“American Women, American Nuns” is an audio recording with quality reflections about different dimensions of American women in religious life.
WBUR interviewed four young women May 27, 2014 who are discerning religious life or who are in formation. The total interview runs forty-six minutes. You might begin the audio in a class session and assign the rest for homework.These are the participants.
- Sr. Colleen Gibson is 28 years old and graduated at the top of her class at Fairfield University. She is in formation with the Sisters of St. Joseph.
- Danielle Gagnon is a graduate of Assumption College and discerning her call to religious life with the Sisters of Mercy.
- Sr. Josephine Garrett graduated from the University of Dallas and is in formation with the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
- Sr. Patricia Dowling is a vocation director with the Sisters of the Bon Secours
Follow-up Questions
These are some questions that you can ask your students to respond to during the interview or afterwards.
- Sr. Colleen Gibson talked about her parents’ response to her interest in religious life. What were some of the issues that concerned her parents? How did Sr. Colleen ultimately interpret her parents’ concerns?
- How have Danielle Gagnon’s friends who have a more secular orientation reacted to her discernment process?
- What are some interesting parts of Sr. Josephine Garrett’s story? In particular, what role did her choice of college have in shaping her future?
- What is Sr. Pat’s role as a vocation director in helping young women discern religious life? How do women often find her congregation? What might be some issues that would prevent a woman from entering religious life?
- The father who has two children entering religious life suggested that discernment is really for all people no matter what walk of life they take. What is your opinion of his statement?
- How do these women understand their roles as “women in the Church” in the sense that women in the Catholic Church do not have the same authority as men?
- What is one way that the sisters as young women have responded to the number of aging sisters in their religious communities?
- Sr, Josephine wears a habit but Sr. Colleen does not. What do each of them like about their own way of dressing as a sister?
