Customer Reviews

Double Crossed: Uncovering the Catholic Church's Betrayal of American Nuns

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1 star:		(5)

 

 

Being a woman religious and having lived through a good part of the research Mr. Briggs has done, I found what he had to say quite accurate. I found him redundant at times, but his findings are, sadly, true. He has done a very good job researching and telling facts that have needed to be told. I applaud him and I recommend this book to all who want to know about America nuns' experience these passed 40 plus years.
PS Don't let the cover put you off!

Ken Briggs is worked on this book for 10 years--and it was worth waiting for. Based upon copious research and (especially) interviews with a large number of sisters, Briggs produced a book that demonstrates a depth of knowledge and insight that is rare in books of this sort. He clearly has a point of view--sympathy with the more progressive sisters about whom most of this book is written--but he also allows others to speak for themselves. What is especially remarkable is that the author is not only not a sister, he's not a Catholic. That might not be evident to those not aware of the fact; the book SEEMS to reflect a kind of cultural familiarity that one would expect mainly from a Catholic author. Briggs did a lot of research in both popular and scholarly literature, too. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book.

I did personally feel that this book felt a bit academic at times, as opposed to giving us this fascinating information mainly through longer personal stories and remembrances, but writing style aside, it really gets the subject across. The fact that Mr. Briggs put 8 years into this book really shows, not only in the compelling material and telling personal stories, but also in his knowledge of Catholic history and theology in spite of not being Catholic himself. This book was interesting to me as a feminist, as one interested in Catholic history and nuns, and someone who, several times, thought semi-seriously about becoming a nun when younger (the religion I ended up choosing was not Catholicism, so the sisterhood was obviously ruled out for me).

The history of nuns in America is a very long and fascinating one, and the numbers of American sisters steadily grew over time, till their ranks were swelling in the decades just before Vatican II. Even though some sisters might not have considered themselves such (for various reasons that Mr. Briggs explains throughout the book), nuns really were the original feminists. They were liberated women ages before the ordinary secular American women were. They might not have been liberated from things like hierarchical control and institutionalised sexism in the Church, but they were liberated insofar as they were out there working, going to college, getting advanced degrees, being administrators of hospitals, schools, and social welfare agencies, having their own identities instead of being identified through a husband, and being childfree, in an age where pregnancy could be a death sentence for women, particularly before birth control was legal and widely available; nuns could always work and control their own lives because they had no husbands and children. Historically, unmarried women, nuns or not, have always had more power and freedom than married women; only in the past few decades has that begun to change.

Topics covered in the book include the habit, unforeseen consequences of Vatican II's call for renewal and re-examination of religious life and the histories of these orders, the horrible poverty many aging nuns have found themselves in, the mass exodus of nuns in the years after Vatican II, nuns and feminism, the backlash against progressive nuns (and feminism in general), groups working for female ordination, and nuns getting advanced degrees. Since no two orders and no two nuns are alike, there are a plethora of viewpoints on these issues. For example, some orders never really had a habit, and there were some orders in the 19th century whose founders got away with never wearing a habit. Many different nuns offer differing viewpoints on the future of the sisterhood in the face of their dwindling ranks and the continued interference from bishops. As Mr. Briggs shows, there's no one clear and simple answer to the question of why there are relatively few nuns under the age of 50 today, and what might be done to attract more young women to the sisterhood. Yes, there are certain areas and orders that do have many fresh-faced younger sisters instead of geriatric retired women, but when looking at the numbers, there's no denying that the vast majority of American sisters are over the age of 50. The amount of young women entering has slowed to a trickle in comparison to the huge amounts of women in their late teens and early twenties who entered in the Forties, Fifties, and early Sixties. A big part of this certainly is because today women are allowed secular opportunities for freedom and liberation, and don't have to be nuns to improve their chances of getting advanced degrees, being administrators, and entering the workforce. Another big part is how at every turn, the Church hierarchy "double-crossed" these women who had given so much for so many years, being unpaid servants and the backbone of the Church, really taken for granted because they weren't ordained and because they were women. Many bishops, archbishops, and cardinals were afraid of these newly-assertive nuns championing progressive causes, questioning the order of things, rethinking their position in the Church hierarchy, pushing for more rights and representation, and openly embracing feminism. A lot of their critics blanketly tossed around the term "radical feminism" when in actual fact most of these nuns were not affiliated with that particular branch of feminism. I guess it really is true that to many people, basic feminist principles and the notion that women are people really are radical. Many women who might have considered the sisterhood were thus dissuaded by seeing how all of these efforts for reform and basic rights were viewed by the higher-ups, attempting to block them and paint them as unreasoning radicals at every turn. Amazingly enough, many of these bishops, archbishops, and cardinals also blamed these women for things like their dwindling numbers and the fact that they were living in poverty in old age and having to beg for salaries. If only they hadn't rebelled against Mother Church, hadn't dropped their habits, hadn't pushed for more rights, everything would still be swell for them.

This is a very important work on a chapter in American history (and Catholic history) that deserves to be better-known, although it's just the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully it will inspire the reader to go and seek out more books on the subject of contemporary nuns and the social and political forces shaping the sisterhood in the past few decades. My only problem with the book, apart from the at-times somewhat academic style (as opposed to a more personal and casual tone to convey the same information) was that there weren't any pictures. It would have been nice to have matched these names to faces.

This is a comprehensive and honest history of what happened at Vatican II. The outstanding leadership of many Sisters in standing up for their need to contribute to the Church and be accepted by the Church for all that they do is described in proper detail. I found myself reliving those days and discovered many aspects of what was going on that I either have forgotten or never knew. What a waste by the Church in not using to its fullest all the people of God.

This is an extraordinary history of American Sisters and should be read not only by the many Sisters who lived through these critical years of renewal and loss but also by the many women who entered religious life during these decades from the 40s through the 80s and made the painful decision to leave their communities. I found many of the stories brought back memories of my own religious life, and I highly recommend this book. It will make you angry at times, but it should also be read because it is a history of visionary American women that should not be lost. I am grateful to Kenneth Briggs for bringing it to our consciousness.

Not being either a Catholic or a woman, I didn't think I would be interested in this book, but once I started reading it I discovered that Mr. Briggs found in the decline of nuns a canvas to say so much about many issues of the last 50 years. Would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding women and/or church autority in our society. Very well written and researched. Many fascinating stories between its covers.

I have lived thru many of the years descibed in this book & know that the messge is correct. The nuns have been the step-children of the Church. No respect or honor from the high clergy. They were/are worker-bees even today. W/out them to teach in the schools, the Church is failing its members. When Vatican II permitted their habits to be voluntary, the nuns were no longer visible thusly they doubly lost any hope of value or equality w/in the male dominated Church. But this tactic backfired since Catholic schools no longer exist for the most part w/out the visibility & inclusion of nuns into the lives of congregations. A young nun is rare. The nuns basically are old now to be sure & have no means of support except for begging & intelligent investments planned on their own. They also care for one another by inviting those Orders on the brink into larger & more successful & better planned ones. While the Church abandoned the nuns, their families & friends have been supportive. The Church itself, however, in the process, has lost its way.

Briggs' has given us what will almost certainly come to be seen as the definitive report on U.S women religious in the second half of the twenty century. Moreover, his work echoes outward, not only encompasing many nuns we have known and loved, but also reaching through the ranks of so many demoralized Catholic women, and, further, through the lives of those Catholics who invested large portions of their lives, at the behest of Vatican II bishops, in church renewal. These countless souls will now better understand the wider web of their own confused and often lonely stories as they discover the larger dynamics of the tragic double cross.

Tom Fox

Double Crossed is a must read for all Catholics - practicing, lapsed or somewhere in between.

Briggs spent eight years researching and writing this book and his diligence pays off. Briggs is respectful, thorough, and even-handed in his account. The reader learns so much and comes away with a better understanding of the plight of the sisters and events within the Church before, during and after Vatican II.

First of all I don't think the guy from Arkansas read the book and I don't understand how not wearing a habit diminshes respect. I was educated by Catholic nuns from pre-kinder to high school and this book helped me to see them in a new light. I never thought about their practical issues like retirement or health care. I wasn't always pleased with their methods but I am grateful for the education they gave. I realize I owe a debt to them like many of us do.