Mary J. Henold
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781469654492
- eISBN:
- 9781469654515
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469654492.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Summoning everyday Catholic laywomen to the forefront of twentieth-century Catholic history, Mary J. Henold considers how these committed parishioners experienced their religion in the wake of ...
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Summoning everyday Catholic laywomen to the forefront of twentieth-century Catholic history, Mary J. Henold considers how these committed parishioners experienced their religion in the wake of Vatican II (1962–1965). This era saw major changes within the heavily patriarchal religious faith—at the same time as an American feminist revolution caught fire. Who was the Catholic woman for a new era? Henold uncovers a vast archive of writing, both intimate and public facing, by hundreds of rank-and-file American laywomen active in national laywomen’s groups, including the National Council of Catholic Women, the Catholic Daughters of America, and the Daughters of Isabella. These records evoke a formative period when laywomen played publicly with a surprising variety of ideas about their own position in the Catholic Church.
While marginalized near the bottom of the church hierarchy, laywomen quietly but purposefully engaged both their religious and gender roles as changing circumstances called them into question. Some eventually chose feminism while others rejected it, but most, Henold says, crafted a middle position: even conservative, nonfeminist laywomen came to reject the idea that the church could adapt to the modern world while keeping women’s status frozen in amber.Less
Summoning everyday Catholic laywomen to the forefront of twentieth-century Catholic history, Mary J. Henold considers how these committed parishioners experienced their religion in the wake of Vatican II (1962–1965). This era saw major changes within the heavily patriarchal religious faith—at the same time as an American feminist revolution caught fire. Who was the Catholic woman for a new era? Henold uncovers a vast archive of writing, both intimate and public facing, by hundreds of rank-and-file American laywomen active in national laywomen’s groups, including the National Council of Catholic Women, the Catholic Daughters of America, and the Daughters of Isabella. These records evoke a formative period when laywomen played publicly with a surprising variety of ideas about their own position in the Catholic Church.
While marginalized near the bottom of the church hierarchy, laywomen quietly but purposefully engaged both their religious and gender roles as changing circumstances called them into question. Some eventually chose feminism while others rejected it, but most, Henold says, crafted a middle position: even conservative, nonfeminist laywomen came to reject the idea that the church could adapt to the modern world while keeping women’s status frozen in amber.
Mary J. Henold
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823254002
- eISBN:
- 9780823261154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823254002.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Mary Henold explores the changing character of the National Conference of Catholic Women during the 1960s and 1970s, with particular reference to its executive director Margaret Mealey. By ...
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Mary Henold explores the changing character of the National Conference of Catholic Women during the 1960s and 1970s, with particular reference to its executive director Margaret Mealey. By contrasting the new attitudes among Catholic women that arose in the aftermath of Vatican II with those of the nascent feminist movement, Henold demonstrates that Catholic feminism continued to accept a modified notion of male/female complementarity even as it asserted the right of Catholic laywomen to be active in the Church and develop a theology that was their own.Less
Mary Henold explores the changing character of the National Conference of Catholic Women during the 1960s and 1970s, with particular reference to its executive director Margaret Mealey. By contrasting the new attitudes among Catholic women that arose in the aftermath of Vatican II with those of the nascent feminist movement, Henold demonstrates that Catholic feminism continued to accept a modified notion of male/female complementarity even as it asserted the right of Catholic laywomen to be active in the Church and develop a theology that was their own.
