From Framework to Freedom: A History of the Sister Formation Conference by Marjorie Noterman Beane

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS121 Spanish Apostolate. Diaz-Stevens' study is not the last word on the Puerto Ricans and the Archdiocese of New York, but it is a valuable contribution to die subject. In conjunction with it, one might also care to read Robert Stern's own account, "Evolution of Hispanic Ministry in the New York Archdiocese," in Hispanics in New York: Religious, Cultural and SocialExperiences, edited by Ruth Doyle and Olga Scarpetta, 2nd ed. (New York: Office of Pastoral Research and Planning of the Archdiocese of New York, 1989), pp. 305-389· Thomas J. Shelley St. Joseph's Seminary Dunwoodie, Yonkers, New York From Framework to Freedom: A History of the SisterFormation Conference. By Marjorie Noterman Beane. (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. 1993. Pp. xii, 158. 837.50.) The title of this work already expresses a value judgment. It assumes that frameworks are obstacles to freedom and thereby prepares the reader for its predictable and, on balance, understandable bias. In fact, all the leaders of the Sister Formation Movement wanted changes, though in time they came to differ profoundly among themselves about what changes, in religious life. Almost no one would question the value of improving die education of professionals—mainly teachers and nurses—and in that respect, the movement was an overwhelming success. The author quotes impressive figures, but they are less impressive than the facts. In 1966, twelve years after the Movement's beginning, 90,091 Sisters out of 173,866 had at least one degree. In 1984, 98,143 had degrees. We are not told that this was out of a total now much smaller, a result of the mass exodus from religious life, especially among women, which occurred between these two dates. So the proportion of educated Sisters had risen dramatically. In many groups now there is almost no one without at least a first degree, and the number of higher degrees has kept growing. The story of the origin of Sister Formation in 1954 is told accurately and well. The encouragement provided by Pope Pius XII four years earlier at a meeting he had called for the heads of male and female religious orders is recognized. He called for "theological preparation and professional credentials for diose teaching or doing other kinds of professional work." He even asked for the "elimination of outdated customs and clothing that estranged diem [religious] from those they served." In a meeting for teaching communities in 1951, he asked for changes in the lifestyle of active communities so mat the needs of the apostolate could be better met. The author also goes back to the dissertation that Sister Bertrande Meyers, 122BOOK REVIEWS D.C., published in 1941 on the education of Sisters, which Sister Mary Emil Penet, I.H.M. (Monroe), foundress of Sister Formation, said marked "the real beginning of the Sister Formation Movement." Beane shows how Meyers's suggestion that co-ordination ofreligious and educational training be achieved through establishment of junior colleges at motherhouses was taken up by the Movement and widely implemented during both administrations—that of Sister Mary Emil and that of her successor, Sister Annette Walter, CSJ. Sister Rita Mary Bradley, C.H.M., editor of the Sister Formation Bulletin, is recognized as a very close collaborator during both administrations. It is probably too soon to evaluate the Sister Formation Movement in terms of its considerable historical impact. The author makes no effort to analyze its relationship to die vast numerical decline in die religious orders involved which followed its implementation. She does note Sister Mary Emil's concern for the integration of the Sisters' education with their religious formation , and the fact that, in the early years this concern seems to have been shared by all the Movement's leaders. She also recognizes the difficulty in maintaining academic standards in colleges (even junior colleges) exclusively for Sisters. The answer may well have been, as the book implies, in co-operation among communities, which was tried in several projects. Of these, only Mariliac , die college set up by the Daughters of Charity, which welcomed all Sisters, is described in this book. It was probably the most important; when die author graduated from it in 1969...