Guests In Their Own House: The Women of Vatican II - Softcover

Carmel McEnroy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0824515471 ISBN 13: 9780824515478

Publisher: Crossroad, 1996

Synopsis

Explores the experiences and contributions of the twenty-three women present at Vatican II, the role of women in the Catholic Church, and their historic exclusion from the all-male Council

About this title

About the Author

Carmel McEroy, a Sister of Mercy and distinguished professor of theology, was fired in 1995 from St. Meinrad Seminary for her "public dissent" from church teaching on women's ordination. Her name had appeared with hundreds of others in an advertisement questioning the issue in the National Catholic Reporter.

Reviews

McEnroy provides a fascinating account of the 23 women who officially observed Vatican II. To reconstruct the history of this aspect of the Council, she uses interviews with nine of the women and with persons who knew seven women who have since died, as well as with bishops, theologians, and reporters. She describes the women's reception and their important contributions and emphasizes the need for women to participate at all levels of the Roman Catholic Church. McEnroy concludes by describing the termination of her tenure as a professor of systematic theology because of her dissent from the papal decree forbidding the discussion of women's ordination. Her book recalls an almost forgotten event of great significance for historians, feminists, and church people. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Carolyn M. Craft, Longwood Coll., Farmville, Va.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

McEnroy refers to this book as a detective project, noting that it started with "one name and a healthy dose of anger." The name was Mary Luke Tobin, who, at the time of the Second Vatican Council, was mother general of the Sisters of Loretto. McEnroy was studying at Marillac College in St. Louis at that time, boarding with the Sisters of Loretto; she shared their excitement when Tobin was invited to the council as an auditor. The anger was triggered by Alberic Stacpole's 1986 account of the council, which, following "official" histories, did not report the presence of women and did not include accounts by laity, though it purported to revisit Vatican II with "those who were there." McEnroy interviewed almost all of the 23 women invited to the council as auditors; those interviews, along with extensive archival research and interviews with other participants--official and unofficial--provide the basis for this important and accessible history. The autobiographical dimension--including the postscript, which describes McEnroy's dismissal from the faculty of St. Meinrad School of Theology for public dissent from church teaching on women's ordination--adds a great deal to the book. Steve Schroeder

Edition details

• Publisher: Crossroad
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0824515471
• ISBN 13: 9780824515478
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 309