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“In an age of villainy, war and inequality, it makes sense that we need superheroes,” writes Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times. “And after trying Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we may have found the best superheroes yet: Nuns.”
In If Nuns Ruled the World, veteran reporter Jo Piazza overthrows the popular perception of nuns as killjoy schoolmarms, instead revealing them as the most vigorous catalysts of change in an otherwise repressive society.
Meet Sister Simone Campbell, who traversed the United States challenging a Congressional budget that threatened to severely undermine the well-being of poor Americans; Sister Megan Rice, who is willing to spend the rest of her life in prison if it helps eliminate nuclear weapons; and the inimitable Sister Jeannine Gramick, who is fighting for acceptance of gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church.
During a time when American nuns are often under attack from the very institution to which they devote their lives—and the values of the institution itself are hotly debated—these sisters offer thought-provoking and inspiring stories. As the Daily Beast put it, “Anybody looking to argue there is a place for Catholicism in the modern world should just stand on a street corner handing out Piazza’s book.”
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 2, 2014 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781453287644
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781453287644
- File size: 1878 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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December 1, 2014
These are trying times for Roman Catholic nuns, especially in the United States. After a sharp reproof from church authorities in 2012, relations between these women of faith and the Church have only scarcely warmed under the papacy of Francis. This affecting collection of journalistic pieces by Piazza (Love Rehab: A Novel in Twelve Steps) goes a very long way toward dispelling any notion of nuns as conformist knuckle-whackers. The author demonstrates that these women are our society's truest liberal activists--informed, dauntless, and determined--as they fight for gay and lesbian inclusiveness in the Roman Catholic Church, rescue girls from human trafficking, serve poverty-stricken communities, and even help eliminate nuclear weapons. Piazza describes their devotion, not just to their faith, but to their chosen causes. VERDICT Accessibly written, these ten portraits should speak to many students and church groups.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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September 1, 2014
Piazza brings her incisive and conversational writing style to these engaging and surprising biographical portraits of 19 activist sisters in the U.S. Given the graying state of the Roman Catholic Church's female religious, not surprisingly, all of the subjects here are past 50, and several are octogenariansincluding one who continues to participate in Ironman racing and another sentenced to federal prison for a nuclear-site-protest break-in when she was 82. Among the other nuns profiled are a survivor of politically instigated torture in Guatemala, sisters who work with incarcerated women, and a number of nuns deeply committed to asserting women's rights in both the secular and ecclesiastical spheres. These are troublemakers, leaders, warm and devout women, and Piazza shows each in turn as a full person, shaped by experiences, beliefs, and boundless creative energy. For all women's-studies and American-studies readers as well as those wondering what the lives of nuns have to offer twenty-first-century culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
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