points gathered from the analysis of the data collected during the interviews with women and the interviews with church leaders (see Appendix

H for a table of the women interview data).

5.2.1 Analysis according to socio-economic context

While I had my own definition of social action going into the project (see p. 21),

I wanted the study participants to define social action for themselves. There was no difference between how women from low income contexts defined social action compared to women from higher income contexts. Generally the women defined social action as getting involved in the community and trying to help others, especially those in

55 need. In all of the focus groups and in many personal interviews, the women and parish leaders indicated that social action had both communal and individual elements. The women were familiar with and had participated in a wide variety of communal forms of social action. Some of these originated in their churches and others were community based.

For example, the response to the problem of poverty in their local communities often began with collective action on the part of their churches. Members of every parish in the study were involved in collecting food supplies for their local food banks and several churches held regular events in order to raise money for community organizations that offered direct service to the poor. At the same time, many women mentioned donating money on an individual basis to organizations like World Vision that worked to help poor children globally.

Poverty was the issue of most concern to both low and high income parish research participants. Women mentioned it in focus groups and interviews and all of the parish leaders talked about it. The most common social action response to the problem of poverty was charity. Both low and high income parishes relied on the volunteer efforts of their parishioners to raise money or collect items such as food, school supplies, clothing, and toiletries for schools, food banks, homeless shelters, and transition houses.

5.2.1.1 Low socio-economic contexts

All of the data collected from the three low socio-economic churches and the group of lapsed Catholic women, via focus groups, interviews with women and interviews with religious leaders, in response to the research questions is analyzed in the

56 following section. Subsequent sections will analyze the data from these low socio­ economic contexts according to the method of data collection. Before beginning the overall analysis of data however, it might be helpful to meet a "typical woman" from these low socio-economic contexts. Monica (a pseudonym) is a composite constructed from elements of the personal interviews with women from low socio-economic contexts (see Appendix H for a summary of key points from the women interviews).

Monica's Story

Monica was raised in a small fishing village. Nuns taught her all through school and she says that they had a big influence on her. One of her aunts was a member of a religious order and she was a strong role model of education and faith for Monica. She fondly remembers the activities of her Catholic high school youth group. Monica thought about becoming a nun herself, she enjoyed the rituals of her church so much.

She imagined herself as a teacher, like her aunt, but she also enjoyed the youth dances in her rural village. She was popular with the boys. When she graduated from high school her father found her a job as a secretary for the local fish plant and that put an end to her dreams of higher education. She married one of the young Catholic fishermen and babies soon started coming in quick succession. Shortly after the still birth of her fourth child, Monica went to the village doctor who advised her against getting pregnant again too soon. He prescribed birth control pills and she took them because hers was not a happy marriage. Money was tight, her husband drank too much, they had three young children and there was talk that the fishery might close, putting both of them out of work. When the fish plant closed, the family moved to the city to find work. Monica quickly got a job as a secretary but her husband had a harder time keeping steady

57 employment. His drinking got worse and he was abusive. Eventually they separated.

She attributes her strong devotion to Mary to helping her get through that difficult period of her life. She prayed the rosary with her children every night before bed and she recalls her children kneeling and asking the blessed Mother to help bring their father back home safely. During those years, Monica took the children to mass when she could and made sure they received all of the sacraments. Now that she is retired, she has more time to be involved in the church. She serves as a communion minister and is a member of the CWL. She loves to cook for the church's fall and spring suppers and despite the arthritis in her knees, walks to and from daily mass every day for the month of May in gratitude to Mary. She worries about her youngest son who still lives with her but does not go to mass and has been unable to find steady work. His heavy smoking bothers her but she is grateful that he is faithful in attending his AA meetings.

Overall Analysis of Low Socio-Economic Contexts

The analysis of the data from low socio-economic contexts like Monica's begins with all of the themes and subthemes that were raised during the fieldwork. The general analysis according to low socio-economic context outlines the social issues that women from this context find most important and the forms of social action in which

Catholic women engage in response to these issues. The relationship between social action and faith is explored by looking at the lived religion of the participants and how they articulate the connection between Catholicism and social action. Attention is paid to the influence of scripture and church teachings on the women's actions. Factors such as personal socio-economic status, career and family are examined as either roadblocks

58 or bridges to social action. Additional factors that relate to social action involvement

are also considered.

The issues of concern to women from low income contexts were poverty,

families, equality, international development, health care, the environment and education. Only women from the urban low income focus group talked about the political aspects of poverty.

Cathy: When you hear me say the phrase social action, what comes to mind for you? What do you understand social action to be? And how do you see it linked to your faith? Anyone?

I think it's caring for people. (Focus Group#6, Woman #4)

Well I think of the Christmas boxes and you know, feeding the families. And then I think of the food bank. (Focus Group #6, Woman #6)

Being there just to help the people in your community. (Focus Group #6, Woman #5)

Because you're supposed to take care of the poor. (Focus Group #6, Woman #6)

And that's what we're doing. (Focus Group #6, Woman #7)

And that's what we're trying to do. (Focus Group #6, Woman #6)

The long term thing is to alleviate poverty but at least to support those in poverty. Like through food bank connections and the [low-income area] group. (Focus Group #6, Woman #3)

Women from the town and the rural low income churches were primarily occupied with raising money to keep their parishes open. In the case of the town church, it was in the process of amalgamation with another church because of declining populations in both churches.

It was really quite phenomenal the amount of time and energy Catholic women put into fundraising or collecting articles for charity. A group of women in the low

59 income urban parish organize a Christmas Basket project that involves the entire congregation. The drive for donations takes place over the course of many weeks and each weekend parishioners are asked to bring particular food items for the baskets. The weekend I was at the parish, people had brought bags of pickles and relish to mass and left them near the altar. The women take all of these donations and assemble the baskets in the basement of the church. When they are complete, the baskets are delivered to needy families in time for the holidays. This Christmas project had been going on for many years and served the poor in the surrounding neighbourhoods, regardless of their religious backgrounds. The priest at this church emphasized what he saw as the obligation of the parish to nourish people's bodies and souls.

This was the same parish where women from the focus group were involved in social action activities that focused on some of the structural issues related to poverty.

In this way, the parish contributed to social change. A woman from the parish council said:

I'm a member and that is one of the focuses of that council is to get ourselves involved more in the spirituality of our parish and our connection with our community and what we can do within our community. The bingo thing came about through the fact that Father and I went down to the [low-income area of the community] to set up their new, not only the tenants association, but that new organization as well which is ... ? (The resource center. Focus Group #6, Woman #5) Yes, and the projects that they're involved in which he wasn't really much aware of but I have a contact with [someone] whom I taught with and she's involved with those women. So I said, now's our time to go down while I know somebody and we can get contact and they're the group to work through because they know the situation and they know the neighbourhood, so we went. That was one thing that came up that night at the meeting, one of the ladies asked, do we still do our bingos? And he said, "Yes." And she asked if we would consider doing one and the proceeds go to their projects. Which is just up the alley of what he wanted to get started .... You know, so we're trying now to make more connections with each other and support each other's projects. And inform each other, like through our church bulletin, inform our church what's going on with the projects and vice versa. And in that way we hope not only to

60 help them and support them, but maybe to open the doors for people who might be part of our religious community as well. (Focus Group #6, Woman #3)

While the parish had a strong emphasis on charity, the priest expressed his desire that the church become more engaged in social change at the local level and a vocal member of the community response to issues related to poverty.

Family issues were a big part of both focus group discussions and personal interviews. The majority of women in the study were older and their children were grown, but some of the women from low income backgrounds were busy raising their own children, one of whom had a daughter with special needs. Every parish expressed concern over the lack of involvement of young families and youth in their church.

While they wanted them to be more involved, they realized that church no longer held a central place in Catholic family life, as it had during their own formative years.

However, it was also mentioned that churches were not the only community organization facing this problem - all voluntary groups were lacking the participation of younger members.

And it always seems to be too - it's the same people looking after everything. That's I think a big problem with a lot of different things, like even you see at schools in community events, it's always teachers doing coaching or teachers doing this. The same people that have, like the lady that has three or four kids looking after this in the church and everybody seems to flock to her but they never offer to take charge of anything. So it's always ask somebody who is busy I'm sure they'll do it, you know? Or the ones who are doing scouts or guides or stuff like that. (Focus Group #3, Woman #7)

Generally the women were concerned with the stress and pressures facing families in today's society. One priest was aware of it in his own family. He said, "My youngest sister with her two youngsters, they're so involved in other things . . . It's like an elastic band - they're pulled." (Parish #6, Priest) With both parents working and

61 children in school and involved in extra-curricular activities, life is extremely busy.

Some women feared that families were no longer tight knit and that the whole of society

would suffer in the long run. Many women wondered why the church itself did not

provide more help for families that struggled. They agreed that parents needed help yet

there were no support groups operating in any of the Catholic churches for families or

for single or divorced parents. There was no mention of outreach taking place for

seniors. None of the churches had a youth group. In one focus group discussion a

mother of four grown children, who had taught catechism for years, said that while the program had been good for the younger ages, it had failed to reach teenagers.

But something happened by about grade four and five, we weren't keeping up to speed with what the kids were going through. Nothing. Like in the younger years there's the kids, you know, the sharing, the caring about each other and you know the family life and everything and they can relate to that. But then when we get in the older part of the thing, it just seemed as though o.k., I'm just bouncing this into you and you'd better just grab on to it and you better accept it. And it just didn't hold water. . . And I just think that our church has got out of touch with that time of struggle in a person's life. Like all of us look back on stories of when we were teenagers and it was one of the most difficult times in your life, you know? And our church doesn't nurture them through that and it doesn't help parents nurture them through it. (Focus Group #4, Woman #6)

Participants from low income contexts also discussed issues of equality. A lay leader and a priest, both from a rural parish, critiqued the growing gap between the rich and the poor both in Canadian society and globally. They placed the blame for this on the capitalist system which they believed fostered corporate greed. A couple of focus groups explicitly mentioned issues of gender equality. In one case, the group was critical of the lack of involvement of men in the raising of children. Gender equality was referred to in several interviews, primarily in relation to women's experiences of the workplace.

62 The town low income church in this study presently had an active lay leader and

he had a twenty-five year long history of running awareness and action campaigns for

Development & Peace and Kairos. In addition to using the available resources from

these faith-based movements to raise awareness of global justice issues, the parish had

hosted solidarity visits from people who belonged to Development & Peace partner

organizations in the developing world.

Several of the study participants from low income parishes and the lapsed group

had careers in the field of health care. All of these women understood their work to be

directly related to social action. As can be seen in the table of key points from the women interviews found in Appendix H, there were few direct references to environmental issues in the data. A couple of women mentioned the Development &

Peace campaign on the human right to water. This campaign is part of a global movement to ensure access to clean drinking water for every human person in defiance of corporate profiting from the growing water shortages. However, the response to environmental issues also involved individual actions such as not purchasing bottled water, recycling or helping to clean up polluted beaches. Most often, women talked about personal acts of environmental responsibility but understood them as connected to the individual acts of others:

So that's what I think a lot, right? You know, your impact is so small but if everybody made a small impact it would be big. (Lapsed Focus Group, Woman #5)

It would be big. Yes. Like every piece of garbage that I pick up, just for example, I pick up off the beach, is one piece of garbage that's not in the ocean anymore. Like some people, I know somebody who, this is just the one that comes to mind, but he said, "I get kind of depressed because I spend a lot of time at the ocean and I'll clean up a beach with friends and like a week later I go back and there's garbage there again." But to me, like you've cleaned up the garbage

63 that was there and now it's not out there anymore. And so the next time you pick up garbage it's like more garbage that was out there, that's not out there anymore. Like every time that you pick it up ... I don't know, I guess, what motivates me is trying to fix things, like I need to fix something and doing that helps me to feel that I'm fixing it in some little way. (Lapsed Focus Group, Woman #2)

Education was another important issue to some participants. University students talked about how they saw their studies as preparing them to live more socially engaged lives. Some students indicated they had little time to get directly involved in social action while they were studying. Women who had careers as school teachers or in universities insisted that the education system provided many opportunities for them to try to instill social values in children, youth and young adults.

This study set out to determine the relationship between Catholic women's lived experience of religion and involvement in social action. One of the aspects of a woman's lived religion is her participation in the liturgical life of the church. With the exception of the participants in the lapsed Catholic focus group, the women from the three low income parishes had a range of levels of involvement in what could be referred to as inner church service. Some were quite engaged in activities that ensured the liturgical vitality of their churches while others were less so. There was not a clear relationship between levels of inner church service and levels of social action. Some who were highly involved in church service were also highly involved in social action and others who were less involved in church service were also very active in volunteering in the community. Most of the women attended mass regularly and were or had been engaged members of their parishes. Women were or had been active in their churches as lectors, communion ministers, choir members, sacristans, catechists

64 and members of parish council. Some women participated in Bible studies and several

were members of the Catholic Women's League.

The Catholic Women's League of Canada (CWL) is a national organization and

is recognized by the CCCB as an official lay association of women affiliated with the

World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations. Their motto is "For God and

Canada" and therefore members of the CWL in parishes, because of the mandate of the

organization itself, are engaged in both inner church service and social action through

the various activities of the organization. The balance between inner church service and

service to the broader community by CWL members can differ from parish to parish.

The level of inner church service that any individual woman engaged in fluctuated depending on two factors: her age and her satisfaction with the leadership in the parish. Many women in the study were in their retirement years. For some who had retired from full-time employment, this meant that they had more time to serve their church. For others who had never been employed outside the home, they were beginning to slow down because of age and health problems.

The data for low income parishes and lapsed Catholic women reveals a complex relationship between faith and social action. Personal relationships and experiences of solidarity seem to be a key factor in a woman's involvement in both inner church service and social action outreach. When asked what helped them to initially get involved or to stay committed, women often spoke about how personal invitations had been significant. One lay leader described a former priest in his parish as having been the doorway for him into social action involvement. When they were involved in the hard work of trying to raise consciousness about social issues or raise funds for the poor,

65 women spoke about the lasting friendships they developed with the other women with whom they worked. There were personal emotional benefits for them beyond the successes or setbacks they experienced through engaging in collective action.

For many of the research participants from low income contexts, the impetus for social action was rooted in the scriptures and teachings of Jesus. One priest pointed out the emphasis of the prophets in the Old Testament on the value of the common good.

He believed that the teachings and actions of Jesus were in line with this prophetic tradition. One woman involved in adult education in her church emphasized the balance between faith and work, so central to the Catholic tradition. She said, "if you don't love your neighbor you can never say that you love God, you know. And you can't get to heaven just by good works - you know you have to have the faith as well. So it has to be a balance of both." (Parish #4, Woman #3) Women from the lapsed Catholic focus group, however, said that the descriptions of women in the gospels were not particularly empowering for them.

All the participants from low income contexts showed mixed feelings about the helpfulness of the Catholic church when it came to involvement in social action to try and address social problems. Some aspects of Catholicism were powerful motivators for social action but in some cases there were aspects of church life that proved problematic. Women in one focus group discussion described their church as a community of caring. They felt that members of the church genuinely cared about one another but at the same time they needed to reach out to those beyond the church doors.

They related stories of the support they had received from people in the church and how being involved in church life was good for them.

66 Several leaders and one woman spoke about the influence of the documents of

Vatican II in regards to the church's responsibility for social action. Although everyone that mentioned this also acknowledged that implementation of the Council's teachings were waning today both among clergy and laity. Most of the students in the study admitted that they knew very little about the church's teachings on social issues.

The study also explored the relationship between a Catholic woman's socio­ economic status and involvement in social action. In the case of the women from lower socio-economic contexts, what affect did their context have on their ability to engage in social action? The women's experiences offered a range of responses to this question.

Some women living on low incomes or income assistance found it a challenge just to ensure the necessities of survival such as food, housing and the education of their children. One woman said,

There are so many needs but there are also so many gifted people who don't have the chance to develop those gifts because they're striving for survival. And I've felt that myself, you know, the striving. I wasn't able to use any of my gifts for whatever might have been because I'm just trying to stay afloat. And I... I guess I still resent [my ex-husband] for that. I find that. . . having to struggle almost daily, to think, am I going to pay a bill or am I going to buy groceries? (Parish #6, Woman #3)

But others did volunteer at the church and in the community. The time and energy that they had available often varied, given the different stages of their lives, but when they were able to give, they did. Several women spoke of times when their families were young that they just could not go to mass or take part in church activities regularly.

Other women, like those who had worked as teachers, said that at the end of the day, they were too exhausted to do more.

67 For low income contexts there was a definite contrast in the situations of rural

parishes compared to urban ones (see chart in Appendix G). Rural parishes were pre­

occupied with their survival. The number of people active in the churches had fallen

and local economies were struggling with a recent down turn in the forestry sector. The women in one parish admitted that they hardly thought about the social action aspects of their faith because all of their time and energy was spent fundraising so that the doors of the church would stay open. The other rural parish faced a similar challenge in that they were dealing with the implications of amalgamating with another Catholic church in the same town. At the time of this study, a decision on how the amalgamation would proceed had not yet been made, even though recommendations had been forwarded by the parish to the diocese. One woman, serving on the finance committee at this church, said the process was like "a bit of a piano to carry around on your back." (Parish #4,

Woman #4)

Another factor impacting a Catholic woman's ability to engage in social action is the circumstances of her own family life. For many of the women, their parents had been strong role models of social involvement. Not only had their parents taken them to church and catechism regularly, but they had also been involved in local schools and community organizations. Some said that it was difficult to distinguish between the influence of their families and the influence of their Catholic faith when it came to social action - the two were so intertwined. As parents themselves, the women were generally quite concerned about the lack of religious involvement among youth and in particular among their own children. Despite making sure that their children were brought up in the faith and had received all of the sacraments, many of their adult

68 children only came to mass when visiting their parents. However, all of the women

were quick to point out that their children were good people - just not involved in the

Catholic church. The women agreed that things were different now than when they

were young. A woman from the rural church talked both about the strictness of the nuns

and having been forced to go to mass out of fear of hell.

The nuns were unbelievable guidance people. And knew what they were doing, knew how to deal with people like me - rebels. They knew that there was some good in me and they knew how to find it. I could easily have swayed the other way, you know? (C: Yes, yes.) Very easily. I have a daughter just like me. Lucky for me she didn't go the other way either! But we needed people like that - I did. And I believe that's where, I find, that we're lacking. We're lacking youth support. We're lacking a youth support system. We say we do things for youth - we do not. We have no organization that's going to pick up our young people and guide them. And by guiding I don't mean that you're going to do what, at some points, they did to me, where you have to blindly follow. (C: Yes, yes.) I believe that it's guidance that they need and we don't provide that in our church. (Parish #3, Woman #3)

The women were pleased that today Catholic religious education does not involve fear and coercion yet they realized that religiously engaged young people find themselves in the minority among their peers when it comes to regular church attendance. There are just too many other activities vying for people's time and attention. In general there was agreement that the Catholic church was struggling to maintain or attract youth involvement and that this dilemma was shared by many other organizations within their communities.

But lack of involvement on the part of Catholic youth does not only stem from their modern lifestyles. Several of the young, lapsed Catholic women said that even though they missed the sense of belonging to a community, the church was too

"preachy" and they did not want to be continually told what to do and what not to do.

Several women shared that their married children were attending churches of other

69 denominations because of their spouses and in fact, many of these young adults were

actually quite involved in those churches.

A factor that influenced Catholic women's involvement in social action in low

socio-economic contexts was the nature of the action itself. As mentioned all of the

churches that took part in the study were able to engage their members in acts of charity

in response to the issue of poverty. However, social action approaches that involved changes to the social structures themselves were less common among the churches.

While individual members in low income churches were involved in movements for structural change there was disagreement about what kind of changes should be taken by

Catholics. As well, interviews with parishioners who had been active over the years in

Development & Peace campaigns that addressed social inequality and the just distribution of resources all related charges from other parishioners of being labeled as socialists and too left-wing. Women involved in these campaigns wondered about the efficacy of their own skills in raising the consciousness of their fellow Catholics.

When asked why more Catholics were not involved in social action, women in the low socio-economic parishes often said that they thought young people today were very busy and unable to commit their time to the church. Yet it was very interesting that through their personal stories, it was clear that they themselves were leading very busy and engaged lives. Some thought that young Catholics had a lack of faith - they could not commit to their churches because their faith in God was not strong enough. Others were prepared to admit that this lack of commitment would mean the end of the churches as they had come to know them, and that maybe this was not the worst thing that could happen.

70 5.2.1.1.1 Low socio-economic focus groups

This section considers the data collected via focus groups in low socio-economic

contexts in the study. The interactive nature of focus group discussions resulted in

different emphases in regards to social action than in the data collected via personal

interviews. The parish focus groups gave more consideration to the communal

approaches to social action and the particular social concerns of each church context.

They also highlighted the level of inner church involvement of Catholic women. The

socio-economic context and location (urban or rural) of the focus group participants

accounted for the specific issues that the women considered important and the ways in which they addressed these issues collectively.

As already mentioned, the focus group in the low income urban church included women who were working on structural approaches to the elimination of poverty. One woman in this focus group was a member of a tenant's association in the low income neighbourhood where she lived. She was involved in lobbying municipal government out of concern that recent proposals by city council would result in fewer housing units for families that needed them. Another woman, who was part of an incorporated non­ profit organization, was also dealing with housing issues in another area of the city. Her group was focused on the renewal of inner city parks and helping people to develop a greater appreciation for the communities in which they live. These two women held different positions on the long term solutions to poverty. One suggested one step toward solving the problems of poverty would be to raise the minimum wage in the province.

However, the other woman disagreed, citing problems within the system of social assistance in the province as a whole, including people who take advantage of the

71 system. So even though it was clear that these women were very involved in social change, they had different ways of going about it.

Women from this urban church were also very concerned about the lack of involvement in the parish by young Catholics. During a discussion about why they thought more young families were not involved in church life today, one woman said,

"If they'd only realize how satisfying it is. I mean for your heart and your mind and your soul, it is so satisfying. But you have to do it in order to find that out. Just take that first step . . ." (Focus Group #6, Woman #7)

A low income focus group discussion at the town church highlighted the inconsistency between words and actions in the Catholic church:

To me, in the church there is an incongruency between what the church says about social action . . . (Focus Group #4, Woman #5)

And what they do. (Focus Group #4, Woman #3)

. . . and what the church does. You know, we talk about equality and treating everyone fairly and you know, everyone is equal, and yet at the very basis of what the church does, women are disregarded and are not treated equally in church. And that is one of the most important things as far as I'm concerned with the church's issue on social justice. (Focus Group #4, Woman #5)

Well aware of the social teachings of the Catholic church, because of their engagement with the education programs of Development & Peace, they used these teachings to critique the church itself. They particularly stressed the Catholic church's own emphasis on the fundamental dignity and equality of all human beings. They wondered what Jesus would think of the church today particularly in light of the scandals of clergy sexual abuse. They said that the church could not preach about the God-given dignity of each person and the responsibility for Catholics to be engaged in social change and yet continue to actively discriminate against women and gays. But despite these problems

72 with the Catholic church, they were convinced things would eventually change. As one

woman said, "I think we need a really good death and we might resurrect to a new

community" (Focus Group #4, Woman #5). Yet another woman in the same group

insisted that every religion needed its own rules and regulations that defined and guided

its membership. According to her understanding, if Catholics were unhappy with the

rules, they should find a church that suited them better.

The focus group discussion with lapsed Catholic women considered the relationship between faith and works at length. While some of the participants related their social action involvement to the influence of their faith, others were less inclined to do so. One woman who insisted that her advanced degree would help her make a more significant contribution to society, wondered aloud whether her actions were at all religiously motivated. She said that she rarely thinks of God. The women generally agreed that people without religious faith could be socially concerned and involved.

However, another woman pointed out the immediate satisfaction that comes with doing concrete actions within a church community:

And the thing is that not only do you see examples of people helping, but because you also see it manifest and benefit people that are close to you and you can see it. It's like that example, you know, you can tell a kid of a CWL [member] because they know how to make the egg salad sandwiches by doing the stack because you have to make it because somebody died or there's a wedding and they can't really afford the meal. You see it manifest so close to home that you know that yes, there is a way of making a difference. (Lapsed, Woman #1)

5.2.1.1.2 Low socio-economic women interviews

The analysis in this section focuses on the data collected from personal interviews with women from low socio-economic contexts. The individual interviews with women provided a window into the more personal practices and experiences of

73 Catholics as they related to spirituality and social action in both the parish and

surrounding community. In every case, themes raised in focus group sessions were

nuanced and deepened in the conversations during the interviews. Summaries of the key

points from all of the personal interviews with women in the study can be found in

Appendix H.

During the interviews, all of the low income participants were asked to talk

about their experiences of lived religion in terms of personal spiritual practices. Most women said that they prayed daily yet few admitted to being regular readers of scripture.

For some women experiences of illness and healing were significant factors in their personal religiosity. One university student had this to say about the value of prayer in relation to her studies:

I just got a whole new appreciation once I came away to university. I found since I came to university I really, really strongly believed in like prayers and all that stuff, because I didn't expect to be doing this good at university. But like, every single day, like, my grandparents say the rosary every day together, but my grandfather says it separately on his own, like five or six other times. And every morning, he always tells me, on the phone, he always says, every day he always says his rosary first thing at five in the morning for my grandmother and second rosary is always said just for me. (C: Oh wow.) And so, after doing so well on exams and midterms, and I always call him and say, "Oh Grampy, I have a mid­ term tomorrow." "Don't worry dear, after mass here this morning, I'll say you a rosary." And I'll say that I'm doing so good and so good. So yes, I know that I'm intelligent, but I strongly believe that a huge part of it is prayer from my parents and my grandparents and myself and so my way to thank God and everyone is to go to church. (Parish #3, Woman #1)

Many women, particularly those who considered themselves lapsed Catholics, commented on the connection between their personal spirituality and the natural world.

Most of the personal interviews took place in people's homes and it was interesting to note the evidence of private religiosity there. Some homes were very clearly Catholic with a crucifix or a picture of Mary on the wall - one rural woman even

74 displayed a picture of Pope John Paul II. In a home where I was served fair trade tea

and could see packages of organic food on the kitchen counter, I was surprised to come

face to face with a rather large statue of the Virgin Mary in the hallway on my way to the bathroom! Thus, evidence of personal religiosity could not be correlated with any consistency with a person's level of either inner church service or social action. Homes that seemed more traditionally religious did not necessarily house people who were more or less involved in either.

A woman from a low income context explained that her parish CWL had been influential years ago in pushing the national organization to become more outwardly focused and to respond to important Canadian social issues. She said,

Resolutions that went through here, when [another woman from the church] and I would have [been members] - have gone to Ottawa. Like that's when I was president of the CWL. They've come from this room with a couple other people, through our parish, and on to through the Diocese of Saint John, and on to [Ottawa], and I remember being very excited." (Parish #4, Woman #2)

These two women were part of their parish social action group and had tried to raise awareness about the roots of economic inequality.

I remember bringing a play to town, it was on, I don't know. .. it was on unions. It's a very anti-union town we have. I mean everyone talks about [the local factory] and how wonderful it is, but [that company] essentially keeps people poor. As long as three or four people from a family work there together and pool their money, o.k. I think it's changing some now but they would never have allowed a union or anything like that - they would have left town. And unions were never a big thing in the area. And so we brought in a play on something like that and people walked out. (Parish #4, Woman #1)

Two nurses from low income contexts who took part in the study worked to provide health services to people from all walks of life. A lapsed Catholic nurse said that inner city youth needed better information and resources about safe sex to prevent the transmissions of STDs and HIV/AIDS. The other nurse worried about the general

75 lack of good health in society which she saw as a sign of the deep discouragement in

modern society.

I think that there's a lot of people out there that are just barely getting by, making ends meet, barely. Everything is just, just over the edge, you know? No joy - you know? I think there's a lot of that... I think families are falling apart - that's a big social thing. I think family life is bad. I think it's really sad - so many kids in such terrible situations because family parents don't get along and they don't stay together and they don't work together and the kids are a mess. .. . I think it's all about the kids really, I think kids [have it] terrible, and they get so past discouraged to totally . . . unable to get out of their ... you know? They get into it terrible and then they get thinking so negatively about themselves. I think that's really bad. And I don't think there's enough people willing to do enough for themselves, on the flip side of that - like health-wise and taking care of themselves and doing what they could do. . . . And I don't know whether people get down so low and then they can't... I liken it to getting in a ditch and then you can't get to the next. . . you know? If it was flat you may be able to go, but because you've got to climb a bit, you can't get out. (Parish #4, Woman #4)

This woman was a cancer survivor and she believed that her strong devotion to the saints combined with the power of positive thinking had helped to restore her health.

A student from a low income rural church described her family as not very religious and said that before going to university she was a "sheltered" Catholic. (Parish

#3, Woman #2) Her liberal arts studies had opened her eyes and she said that she was becoming more aware than she ever had been of social issues such as racism and violence against women. She now distinguished between her religion and her faith and had recently joined an Alpha group on the university campus so that she could deepen her understanding of Jesus' example of loving your neighbor and treating all people with respect.

Some of the low income women interviewed said that their ability to be involved in social action was dependent on the support of their husbands. Stay-at-home mothers were freed up in the evenings and weekends by husbands who took on more child care

76 responsibilities. But another woman was unable to volunteer more of her time because her husband had become disabled and was no longer able to work, meaning that she was the sole income earner in the family. The research participants were aware of the fact that the role of women in families had changed over the years and that this had implications for involvement in social action. While many of the women who took part in the study were either retired from careers or still working full-time, lots of them had somehow managed to juggle family, work and church, showing that lack of time was not a significant factor hindering low income women's participation in religious or social action.

5.2.1.1.3 Low socio-economic leader interviews

Data collected from personal interviews with religious leaders in low socio­ economic contexts in the study is reviewed in the following section. Interviews with men in leadership added another layer of complexity to the data collected from the women's focus groups and interviews. In every case but one, the focus of leadership in terms of social action differed from the themes raised by Catholic women in both the group discussion and interviews. This one exception was in the urban church. Here, the priest spoke about connection between faith and works cognizant of a church context in which diverse communities and social issues converged. As a result of this congruence between leadership and congregation, women in this church were able to tackle issues of structural change with the support of their religious leader.

In the low income town parish, both the lay leader and the newly appointed priest were concerned about the effects of capitalism in terms of socio-economic inequality and environmental destruction. The priest remarked that every time he

77 drives around the province, he sees more and more evidence of clear-cutting. However,

the issue of amalgamation and its affects on church participation was a big concern to

women in this parish. It seems that while there was a well-articulated discourse of

social equality coupled with an economic critique evident among the leadership, the practical concerns of the people of the parish were not being addressed. In fairness,

several parishioners mentioned that the final decision on the amalgamation was to be made soon by the bishop, however, the local leaders' knowledge of effects of the delay in this process on the women in the church were not apparent in the interviews.

In the low income rural church that was struggling to stay open, the priest spoke at length about what he understood as the connection between Catholic faith and social action. He pointed out that social action must be rooted in the unconditional love of

God. He emphasized that being involved in social action out of a sense of duty or superiority would not ultimately be successful.

The body that St. Paul uses. The body, the body is one but it has a lot of parts. There are some parts which we ignore. We don't recognize, we don't realize that these parts even exist or these parts are important - not until that part begins to have a pain. Then we feel that it is important. Maybe the finger, sometimes we don't look at that, or even a little thing, then we start to feel pains, then we realize that. Then I think this is where, each and everyone should understand, that I am part of the big body - that social body, I'm part of it. So if I don't do something, it means that part of the body will lack something else. And this is what sometimes people don't understand. If I'm a social person, first of all, how do I understand the word social itself? If I don't reach out to others, I'm not a social person. And if I'm social also . . . it's as if. . . I'm not saying that because I have to take a social action, I'm going to solve all the problems of other people, no. At least I show some kind of concern. Even if I don't solve that problem, I show concern that, oh, it's part of my problem also. Or it's my problem also, it's not only yours. And this is what, if people come to understand that in this way - that we are all interconnected. (Parish #3, Priest)

He felt that this spiritual interconnectivity meant that everyone, no matter what their personal gifts, had a role to play in the mission of the church. He told me many

78 examples of how he had experienced this type of action being displayed among

Catholics in his home diocese in Africa during a time of civil war. However, he was

unaware of the local diocesan response to social issues such as the recent closure of pulp

and paper mills throughout the area. Even though he had been working in the diocese for more than seven years, he was unfamiliar with any Catholic response to families dealing with effects of the significant migration of male workers to Alberta for employment. Like the leadership of the low income town church, he too was disconnected from the practical realities in the lives of his parishioners.

5.2.1.1.4 Summary of low socio-economic contexts

In summary, the analysis of the qualitative data from low socio-economic contexts highlights several findings:

• Catholic women from low socio-economic contexts are engaged in their

churches through ritual participation, inner-church service and social action

outreach.

• Social action is generally defined by Catholic women as reaching out to help

others in need in the community.

• Catholic women take for granted the link between social action and their faith.

• Faith activities (ritual/prayer and social action) can be both collective and

individual.

• Collective social action by women in a low income church context is impacted

by the financial stability of the church.

• Catholic women are most concerned about the issue of poverty and their primary

collective response is through fundraising for charity.

79 • Catholic women's involvement in social action is not significantly effected by

factors such as income, time, family, or employment, although these factors do

impact the lives of individual low income women to varying degrees.

• Catholic women's involvement in social action often begins through personal

invitation and is sustained by feelings of solidarity.

• Catholic women's understanding of social issues is enhanced through

involvement in religious associations such as the CWL, Development & Peace

and Kairos.

5.2.1.2 High socio-economic contexts

This section takes a look at all of the data collected in focus groups, interviews with individual women and interviews with religious leaders and the themes that arose from the two high socio-economic churches in the study - one suburban church and one urban church in two different cities. Again, the section begins with the story of another

"typical woman" named Marie, a fictional composite of elements from interviews with women in the study from high socio-economic contexts (see Appendix H for a summary of key points of all the interviews with women).

Marie's Story

Since her retirement from full-time work as a librarian, Marie and her husband have lived in a beautiful condo in the suburbs. Their home is tastefully decorated with original paintings by local artists and next to the pictures of grandchildren on the kitchen fridge there is copy of the Serenity Prayer. Every morning after a brisk walk with their dog, they enjoy a cup of fair trade coffee together, reveling in the fantastic view of the water. They both serve on boards of directors for community organizations and have a

80 wide network of friends that they keep up with socially. They are members of the nearby country club and golf several times a week in the summer. In the winter they like to travel to warmer climates. Marie and her husband are cradle Catholics and have always been active members in the church no matter where they've lived. Marie's husband was on the parish building committee and while they are both proud of their new church, they wish that the congregation was more cohesive. The building process involved a lot of conflict and there have not been any attempts made to heal the rifts created. Marie taught catechism for many years when their two sons were young and wishes that more parents would get involved with the youth today like she had. Even though she was raised Catholic, she felt that she learned a great deal about her faith through teaching children. Lately she has taken in some adult spirituality programs. She worries a bit about her sons and their families - they are good men but their lives are very busy. One of her sons, a lawyer, married a Catholic woman and they live out West with their two children. While her son and daughter-in-law do not go to church regularly, they do have the kids enrolled in Catholic schools. She wishes that they were not so far away so that she could help out with driving her grandchildren to and from their many activities. Her other son is an accountant who lives in the city and also has two children but is divorced. His ex-wife was a Catholic but was too busy with her medical practice for his liking. Now he is living with a woman who is a Baptist and they take her daughter and his children (a blended family) to her church and are involved in a regular bible study group. Her son says the Baptist worship is laid back and easier to follow than mass, the music is more upbeat and he finds the pastor's sermons interesting. While the grandchildren were baptized Catholic, Marie wonders if

81 they will ever connect with their own faith tradition which she believes has a depth and richness that has she has grown to really appreciate.

Overall Analysis of High Socio-Economic Contexts

In what follows, all of the themes and subthemes that arose from the data collected from high socio-economic contexts are addressed and then, in the following sections the data is further analyzed according to method of collection (summaries of themes from the two high socio-economic churches can be found in Appendix G).

Social issues that are of particular concern to women and leaders from these churches are reviewed as well as the forms of social action in which they engage. Again the connection between Catholic faith and social action is explored as well as the influences of the bible and Catholic social teachings. A variety of factors pertaining to their high socio-economic context, such as class, career, family ties and others, are considered in terms of their influence on the women's participation in social action.

The members of two churches in high socio-economic areas had many things in common as well as differences relating to their specific contexts. There was discussion in both focus groups that revolved around whether or not funds from the parish were best used for social outreach or for the maintenance of the church infrastructure itself.

One parish had recently expanded with the building of a new church. Because of the wealth of the members of the congregation and the increase in church membership, the church was able to quickly pay off the building debt. But the expansion in facilities and size of the congregation had changed the character of the church. The women in the focus group told me that young families did not want to stay after mass even though ample meeting space was available for this purpose.

82 We tried giving coffee after mass. (Focus Group #5, Woman #7)

Yes. (Focus Group #5, Woman #3)

Honestly, there were times when I thought they thought if I was going to give them coffee that I was going to force them to do something - instead of just a friendly gesture of here's a nice coffee after church, stay and talk for five minutes. It was like it was some sort of poisonous . . . (laughter) (Focus Group #5, Woman #7)

Well that's why we've got this beautiful big gathering space. (Focus Group #5, Woman #3)

That's what everybody wanted - a gathering space. Because we would come out of the church over there [old building] and there was five wooden steps and everybody would stand there and talk. Won't it be great? In this church we've got a big gathering space, a little kitchen over here and the line for coffee . . . (laughter) (Focus Group #5, Woman #2)

Cathy: O.K., yes.

Nobody wants it. (Focus Group #5, Woman #2)

Cathy: And no one stays there?

We tried it and, oh my soul, they, like they saw you with a coffee (laughs) and it's like, oh, they would head the other way (lots of laughter from women). Gee whiz. (Focus Group #5, Woman #7)

The catechetical program at this church had hundreds of children enrolled but the director had difficulty finding people to volunteer to teach as well as convincing parents to take their children to mass. There was no active youth group because no one would come forward to lead it.

The other parish already occupied a large building and had recently embarked on a series of renovations. While women in the focus group for this church were pleased at the generosity of the members of the parish in covering these expenses they also noted that the nature of the parish had changed. Over the years this church had made its facilities available to community organizations that provided services to the city's poor

83 and had supported their work. The women said that in this way social action had been an integral and visible part of parish life. But things were different now:

Well certainly just from the point of view, you know, you do see a parish like [ours] when you go back to the mid-seventies, when, as the church progressed there, I think there was at one time a really good organization of the lay people and so on and so forth. And all of a sudden we had a priest came, he was sort of a one man band, wanted to do everything and even sing by himself. Just sort of, he was . . . (Focus Group #2, Woman #7)

Now I know who she's talking about. (Focus Group #2, Woman #4)

.. . going to do everything, right? And all of a sudden you see it unraveling right in front of you. All this wonderful, you know, things that were in place for the people, it was unraveling and then you get the next priest who comes and he's coming from what he did at the last parish. And so I'm looking at this all the time and right now, we've had an incredible amount of changes and it is very, very difficult and it certainly tests someone's .... even if you want to become involved. (Focus Group #2, Woman #7)

The wish list is all physical. . . (Focus Group #2, Woman #6)

Money and renovations. (Focus Group #2, Woman #4)

Yes. (Focus Group #2, Woman #6)

I did notice that - the wish list is the pews, getting the pews refurbished. (Focus Group #2, Woman #8)

It is about the, the, you know . . . (Focus Group #2, Woman #7)

Whether or not they need to refurbished . . . (Focus Group #2, Woman #8)

Well, they probably do, but it is all about the building and we're not so sure, I'm not so sure about the spiritual side of my church. (Focus Group #2, Woman #7)

Presently the church facilities were not available to outside groups, the social action group had folded and there was little interaction between the church and other community groups.

Similar to the low income parishes and the lapsed focus group, the high income parishes were most concerned about the issue of poverty in their cities and abroad.

84 However there was no mention in either church of any structural changes that were

needed to address the roots of this problem. Both churches were able to raise money

and collect food and clothing to give to local agencies that served the poor.

Interestingly, both churches also had individual members who had started fundraising

campaigns for projects in the developing world. A teacher in the urban parish was very

involved with an organization that was building a school in Africa. In both churches,

organizations such as the CWL and the Knights of Columbus (for Catholic men) were

instrumental in the fundraising efforts for international projects.

Issues confronting families were important to women in higher income parishes.

One high income church had employed a parish nurse at one point but was no longer

doing so and the women did not know why this had stopped. The women expressed

their concern for families in crisis, whether it was because of the stress of looking after

elderly parents while their children were still at home or because of the pressures that

families with busy teenagers face on a daily basis. One church had a growing ethnic

population and an immigrant woman who took part in the focus group was unaware of

any church or diocesan support for such families. It was apparent that each parish had many professionally trained people such as nurses, social workers, doctors and lawyers in their midst but their talents were not being called upon to advance the mission of the church.

Issues of equality surfaced among women in high income parishes but primarily in relation to the balance of power between clergy and laity within the church. One priest emphasized the importance of racial equality. In addition to the new ethnic congregants at this suburban church, Catholic international students from a nearby

85 private school would often come to mass. The priest was pleased that during liturgy people of different ethnic backgrounds were rubbing shoulders with each other as equals before God.

Both of these churches had individuals who had been engaged in social action issues through their involvement in Catholic organizations such as the CWL and

Development & Peace. A few women mentioned knowing about Development &

Peace's water campaign. However at the time of this study, both churches were struggling to get people involved in any Catholic associations. As one CWL member said, "It was like pulling hen's teeth to get people to come." (Focus Group #5, Woman

#3)

The range of social issues of concern raised by participants from higher income

Catholic parishes was narrower than that of lower income parishes or the lapsed

Catholics. Community participation within the church seemed to be a bigger concern.

While women described the church as a community of compassion, they felt that the sense of community needed among its members in order to collectively act compassionately was missing. One focus group discussion considered whether or not the church was being true to its mission which they defined in terms of Jesus' acceptance and healing of the marginalized in his society. Some felt that this mission would be better embraced by Catholics if they deepened their personal relationship to

Jesus while others felt that more consistent participation in the liturgical life of the church was necessary. These differences of opinion arose in a conversation about the catechetical program:

And other people take the summer off. I have lots of friends that take the summer off from church. (Focus Group #5, Woman #1)

86 "We don't go in the summer," the kids tell you, the kids tell you. Well, and you're teaching them and you're trying to talk about. . . like people don't understand that catechism is secondary and if they have a choice, "I can only go to one thing. I can take my kids to mass or I can take them to catechism." They should be taking their kids to mass. We're talking to these kids as if everyone there goes to mass. We talk about this and they don't know what you're talking about because they're not there. And you think, especially in the sacrament years when you're preparing them for the sacrament - but they don't go. We're talking in grade two all about the mass that the priest does this and we do that, and they don't go. They'll go the day they make their first communion. But you know, they don't go and you know that their family doesn't go because some will call me, a mother, and say, "Well, first communion, will there be a mass at that?" You know? And I get that question every year! (Focus Group #5, Woman #2)

Do you suppose that, you know, the mass and all its ritual and everything? I would think it would almost be better for the children to be in catechism developing their relationship with Jesus. (Focus Group #5, Woman #3)

No because the ritual is a big part of it. (Focus Group #5, Woman #2)

I know, but that's the problem. (Focus Group #5, Woman #3)

The mass. (Focus Group #5, Woman #6)

It's too big a part of it. Where's the relationship part? The personal relationship? (Focus Group #5, Woman #3)

For us to relate it to them, to tell them what the relationship is, they have to know that other part too. (Focus Group #5, Woman #2)

And it's all about the mass, the whole thing is about the mass, I mean. (Focus Group #5, Woman #6)

But there's the Word too. (Focus Group #5, Woman #3)

But that's all part of the mass too. (Focus Group #5, Woman #6)

Well it's part, it's part of Christianity, it's part of the relationship with Jesus. (Focus Group #5, Woman #3)

You see [she] and I come from a very different background -that's what you see. (Focus Group #5, Woman #7)

87 Similar to women from low income parishes, the women from the two high income churches were involved in a range of inner church service as part of their lived religion. In addition to attending mass regularly, women served on parish council, taught catechetics, served as mentors to adult converts to Catholicism, sang in the choir, were members of the CWL and the Legion of Mary, and participated in Bible study.

Women spoke of the ways in which involvement in the life of the church had deepened their understanding of the Catholic faith and their spirituality. Several women were graduates of the diocesan lay ministry program and spoke about how even though they had been raised Catholics, it was not until participating in the program that they felt they really understood Catholicism.

There was significant contrast in the articulation of the relationship between faith and social action in both high income parishes. As already mentioned there were differences in one church in the women's understanding of the church's mission. At this same church, personal interviews revealed tensions within the parish. One woman, who got a great deal of personal comfort and strength from her faith insisted that she did not want to get too involved in anything in the parish because there was too much back­ biting going on among the women. She said, "I thought as Christians we were always to be working together" (Parish #5, Woman #1) yet she found evidence to the contrary.

The opinions of women at the other parish were similarly varied. While during the focus group discussion the women said it was hard to describe the relationship between faith and social action because it seemed so obvious, during an interview, one woman felt that a person did not need to be involved in social action in order to prove her faith.

88 The only mention of scripture in relation to social action was a reference to the Sermon on the Mount made by a woman who led the church's bible study group.

There were no direct references to the documents or influence of the second

Vatican Council yet women in the focus group from the urban church wondered if the

Catholic church was going backwards. The suburban priest who described himself as a product of the 1960s commented that the church was dying. He said, "It's going to go back to a very structured, lifeless, fifty-eight minute sermons, stupid. It'll die out. It'll be like France - there'll be nobody." (Parish #5, Priest)

Approaches to moral issues were mixed among Catholics from high income contexts. A focus group participant who was a member of the Legion of Mary said that the pro-life movement was the most important issue in society and she felt that all

Catholics had an obligation to defend life from conception to death. Because of the complexity of moral issues, one woman talked about the responsibility of the church to help regular Catholics think about, and make, moral decisions. Many of the women agreed that most priests do not speak about moral issues publically because they do not want to offend people in the pews. One woman from the urban church shared her thoughts during the focus group discussion:

And I find the church today, they walk a very fine line, because, or the priest I should say, maybe not the church - but they do not want to alienate. I mean I heard [the priest] say, not very long ago, he has to be very careful about publically pushing the support of the right to life, because he knows he has parishioners who have had abortions and he doesn't want to drive them away. So they do have a very fine line, you know, they don't want to, they want these people to come to church because they are troubled, you know. And it would be the same with the divorced, our first story of the divorced. That he would not want them to ever feel that they couldn't come there. And I mean he has told us Sunday after Sunday, that's why the church is there for all these people with all these problems to be there, you know, to get the help or the solace they need from the, you know, the sacraments, and from the, the sermons or whatever.

89 And, so, I mean, I would not want to be a priest, (laughs) (Focus Group #2, Woman #5)

The socio-economic status of the women from high income churches did not have a significant effect on their level of involvement in social action. Clearly the material needs of women from high income contexts were being met. The bigger factor was time. When asked why they thought more people did not get involved in Catholic church life, the women talked about how busy young families were. However, even with professional careers or academic pursuits themselves, practically everyone found the time in their packed schedules to be involved in either inner church service or social action. This is a similar finding to that of the low income parishes. A lay leader from the urban church wondered if the lack of organizational skills held people back:

And I have good time management skills, but I think that's where [at work] I learned them. Because I've been on a lot of courses and a lot of different training and I've received a lot of ways on how to organize your time and how to do things and all that. And I think that's helped me in my private life. But some people are not like that and they're afraid if they take on something it might get the best of them and they might be over burdened or it might get piled up too high on them. (Parish #2, Lay Leader)

This man was able to transfer skills acquired in the workplace to his involvement in the church. Several women spoke of how they were able to raise awareness of social issues among their colleagues in their places of work.

One thing that participants from both high income churches agreed on was that the same people seemed to be doing all of the work all of the time and these people were getting older. It was difficult to get new people or younger Catholics involved. Even though one parish was growing, which is unusual for Catholic churches today, in both places there was a high degree of frustration among the women. This frustration did not stem from a lack of personal commitment to social action and church life. The

90 frustration seemed to lie primarily in the divisions within their churches and these divisions had a lot to do with social action leadership styles, something that will be explored in more detail later.

5.2.1.2.1 High socio-economic focus groups

The data from the focus groups from the two high socio-economic churches in the study is analyzed in this section. Both groups included discussions about their respective church's collective approaches to social action and the particular social issues of each church context. Conversations with women from these churches also provided information on the possibilities available to them for the inner church involvement of lay ministry opportunities for Catholic women.

The high income parish focus group discussions included the women's expression of concern over the lack of participation of youth in the life of their churches.

This was not just limited to teenagers but to their parents as well. Women from the suburban focus group wondered why their church would not spend more money on creating a dynamic youth ministry program. Participants from both focus groups discussed the direct provision of pastoral services by the church to families of faith in crisis. A woman from the urban parish said that she had spent most of her married life as a member of military churches before retiring and she told the group that many social services were available in those churches to assist military families. Several women in the two high income churches were graduates of the diocesan lay ministry formation program and expressed frustration that their capacity for ministry to families was not being used. Strong feelings of dissatisfaction with their churches' level of social action were expressed by both focus groups in high income contexts.

91 In one of the urban church focus group, it became apparent that several women in the group were spending a lot of time caring for their aging parents.

Like that's what I was thinking. She was saying (referring to Woman #6), she's going home to look after her parents every weekend. Is that not social action? I mean she's . . . and I think a lot of us do a lot more than what we really think we're doing, (assent from the group) Because I have a ninety-one year old mother that I have to do certain things for and, and at times, I mean it's overwhelming. Plus what I'm doing at the church and everything else and there's just, you know, and I marvel at these people who have to really give their parents twenty-four hour care and things like that. They're giving of themselves constantly so in a way it's still social action. It's not something out in the community but it certainly, you know, they're giving of their time and doing something to help someone else out. (Focus Group #2, Woman #5)

Whereas a lot of people they just put their parents in a home. For example, I used to volunteer in a hospital and I would go to the geriatric ward and just talk with some elderly people. Well, why is that considered social action but if you're doing it for your own family member it's not? Because that was definitely considered social action - it was volunteer work. O.K.? You know? I'm talking to strangers. But you're obviously doing something that our own social system doesn't do. Our government doesn't give enough. That's actually . . . my thesis director does studies on that and women's double work day and just the idea that women do take care of a lot of family members and you might not have time for social action. (Focus Group #2, Woman #8)

5.2.1.2.2 High socio-economic women interviews

Analysis of the data specifically provided by personal interviews with women in the two high income churches highlights the ways in which their faith provides a spiritual foundation as well as an impetus for social action in particular contexts (see

Appendix H for a summary of key points). When speaking about their personal spiritual practices beyond parish involvement, almost all of the women in high income contexts mentioned daily prayer in their interviews. Only one woman spoke about reading and reflecting on scripture regularly and this practice began after she had a near-death experience. This is similar to the data from low income women. Another high income woman said that she had grown up in a very Catholic family but instead of praying, they

92 expressed their faith in very practical ways. For her, family prayer was not as important as the day-in, day-out living of Catholic values.

Women from high socio-economic contexts who were long-time members of the

CWL said that serving in leadership positions in the organization had given them experience in how to conduct meetings, lead groups in prayer, organize provincial and national campaigns and communicate with government. Two of these women had served on the national council of the CWL. In the suburban church, a woman was proud that their CWL had encouraged parishioners to support the white ribbon campaign against pornography and had gotten signatures on a petition to the federal government to raise the age of consent from fourteen to sixteen.

A nurse from the suburban church spoke about how she and her husband had connections with a mission in the Caribbean run by women religious and a priest from

Atlantic Canada. They had been able to convince the church to financially support this mission. For years the couple had organized parish fundraisers and had even delivered clothing and medical supplies in person to the mission hospital and school. As a health care professional, the woman had been moved by the Caribbean nuns' compassion for the sick:

But the nurses were immaculate - that's what amazed me. Most of them were black, Carribeans .. . and they would be in their white starch uniforms, but the place - they would have . . . very little of a sheet on top of a rubber mattress - urine soaked, filthy, flies, terrible conditions ... I can't describe it. But the one thing that really touched me, was one day Father .. . who was just, he was just so dynamic. He came with [the sister] and I and we went into, and there was a black lady who was extremely thin, there wasn't much left of her, on a bed and the sheet was just urine soaked and as you approached it, it was so strong it would just drive you away. (C: Yes, yes.) And they sat there, on that bed with her and they sang hymns and they talked to her and I just thought, "This is what Mother Teresa does." (Parish #5, Woman #2)

93 Another nurse from the urban church worked in a community clinic and spoke about her need for patience and compassion when working with people suffering from addictions.

In their personal interviews, high income women expressed the difficulty they experienced in applying their pro-life views as Catholics in daily life. One woman who was a nurse spoke about the conflict between her respect for life and the obligation she felt as a health care professional:

Personally I follow the church teaching that for me, personally, I would not abort a child. But because I'm a nurse, I also know that there's a great need for proper health care in that area. And if somebody chooses an abortion for whatever reason, and they don't have to explain it to me, I'll support them. And I did, I went to a friend's abortion and supported her and took her home and took care of her for a few days and she was happy to have that support. And she knew that I didn't agree with it. But she wanted me to be there, so I was there for her because she didn't have anyone else. So, I was glad that there was a clean, safe place for her to have her abortion. Because mentally she wasn't ready to have a baby, you know, well that's what happens in that situation. (Parish #2, Woman #4)

She also disagreed with the church's stance on biotechnology and stem cell research.

For her, God was the source of human knowledge and therefore if humans had the ability to solve genetic problems, alleviate suffering and save lives as a result, they should.

5.2.1.2.3 High socio-economic leader interviews

The analysis of the data collected from personal interviews with church leaders from high socio-economic contexts underlined the situation of disconnection between the women and their leaders. As already mentioned, the priest at the urban church declined to be interviewed. While he had only been at this church for a few years, he has been a priest in the diocese for a long time. In the phone call cancelling the interview appointment, the church secretary told me that the priest said he was

94 uncomfortable answering questions about social action. This was the same church in which the data from the focus group and interviews with women revealed that there had been a recent shift in emphasis away from community outreach.

The priest from the high income suburban area was proud that his church was growing rapidly at a time when most Catholic churches in the diocese were experiencing decline. The newly expanded church had more weekend masses than any other in the city. He said, "The majority of the people here are the economic, intellectual and high- tech elite in the province." (Parish #5, Priest) During our interview he expressed concern about the erosion of the middle class in society and he felt that the education system was to blame. It had focused too much on preparing people for high-tech jobs and had neglected training in the trades. Yet when asked about how he addressed social action issues such as these in his homilies, he said that during mass he tried to provide people with simple spiritual insights. "The simpler is the truer," he said. (Parish #5,

Priest) While he spoke at length of the generosity of his congregation in donating money to help the poor, at no point did he express the dissatisfaction that women in the parish focus group had about the general lack of community spirit they felt in the church.

5.2.1.2.4 Summary of high socio-economic contexts

In summary, the analysis of the qualitative data from high socio-economic contexts reveals the following points:

• Catholic women from high socio-economic churches are active in the spiritual

and sacramental and social action aspects of religious experience.

95 • Religious practices (ritual/prayer and social action) can be both public and

personal.

• Some Catholic women from high income contexts believe that social action is an

important part of the mission of Christians and wonder whether or not their

churches are being true to this mission.

• Catholic women from high socio-economic contexts have taken advantage of

opportunities for training in lay ministry.

• Catholic women from high income contexts are concerned about the issue of

poverty and respond through fundraising and making donations to charity.

• Catholic women from high income contexts want their churches to provide more

support for families and seniors.

• Catholic women's involvement in social action is not significantly effected by

factors such as income, time, family, or employment, although these factors do

impact the lives of individual high income women to varying degrees.

• High income Catholic women's understanding of social issues and leadership

skills are honed through involvement in religious associations such as the CWL,

Development & Peace and Kairos.

• Church growth changes the ethos of a community.

• Changes in church leadership can lead to conflict within a parish.

5.2*2 Analysis according to social action leadership style

While analyzing the study data from the perspective of the socio-economic context of Catholic women provides insight into social issues of concern, the popular types of social action activities and the level of involvement, analyzing the same data set

96 from the perspective of leadership styles provides additional insights into the factors that influence women's involvement in social action. For a broad comparison of themes arising from contexts with different social action leadership styles, refer to the chart in

Appendix G.

Looking at the research data from the point of view of leadership styles and the history of social action leadership in each parish was messy. One factor in this complexity is the fact that leadership in Catholic churches is highly fluid. Priests are moved from parish to parish in the diocese by the bishop on a regular basis and individual nuns have the autonomy to join or leave a parish depending on decisions made by their orders. So while a strong social action leader can have influence on a parish for a particular period of time, the direction of the parish can change with the advent of a new priest or the departure of a nun. People with a strong social action leadership style can have a significant impact on parishioners and the effects of this impact can last long after they leave the parish. Catholics in the pews have no role to play when decisions are made regarding their church's ordained or vowed religious leadership.

For many of the women who participated in the study and for church leaders, nuns and priests had been a strong influence in their formative years, especially as part of their early education. Some people had attended Catholic universities in the region.

Priests and nuns had been role models for leadership and social action involvement. But as one woman from a rural parish expressed it, the leadership example that the nuns had given her was like a two-edged sword. This retired teacher was very civically engaged and she said that while the sisters who had taught her in the village of her youth had

97 helped her to gain leadership skills, she now realized that those very same women had also accepted a second-class place in the church. She was frustrated that the nuns had instilled a desire for leadership and religious involvement in her, yet that desire could never be fully implemented in the context of the Catholic church. General overviews of the qualitative data from the perspective of leadership styles, weak, strong or none, will be followed by more detailed accounts provided by focus groups and interviews.

5.2.2.1 Weak social action leadership churches

This section begins with an overall analysis of the data collected from focus groups, interviews with women as well as interviews with leaders in three churches with a history of weak social action leadership. Anna is another "typical woman" constructed from the data collected via interviews with women from these parishes.

Anna's Story

Anna met me in my office for an interview during her lunch break. She works in the physiotherapy department at the hospital. She was familiar with the campus since she was also working part-time on a graduate degree in business administration. Her dream was to open a clinic of her own someday. She smiled when she told me of the time she ran into her son in the university library a few weeks ago - they were both surprised to see each other in the middle of the day and were happy to share a cup of coffee in the midst of their crazy schedules. Her daughter was in her last year of high school and was in the process of applying to a Catholic university outside the province.

Anna grew up in what she described as a very Catholic family and her father was a socially conscientious business man who lived his faith in the workplace. She too understood her faith to be very much part of her and even though she doesn't pray a lot

98 or read the bible, she called herself a practical Catholic. Over twenty years ago she married Thom who was not Catholic but had no objections to the kids being raised in the faith. He would come to mass with them on Christmas and Easter and for the kids' first communions and confirmations. Anna and the kids attended mass fairly regularly as they were growing up, especially during the school year. While her daughter still went with Anna to mass because she accompanies the choir on piano, more and more often

Anna's son chose to sleep in and stay home with his dad. He was doing well at university and she admired how conscientious he was about his studies - he wasn't always that way in high school! Anna was just starting her second term on parish council but she was beginning to wonder if she should have let her name stand again.

She told me that she was frustrated with the new council president. He was a real keener and he had so many ideas about fundraising and social activities for the parish but he didn't realize how hard it was to get people to volunteer to help carry these things out. While Anna believed that strengthening community was good in principle, it depended on people's commitment. The older folks in the parish were always ready to lend a hand, but they were getting along in years and so few younger people were willing to take their place. It was even difficult to get the priest to agree to anything new, much less get him to participate. Anna felt stretched to the limit and she missed the priest that had invited her to run for parish council years ago. When he had been there the parish as a whole seemed more engaged. He had been well connected to the ministerial association and the churches had worked together on a variety of projects to help the poor in the city. That stopped when he left. While she missed him, she remained faithful to the church community. Anna felt people at the church should be

99 grateful that they even had a priest - there are so few these days and they were aging too. If all Catholics just shopped around for what they liked, how could any parish survive?

Overall Analysis of Weak Social Action Leadership Contexts

What follows is a broad analysis of how a history of weak social action leadership in a church affects the religiosity and social action involvement of Catholic women. Three churches had no history of strong social action leadership in the past nor at present. One was the urban parish, the second was the suburban parish and the third was the small rural church. The urban parish had had periods of increased lay-led social action activity at points in its history. However, because of a recent change in priest, the parish had moved from having had an active social justice group that was supported by the former priest, to at present having little social action emphasis, other than fundraisers organized by the CWL and the parish council. But the urban church was not exceptional among the three churches in this regard. In all three churches, inward concerns took precedence over social outreach.

The rural church was located in a very picturesque area and it was apparent that the women had strong ties to this church. Yet the parish secretary described it on the phone to me as a dying parish. The majority of members were elderly and there was great deal of effort aimed at simply keeping the doors open. The women said they did not want to have to leave their community to go to church on Sunday mornings. This was surprising, since there was another Catholic church only fifteen minutes by car up the highway. At the time of the study, the priest serving the church was originally from

Africa and on contract with the diocese. He had served at several churches in the

100 diocese and had only been at this church for about a year when we spoke. I learned

from one of the women in the parish that he had been transferred to another church

shortly after our interview.

It was apparent in the focus group discussion at this rural parish that the women

were used to frequent changes in parish leadership. They emphasized that a Catholic's

involvement in parish life should be dependent on faith in God. One woman said,

I don't know what people want to see in a minister or a priest, like I don't know what they're looking for? When you see a priest in an area and the priest leaves then a lot of people don't go to that church anymore, they leave too. It seems to me that their faith was in the person and not really in God. (others say yes) So somewhere, even these people here [in the vignette], somewhere society is missing what faith really is and they seem to want. . . and people are like this in general - they want to go somewhere where people make them feel comfortable and where they will give them something physical. Like say, "You're beautiful." "You're lovely." You know? "I've enjoyed your company here in mass today." It's all "I," "I," "I." But it's a human being that's saying that to you. But see, they get taken in with that and so they therefore start to like the priest. I don't mean now in like a wrong way, it's just that it's very comfortable and we're all human and we like that. And so when he leaves that goes with him. But see that's not really faith. If the faith was in God and our church was the community of God going on in it, then the priest could come and go and it really wouldn't affect you. But the human side of it is there and we're all taken in by it. (Focus Group #3, Woman #2)

The only consistent activities that took place in regards to social action were collecting

food donations for the local food bank and participating in the World Day of Prayer

services with other churches in the area once a year.

It was clear that in the urban church, the recent arrival of a priest with a different

style of leadership had had an effect on both the level of women's inner church service

and social action involvement. Because the priest chose not to participate in the study, his views on the link between the Catholic faith and social action are unknown, but from the focus group and interview data, his leadership style appeared to focus primarily on

101 the liturgical and spiritual life of the church. This had resulted in a decreased emphasis on the church as an active community partner in the downtown area of the city.

Changes in the church had also resulted in conflict and polarization among parishioners.

"Core people who were involved got turned off." (Focus Group #2, Woman #6) One woman who had been relatively inactive in the church, had responded to the conflict by joining parish council. She felt that because there were so few priests available and since most of them were aging, members of the parish had an obligation to stand behind the decisions of the current priest. Another woman in the same church, who was serving on parish council at the time of the arrival of the new priest, and who had been very engaged in all aspects of parish life, was involved in protesting some of the changes.

She spoke about her feelings in the midst of the conflict:

I said, "I have a history here. This is mine. I've put energy into the growth of this community. I'm not going." And then finally, I just thought, I need something. You can't constantly [fight] .... And then you go through that agony of well, "this isn't the worse thing in the world." And then, "Maybe you just have to work through this." And then finally, I started going to [another Catholic church] and I just thought, wow, it was so nice and nurturing. (Parish #2, Woman #2)

The third church with weak social action leadership, the suburban parish, had just recently finished paying off the debts incurred in building a new church. The priest said, "The church was built to help people to be calm, so that their inner spirit could speak and you know, it wasn't built to make them Catholics or to straighten them out or to change them but so they could accept who they are." (Parish #5, Priest) Yet women in the focus group seemed concerned that the church had concerned itself too much with the physical building and not enough on the building of the community of believers within. The interviews showed that like the urban parish, there was a rift in the

102 community, but this time it was between female parishioners with different visions of the Catholic church. Some women were very concerned about liturgical correctness and moral purity while others wanted to put more emphasis on social action. The priest kept emphasizing acceptance as essential to social action yet women in this church obviously had difficulty in accepting each other.

5.2.2.1.1 Weak social action leadership focus groups

Data gathered from focus group discussions is reviewed in this section and evidence of the effects of weak leadership on the social action involvement of Catholic women was found in the three church focus group discussions. Frustration with life in the parish was evident in the group discussions of both the urban and the suburban churches with weak social action leadership. In the urban church, some of the women, in addition to having careers in helping professions, were trained in lay pastoral ministry and willing to serve others, but leadership preference for the ritual and prayer life of the parish thwarted their desires. In the suburban church as well, highly educated and affluent women were looking for a deeper experience of the church's mission of service to the marginalized while their priest was interested in providing rituals and religious education in the most efficient way possible to growing numbers of affluent Catholics.

One woman who was trained as a parish nurse spoke to the group about one of her attempts to initiate social action:

When I put out that I was going to feed some people breakfast, you know, I just wanted to do a breakfast for people in [a low-income section of the city], I actually had people from the church say, "We don't want those dirty people in our church." (laughs) That's what happens. Those are supposed to be Christian people. It's shocking what happens sometimes. It's very discouraging when you . . . (Focus Group#5, Woman #7)

103 In the case of the rural parish with a history of weak social action leadership, while keeping their church open was a priority for the elderly members, it begs the question as to whether or not the church community itself was a priority for the diocese.

Like the problem of delayed amalgamation, the problem of struggling to stay open as a church detracted from women's involvement in social action. Both of these problems could be solved through decisive leadership at the diocesan level. There are presently several other Catholic churches within a half hour drive of this rural church. Church closures and amalgamations could free up time and resources for social outreach.

Change is never easy for people with strong emotional attachments to a church, however it happens frequently today in mainline denominations and the reasons for doing so are compelling from the perspective of the stated social mission of Catholics.

5.2.2.1.2 Weak social action leadership women interviews

The interview data from women influenced by weak social action leadership styles illustrates the struggles the research participants had in applying church teachings, particularly teachings related to marriage and sexual morality, to their daily lives (for a summary of key points, see Appendix H). From the interview data, Catholic women know the high value that the church hierarchy places on marriage and family life. To a large extent the women shared these values. Stories of their families going to mass regularly and being part of the social life of the church abounded. However, many women wrestled with the ideals of marriage and family and the reality that they knew from personal experience. Some of the women were divorced, some had experienced the divorce of their parents, some had children who were divorced and nearly everyone

104 had a relative that was divorced. Yet there were few examples given of how the church had concretely helped during what must have been difficult times.

Similar to the situation of divorced Catholics, several women related stories of friends or family members who were gay. These were people they knew and cared about and the women wrestled to understand the church's teachings. A woman from the suburban church shared:

But, you see, I have these nieces that, one of them, two, both of them are really wonderful nieces. But as Father . . . used to tell us . . . your job is to love the sinner and hate the sin. So you love the sinner and you try and accept them because this is what they've decided. It's a very strong, it was a very strong and a very divisive subject for, it's a divisive subject for everybody, for everywhere, every group. And it's very difficult. I know some of the older people have a really, really difficult time with it. And they have a really difficult time with homosexuality. (C: Yes.) But. . . you do . . . learn to ... I grew up thinking that somebody who was homosexual would not marry, (laughs) (C: Yes.) Homosexuals don't marry. So, but I didn't realize that they would marry for a cover and that's the kind of situation that I got caught in. (C: O.K.) And there's a lot of homosexuality in my husband's family and of course, it's in every family. And so this same sex marriage, I believe that. . . legally they should be able, there should be something, without having them have to be married, but then they want to be married - but then without having them be married, if they didn't want to - to protect each other. They're living together as a family so ,. . . but they wouldn't be able to get insurance, they wouldn't be able to get pensions - it wouldn't automatically go to their . . .

C: Partner?

Partner.

C: Yes.

So I figure they should be protected legally.

C: O.K. But just don't call it marriage?

Yes. Marriage is between a man and a woman. But I do have two nieces! (laughs) (Parish #5, Woman #3)

105 Like this woman, others that I interviewed pointed out their agreement with the church's

defense of the sanctity of heterosexual marriages in opposition to same-sex marriages,

but several rejected it.

In discussing the Catholic church and social or moral issues, women emphasized

that they did not want to judge the actions of others. While they may have had their

own particular views on an issue, there was an appreciation of the complexity of

particular situations. Being judgmental was seen to be contrary to treating people with

respect. A student who said she would not choose to have an abortion herself,

accompanied a friend to her abortion to provide emotional support. She said that she

appreciated the moral foundation that the Catholic church provided in her life but would

not impose her views on the actions of others.

There was also a definite critique of what some viewed as the judgmental nature

of the church leadership. One student who was very engaged in her rural church said,

So when I think of the same sex marriage, they're [the Catholic church] so like, just trying to follow the tradition so hard, that they're just like, "No, no, no, we can't do that, we can't do this, this wasn't the way it was." But then they don't really think, I guess, about the people's feelings these days. They can't really control the way that they want to be. It's kind of sad how almost they're like stopping them [homosexuals] to be what they want to be, or trying to make them change maybe, so .. . (Parish #3, Woman #1)

This evidence of the propensity of individual Catholic women towards being non- judgmental when it came to issues of sexual morality is in contrast to the desire

expressed in focus groups for more decisive leadership in preaching about social issues

such as poverty.

Several women from weak social action leadership parishes talked about pulling

back on both their inner church service and social action activities in the church because

106 of tensions with priests. It was clear that they had spoken to their priests about their

disagreements and that they had tried to seek some middle ground, but the differences

eventually caused them to decrease their participation.

5.2.2.1.3 Weak social action leadership leader interviews

Interviews with leaders in churches with a history of weak social action

leadership styles added another layer of complexity to the data collected from the

women's focus groups and interviews. A lay leader in the urban parish with a history of

weak social action leadership spoke about what he understood as the separation of the

church's spiritual and social sides. For him, the priest was in charge of looking after the

spiritual needs of the parish and the laity were responsible for building community

through organizing social events and fund raisers that brought people together. A sense

of community was strengthened when people worked together toward common goals. It

was this division of labour - the priest being responsible for spiritual leadership and the

laity being responsible for social action leadership - that was the compromise this urban

church had come to in order to deal with the conflicts that had arisen between

parishioners with a focus on social action and those with a focus on obeying priestly

authority.

The priest from the suburban church defined "radical" social action as the

Catholic church's ability to minister to both rich and poor, sinner and saint, and friend

and stranger (Parish #5, Priest). He said the church becomes most noble when it blesses

everyone through its ritual practices. While acknowledging the generosity of his

congregation in giving money to help the poor, he primarily saw his church's primary role in society as providing spiritual sustenance to all who worshipped there.

107 5.2.2.1.4 Summary of weak social action leadership churches

In summary, the analysis of the qualitative data from churches with a history of weak social action leadership uncovers the following themes:

• Priests and women religious were role models of the balance between faith and

works in the upbringing of Catholic women.

• An emphasis on ritual participation and personal piety on the part of priests,

without an emphasis on social action, leads to fewer opportunities for social

action involvement among Catholic women.

• Changes in the leadership style in a parish can lead to conflict and decreased

social action involvement of women.

5.2.2.2 Strong social action leadership churches

This section explores how a history of strong leadership in terms of social action affects the religiosity and social action involvement of women in a Catholic church.

First all of the data from churches with strong social action leadership will be reviewed, followed by an examination of the particular nuances present in the data of the focus groups and interviews.

Two churches in the study had a history of what could be considered strong leadership in regards to social action (see Appendix G). One parish was located in a town and the other parish was in an urban centre. The following story about Lenore (a pseudonym) was written using elements from the interviews with women from these two churches (for more details from all of the interviews, refer to Appendix H).

108 Lenore's Story

Lenore is a writer who is well-known for her weekly opinion pieces on social issues in the local paper. She is also working on a book. She had been raised in a very

Catholic family, had gone to Catholic schools, got her degree from a Catholic university, had married a Catholic man and had taught for a few years in a Catholic school before they began their family. After their first child was born she stayed home. She soon became very busy with raising four kids and many community commitments. Her family attended mass regularly and she volunteered as a catechist. The parish priest at the time was into the spirit of Vatican II. He had established a social action committee at the church which she was part of and she appreciated all that she learned about faith and justice through the campaigns of Development & Peace. Once, her family had hosted a solidarity visitor from a Development & Peace partner organization in Africa who worked tirelessly for improved education. Listening to his stories at their supper table had made a big impression on her - especially his commitment to justice in spite of the great poverty and political instability in his home country. His courage inspired her to try to make a difference in her own context. As a parent and educator, she was concerned about literacy and began to work to get resources in her community to help more adults learn to read and write. She knew that improved literacy was an important part of the work to end poverty. When she became chair of the local literacy council, she convinced the church to let part of its hall be used as an adult literacy centre. Soon she was elected chair of the provincial council and people from all over the province were looking to the model working in her town. Her husband was very supportive of her social action involvement and encouraged her to get involved at the national level.

109 She was just about to put forth her name for election to the national literacy council when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had to slow down her involvement for a few years because of treatment but considers that period a time of real spiritual growth. Her prayer life deepened and she made a pilgrimage to the healing shrine at

Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre. She felt very loved and supported by her family, community and church. Throughout her recovery she realized that life truly was a gift and she recommitted herself again to make the most of it. She resumed her literacy advocacy and served on the national council for six years. These were some of the busiest and most challenging times of her life, but she felt privileged to work alongside some very committed and wise people. Several years ago she stepped down from her national council duties because she was ready to spend more time with her retired husband and their grandchildren.

Overall Analysis of Strong Social Action Leadership Contexts

The data collected in focus groups and interviews with women and church leaders shows an interesting contrast between the two parishes influenced by strong social action leadership. While both have histories of strong social action leadership, only the people from the urban parish could be described as satisfied with the current leadership. The town church has a long-time capable lay leader of social justice and had benefited from the presence of women religious in the parish for many years, but the women in the focus group expressed their dissatisfaction with the past few priests and with the leadership of the diocese in the past few years. This church had been involved in a delayed process of amalgamation with another Catholic church in the same town. A decision had to be made about which church to close. It was apparent that neither

110 congregation wanted to close its own building. The bishop's final decision about amalgamation had been delayed for a long period of time and the effects of this delay were apparent in the low level of participation in both inner church service and social action among the study participants. The parish was unable to offer religious education for children because there were not enough volunteers to teach the classes.

Nearly everyone I interviewed from the town church mentioned the influence of a priest who had served there years ago. The lay leader said:

Father . . . was the pastor then and you know he was a social justice person. (C: Yes.) So, and he was very democratic at parish council, which not all priests are, I found out later. Anyway, so he wanted to set up the committees like the Vatican II style of having people doing finance, and people . . . well there was no trouble finding those and no trouble finding people doing the buildings, I got involved in that a bit too. Education - well there were people to do catechism, usually you had to pry them out. For social justice, for a couple of parish councils, there was nobody. Nobody. And he didn't really pressure anybody either, but... I think, well maybe it goes back beyond that, because I've been involved, I took political science at university for the one year I went -1 was motivated that way. (C: Yes.) I was interested in those type of subjects. So anyway, I put my hand up and I said, "I'll do social justice." And his ears perked up. (Laughs) (Parish #4, Lay Leader)

During this priest's tenure at this working-class parish, homilies addressed social issues directly and he did not shy away from offending some people in the congregation. The lay leader was trying to carry on the legacy of this priest's passion for social action in the parish but he felt that no matter what he did, Catholics would not take the views of a layman seriously. He said that without the direct support of the clergy, Catholics would not feel compelled to engage in social action.

Dissatisfaction with the leadership of the church dominated the focus group discussion in the town church. However, personal interviews revealed a strong concern for the issue of poverty both locally and globally. Women who had been active in

111 Development & Peace and CWL campaigns in the parish in the past said that their involvement had heightened their understanding of the structural causes of poverty.

The priest of the urban parish with a history of strong social action leadership had been serving there for thirteen years and had grown up in the area. He explained that his parish drew its members from three economically diverse areas of the city located in close proximity to one another - a low income housing project, an area of retired baby boomers and a higher income semi-suburban area. There was a long history of social action in this parish even before he took over as priest. Two other nearby churches had a consistent presence of women religious and order priests. This presence was significant in terms of social action leadership since several women said that it was not uncommon for Catholics in the area to switch among the three churches.

The women of the urban parish valued perseverance and hard work. As one woman said, "young people aren't like us old guys who stuck together through thick and thin." (Focus Group #6, Woman #1) This had served them well in their personal lives and in their participation in social action within the parish. One wonders if this was the legacy of consistent social action leadership on the part of nuns and priests in a relatively economically deprived urban context. Even though the women recognized that lifestyles were changing among young families in the area, the poor were ever present and the parish had always responded. Women who relied on social assistance participated in both the focus group discussion and in personal interviews.

These urban women were particularly concerned for the lives of poor children.

Drug and alcohol abuse affected children in poor families and were also connected to issues of public safety. The city council was considering closing two elementary

112 schools in the area and bussing the students to a large suburban one. Both of these

schools had been staffed by women religious over the years and had primarily served

low income families. While the women were sure that bussing the students out of the area would have a negative effect on the lives of the children, the priest wondered whether or not the parish should get involved in the public debate.

There was a high degree of religiosity among the people in both parishes with histories of strong social action leadership. Women in the urban church attended church regularly and served as communion ministers, lectors, catechists, bereavement committee members and on parish council. While divisions in the town church had led to a decrease in inner church involvement on the part of some, a small group of dissatisfied women had organized a weekly scripture study group which met in the parish basement. They felt that through Bible study they were rediscovering Jesus. One member of this group said,

I think we're beginning to think for ourselves finally and we are now catching on to this Jesus. Somewhat like catching up, we're finally catching up to him. What did he want? Was he really . . . you know, is he really what is coming out of the pulpits in religions today? The damnation and hell fire we got for centuries? I don't think that's what he was after. I think it's the social action and that's what Jesus was like. (Focus Group #4, Woman #5)

A woman from parish council who took part in the focus group discussion in the town church expressed surprise at hearing how dissatisfied some people were because she had considered them all to be active Catholics in the parish. She also mentioned that the

Sisters of Charity had played a big part in parish life years ago in addition to staffing the

Catholic school. Their departure had left a void that lay Catholics did not have the expertise to fill. Interviews revealed that women in the town church were active as communion ministers, catechists, lectors and members of the CWL.

113 Focus group participants from the town church were quick to point out the discrepancy between the Catholic church's social teachings and its actions. They pointed to discrimination against homosexuals and women as examples of this inconsistency. The lay leader said that while the basis for social action was clear to him from reading about Jesus in the gospels, he thought the present church hierarchy interpreted scripture primarily in terms of personal piety. The priest at the urban parish said that Catholic youth today are not familiar with the significance of the teachings of

Vatican II and it was time to dust off the documents and re-introduce them to the next generation.

Interestingly, in each parish with histories of strong social action leadership there were individual women who had been elected to political office. Not only had strong social action leadership fostered leadership and a sense of civic responsibility among these women, several parishioners mentioned the influence that these lay women had on them personally. This shows that strong social action leadership has a ripple effect. It was clear from an interview with one of the women who had served as a provincial

MLA, that she was able to transfer the knowledge and skills she had learned from years of grassroots social action involvement into a successful political career. Now retired from political office she had this to say about Catholic women and social action:

Well, you know part of this has traditionally been the work of women. Even in the old days when women, our grandparents, there were things they did in the community, they always helped out. I look at all those committees and things, they're mostly women. And it was in a period of time when women were not in the work force. And really I think, we've never fully appreciated the work of women, I must say. . . And I look at my grandchildren and my daughter, she's just running, all weekend long, she and her husband going to hockey or football or . . . constant. So they're busy running their kids to things, they've got their careers, and the husband's got his career and I don't think there's that many people left with time to spare to do these things. So things are going to have to

114 be legislated . . . government has to take on the work of women. . . . And when you look back it was the women who looked after the old people. ... So all this looking after the elderly which is huge, it's going to cost a fortune - was done by women. All of the caring for children was done by the women. The fathers helped, and there were some wonderful fathers. Just, you know, often the teaching of the catechism to the children was done by the women, not always, but it's just so much of the work. And then they had good organizations like the CWL. I don't know how anyone goes to these meetings anymore - CWL or whatever it is. If they've got kids and a job and a husband and I don't know how they do it. And so, as a society we have to take on those jobs. (Parish #4, Woman #1)

5.2.2.2.1 Strong social action leadership focus groups

The data collected from focus group sessions with Catholic women was useful in exposing the effects of strong social action leadership style in a church on the women in the congregation. An individual priest had the power to affect an entire congregational culture. Differences were apparent in leadership approaches that emphasized clerical authority over parishioner participation, social change over social service, or liturgical correctness over social action.

The two parishes with histories of strong social action leadership - the urban low income and the town low income churches - showed evidence of complexity in the research participants' understanding of the connection between faith and works in

Catholicism and the forms of their social action engagement. In the case of the town church, the parishioners used their understanding of Catholic social teachings to critique the practices of the church itself, and in the case of the urban church, the women understood that work for social change was a necessary corollary to works of charity.

In addition to the evidence that the leadership of women religious and priests had a significant influence on women in parishes with histories of strong social action leadership, family members were also role models for Catholic women of social action

115 involvement. Parents were often pointed to as dedicated members of both church and

community groups. In the urban church with strong leadership, the focus group participants were sympathetic to women today who suffer from spousal abuse or who choose to divorce yet it was evident that in their own earlier years of family and married

life, the choice to leave a bad marriage was not one easily made. For them, the role models in their lives were people of perseverance and commitment through thick and thin. There were several stories of women who parented large families and survived seemingly insurmountable odds. In speaking of her family situation with an abusive father, one focus group participant shared,

Because you see all this - you know and everybody outside, "Oh, he's such a wonderful man." And you know this and that and the other thing and you know what he's really like. Mom had a hard time after they broke up because she got the boys and I was sent to an aunt because she couldn't keep all three of us ... . Mom didn't get any support from the church or anything like that - she was more or less on her own. (Focus Group #6, Woman #4)

The value of perseverance enabled these women to survive the many changes in parish leadership over the years and presently they were quite satisfied with their parish priest.

Generations of family involvement in parish life connected present church members to the legacy of strong social action leadership. Perhaps in some ways, the women also expected this kind of leadership from their current priest.

However in the town church with a history of strong social action leadership, the women's patience with parish and diocesan leadership had worn thin. An obvious division due to indecision and inconsistency of the church leadership was openly discussed in the low income town church. Having experienced periods of greater lay involvement and attempts at more democratic leadership in the parish in the past, and being left in limbo in the present by the local hierarchy, had disillusioned women in the

116 focus group. While one woman in the focus group had already left the church, some of those who chose to remain formed a bible study group to deepen their faith and support each other until things changed.

5.2.2.2.2 Strong social action leadership women interviews

Individual interviews with women who had been influenced by strong social action leadership styles also provided a window into how church doctrine, particularly teachings related to marriage and sexual morality, did not fit neatly when applied to their daily lives. Nearly every woman from these two churches described herself as pro- life. Some of the women had taken part in right-to-life campaigns through the CWL in their parishes and the town church was part of an ecumenical pro-life movement with other Protestant churches. None of the women who talked about wanting to respect a woman's right to choose described themselves as pro-choice in an absolute sense. They did not see pro-life and pro-choice as mutually exclusive positions. One woman said,

Right to life -1 wouldn't come out strong on it, against or for it, because, I kind of, and I know this is probably, but I do have a feeling that people get to decide a bit. I don't know if it's right or not but I would have trouble trying to convince somebody not to ... I would have trouble doing that so I wouldn't do that. I don't know, I just, I think some people are already so alienated and they get in that situation and they're so, that, I wouldn't want to come out against what they decided was the best thing that they could figure out to do at the time and they did that, I wouldn't. . . but I'm not saying that I'm for it either. (Parish #4, Woman #4)

Some women were highly critical of the militancy of the pro-life movement and saw many of its actions as blaming the victim.

5.2.2.2.3 Strong social action leadership leader interviews

Interviews with church leaders, both lay and ordained, exposed the leaders' personal understandings of faith and social action and how this influenced their

117 leadership style. Again, the data shows how complex it is for religious leaders to balance Catholic faith as expressed through religiosity, with faith as expressed through sexual morality, with faith as expressed through social action.

The lay leader from a parish with a history of strong social action leadership said that the Catholic church over-emphasized moral issues such as abortion, same sex marriage and biotechnology. He felt these were a distraction from more pressing social issues with which the church should be concerned. He said,

I don't know if I'd say they're red herrings, but a lot of times I think they are. Because I don't really think that's the real issue, issues we should be, or that I want to be involved in, that we want to put a lot of concentration in, especially in the way that I feel that the Catholic church is putting the emphasis on it. (Parish #4, Lay Leader)

For him these are not the issues killing the majority of people in the world today and that it was relatively rich Catholics who had the luxury of debating them. He was frustrated that Catholics in his parish were willing to sign Development & Peace petitions or donate money during the annual Lenten fundraising campaign, but were not very keen on learning about the complexity of social justice issues. The priest at this church thought that most parishioners preferred to see things in black and white and make choices between the two. Because of the vast amount of information that people receive through the media they can somehow have the illusion that they are part of society without actually participating in it. Instead of grappling with the roots of social problems, Catholics preferred to give money. He said,

I think it's an easier way. I mean, it can assuage your conscience to say, well I'm doing my part, I gave, I supported them, kind of thing. But then you can go home and turn on the t.v. and watch . . . with your feet up and maybe the glass of wine or beer in your hand or maybe the coffee in your hand. (Parish #4, Priest)

118 5.2.2.2.4 Summary of strong social action leadership churches

In summary, the analysis of the data from two churches with a history of strong social action leadership in the study emphasizes the following findings:

• Priests, women religious and family members were role models of Catholics who

lived their faith in the church and in the world.

• A priest's emphasis on social action enabled Catholic women to participate in

the ritual spiritual life of the church as well as being involved in social action.

• A history of strong social action leadership enables Catholic women to undertake

the challenges involved in working for structural change in response to social

problems.

• Changes in the leadership style in a parish can lead to frustration as well as

decreased participation in all aspects of religiosity among Catholic women.

• Strong social action leadership and opportunities for social action involvement

have enabled Catholic women to take on positions of political leadership.

• Individuals with strong social action leadership styles can have a lasting effect

on a church and foster the development of lay leadership among Catholics.

5.2.2.3 No social action leadership

Before we turn to look at data on the lived religion and experiences of social action involvement among Catholic women who have rejected the any kind of leadership from the institution, we meet Ellen, the last in the series of "typical women" whose story is based on the data from interviews with lapsed Catholic women who took part in the study.

119 Ellen's Story

Ellen refers to herself as a "border" Catholic - she only attends mass when she's

within the borders of her home town. She does so out of respect for her parents and

grandparents and because it's just easier than arguing. Sundays back home are about

going to church, having coffee, biscuits and jam after mass, catching up with old

acquaintances, and roast beef with all the trimmings for dinner. Many of her friends are like her - they attended Catholic schools, were involved in the church growing up, and were nurtured by a close knit inter-generational community. However, when they left that small, comfortable world, things on the outside were very different from what they had been taught. At university they met interesting people from all sorts of religious and non-religious backgrounds, they learned to critically question all of their assumptions, and they had sex without going to hell. During spring break of the final year of her undergraduate degree in nursing, Ellen's older brother Rick told her that he was gay.

Initially it came as such a shock to her but after he told her, all his years of depression began to make sense. Rick had left home years ago when Ellen was still in middle school and her parents had always worried about him. As he told her of his long struggle to come to terms with his sexual orientation, Ellen was filled with a huge sadness. So much of Rick's pain came from knowing that their parents and the Catholic church viewed him as disordered and evil. Rick told her that he could never tell their parents but he felt better knowing that she knew and that she accepted him for who he truly was. That was a turning point in Ellen's faith journey. She stopped feeling guilty about not going to mass when she returned to university and started hanging out at the women's center on campus. She started to meet fellow students who were gay, lesbian

120 and bisexual and listening to their stories. After she graduated she took a nursing job in

a downtown hospital in a large city, working in the emergency room. She works with the poor, the homeless, the lonely and with the young. Ellen passes out condoms, gets hospital food for addicts and listens to the hookers rage as she cleans up their wounds.

Sometimes she gets frustrated and despairing about all of the pain and suffering around her, but she takes comfort in the fact that at least she's trying to help. In the pocket of her smock Ellen always carries the rosary she got when she was in the second grade and preparing for her first communion. From time to time during her day she fingers the beads and thinks, "Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." (For more data from interviews with lapsed Catholic women, see Appendix H.)

Overall Analysis of a Context with No Social Action Leadership

The lapsed Catholic women in the study had either ceased to participate in the regular liturgical or parish life of the church or participated only occasionally. Two lapsed Catholic participants had switched to participating in Protestant churches. For these women, their reasons for pulling away from Catholicism had to do with their disagreement with the teachings of the leadership of the church.

5.2.2.3.1 No social action leadership focus group

Analysis of the data from the focus group discussion with lapsed Catholic women showed that all of them disagreed with the Catholic hierarchy's positions on the roles of women in church and society, its articulation of the morality of homosexuality and its stance on abortion. It was clear that these women felt strongly about deciding for themselves about these issues. It was also apparent that their differences with the

Catholic church in relationship to these moral teachings arose when either they, friends

121 or family members found themselves in life circumstances that brought these teachings

into question. But as one woman said, "It's not that I don't believe in God, I just don't

believe in the church anymore." (Lapsed Focus Group, Woman #4) Did this rejection

of institutional leadership result in a substantial difference in involvement in social

action between lapsed and active Catholic women? Was there an increased involvement

in secular approaches to social issues? This was not shown in the data. Among the

lapsed women there were those that had been highly involved in secular social movements as well as those who struggled to find meaningful participation in social change. One student commented, "I feel like I'm not doing anything to help the greater good and I'm just surviving." (Lapsed Focus Group, Woman #2) A couple of women had switched to attending Protestant churches and one of these mentioned being more satisfied with the style of social action leadership and community engagement in her new church.

5.2.2.3.2 No social action leadership women interviews

The interviews with lapsed Catholic women reveal the struggles the women had with the legacy of Catholicism in their lives and their individual commitments to social action. The Catholic church's stance on homosexuality was the main reason one lapsed woman chose not to attend church regularly. She was filled with empathy for the painful struggles of her gay friends. She said, "I think of my religion in Catholicism as a dear friend that I love and will do things for but I don't necessarily agree with what they believe in." (Lapsed, Woman #1)

Another woman who had been socially engaged as an advocate for access to abortion on demand in the province qualified her stance by saying:

122 I really don't think that you can even look at a fetus as being a viable human being until, I would say, at least the seventh month of pregnancy. I don't see that there are very many instances when people would choose to have an abortion at that point. I just don't think it would happen. I might have a problem with it, if it did, if that were a routine kind of thing, I think I would object to that. (Lapsed, Woman #2)

Despite a busy professional life and raising two children, including one with

special needs, a woman whose family was attending a Baptist church said,

Oh I wish I could do more. I really wish I could do more. I wish I could do more in the school systems. My kids are now in the middle school, but really in the young, in the younger grades. One of the things that really stood out to me the first day I took my oldest child to school was how you can really see these kids - the haves and the have-nots right from day one. And you know, if there's anything that we could do to sort of diminish that because the kids, they learn that really quickly. And you know, it affects their self-esteem. I think the teachers, I don't know if they intend to or not, but I think they judge kids. You know, it's not always what they physically have, but you know, single moms. You know, these kids are judged because their mother, their parents are separated or they only have one parent. I'd love to do more with that group. (Lapsed, Woman #3)

5.2.2.3.3 Summary of no social action leadership

In summary, the analysis of the data from lapsed Catholic women who have rejected the church's social action leadership highlights the following two points:

• Lapsed Catholic women chose individual conscience over the external authority

of church leaders.

• Lapsed Catholic women who do not switch churches have decreased levels of

religious participation and mixed levels of involvement in social action.

5.3 Summary of data analysis

The analysis of the data gathered through the course of this study of women and leaders from five Catholic churches as well as that collected from lapsed Catholic women and outlined in this chapter are summarized in the following statements.

123 Socio-economic context:

1. The women in this study were involved in both the ritual and social action aspects of religious practice in their churches.

2. Social action involvement of Catholic women is not dependent on socio­ economic status, level of personal religiosity or amount of time available. Both stay-at-home mothers and career women were equally involved or not involved in social action and faith related practices.

3. Social action involvement for Catholic women is dependent on strong social action religious leadership, role models, feelings of solidarity in the church community and faith in the mission of Jesus to the oppressed.

4. Catholics in this study are most concerned about the issue of poverty.

5. All Catholics in the study are concerned about declining levels of involvement of Catholic youth and young families in both the ritual and social action aspects of the church.

6. Individual church financial concerns have an effect on the social action involvement of Catholic women. New buildings, renovations, and maintenance cost money and preoccupy the resources of parishioners. This does not result in less religious participation within the church but it does result in less involvement in social action.

7. Urban low income churches do not have the survival issues of rural low income churches and therefore can devote themselves to social action in ways that rural churches cannot.

Leadership style context:

8. Leadership style has an affect on the level of social action involvement of Catholic women.

9. Leadership style does not have an affect on Catholic women's participation in the ritual life of the church.

10. Strong social action leadership can result in more sophisticated responses to social problems such as engagement in social change at the political level or critique of institutional structures.

11. Weak social action leadership results in an emphasis on ritual, prayer and personal morality at the expense of social action as a constitutive element of the Catholic faith.

124 12. In most of the churches in this study there is evidence of a gap between the thinking of religious leaders and the concerns of women in the parish.

13. Women in the pews and church leaders find the application of Catholic teachings on moral issues complex because of personal and family involvement.

14. Change in religious leadership and the conflict that can result from that change leads to decreased religious participation and social action among Catholic women.

15. Lack of continuity in local church leadership and indecision at the level of diocesan leadership has a negative effect on the social action involvement of Catholic women in rural churches.

125 6.0 Discussion and conclusions

6.1 Discussion of findings

This study explored the social action involvement and experiences of lived religion among Catholic women in New Brunswick. The study set out to answer questions about the relationship between the ritual and devotional practices of Catholic women and their involvement in social action; the social issues of concern to them; the forms of social action undertaken by Catholic women; how they articulate the link between faith and social action; and factors that affect their involvement in social action, including their perceptions of the influence of religious leadership on their ability to engage in social action. A sample of women participants and their religious leaders was recruited from five different churches chosen for their regional, socio-economic and leadership diversity. A group of lapsed Catholic women was also invited to participate in the research. After textual analysis of popular Catholic writings was conducted, focus group discussions and personal interviews were carried out. Nearly all of the women involved in the study completed demographic questionnaires. All of the quantitative and qualitative data was analyzed with particular attention to the sampling criteria of socio-economic context and social action leadership style. The findings of the analysis were summarized in fifteen points at the end of Chapter 5. The findings of this sociological investigation are related to the findings of other sociologists and scholars of religion. The following discussion of the results of this study as compared to the relevant literature will conclude with my own theorizing based on my identity as a sociologist, an activist and an engaged Catholic woman.

126 In churches in the Diocese of Saint John, it is apparent that Catholic women of all socio-economic backgrounds are involved in varying degrees in the practices of

Catholic ritual and spirituality, and in social action. Like the results of studies of

Catholics in the United States, these Canadian women also hold highly the core elements of the Catholic tradition including the communal celebration of the sacraments, spirituality and service to the poor (D'Antonio, et al., 2001; D'Antonio & Pogorelc,

2007; Dillon, 1999; Hoge, et al., 2001). Despite the patriarchal nature of Catholicism,

Catholic women remain involved in all aspects of the church's practices of faith and works. In fact, it would be difficult to imagine the continued day-to-day functioning of the Catholic church without them. Similar to studies of women from other patriarchal religious groups, my findings do not indicate that Catholic women feel simply oppressed and exploited by the institution (Gallagher, 2003; Griffith, 1997a, 1997b, 2004;

Kaufman, 1991). The women in this study find their involvement in Catholic practices to be life-giving and a source of personal challenge and growth.

Women in my study found Catholic religious practices meaningful, comforting, and empowering yet at the same time experienced frustration, inconsistency and alienation in their churches. This is in line with the conclusions drawn by the sociological study of contemporary Christian women in America in Defecting in Place and by feminist theological writings (Radford Ruether, 1986, 2008; Winter, et al., 1995).

While some Catholic women in this study found the institution too judgmental and alienating and therefore chose to leave either partially or completely, others continued to find meaning and purpose while practicing within its parameters. All of the women, lapsed and active, emphasized the importance of a sense of community. However none

127 of the Catholic women who took part in the study expressed complete satisfaction.

Even women in the most affluent and growing church in the diocese were torn between

the Catholic emphasis on weekly participation at mass and what they understood as the

essential mission of Christ to reach out to the marginalized in their midst. The most

conservative research participants joined the chorus of lament at their church's inability

to attract the allegiance of young Catholics. This shows the value the women

acknowledged, either consciously or subconsciously, of their Catholic identity and

institution's own teachings about the essential relationship between faith and works in the Christian life. In varying ways and to varying degrees, the Catholic women in this study were experiencing both the empowerment and restraints of institutional practices and their own resistance to these restraints (Nason-Clark & Fisher-Townsend, 2005).

Similar to the findings of movements of pro-change Catholic movements in the

US, rather than relying on the secular discourse of human rights and freedoms to argue for change in the church, the Catholic women in this study also used their understandings of scripture and of the doctrine of the church to critique the institution

(D'Antonio & Pogorelc, 2007; Dillon, 1999). In particular, participants from this study who could be considered highly engaged Catholics - those women who were involved in Catholic organizations such as the CWL and Development & Peace, or in ministries such as catechetical instruction and adult faith formation, or who had graduated from the diocesan lay formation program - used their knowledge of the church tradition to critique what they viewed as institutional shortcomings. Indeed, many of these women remarked how they did not really come to a full appreciation of the depth of their own faith tradition until they became more engaged. This mirrors the findings of my own

128 research in that the more women come to understand Catholicism through study and involvement in lay ministries, the more they become dissatisfied with the status quo in their churches (Holtmann, 2008a). As theologically educated and trained lay Catholics, they understand and embrace the Vatican II progressive vision of the church as the

"People of God," the role of the church in the world, and the relation of the church to other religious groups. They want opportunities to put this knowledge into action and to practice their pastoral skills.

Traditionally, Catholic women had found a place for their religious virtuosity within vowed religious orders (Wittberg, 1994). Today they want to exercise their gifts within the broader church and societal context. They see opportunities within their churches and in their communities to put their faith and skills into action: they want to help seniors who are isolated and lonely or who struggle with mobility issues; they want to better support divorced Catholics and reach out to victims of abuse; they want to make the Catholic faith more relevant to young people, especially those who have a passion for social justice; they want to strategize with other Catholic lay leaders; and they want to make room for diverse spiritualities. They want to do all these things and more yet find themselves unable to, either because of the leadership style of their parish priest, because of financial constraints within their churches, or because of the lack of involvement by young Catholics in traditional groups. Although faced with roadblocks that prevent them from more fully venturing into new territory for religious participation, they nevertheless remain active in the traditional practices of their churches.

129 In D'Antonio et al's study of the attitudes and practices of contemporary

American Catholics, the authors highlight a lack of solidarity within churches (2001).

They recommend that Catholic leaders need to focus on building better relationships among Catholics, particularly between generations. Dillon suggests that bridges be built between progressive and conservative Catholics because, despite their doctrinal differences, they hold substantial aspects of Catholicism in common (1999). One of the remarkable experiences for me in doing the fieldwork for this study was listening to the views of both progressive and conservative Catholic women expressed freely without judgment during the focus group sessions. I have so rarely witnessed and participated in such respectful listening across differences (Dillon, 1999). Even the CCCB acknowledges "evidence of increasing polarization" among Canadian Catholics (2000).

Catholic community building could take place through parish programs that promote dialogue among Catholics in the pews and address issues such as charity verses change, faith and the workplace, consumerism, health concerns, family matters and linking seniors spiritually and socially (D'Antonio, et al., 2001, pp. 136-137). Therefore the findings that there are unfulfilled social action needs in New Brunswick Catholic churches and that Catholic women have unfulfilled desires for opportunities for lay ministry, represent a profound opportunity for the local church, even if research has shown that pastoral ministry for lay women includes numerous challenges (Ternier-

Gommers, 2007; Wallace, 1992).

Almost sixty per cent of the participants in this study were women that had worked full-time outside the home at least for part of their lives. The women in health care, education and social work understood their jobs to be a form of social action.

130 They entered these professions because they wanted to make a difference in people's

lives. When asked, almost all of the women who had been employed talked about the

ways they were able to live the values of their faith and engage in social action in the

workplace, but for the most part the women did not initiate conversations about the

relationship between their work and their faith. Was this because they were being paid to be socially engaged? It was only when I asked direct questions about social action opportunities in their professional lives that they talked about the ways in which they were able to live their values, particularly in relationships with coworkers. Somehow in the understanding of most of the women in this study, paid work and faith-based social action were separate categories. In my study with women religious in the diocese, they clearly understood their professional work as ministry and that payment for their work enabled them to continue the mission of their communities (Holtmann, 2008b). It is interesting that Catholic lay women engaged in helping professions do not understand themselves in a similar way. Why not? A discourse that emphasized the unity of faith and secular work, a discourse readily articulated by women religious, was not something they were familiar with. This shows that there is a need for dialogue within the Catholic church about the ways that laity already carry out the mission of the church in the workplace. Such opportunities would probably also be welcomed by younger Catholics whose commitment to careers, family and friends prevents them from becoming involved in more traditional forms of faith-based social action.

This study showed that Catholic women who are religiously and socially engaged have become that way through the influence of strong church leadership on social action, the example of role models, their own feelings of solidarity within the

131 church and their faith in Christ. The majority of these women (sixty per cent) were life­

long Catholics with an average age of 54 years. This means that they are what researchers refer to as pre- and post-Vatican II Catholics - those who had been strongly

socialized by the pervasive Catholic culture of their youth and young adult lives

(D'Antonio & Pogorelc, 2007). Times have changed in New Brunswick, as elsewhere, and young Catholics today have not been socialized in the same context. Catholicism is not a central feature of their identity as it had been for older generations. As a result they are not committed to the institution in the same way. Young Catholics have multiple life commitments to family, friends, careers and lifestyle (D'Antonio, et al.,

2001). My findings confirm the tremendous angst this engenders among engaged older

Catholics and their leaders. However, research indicates that young Catholics' engagement with their faith could be improved by accentuating the sacraments, promoting action for justice and peace and by emphasizing the centrality of the common good (Hoge, et al., 2001). These are all central elements of the Catholic tradition and can engage young Catholics if approached in way that takes seriously the multiple commitments of their daily lives. The situation will not be improved by judgmental attitudes or condemnation. Research has shown that alternative church cultures can be created through the combined efforts of local clergy and laity (Ecklund, 2006). Women that are currently engaged in their churches but want greater opportunities for social action will support initiatives that take the younger generation's yearnings for a more socially relevant church culture seriously.

Research on financial generosity among American Christians shows that religious leaders are untrained and uncomfortable promoting a vision of church that

132 addresses the responsibility of Christians for the well-being of others beyond their

personal circles of family and friends (Smith, et al., 2008). Many Christians maintain an

attitude of "comfortable guilt" because they know deep down that they should be giving

and doing more for others but at the same time they justify what little they give or do because of the many competing demands on them in the context of a consumer culture.

Consumer culture has convinced relatively affluent Christians that they live in a world of scarcity, rather than in a world of abundance (Smith, et al., 2008, p. 171). I contend that the same attitudes exist among clergy and Catholics when it comes to participation in social action. The majority of women in this study did not perceive their clergy modeling a holistic vision of faith and works as leaders of their churches.

When asked what they thought was the primary roadblock that prevented

Catholics from becoming more involved in social action, time and again the research participants in my study remarked that young people today do not have time and that they are pulled in too many directions. But they themselves had also lived very busy lives and had managed to commit to their faith! The primary difference then, is the larger social context which is permeated by consumer culture. Just as Christians will readily commit themselves to long-term payment plans for luxury goods, they will also commit themselves to long-term consumption of mass media and entertainment. The messages of mass media are overwhelmingly messages of individualism and not the promotion of the common good. The Catholic church's social teachings can provide an alternative to materialistic individualism that will speak to the day-to-day struggles of people in the pews. Leadership that fosters opportunities for Catholics to partake in critical dialogue about faith and social issues as well concrete opportunities to engage in

133 work for social change has tremendous potential for strengthening young Catholic

identity and commitment. Such leadership also needs to be compassionate and sensitive

to how difficult it is even for the most committed Catholics to apply the church's moral teachings to their closest relationships. Difficult as all this may be, the findings of this

study underscore the effects of a church with a history of strong social action leadership.

Two churches in this study had such histories and as a result, women in these congregations had taken part in the challenging work for social change in addition to working to support direct services to the poor and marginalized. Both of these church communities also nurtured the faith of women who served as elected members of the provincial legislature - a significant form of social action indeed.

As chapter three has illustrated, the vision of Catholic concern and responsibility for the common good has been well articulated in official documents by the hierarchy.

This vision for social action is fundamentally rooted in the ritual and spiritual practices of the Catholic faith. However, this study shows that the dialectic of faith and works is not perceived by women as being promoted by priests at the local level. Even if some priests were able to articulate the Catholic vision of faith and justice in a personal interview, women in their churches were not hearing it preached or seeing it put into action in their churches. This finding is not unique to this study but is also evidenced by research with Atlantic Canadian religious leaders and their response to domestic violence (Nason-Clark, 1997). It is evident that Catholic priests need further training and support to change these patterns.

To be fair, there is a shortage of priests within the Diocese of Saint John and the majority of these priests are aging. As well, the short time allotted during the mass for a

134 homily (ten to twelve minutes) is not conducive to addressing the complexity of some of

today's social issues in relation to the faith. However, as is also shown in this study,

there are clergy who do communicate a vision of faith and works that has fostered social

action cultures in their churches. There are also trained lay people available in many

parishes that could be called upon in helping to articulate and live out a holistic vision of

the Catholic faith, one that emphasizes both ritual participation and work for social justice. The question remains, what is preventing the local church from utilizing the

resources it already has available in response to the social action needs of its own parishioners as well as those of the wider society? As in every generation, the Catholic vision of faith and works needs to re-articulated in a way that can be heard, understood and acted upon by today's faithful.

Approaches to social issues are as complex as the lives of people affected by social issues. There are no easy answers and this study has shown that even people with similar faith-based commitments to social change employ a variety of strategies.

Likewise, Catholic congregations are diverse with progressives and traditionalists rubbing shoulders (Manning, 1997). Church leaders can respond to this context in three basic ways. First, they can choose to accept, acknowledge and celebrate differences among the faithful and use their skills to facilitate understanding and respect amidst diversity. Conflict will inevitably arise in such a context, but good leadership can understand how to use situations of conflict to further spiritual and moral growth.

Secondly, clergy can acknowledge differences within their parishes and avoid saying or doing anything that upsets people. In this way they can try to maintain the status quo.

Or thirdly, priests can reject any form of pluralism when it comes to the Catholic faith

135 and dictate the one version of the tradition that they are most comfortable with personally. All of these patterns of religious leadership presently exist among Catholic priests, with the latter two styles most evident in the perceptions of women involved this study. Yet the majority of women who remain most engaged in the churches today are accustomed to negotiating their identities in a wider social context of participatory democracy and pluralism. Catholic leaders need to take more seriously their roles in guiding parishioners through the complexity of both social issues and the people that seek to understand them from a faith perspective. As studies of lived religion show, people forge their religious identities and practices in order to find meaning and direction (Ammerman, 2007; Hall, 1997; McGuire, 2008). Catholic women in this study, despite feelings of frustration and alienation, will do so with or without the help of the institution, but would it not be better for the church as a whole and for the sake of the mission of Christ if its local leaders found more effective ways to collaborate with its most engaged members?

6.2 Conclusions

There are several key findings that have arisen from this study. First, the particulars of church and community context are important in understanding the nature and extent of social action involvement among Catholic women. While factors such as socio-economic context and geography do not determine levels of social action involvement, they do provide an important background to the issues that most concern women. For example, women from low-income urban areas are concerned about poverty, housing, education and drug and alcohol abuse. Women from low-income

136 rural areas are concerned about the survival of their communities. Any faith-based

approach to social action needs to take these contexts seriously.

The gap that the women perceive between the social action priorities for themselves and their churches and the social action priorities of their parish leaders is the second key finding of this study. This gap, which threatens to become a chasm in

some churches, is leading to increased frustration among Catholic women. Some women deal with this frustration by patiently waiting for a change in priest, while others switch churches. But it seems particularly disheartening for engaged Catholics, who have given commitments of time and talent for the love of their communities and from an informed perspective of faith, to have their efforts discounted by someone who has considerably less understanding of the particular social context of a church and community but more institutional power. Losing the support of more women at this time in history would be a major setback for the Catholic church (D'Antonio, et al.,

2001).

A third key point gleaned from this study is that involvement in social action complements other modes of religiosity for women - women who are engaged in social action also participate in the ritual and spiritual practices of Catholicism. Church leaders need not fear that involvement in social action detracts from the sacramental life of Catholics. The evidence from women in this study proves otherwise. Not all

Catholics will become engaged in social action, but those who do will continue to participate in and support other aspects of Catholic communal life.

Most of the Catholic women who are involved in faith-based social action, and this is the fourth point, have done so because key moments and key people made a

137 lasting impact on them. It cannot be understated the extent of the impact of strong social action leadership in a parish. This leadership is most powerful when it is exercised by priests, but the social action example of lay people is also effective in motivating others to become more engaged. Strong social leaders know that involvement in social change is a life-long journey and that success is limited, hard won and always only partial. But nevertheless they persevere and their faith and commitment serves as a beacon and guide for others.

Finally, because the hard work of faith-based social action requires collective engagement, it cannot be limited to volunteer charity work on the part of churches.

Social action needs to be reconceptualized as part of the lived religion of everyone who works. Some Catholic women understand their professional work as related to faith and social action - educators, health care workers, management, social workers, etc. In this way they follow in the footsteps of women religious in the diocese. This has implications for the understanding of social action in the parishes - it is not simply something people do in their spare time.

As a sociologist, the study findings that highlight the importance of considering the context of social groups and their leadership are not surprising to me. Both context and leadership were shown to have an effect on both the level of social action involvement and the forms of social action of Catholic women. Catholic women's involvement in social action was hindered in some contexts and fostered in others. The low socio-economic urban context of one church was the most conducive to drawing

Catholic women into the work of social change. Strong social action leadership had the greatest effect in terms of the level and type of social action involvement of Catholic

138 women. When strong social action leadership was combined with a dynamic social

context, as shown in the urban low socio-economic church, the results were significant.

This Catholic church could not be described as a hotbed of social change, however it did

illustrate the positive effects that result from a coordination of the social issue concerns of Catholic women with a strong social action leadership style. This is particularly

significant in the Catholic church where so much social power lies in the hands of the religious leadership.

As an activist, the results of the study show me that not all forms of social action are equal. Social action that incorporates work for social change is more challenging and depends on both factors relating to context and leadership. Activists require a good understanding of the social context in which they work, and for religious activists, this means taking the time to know the historical background, the socio-economic diversity and a variety of other factors that affect women's agency. Activists interested in social change also need to respect the power of religious leaders. Members of religious institutions look to their leaders for direction. Religious activists and local leaders have to work together in order to encourage more Catholics to engage in the forms of social change so eloquently written about by the church hierarchy. Everyone needs to gain a greater appreciation for the ways in which the daily work of lay Catholics are opportunities to advance social change through consciously lived religion.

As a Catholic woman the results of the study have deepened my feelings of solidarity with more women in churches throughout the diocese. There are many women motivated by their faith to engage in social action that seeks to help the marginalized in our province. I have been inspired by the accomplishments of women

139 with a long history of social action involvement in their churches and communities. I have been saddened by the frustration that many women feel in their churches. Yet at the same time, I have also become somewhat more sympathetic to the struggles of religious leaders. The example of the low socio-economic, urban church provided hope for a faith-based social action response to the social inequalities created by modern consumer culture.

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Pope John Paul II (1990). Message for the world day of peace. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/peace/documents/hfJ p-ii_mes_l 9891208_xxiii-world-day-for-peace_en.html

Pope John XXIII (1963). Pacem in Terris. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_xxiii/encyclicals/documents/hfj- xxiii_enc_l 1041963_pacem_en.html

Putnam, R. (1995). Bowling alone: America's declining social capital. Current, 373, 3-9.

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Schwadel, P. (2005). Individual, congregatiofial, and denominational effects on church members' civic participation. Journal for the scientific study of religion, 44(2), 159-171.

Sheridan S.J., E. F. (Ed.). (1987). Do justice! The social teachings of the Canadian Catholic bishops. Toronto, ON: Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice.

Smith, C, Emerson, M. O., & Snell, P. (2008). Passing the plate: why American Christians don't give away more money. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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Sprague, J., & Zimmerman, M. (2004). Overcoming dualisms: A feminist agenda for sociological methodology. In S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Approaches to qualitative research: A reader on theory and practice (pp. 39-61). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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145 Appendix A - Research Ethics Board Documents UNIVERSITY OF PO Box 4400 TEL 506 453-5189 OFFICE OF THE

NEW BRUNSWICK FREDERICTON, NB FAX 506 453-3522 VICE-PRESIDENT (RESEARCH)

CANADA E3B 5A3 WWW.UNB.CA/RESEARCH

UNB May 30, 2008

Catherine Holtmann Department of Sociology University of New Brunswick UNBF - Campus Mail

Dear Ms. Holtmann:

RE: An investigation into catholic women's action for justice, REB File # 2008-073

The above project is approved as modified.

Approval is valid for a period of three years from this date.

The Board requires annual reports and a brief report at the completion of the Project.

Although your application was processed by Expedited Review, for your information we are providing a list of current Research Ethics Board members.

Sincerely,

Bernd Kurz, Chair Research Ethics Board

REB Members: Elizabeth Lautard, Community Representative Maurice Gallant, Community Representative Frank Camm, Community Representative Jim Scott, Community Representative Joseph Dicks, Faculty of Education Margaret McCallum, Faculty of Law Patricia Seaman, Faculty of Nursing Chris McGibbon, Faculty of Kinesiology Bernd Kurz, (Chair) Faculty of Computer Science Renee Audet-Martel, Secretary to the Board University of PO Box 4400 Tel: (506) 453-4849 DEPARTMENT New Brunswick Fredericton, NB Fax: (506) 453-4659 OF FREDERICTON CANADA [email protected] SOCIOLOGY E3B 5A3 www.unb.ca UNB

An Invitation to Participate in Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action - Parish

I am doing sociological field research for my M.A. thesis in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. As a practicing Catholic myself, I am interested in exploring the relationship between Catholic women's experience of lived religion and their social action.

I want to invite your parish to be part of my research project. I am interested in the experiences of Catholic women and those who minister to them, particularly in regards to social action. Participation in this research project is voluntary and confidential. I would like to conduct a focus group session with six to ten women from your parish. I will facilitate the focus group process which will involve listening to and commenting on fictional stories of Catholic women as well as responding to questions about social action in the parish and local community.

The focus group session will take approximately two hours to complete. The session will be recorded. While everyone will be invited to take an active part in the discussions, no one will be forced to respond. The focus group will take place on a date and time that is convenient for everyone who chooses to participate. It will likely take place in your parish. The discussions will be confidential and all participants are asked to abide by rules of confidentiality, i.e. information from the discussion will be kept confidential. Anonymous demographic information (age, marital status, employment status, length of time in the parish, etc.) will be collected via a written questionnaire at the end of the focus group session.

I will personally transcribe the recording of the focus group discussion and I will make every effort not to identify anyone involved in any way. I will not use the names of any people, churches or organizations mentioned.

I will ask volunteers from the focus group session to participate in individual interviews. Someone in parish leadership will also be invited to participate in an interview. Each interview will be between one and two hours long and take place at a time and place that is convenient for the participant. The interviews will be recorded. Again, these interviews will be transcribed, leaving out the names of people, churches and organizations.

All participants are free at any time to withdraw their consent from the research process and all information that has been collected from them will be deleted. The recordings of the focus group session and of the interviews as well as all of the transcriptions will be stored at my home. At the end of the research process all of the recordings will be deleted.

My supervisor, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark will have access to the transcriptions of the focus group session and the interviews. This is so that she may better guide my analysis of the data in the process of writing my thesis.

I intend to conduct six focus groups from different parishes for this project. Following the completion of all of the focus groups I will send a summary of the data collected to all participants from your parish. I intend to conduct a total of 24 interviews with women from different parishes and five interviews with parish leaders. Following completion of all interviews and their transcription, I will send a summary of the interview data to all participants. Comments on the summaries are welcome in order to improve the accuracy of my analysis. As mentioned, the data from the focus groups and interviews is for my M.A. thesis at UNB. I will also present my findings at academic conferences. I hope to publish articles based on this research.

This work has been approved by the UNB Research Ethics Board as #2008-073. If you have any concerns about the research or the focus group process you can always contact me by email [email protected] or phone: 366-1081 (home) 476-1080 (cell). You may also contact my supervisor at the Department of Sociology at UNB, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark by email nasoncla(5),unb.ca or phone: 451-6941 or 458-7283.

Cathy Holtmann University of PO Box 4400 Tel: (506) 453-4849 DEPARTMENT jl New Brunswick Fredericton, NB Fax: (506) 453-4659 OF § FREDERICTON CANADA Socio@,unb.ca SOCIOLOGY [if 1"E^ * E3B 5A3 www.unb.ca UNB

An Invitation to Participate in Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action - Parish Focus Group Participants

I, Cathy Holtmann, am doing sociological field research for my M. A. thesis in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. My research explores the relationship between Catholic women's lives and the work that they do.

I want to invite you to be part of my research. Your participation is voluntary and confidential. I am interested in your experiences as a Catholic woman. I would like you to take part in a focus group session. The focus group will include six to ten women from your parish and me. I will facilitate the focus group process which will involve listening and commenting on fictional stories of Catholic women as well as responding to questions about social action in your parish and community.

The focus group session will take approximately two hours to complete. The session will be recorded. While everyone will be invited to take an active part in the discussions, no one will be forced to respond. Your level of involvement in the conversation is up to you. The focus group will take place on a date and time that is convenient for everyone who chooses to participate. It will likely take place in your parish. The discussions will be confidential and all participants are asked to abide by rules of confidentiality, i.e. information from the discussion will be kept confidential. Anonymous demographic information (age, marital status, employment status, length of time in the parish, etc.) will be collected via a written questionnaire at the end of the focus group session.

I will personally transcribe the recording of the focus group discussion and I will make every effort not to identify anyone involved in any way. I will not use your name or the names of any people, churches or organizations mentioned. You are free at any time to withdraw your consent from the research process and all information that has been collected from you will be deleted. Both the recording of the focus group session and the transcription will be stored at my home.

My supervisor, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark will have access to the transcription of the focus group session. This is so that she may better guide my analysis of the data in the process of writing my thesis.

I intend to conduct six focus groups for this project. Following the completion of all the groups I will send you a summary of the data collected. You are welcome to comment on the summary in order to improve its accuracy. As mentioned, the data from the focus groups is for my M.A. thesis at UNB and I will also present my findings at academic conferences. I also hope to publish articles based on this research.

If you have any concerns about the research project or the focus group process you can always contact me by email [email protected] or phone: 366-1081 (home) 476-1080 (cell). You may also contact my supervisor at the Department of Sociology at UNB, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark by email [email protected] or phone: 451-6941 or 458-7283.

Cathy Holtmann Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action

Consent to Participate in Parish Focus Group

I understand that my participation in any aspect of the research project outlined above is voluntary and confidential. By signing this document I give my consent to participate.

Name:

Date: University of PO Box 4400 Tel: (506) 453-4849 DEPARTMENT New Brunswick Fredericton, NB Fax: (506) 453-4659 OF FREDERICTON CANADA [email protected] SOCIOLOGY E3B 5A3 www.unb.ca UNB

An Invitation to Participate in Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action - Non-Parish Focus Group Participants

I, Cathy Holtmann, am doing sociological field research for my M.A. thesis in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. My research explores the relationship between Catholic women's lives and the work that they do.

I want to invite you to be part of my research. Your participation is voluntary and confidential. I am interested in your experiences as a Catholic woman. I would like you to take part in a focus group session. The focus group will include six to ten women and me. I will facilitate the focus group process which will involve listening and commenting on fictional stories of Catholic women as well as responding to questions about social action.

The focus group session will take approximately two hours to complete. The session will be recorded. While everyone will be invited to take an active part in the discussions, no one will be forced to respond. Your level of involvement in the conversation is up to you. The focus group will take place on a date and time and at a place that is convenient for everyone who chooses to participate. The discussions will be confidential and all participants are asked to abide by rules of confidentiality, i.e. information from the discussion will be kept confidential. Anonymous demographic information (age, marital status, employment status, income, etc.) will be collected via a written questionnaire at the end of the focus group session.

I will personally transcribe the recording of the focus group discussion and I will make every effort not to identify anyone involved in any way. I will not use your name or the names of any people, churches or organizations mentioned. You are free at any time to withdraw your consent from the research process and all information that has been collected from you will be deleted. Both the recording of the focus group session and the transcription will be stored at my home.

My supervisor, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark will have access to the transcription of the focus group session. This is so that she may better guide my analysis of the data in the process of writing my thesis.

I intend to conduct six focus groups for this project. Following the completion of all the groups I will send you a summary of the data collected. You are welcome to comment on the summary in order to improve its accuracy. As mentioned, the data from the focus groups is for my M.A. thesis at UNB and I will also present my findings at academic conferences. I also hope to publish articles based on this research. If you have any concerns about the research project or the focus group process you can always contact me by email h4wlp(q),unb.ca or phone: 366-1081 (home) 476-1080 (cell). You may also contact my supervisor at the Department of Sociology at UNB, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark by email [email protected] or phone: 451-6941 or 458-7283. Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action

Consent to Participate in Focus Group

I understand that my participation in any aspect of this research project as outlined above is voluntary and confidential. By signing this document I give my consent to participate.

Name:

Date: ||X University of PO Box 4400 Tel: (506) 453-4849 DEPARTMENT M % New Brunswick Fredericton, NB Fax: (506) 453-4659 OF JrJ FREDERICTON CANADA Socio@,unb.ca SOCIOLOGY ^ ~~^> E3B 5A3 www.unb.ca UNB

An Invitation to Participate in Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action - Interview Participants

I, Cathy Holtmann, am doing sociological field research for my M.A. thesis in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. My research explores the relationship between Catholic women's lives and the work that they do.

I would like to interview you and ask you questions about your faith as a Catholic, your involvement in the Catholic church, your understanding of social issues and your involvement in social action.

The interview will take approximately one to two hours to complete. The interview will be recorded. You can decline to answer any question. The interview will take place at a time and place of your choosing. I will transcribe our conversation and I will make every effort not to identify you in any way, i.e. I will not use your name or the names of any people, churches or organizations you may mention. You are free at any time to withdraw your consent from the research process and all information that has been collected from you will be deleted. All of the interview data will be stored at my home.

My supervisor, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark will have access to the transcription of our interview. This is so that she may better guide my analysis of the data in the process of writing my thesis.

I plan to interview 24 women as part of my research project. Following the completion of all the interviews I will send you a summary of the interview data. You are welcome to comment on the summary in order to improve its accuracy. As mentioned, the data from the interviews is for my M.A. thesis at UNB and I will also present my findings at academic conferences. I also hope to publish articles based on this research.

If you have any concerns about the research project or the interview process you can always contact me by email [email protected] or phone: 366-1081 (home) 476-1080 (cell). You may also contact my supervisor at the Department of Sociology at UNB, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark by email nasoncla(5),unb.ca or phone: 451-6941 or 458-7283. Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action

Consent to Participate in an Interview

I understand that my participation in any aspect of the research project outline above is voluntary and confidential. By signing this document I give my consent to participate.

Name:

Date: University of PO Box 4400 Tel: (506) 453-4849 DEPARTMENT New Brunswick Fredericton, NB Fax: (506) 453-4659 OF FREDERICTON CANADA SocioWnb.ca SOCIOLOGY E3B 5A3 www.unb.ca UNB

An Invitation to Participate in Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action - Leadership Interview Participants

I, Cathy Holtmann, am doing sociological field research for my M.A. thesis in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. My research explores the relationship between Catholic women's lives and the work that they do.

I want to thank you for your parish's support for my research. As someone in a position of leadership in this parish, you play a role in shaping your parishioners' faith lives. I would like to interview you and ask you questions about your understanding of the connection between Catholic faith and social action, your awareness of social justice issues, social action in your parish and in the local community, and about women in your church.

The interview will take approximately one to two hours to complete. The interview will be recorded. You can decline to answer any question. The interview will take place at a time and place of your choosing. I will transcribe our conversation and I will make every effort not to identify you in any way, i.e. I will not use your name or the names of any people, churches or organizations you may mention. You are free at any time to withdraw your consent from the research process and all information that has been collected from you will be deleted. All of the interview data will be stored at my home.

My supervisor, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark will have access to the transcription of our interview. This is so that she may better guide my analysis of the data in the process of writing my thesis.

I plan to interview five parish leaders as part of my research project. Following the completion of all the interviews with parish leaders, I will send you a summary of the interview data. You are welcome to comment on the summary in order to improve its accuracy. As mentioned, the data from the interviews is for my M.A. thesis at UNB and I will also present my findings at academic conferences. I also hope to publish articles based on this research.

If you have any concerns about the research proj ect or the interview process you can always contact me by email [email protected] or phone: 366-1081 (home) 476-1080 (cell). You may also contact my supervisor at the Department of Sociology at UNB, Dr. Nancy Nason-Clark by email [email protected] or phone: 451-6941 or 458-7283. Research Regarding Catholic Women, Lived Religion and Social Action

Consent to Participate in an Interview

I understand that my participation in any aspect of this research project as outlined above is voluntary and confidential. By signing this document I give my consent to participate.

Name:

Date: Bulletin Announcement

Invitation to Participate in Sociological Research

I am seeking Catholic women to participate in a sociological research project. I am conducting this research as part of my graduate studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. My project is exploring the connection between Catholic women's lives and the work that they do. This work has been approved by the UNB Research Ethics Boards as #2008-073.

I plan to facilitate a focus group discussion with women from this parish. The session will last two hours and the date and time of the session will be determined by the availability of the participants. Your participation is voluntary and confidential. My family and I live in Harvey Station, just outside of Fredericton, and I have been an active Catholic in the Diocese of Saint John since I moved here in 1991.

If you are interested in participating in this research or if you have questions, please call me, Cathy Holtmann, at home at 366-1081 or send me an email at [email protected] Parish Poster

Invitation to Participate in Sociological Research

I am seeking Catholic women to participate in a sociological research project. I am conducting this research as part of my graduate studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. My project is exploring the connection between Catholic women's lives and the work that they do. This work has been approved by the UNB Research Ethics Boards as #2008-073.

I plan to facilitate a focus group discussion with women from this parish. The session will last two hours and the date and time of the session will be determined by the availability of the participants.

Your participation is voluntary and confidential.

If you are interested in participating in this research or if you have questions, please call me, Cathy Holtmann, at 366-1081 or send me an email at [email protected] University Poster

Looking for Lapsed Catholics ...

Invitation to Participate in Sociological Research

I am seeking women who self-identify as Catholics but who are no longer active in the Catholic church to participate in a sociological research project. I am conducting this research as part of my graduate studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Brunswick. My project is exploring the connection between Catholic women's lives and the work that they do. This work has been approved by the UNB Research Ethics Boards as #2008-073.

I plan to facilitate a focus group discussion. The session will last two hours and the date and time of the session will be determined by the availability of the participants.

Your participation is voluntary and confidential.

If you are interested in participating in this research or if you have questions, please call me, Cathy Holtmann, at 366-1081 or send me an email at [email protected] Appendix B - Socio-Economic Maps Possibilities for Parish Focus Groups

Legend SJ_DAs "Low" as Percentage of Total ' . High Income Neighbourhood 1 _ Mixed Income Neighbourhood | Low Income Neighbourhood

%:. Anne's

St. Joachim's

rx ,-. ... ,

.. -"" '''^jjZattAdral "•St. Peters" ' " \

St. Rose • • - / St. John the Baptist

!<•- -«JZ Oiisu. Data &. DMTi CaiMa^l it«dJ's .I'JC ^.... Possibilities for Parish Focus Groups 130901T? 130901S4 130901 o\

13090105 13090105 1309^12.X4 .

^90^o/13090119 », .,, 13090111 / 13090119 13090124 13090124 "X , , 13090110 J PQ9G123 13090111 139901 23" **fs * 13090112 v^ • f .V \ •, V :i-.*'.. ,/ 13090: -. «

\ "^-

130902-1

"•"X,,, 13090210 Legend MiramichLDAs *«^ar9aret's%LOW " V High (29% & under) ~\ Mixed (30% - 45%) ""•Low (46% 64%) Miramichi DAs Cathy3!nwick.%„LOV\ o 1 46

JD_47.:,59 _> Source 2006 Census & DMTI CanMap® Streetfiles 2006 Possibilities for Parish Focus Grour,

13020081

Legend nopocof. NB DAs "Low" as a Percentage of Total 0 24 b

Source: 2006 Census & DMTI CanMap® Streetfiles 2006 Appendix C - Vignettes Used with Focus Groups

1) Margaret attends mass weekly at St. Edward's with her teenage daughters,

Nicole and Tracey, and her husband Ken. St. Edward's is a parish in town where Ken had worked full time at the local pulp and paper mill. Ken has been unemployed for the last seven months since the mill shut down. He is thinking of going to Alberta to look for work. Margaret has worked part-time at the Save Easy since the girls were in middle school, but with the mill closure and the movement of families looking for work, there are rumors that the store may close as well. Margaret has gone to church all her life.

She was baptized, attended catechism classes, received all of her sacraments and got married here. Ken was also raised Catholic but grew up in a different town and a different church. Nicole and Tracey were both confirmed last year and often complain about having to attend mass, but enjoy the parish youth group. Many of Margaret and

Ken's friends also attend St. Edward's as well as Margaret's parents. Margaret has seen many priests come and go, some better than others. Currently the parish is being served by a priest who just moved from Nigeria. She is a regular reader of scripture and taught catechism when her daughters were younger. She is also a member of the St. Edward's

C.W.L. Margaret enjoys helping out during the C.W.L's annual Christmas fund raiser for the local food bank. She is worried about the future for both her family and her community.

2) Lisa is a divorced Catholic woman. She married Art when she was twenty. As she remembers, he "swept her off her feet" - he was such a charmer. They had met while in university. Lisa had come to New Brunswick from Stratford, Ontario to study.

She has no family here. They had three children, James, Lance and Sarah in the first four years of their marriage. She was active at St. Paul the Apostle Church when the kids were young. She was a stay-at-home mom who helped out with the children's liturgy of the word during mass and sang in the choir for a few years when they were older. Her 15 year marriage to Art, who worked as a lawyer in the city, ended in a messy divorce after enduring years of psychological and physical abuse. During the time that her marriage was ending and Lisa was seeking legal help and emotional support, the priest at their parish preached a homily on how it was too easy to get a divorce now-a-days and the sanctity of the family. He blamed divorced parents for the problems with today's youth such as drug and alcohol abuse. Lisa felt condemned by him and by her church. She also felt incredibly guilty. While Lisa had not told the priest about her situation, people in the parish knew what was going on, since Art was well-known in the community. After hearing that homily, she stopped going to church.

Lisa got custody of the children. Following her legal separation, Lisa was able to get a full-time job as a clerk with Service New Brunswick. The children only visited their father occasionally. Art paid child-support when the children were younger but that stopped when they graduated from high school. Money was always a concern for Lisa and her children. While the children were still at home with her, Lisa spent all of her free time helping them with school work and driving them to and from after-school activities. Now only Sarah is at home with Lisa, while she attends the local community college. Lisa has joined a weekly yoga class and is involved with her local union of NB public employees.

3) Annie is in her late twenties and works for the Conservation Council of New

Brunswick. She has a degree in Environmental Sciences and lives in an intentional community in a straw bale house that she and her friends built together, just outside the city. She carpools to and from work everyday, is a vegetarian and enjoys growing organic vegetables and fruit. Annie stopped attending the Catholic church shortly after her confirmation in grade eight. At the time, many of her friends had stopped going as well. She was very involved in school activities and sports and her parents didn't force her to go to church anymore. She was unable to see what relevance the Catholic church had in her life at the time. This hasn't changed. She feels that she is a spiritual person and feels closest to God when she is hiking in the woods or working in her garden. She feels strongly about protecting the environment in New Brunswick and is glad to have found a job that lets her work with her passion. Annie always drinks tap water and is a member of the Council of Canadians. She attends their local meetings regularly and participated in a discussion with her city council about not privatizing the city's drinking water system and about having local big industry pay its fair share of expenses for the upkeep of the public water infra-structure.

4) Susan is a physio-therapist and member of the Catholic Network for Women's

Equality in NB. She attends their meetings and participates in the Purple Stole Vigil each year during Holy Week. She occasionally attends mass with her husband at St.

Paul's parish in the inner city community where they live. Susan is on the board of the inner city anti-poverty initiative which is working to increase the availability of low- income housing and adult education services to the poor. Susan had been much more active at St. Paul's and was a member of the parish council. The parish had been a very lively place with lots of activities led by lay people and supported by their priest. Susan was instrumental in helping establish the community table ministry in the parish which served hot lunches to the poor in the neighbourhood five days a week. Five years ago,

the supportive priest was moved to a different parish and replaced by a priest who was

more authoritarian. The new priest was able to shut down the community table ministry

by convincing the majority of parish councilors that those who benefited from the hot

lunch programme were not Catholic and were the cause of the rapid deterioration of the

church hall. He believed that the lunch programme and the repairs were putting the

parish at financial risk. Susan had vigorously opposed the closing of the community

table ministry but found her self in the minority. Gradually the character of the parish

had changed and many people started to go to mass elsewhere. Programming led by lay

people decreased. Susan has started attending a house-church organized by other

Catholics that meets monthly to celebrate an alternative communal eucharist. Susan

also occasionally attends worship services at some Protestant churches in the area.

Susan is speaking with people in these churches and trying to form an ecumenical coalition of churches to work together with the inner city anti-poverty initiative to re­ establish the community table ministry. Appendix D - Questions

Parish Focus Group Questions

1. What types of activities take place at this church that people can choose to be

involved in?

2. When I use the phrase "social action" was kinds of things come to mind?

3. Are there any activities that take place in your church that have a connection to

social justice?

4. Do you think that Catholics should be concerned about social action? Why or why

not?

5. What do you think are some key social justice issues for Catholics in your church?

(Check about right to life, same sex marriage and biotechnology.)

6. What sorts of activities are you or other people in your parish involved in that are

connected to social action outside of church life? Do you consider involvement in

these activities as connected to the Catholic faith?

7. Are you satisfied with your church's level of social action?

8. How would you describe your parish priest's attitude toward social action? Does

he address social issues or social action in his homilies?

9. What are some of the things that help people in your parish to participate in social

action?

10. What are some of the things that hinder people's participation in social action in

your church?

Non-parish Focus Group Questions

1. When I use the phrase "social action" what comes to mind? 2. What do you think are some of the key social issues of our time?

3. What do you think are important social issues for women in New Brunswick?

4. Are you involved in any types of social action?

5. Why are you involved in these activities?

6. Does your religious faith or spirituality have anything to do with your motivation

for social action?

7. What other factors, perhaps non-religious, influence your social action?

8. Do you think your Catholic background has any influence on your involvement in

social action?

9. Do you think that Catholics should be concerned about social action? Why or why

not?

10. Are you satisfied with your level of involvement in social action?

11. What are some of the things that help you to participate in action for social justice?

12. What are some of the things that hinder your participation in action for social

justice?

13. Do you think there is a necessary connection between religion or spirituality and

social action?

14. In what ways do you still identify with Catholicism? Why do you continue to

identify yourself as Catholic?

Interview Questions for Women

1. How would you describe yourself as a Catholic?

2. How long have you been a Catholic? 3. What sorts of religious/spiritual activities do you engage in? (Prompts may include:

personal prayer, daily mass, weekly mass, special masses, retreats, missions,

religious education, para-liturgies, spirituality groups, meditation, reading religious

literature, etc.)

4. When I say the phrase "social action" what comes to mind?

5. Is there a link between your personal faith and social action? Explain.

6. What social issues most concern you?

7. In what ways have you responded to any of the following social issues: Poverty,

environment, women's equality, reproductive rights, right to life, reproductive

technologies, family violence, peace, fair trade, aboriginal justice, sex trafficking, or

public health care? Others?

8. Are there any things that you do in your work outside the home that you consider to

be contributing to social action?

9. Are there any things that you do at your church that you consider to be contributing

to social action?

10. Are there any things that you do in your home or with your family that you consider

to be contributing to social action?

11. Are you satisfied with your personal level of involvement in social action?

12. What are some of the things that help you to participate in action for social justice?

13. What are some of the things that hinder your participation in social action?

Interview Questions for Parish Leaders

1. Tell me a little bit about your experience in ministry. (Call to ministry, study, year

of ordination/vows, and length of time working at this parish.) 2. How do you understand the link between the Catholic faith and social action?

3. What social issues most concern you at this time?

4. What do you think about the following social issues: Poverty, climate change,

women's equality, reproductive rights, right to life, same sex marriage, family

violence, stem cell research/biotechnology, euthanasia, environmental degradation,

peace, fair trade, aboriginal justice, sex trafficking, education or public health care?

Others?

5. In what ways are social issues being addressed at your church? Are there any

activities that parishioners can get involved in that help them to engage in social

action?

6. Are homilies given that address any of these issues? Can you give an example from

a recent homily?

7. Are you satisfied with your parish's level of involvement in social action?

8. If you are dissatisfied with your parish's level of involvement in social actions, what

might help in improving this involvement?

9. What are some of the things that you think help Catholic women to participate in

social action?

10. What are some of the things that you think hinder Catholic women's participation in

social action? Appendix E - Focus Group Participant Questionnaire

Age:

Marital Status: (circle one)

Single Married Separated Divorced Widowed

If you are a mother, how many children do you have?

Length of Involvement in Catholic Parish Life: (circle one)

Less than a year 1 to 5 years 6 to 10 years

11 to 15 years 16 to 25 years 25 years of more Employment Status: (circle one)

Work full-time in the home Unemployed

Employed part-time Employed full-time

Level of Education: (circle highest level attained)

High school diploma Post-secondary training

University undergraduate degree University graduate degree

Estimated Annual Household Income: (circle one)

Less than $ 10,000 $ 10,000 to $24,999

$25,000 to $44,999 $55,000 to $74,999

$75,000 to $100,000 More than $100,000 Appendix F - Data from Anonymous Surveys with all Women Participants

Parish or Ages Marital Employment Level of Annual Focus Status Status Education Household Group Income Participants (in and thousands Interview of dollars) Participants (N) Focus Group 48 years 2 single, 1 1 with post- 2 $10-$25 #1 32 years 2 married, unemployed, sec, training, 1 $25 - $50 Lapsed 29 years 1 5 employed 4 with 1 $50 - $75 N=7 26 years separated, full-time, undergraduate 3 > $100 24 years 2 divorced 1 retired degrees, 64 years 2 with 43 years graduate Median = degrees 32 years Parish #2 32 years 3 single, 1 stay-at- 3 without 4 missing Urban, high 42 years 6 married, home mother, high school, 3 $25 - $50 socio­ 60 years 1 divorced 1 employed 1 with high 1 $50 - $75 economic 64 years part-time, school, 1 $75 -$100 context, 50 years 2 1 with post- 1 > $100 weak social 30 years unemployed, sec, training, action 65 years 3 employed 2 with leadership 59 years full-time, undergraduate N=10 69 years 3 retired degrees, 53 years 3 with Median = graduate 56 years degrees Parish #3 1 missing 1 missing, 1 missing, 1 missing, 3 missing Rural, low 63 years 2 single, 2 stay-at- 2 without 1<$10 socio­ 22 years 8 married, home high school, 1 $10-$25 economic 31 years 1 mothers, 2 with high 1 $25 - $50 context, 30 years widowed 1 employed school, 3 $50 - $75 weak social 56 years part-time, 3 with post- 2 $75 -$100 action 62 years 3 sec, training, 1 > $100 leadership 43 years unemployed, 1 with N=12 46 years 4 employed undergraduate 66 years full-time, degree, 69 years 1 retired 3 with 20 years graduate Median = degrees 46 years Parish or Ages Marital Employment Level of Annual Focus Status Status Education Household Group Income Participants (in and thousands Interview of dollars) Participants (N) Parish #4 52 years 10 2 employed 2 without 2 missing Town, low 63 years married, part-time, high school, 1 $10-$25 socio­ 65 years 1 3 1 with high 3 $25 - $50 economic 70 years widowed unemployed, school, 2 $50-$75 context, 56 years 3 employed 4 with post- 1 $75-$100 strong social 56 years full-time, sec, training, 2>$100 action 60 years 3 retired 2 with leadership 60 years undergraduate N=ll 60 years degrees, 71 years 2 with 58 years graduate Median = degrees 60 years Parish #5 61 years 6 married, 3 stay-at- 4 missing, 4 missing Suburban, 70 years 2 home 3 with post- 1 $25-$50 high socio­ 54 years divorced, mothers, sec, training, 1 $50 - $75 economic 69 years 1 2 1 with 1 $75 -$100 context, 44 years widowed unemployed, undergraduate 2>$100 weak social 45 years 2 employed degree, action 52 years full-time, 1 with leadership 48 years 2 retired graduate N=9 49 years degree Median = 52 years Parish #6 63 years 3 single, 1 employed 1 without 1 <$10 Urban, low 66 years 5 married, part-time, high school, 1 $10-$25 socio­ 68 years 1 2 3 with high 7 $25 - $50 economic 63 years separated, unemployed, school, 1 $50-$75 context, 77 years 2 8 retired 1 with post- 1 > $100 strong social 51 years widowed sec, training, action 80 years 6 with leadership 77 years undergraduate N=ll 61 years degrees 67 years 61 years Median = 66 years Appendix G - Key Points from Churches and Lapsed Group

Socio-economic context —• Social action Low High leadership J, Rural church Suburban church • Concern over lack of • Growing parish with Weak young Catholic ethnic community involvement • Same people doing all • Same people doing all the work the work • Concern over lack of • Focus on keeping programming for teens church open - • Church should do more fundraising to support families • Faith in God rather than • Women with lay ministry attachment to training wanted more leadership style pastoral ministries • Concerned of the • Debate over the core of effects that out- Catholic faith: liturgical migration for work participation or would have on engagement in mission to families the oppressed • Housing for seniors • Conflict between women raised as an issue of in church: moral purity concern verses commitment to • Young unaware of community church teachings on social issues Urban church • Conflict between priest • New priest who and parishioners emphasized liturgical participation • Conflict • Concern over lack of involvement of young Catholics • Women with lay ministry background are frustrated • Social action group folded • More support needed for families • Church is too concerned with finances and not enough emphasis on outreach to the poor • Some women find comfort and solidarity in scripture study group

Socio-economic context —• Social action Low High leadership j.

Urban church Strong • Concern about low level of participation among young Catholics • Church could better support struggling families • Priest was highly involved in all aspects of parish life • History of leadership by order priests and nuns • Poverty central issue • Social action involved working to solve the roots of social problems • Different approaches to social change • People become involved through personal invitation • Engagement in church offers solidarity • Former MLA

Town church • Delayed process of amalgamation felt by all • Polarization between traditional and pro- change Catholics • Scripture study important for pro- change group • Traditionalists concerned with overall lack of participation • Legacy of Vatican II priest • History of D&P, CWL, and Kairos • Social action leads to election to provincial office

Socio-economic context —• Social action Low High leadership J.

None Lapsed women • Conscious choice to not participate in church • Influenced by their Catholic backgrounds • Church has no place for young, single or divorced, adult women • Strong desire for community • Social action was both personal and communal • Overwhelmed by number of social problems • Faith was not the only basis for social action • Professional work was involvement in social action • Education leads to greater social action involvement Appendix H - Data from Interviews with Women

Parish or Focus Group ID Key Points Lapsed, Woman #1 • Faith closely tied to family • Prays as a form of meditation • Questions teachings of RC church • Social action connected to her sense of empathy • Unsatisfied with current level of social action Lapsed, Woman #2 • Married a non-Catholic but raised son Catholic • Did not agree with church teachings and had the right to make her own decisions • Influenced by feminist movement and involved in social action for women's equality • Education and economic security key to social action involvement Lapsed, Woman #3 • Really strong upbringing in Catholic church • Did not want daughters' belief system to be limited by their gender • One daughter has special needs • Family attends Protestant church, prays and reads Bible • Social action is part of who she is as a person, connected to her professional work and daily family life Parish or Focus Group ID Key Points Parish #2, Woman #1 • Raised in a very traditional Catholic family High socio-economic, urban • Prays occasionally - faith is more practical church with weak social • Member of parish council trying to support the action leadership new priest • Does not have time or energy to get involved in social action, but husband is involved • People do not need to prove their faith through social action involvement • Does not see work as social action Parish #2, Woman #2 • Raised in strong Catholic family with very High socio-economic, urban socially conscious father church with weak social • Catholic education by Sisters of St. Martha action leadership • Very involved in parish ministries • Helped to found parish social action group that was focused on local and global issues and action • Conflict with new priest caused her to leave the parish and question faith Parish #2, Woman #3 • Graduate student from a divorced family in High socio-economic, urban which her mother was the victim of abuse church with weak social • Survivor of rape action leadership • Stopped attending church as teenager but has recently returned and is involved in parish ministries • Academic feminist interested in women's rights and poverty • Appreciates the church's moral foundation Parish #2, Woman #4 • Graduate student who has had sporadic High socio-economic, urban participation in church throughout her life but church with weak social has become more involved since she became action leadership ill • Near-death experience deepened her faith • Prays and reads scripture regularly and appreciates the liturgical seasons • Sees studies and work in health care as social action and contributing to social change, esp. for people living with chronic illness Parish or Focus Group ID Key Points Parish #3, Woman #1 • Undergraduate student who described family Low socio-economic, rural as very Catholic church with weak social • Very involved in church ministries from a action leadership young age, while few other youth are active in her church • Tries to live teachings of Jesus • Believes family devotion to rosary has been the source of her academic success Parish #3, Woman #2 • Undergraduate student whose family was not Low socio-economic, rural very religious and feels her upbringing was church with weak social "sheltered" action leadership • Mother died recently of cancer • Courses have made her question her assumptions about religion • Very interested in human rights and equality • Has joined Alpha course on campus to deepen her faith in Jesus and his example Parish #3, Woman #3 • Raised in a large Catholic family and received Low socio-economic, rural education from Sacred Heart nuns church with weak social • Resents having been treated like sheep but also action leadership appreciated guidance of women religious • Always involved in parish ministries but it has decreased due to partisan leadership of priest • Refers to church leadership as the "good old boy's club" and would like to have female pope • Very civically engaged but worries about lack of involvement of youth in society Parish or Focus Group ID Key Points Parish #4, Woman #1 • Raised in a Catholic family and educated by Low socio-economic, town the Sisters of Charity church with strong social • Always involved in church ministries as well action leadership as social action work - translating beliefs into action • Vatican II had a big influence on parish priest and on her own faith • Active in mental health associations, transition house, day care, D&P and Kairos • Elected to provincial government for twelve years Parish #4, Woman #2 • Raised in a large Catholic family in rural NB Low socio-economic, town • Church and music were big part of family life church with strong social • Church involvement in ministries and social action leadership action done out of a deep sense of gratitude • Active with CWL, D&P and Kairos while raising children - passion for justice • Returned to full-time work and had less time and energy for social action Parish #4, Woman #3 • Raised in a devout French Catholic family and Low socio-economic, town educated by Sisters of Charity church with strong social • Involved in church ministries and involvement action leadership has deepened her faith, prays and reads scripture regularly • Spoke of balance of faith and works • Sole income earner due to husband's disability • Struggles with social phobias but relies on faith for courage Parish #4, Woman #4 • Raised Catholic and was involved as a youth Low socio-economic, town • Active in parish ministries and currently serves church with strong social on parish council action leadership • Cancer survivor who believes strongly in devotion to saints and the power of positive thinking • A nurse who understands her work as a form of social action • Concerned about high level of discouragement in society and wonders why more young people do not get involved | Parish or Focus Group ID Key Points Parish #5, Woman #1 • Raised Catholic and has attended the same High socio-economic, church all of her life suburban church with weak • Faith is a source of strength during times of social action leadership challenge • Involved in various ministries in her church • Hesitates to become more involved because of conflict within the church • Stay-at-home mother with primary focus on supporting activities of husband and children Parish #5, Woman #2 • Married into a very Catholic family - High socio-economic, husband's brother was a priest and three sisters suburban church with weak were nuns social action leadership • Very involved in liturgical life and social action in the parish, supporting a Catholic mission in the Caribbean • Prayer without good works is useless • After her husband died she remarried and divorced man and was ostracized from her church by "zealots" - hurt and bitter • Seeing the results of social action involvement is very satisfying and wants to be more active Parish #5, Woman #3 • Convert to Catholicism after her marriage High socio-economic, • Very involved with CWL, served on provincial suburban church with weak and national councils social action leadership • Has made two pilgrimages to healing shrines and is involved in church ministries • Social action is trying to make the world a better place • Tried to live her faith in her workplace Parish or Focus Group ID Key Points Parish #6, Woman #1 • Mother died when she was a baby and she was Low socio-economic, urban raised by Sisters of Notre Dame de Sacre Cour church with strong social in an Acadian Catholic fishing village action leadership • Family had a strong devotion to Mary and her father was a strong role model of generosity • Survivor of an abusive marriage, living in low income housing with disabled adult son • Involved in church ministries and CWL and enjoys fund raising • Is concerned about poverty but frustrated with people who take advantage of the social services Parish #6, Woman #2 • Converted rather suddenly to Catholicism as a Low socio-economic, urban teenager due to her mother's recovery from church with strong social illness action leadership • Married a Catholic and attended mass sporadically while raising children • Involved in RCIA, catechetics, and lay ministry formation and is thinking about becoming a spiritual director • Concerned about affects of poverty on women and children and is involved in literacy and mentoring of low income children • Writes letters to the editor about social issues Parish #6, Woman #3 • Parents had a mixed marriage and a devout Low socio-economic, urban Catholic aunt lived with them church with strong social • Attended Catholic schools and university, action leadership involved in church ministry and graduate of lay formation • Became intimate with her spiritual director, a Catholic priest who left the priesthood so that they could marry. • Marriage was abusive, they separated and she was a single mother on income assistance • Poverty and parenting hindered her involvement in social action Curriculum Vitae Catherine Ruth Holtmann

University of St. Michael's College, 1994, MDiv. University of Winnipeg, 1987, BA

Publications: Nason-Clark, N., Holtmann, C, Fisher-Townsend, B., McMullin, S., & Ruff, L. (2009). The RAVE Project: Developing Web-Based Religious Resources for Social Action on Domestic Abuse. Critical Social Work 10 (1).

Holtmann, C. (2008). Love One Another: Teen Dating Violence. PASCH (Peace and Safety in the Christian Home) Newsletter. December. Available at: http://www.peaceandsafety.com/

Holtmann, C. (2008). His Eye is On the Sparrow. New Catholic Times: Sensus Fidelium. Available at: http://www.newcatholictimes.com/

Fisher-Townsend, B. & Holtmann, C. (2008). The RAVE Project is Building Bridges. PASCH Newsletter. October/November. Available at: http://www.peaceandsafety.com/

Holtmann, C. (2008). Resistance is Beautiful: The Growth of the Catholic Network for Women's Equality in New Brunswick. Feminist Theology with a Canadian Accent: Canadian Perspectives on Contextual Feminist Theology. M. A. Beavis & E. Guilleman, eds. Ottawa, ON, Novalis.

Conference Presentations: "Heart, Mind and Soul: Catholic Women and Social Action" paper presented at the annual meeting for the Canadian Society for Studies in Religion. Ottawa, ON. May, 2009.

"The RAVE Website: Innovative Delivery of Anti-Violence Resources and Training" panel co-presentation with Dr. Barbara Fisher-Townsend at the New Brunswick and Atlantic Studies Research Development Center symposium. Fredericton, NB. April, 2009.

"Reading the Signs of the Time: Catholic Women and Social Action" paper presented at the New Brunswick and Atlantic Studies Research Development Center symposium. Fredericton, NB. April, 2009.

"The RAVE Project: Building Bridges Between the Shelter and Steeple for Social Change" presented at the Resolve Manitoba National Research Day. Winnipeg, MB. November, 2008. "Second Generation Canadian Hindu Women: Religion, Gender, and Identity" paper presented at the annual meeting for the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Louisville, Kentucky. October, 2008.

"The RAVE Project" panel presentation at a joint session of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the American Sociological Association. Boston, MA. July, 2008.

"My Sister - My Self: Women Religious at Work" paper presented at Annual Meeting for the Association for the Sociology of Religion. Boston, MA. July, 2008.

"The RAVE Project: Bridging Diverse Spiritualities" at the Third North American Conference on Spirituality and Social Work. Panel presentation with members of the RAVE Project team. Fredericton, NB. June, 2008.

"The RAVE Project: Building Consensus Between Constituents" at the Qualitatives Conference. Co-presented with Steve McMullen. Fredericton, NB. May, 2008.

"Themes of Gender, Identity and Religion Among Second Generation Hindu Women in Canada" at the Qualitatives Conference. Co-presented paper with Dr. Nancy Nason- Clark and Dr. Peter Beyer. Fredericton, NB. May, 2008.

"Resistance is Beautiful: The Growth of the Catholic Network for Women's Equality in New Brunswick" at the inaugural conference of the New Brunswick and Atlantic Studies Research Development Centre. Fredericton, NB. June, 2007.