The Catholic Woman. Difficult Choices in a Modern World
The Catholic Woman. Difficult
Choices in a Modern World
by Jeanne Pieper
Published by Lowell House, Los Angeles, and Contemporary
Books, Chicago, in 1993, hardbound, 252 pages. ISBN 1-56565-081-6. The
highstreet price is U. S. $23.95, Canada $21.55. Copies are available at a
reduced price from the author.
‘The Catholic Woman’ is an unusual and interesting
book. The book presents the views and opinions of a wide cross segment of the
Church in the USA. The information contained in the book comes from many
in-depth interviews.
Jeanne Pieper interviewed a wide variety of Catholic women, from those
who insist that all the pronouncements of the Church must be followed to those
who feel their religious beliefs are their own personal business. The one thing
all these women have in common is that they consider themselves Catholic and
religious. The intense faith of many of these women is perhaps the most
surprising fact you’ll find in The Catholic Woman. You’ll hear
from many women who feel they need the comfort and moral stability of a
traditional religion. These women tell you about the support and sense of
participation they felt the Church gave to them and their families when they
were growing up. And they speak of the sense of structure and meanmg they get
from organized religious activities. At the same time, they realize they must
critically sift through the old teachings of the Church to weed out specific
rules they consider either flawed, unjust, or simply impossible to apply to
their contemporary lives. The author persuades these women to talk about
specific issues like birth control, abortion, divorce, and women celebrating
the mass.
All these voices, from feminists to fundamentalists, open their hearts
and tell you what they really believe and how they are putting these beliefs
into practice.They explain what they get from being Catholic, how they feel
about the stated beliefs of the Church, and how they are taking charge of their
spiritual lives in the same way they are taking charge of their personal lives.
If you know that your Catholicism is an important part of you and your life,
because of or in spite of what the established Church has to say, or if you
have ever wondered why some of your intelligent, liberated women friends remain
Catholic, The Catholic Woman is for you.
Table of Contents of The Catholic Woman
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE. A Glance at Our Past
Growing Up
Catholic Religious and Intellectual Immaturity
The Magic and
Mysticism of the Church
Convent Life
Before the Late 1960s
Leading the Way
in a Changing Church
The 1960s and 1
970s
The 1980s
CHAPTER TWO. Parts of a Whole: The Makeup of Women in the Catholic Church
Intense, Angry,
Radical Feminists
Moderate
Feminists
Codependent
Catholics
The
Nothing-Has-Changed Fundamentalists
Advocates of
Feminist or Creation Spirituality
Traditionalists
The Average
Woman in the Pew
CHAPTER THREE. Catholic Women and the Issues of the 1990s
