- Email: [email protected]
Between two worlds
hr. .I. Nurs. Stud. Vol. 8, pp. 3746, Pergamon Press, 1971. Printed in Great Britain
Between Two Worlds GERTRUDE
HESS
Co-Director, Community Mental Health Programme, School of Nursing, San Francisco Medixal Center, University of Cal;fonria, San Francisco, Califwia, U.S.A. Introduction
in an evolving field such as community mental health have unusual opportunities to take part in and observe movement and change in traditional and in developing health and social agencies, and to negotiate new roles. While I was participating in a specific phase of a community mental health crisis intervention programme 1 observed crisis interveners who were not health professionals, among them a Catholic nun. She sought a relevant role for herself in the community outside the traditional convent setting. In doing so she became involved in change. The order in which she had her roots is a hierarchy, possibly more hierarchical and tradition bound than a hospital, yet change could be considered. Change at what price ? Are the vicissitudes of change for Catholic sisters analogous to those of professional nurses who seek change for their profession and for themselves. The reader will have to decide for himself, Dramatic and pervasive change within all levels of the Roman Catholic church, that touching the lives of the faithful, as well as those who have given their lives to the church, is commonplace knowledge in the late twentieth century. No sector within the shifting church organization has occasioned more interest than that of church women, yet no sector has had less systematic insightful attention. This paper discusses several levels of change in a community of Catholic sisters who, with sanction of their order, experimented with changing the traditional religious life style of their order and, by implication, the very society in which they live. In particular, it scrutinizes how change in and external to the order was perceived by the sisters. A related issue-namely, perceived change within the individuals who decided to participate in the new life style experiment-will also be analyzed. Specifically, these pages will deal with how and if these types of changes were recognized by the sisters and how such change was dealt with, integrated, recognized or ignored. NURSES
Method
Several nuns came to my attention when I was doing unrelated research in a community mental-health setting. I gathered information by participant observation and interviews. My purpose was known by the nuns and their superiors37
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the Mother Superior and the Provincial. I visited three sisters in their suburban home about every two weeks. History
of the Order
The order of sisters with which I was concerned has been in the United States since the last decade of the 19th century. It had its origin in France. It was dynamic, but, as Borromeo states, “Sisters have been located out of time; they somehow have achieved eternity on earth”. (l) When it was founded the society was communityoriented and socially conscious, but lost some of its independence and selfdirectedness by becoming institutionalized, especially in the United States where Catholics were immigrants and, to prove themselves to Rome or Christian Europe, had to outdo the Romans. The society, after Vatican II, accepted the challenge of ecumenism and saw it an external stimulus to individual change. Against a background of renewal in a male dominated Catholic hierarchy, Vatican II set the stage, probably inadvertently, for the society to start new life style experiments in several locations in the United States. Women in the church have been led by men and their taking responsibility for their own destinies was not anticipated by Vatican II. Nuns
in
this Study
The trio I observed had similar pre-convent backgrounds having been brought up by Catholic parents and having had their basic and college education in Catholic schools. By their own definitions, they were from upper middle, middle and lower middle income. (They will be referred to as Ann, Beth and Cathy.) Ann and Beth entered the convent sixteen years ago at 17 and 23. Ann had received a master’s degree in theology while in the order; Beth had the equivalent of one year in college in religious education. Both have taken perpetual vows. Cathy entered the convent eight years ago when she was 19. She was in her senior year at college, majoring in sociology, and wanted to continue toward a doctorate. When I first met the team in their home, Ann and Cathy wore street clothes; Beth wore habit-when I asked her about it she told me she had just taken her driver’s test. Cathy said jokingly, “I wear my habit when I take my test”. Meeting with the team, and from individual conversations, I noted four worlds : a team world and three individual ones, each trying to effect change and each affected by change. Sometimes the team world superseded the individual world, sometimes it was the other way round. When the team spoke about matters that dealt with aspects of Catholic faith in such specific areas as prayer, mass and religious education, there was agreement. Thus in speaking about mass being celebrated in their own home, they concurred that it was meaningful and beautiful. They liked the intimacy and involvement, Their perception of various clerical persons with whom they had to deal was a team perception and they either accepted or questioned and rejected clerical personnel as a team. Collectively they worked through ways to approach a priest for permission to plan teenage recreational activities and to raise money for a retreat. However, they were unable as a team to pose the question of salary for themselves as teachers of religion. They worked out together how to use new teaching tools, discussing with one another the problems each had with her students and
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giving one another irregularly.
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ideas about how to handle the noisy child or the one who came
Their Collective Actions
The team operations of the three were particularly apparent in their contacts with traditionalists in their own order. During two of my observations with the team, a sister who lived in the traditional convent visited; the team was friendly and there was chit-chat. When the “outsider” took part in religious education instruction of a new lesson she had written and which had become part of a new text, the team sisters showed little understanding of what the “outsider” was trying to convey. They indicated their separateness from the traditionalists and also spoke about their isolation, “We feel alone; the other sisters don’t understand us . . .” They talked about the “outsider” who participated with them in supervising and leading a retreat of teenagers, concurring that “she was hard to get along with” and “the children didn’t like her”. The only time the team talked about its recognition of resistance in the lay community to the sisters’ changing appearance and roles, was when they questioned a young parishioner’s reaction to their wearing ordinary dress rather than habit. “What will she tell her parents ?” They agreed that not all parents, nor all sisters and priests, are ready for changes. “We have to go slowly and take the parish along.” At this point in time they were unable to deal with the parishoners’ reactions to the changes they were trying to effect through team living. When the team was questioned by a group of parishioners with “We don’t understand what you “They are doing, you confuse us”, they could only handle this by rationalizing. see us as stereotypers, as sweet nuns who must have no needs of their own.” They indicated that many parishioners avoided them when they wore street clothes instead of religious habit. Similar confusion about their role seemed apparent in their relationship with the parish priest. He dealt with the visible aspect of the change-the wearing of street clothes-in forbidding them to do so on parish premises. Cathy reacted to his order saying, “He does not even know mv name; I am not a person to him”. Ann and Beth shrugged him off by saying, “He is old guard and we are at his mercy”. The team was not aware that it was using the parish, imposing on it a religious life style experiment without discussing its implications with parishioners and clergy. The team presented itself as teachers of religion. Overtly they served the community in traditional ways, but covertly they expected the community and the clergy to accept them in non-traditional ways: as working women, as teachers of religion, as participants in secular affairs. They wanted the parishioners to take an active part in the religious education of their children and in church affairs, and bemoaned among themselves the fact that “they (the parishioners) are told by the priest what to do, and they do just that. They never question”. The sisters did not seem aware that they, too, were sometimes still like the parishioners and did not question the clerical figurehead. At this stage in their development they had to deal with the planned change they had to cope with team life and with personal within their organization; changes. They were not ready and not able to cope with questions of the secular
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community and with possible consequences of open confrontation. They were ready to discuss their society’s efforts to cope with internal changes; in fact, they were deeply committed to the changes. They perceived their society comprised of those sisters satisfied with the status quo, those who were old and feeble and had to be taken care of, and those, like themselves, involved voluntarily in executing change, either through team life, employment in secular positions, or participation as community organizers in the urban ghetto. They wanted to bear witness in a way that was relevant to the present. When I inquired about differences in bearing witness as a nun or as a secular person, the team’s answer was “We chose this way, the religious society”. The team concurred their society provided opportunity for members to deal with planned change. Each nun could see a psychologist for counselling; additionally, sensitivity sessions were arranged. According to the team, sessions they attended were difficult, “We have been taught to suppress emotions so it is hard for some sisters to feel anything; we don’t talk easily about ourselves and we have to learn all over again to feel”. The Individual Profiles
Collectively the team participated in changes that were sanctioned by the society and put in motion by Vatican II. These three sisters pioneered a new religious life style ; they were activists in making changes and, inadvertently, they, themselves changed. As a team profile emerged, the individuals became more distinct and I began to see each sister as a young woman with ideas of her own. Although sisterhood had prepared them to break with their past and to take vows of chastity, obedience and poverty, Vatican II’s motto, “courage to think, to act, to speak”, challenged their corporate mode of life and their individual existence. They used team living overtly in their pioneer life style. They used it covertly and inadvertently to change themselves. They need one another to test their abilities to be persons in their own right, rather than just team or society members. As they found strength within the team, they learned to resist the pressure of the society. They were expected to spend weekends in the nearby convent. When I first met them, they told me they just couldn’t find the time to go back to the convent; they resisted as a group. Later, each sister had a different reason for not wanting to conform to rules. Ann, the most outspoken, asked me if I had ever been to a convent and, without waiting for reply, went on, “They are terrible places, cold, ugly furniture, no one to talk to, meals taken together, but there is nothing to talk about . . .” She expressed her dislike of the superior who was aware of Ann as a competitive person questioning her authority. c2) Rather than defer to her Superior, Ann assumed responsibility for the team and for management of the house. She challenged Cathy on using the house for her classes in religious education and for treating it as an institution, rather than a home. Cathy allowed Ann to interact with her in this way; she accepted her anger and tried to work out a solution with Ann. Beth did not enter into the controversy except tangentially by saying, “I used to talk back, but I gave that up when I entered the convent”. She accepted Ann as leader, saw her as responsible for the running of the house, and did not argue.
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Ann and her world emerged when she mentioned that she had always had difficulties forming relationships and that even as a child she hid behind books and had few friends. One of the factors prompting her to join the order was that it was international and she saw herself as a missionary. She was encouraged by her family to become a nun and she knew of no other avenues than the church to meet her needs. She spent some time in Western Europe visiting convents of her order, but her ambition to go to China was cut off when all mission posts in China were squelched. Ann was considered a leader in her society and was an elected counsellor. She saw herself as one of a small group of sisters wanting to make the ecumenical movement relevant to her order. When the chance came to experiment with team life, she volunteered. Although her role on the team was not designated as “leader”, she assumed that role and Beth and Cathy let her. Ann was articulate and recognized that in team living she came closest to an intimate relationship. She and Cathy responded to one another more than she and Beth. One reason for the closeness between Ann and Cathy may have been their rooming together. Ann’s relationship to Beth may have been influenced by the different roles into which they were cast after entering the convent. Ann taught religion and Beth was caretaker and housekeeper. Ann, more overtly to the observer than Beth and Cathy, used the team experiment to experience herself as a woman. She spoke of feeling deprived of her rights as a woman to keep house. On the team she has learned about housekeeping; it took more time than she anticipated, but she liked it and “it makes me feel like a woman”. A remark by a priest to her, when he saw her in street clothes, made her aware that she looked like a woman, but was hiding her womanhood under a habit. Ann was conscious of a good feeling when a seminarian stood close to her and put his arm around her while they were both listening to music. Her intellectual struggle with changes she experienced were expressed in her devaluing her degree in theology, “It doesn’t help me to get a job”. She wanted to teach in a public high school and was hoping to return to college to get a teaching credential. She objected to her low parish salary, but as shown previously, she was unable to speak to the priest. Team experience gave Ann an opportunity to voice feelings she probably kept to herself or was unaware of in the traditional setting. She wanted economic independence and sought closeness with others. Team life gave her a chance to see herself in relation to two significant others: Beth, who accepted her and saw her as a leader, and Cathy, who was her close friend and who challenged her. Often when Ann was talking she seemed to be addressing an audience. There was no eye contact between Ann and the listeners. She addressed the team rather than speaking to Beth and to Cathy. Cathy responded to Ann by questioning her, by agreeing with her or by stating her own point of view; Beth usually listened without responding verbally. Ann was aware Cathy paid a great deal of attention to her: both were using one another to experiment with friendship. For Ann this relationship was movement toward change and, perhaps for the first time in her life, a relationship with another person became meaningful to her. She sought other close relationships and she spoke about joining a sensitivity group. She did so after my terminating with the team.
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Ann was stimulated and excited by the possibilities for change opened to her by Vatican II. The acceptance of a nun’s passive obedient role, learned as a novice, changed for Ann and she became active in effecting change and she, herself, changed. She said she felt more like a person; she wanted to have close relationships with people and mentioned two friends she had made lately outside the order. About a year after my visits to the sisters terminated, Ann invited me to visit the team. At that time she announced she was leaving the order to begin a new life. She said, “I have grown beyond the society”. Beth, who-as stated previously-entered the order at the same time Ann did, was not as close to Ann and Cathy as they were to each other; she related to them rather cautiously and politely. She may be an example of what she called the “nunny nun”. She used this expression when the title of a book on nuns came up in discussion, commenting, “Oh, maybe one of those nunny books where the nun is described as sweet and nice and compliant”. Beth’s position on the team may have been influenced by the physical set up of the living arrangements. She had a bedroom of her own; Ann and Cathy had the other bedroom. Beth was cast into the housekeeping role; Ann into the intellectual role. Ann praised Beth for being such a good cook and housekeeper. Beth did not acknowledge this as a compliment. She seldom opposed or challenged Ann and Cathy, nor was she challenged by them. She may have reminded Ann and Cathy of the traditional nun, the one belonging to the larger group with whom one had superficial relations. Beth’s involvement in the internal changes as well as the changes in herself seemed on a more “wait and see” basis than Ann’s and Cathy’s; however, her efforts may have been greater than theirs. For many years she was the cook for a community of sisters; her contacts with the outside world were limited. She then moved to a different area of the United States and started to make the new house liveable for herself, for Ann and Cathy. She, like Ann and Cathy, assumed teaching responsibilities in the parish and prepared six- and seven-year-old children for their first communions. While working with the children, she conferred with the priest about details. She got him to agree to change some formalities. She also became involved with the parish women and, when asked to model clothes for a bazaar, she was very pleased to do so. The modelling event was not approved of by the priest and Beth related that she had to promise not to model again. She indicated that in his office the priest treated her without the niceties or good manners of man toward woman. “He did not even get up to help me with my coat.” This remark and her joy in being a model could be interpreted as her expressing herself as a woman. One may rightfully speculate that since she performed for many years a generally accepted womanly role as cook and housekeeper, she had a less obvious image loss of herself as woman than Ann did. Interactionally, Beth seldom responded to Ann; however, Cathy responded to Beth by agreeing with her, by questioning her, or by stating her own and different point of view, much in the same way as she responded to Ann. Cathy was the youngest member of the team and she had been in the order half as long as Ann and Beth. She spoke of her parochial upbringing and that until she met me she had known non-Catholics only from a distance. Cathy described herself as shy and recalled being told by her family never to fight, but to run away
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and avoid trouble. As team member, she showed ambiguity between meeting trouble head-on and circumventing it. Before entering the society, she had dated and had been engaged, but decided she wanted to be a nun rather than a wife. She was the only one left of a group of four girls who entered the society with her and she had attended the wedding of one former nun friend. Her commitment to the society and to its renewal was strongly expressed, “I want to participate in making decisions about our lives; I don’t want to leave the society. We can make changes and we have made changes”. She deferred her plan to finish college for a year to become involved in the new-life-style experiment. Before joining the team, Cathy had experience working in a city ghetto, To do this she had to negotiate her role with a parish priest, whom she described as traditional. He saw her and accepted her as a religious worker in the parish, dealing with the religious needs of parishioners, helping them to bring up their families as Catholic families. From a different perspective, Cathy saw herself as working with troubled families: “I do not see myself narrowly as a sister teaching religion”. She wanted to move into the parish as a community worker to help families with the living problems they faced in a rapidly deteriorating neighbourhood. She indicated that she had to work around the priest by compromising, by subterfuge and by role blurring. When Cathy discussed her working relationship with the priest in the team’s parish, she said, “I avoid him; I am afraid of him and have as few contacts with him as possible”. The stressful situations as a team member Cathy handled by avoidance, possibly because she expected Ann to speak for the team. Cathy has tried to reach out and meet people outside her Roman Catholic world. She has been trying to make up for what she calls her “Catholic-oriented upbringing and education”. She has joined a sensitivity group. She mentioned the group’s use of swearing and bad When she was ready to language, “they probably wouldn’t if I had worn habit”. tell the group that she was a nun, she found none of the anger she had anticipated. Cathy has not only tried to reach beyond the confines of the Catholic world; within that world she had been trying to experiment, She was responsible for the religious education of a teenage group and she felt that a male teacher could reach that group better than a female. She asked seminarians to work with that group. She talked about her warm relationship with the seminarians until one of them chided her on her miniskirt. “I felt myself blushing and became very businesslike in my response to him.” Cathy was dealing more openly with her feelings than either Ann or Beth. She remarked that a year ago she wrote earnestly and openly to her superiors about her feelings and her doubts. She felt that her openness was not welcomed and the questioning that followed gave her the feeling that “they don’t really want us to be honest; my new vow of renewal will be just ‘cut and dried”‘. She avoided open confrontation with authority. Cathy’s world emerged as the most harmonious world of the three. She felt that she was consciously working on the three important aspects that affected her life; namely, her work, her commitment to her fellow man (which she called love), and her religious life. She expressed that for her the religious society provided the atmosphere in which she could best fulfil herself. The ecumenical movement, she felt, had provided her order with stimulation toward change and a meaningful
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and timely renewal. She recognized change within herself, a determination to participate in change, and a keen desire to become her order’s first Ph.D. candidate in a non-Catholic university. Change
The final weeks of my meeting with the team coincided with the break up of the membership and its reconstitution. Possibly because the team felt threatened by an uncertain future, they were able as individuals to take stock of themselves, Ann had found a teacher’s aid position in a public school; she indicated that she wanted to use part of the summer to become reacquainted with her family who were planning to visit her. She also looked forward to the visit of the Provincial to take stock of the past year and make plans for the future of the team which she hoped could be established as an independent entity. Beth voiced her concern for the future of the team and how it might affect her. The replacement for Cathy, she feared, would isolate her, since that sister was a close associate of Ann’s, She also voiced how she saw herself at this point in time. She was able to speak up more than she had previously, especially to Ann. She began to value her housekeeping and cooking abilities in terms of using them to become an independent worker in the society and, with some schooling, accept a position which would bring her a salary that she could contribute to a team. She also saw herself as a “traditional nun” who would accept her superior’s verdict and go where she was sent, “I might not like it, but I would obey”. Cathy was going to spend the summer close to her family. Since the rules of the society now permitted her to live with her family if she chose, or to live in a close-by convent, she picked the latter. Her plans to return to college to finish her senior year remained. SummarY The writer had the opportunity to observe planned and unplanned change in a community of Roman Catholic sisters who became actively involved in the renewal of their order after Vatican II. A team of nuns participated in a new life style experiment which provided for planned changes on several levels. Their corporate image moved from a passive to an active one as they tried to negotiate their team’s role and their individual roles in the parish among themselves and with the secular community in which two of the sisters sought involvement. They used the team to test themselves as individuals, to present a team front to their traditionalist sisters and they learned to trust one another as well as to expose doubts and strengths to one another. Although team living was the core of their experiment, at the time of my observation, the team had become a vehicle for self-realization as human beings. References 1. SR. M. CHARLESBORROMEO,L.S.L., The New .Niins, The New American Library (1968). 2. DOCTEURANN-MARIELE LEANNAC,Lu Vocation Religieuse Feminine, Lethielleux (1965). R&sum&-Les infirm&es qui optrent sur des terrains en expansion, par exemple sur celui de la Sante mentale des collectivitts, ont l’occasion d’observer des transformations d’organisations traditionnelles et d’organisations en voie de developpement. Au tours de recherches, sans rapport avec le sujet de I’article, dans une unite de soins mentaux, l’auteur a pu observer le comportement de personnes n’exercant pas la
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profession d’infirmitres, qui venaient apporter leur aide a un moment de crise. Une de ces personnes ttait une religieuse catholique. Elle cherchait a remplir un role utile hors du couvent. Ce faisant, elle s’est trouvee prise dam une transformation. Les altas du changement peuvent &tre analogues, pour les religieuses, ?I ceux que rencontrent les infirm&es en quete de changement pour elles-m&mes et pour Ieur profession. L’article analyse l’ampleur des transformations qu’implique une experience de nouveau genre de vie entreprise par des religieuses catholiques attentives aux lecons du deuxieme concile du Vatican. 11 examine comment ces religieuses ont ressenti les changements intervenus au sein de leur ordre et en dehors de lui ainsi que la transformation des individus. L’auteur a observe une Cquipe de trois religieuses vivant et travaillant hors du couvent. Elle a reuni ses informations en observant leur vie et en y participant et en s’entretenant avec elles. L’Cquipe-Ann, Beth et Cathy-reprtsentait quatre mondes: le monde de l’tquipe et trois mondes personnels, chacun cherchant a transformer et chacun &ant touch6 par des transformations. Tantot le monde de l’equipe dominait le monde individuel, tantbt l’inverse se produisait. Les mat&es de foi n’btaient jamais mises en question. Les membres de l’equipe tendaient a se montrer incertaines, dborientees et trop peu conscientes des probltmes dans les matieres a controverse, par exemple I’ouverture a des roles nouveaux, impliquant des transformations potentielles et exigeant de la decision et du jugement. Si la vie en Cquipe restait au centre de l’exptrience, l’tquipe m&me est devenue un instrument de realisation individuelle. Ann, qui s’ttait imposee d’elle-meme comme guide de l’equipe, s’est transformbe elle-mCme en travaillant activement a la transformation. Elle a quittt son ordre aprts 16 ans en dtclarant qu’elle avait vtcu en dehors de la socittt. Beth, religieuse depuis aussi longtemps qu’Ann, avait la vision la plus confinte des chases et a deployt les plus grands efforts dans le sens de la transformation. Le monde de Cathy s’est rtvtlt le plus harmonieux. Elle comptait huit an&es de vie religieuse. Tout en estimant difficile de mettre ouvertement en question l’ordre Ctabli, elle louvoyait pour realiser des transfnrmations. Elle agissait consciencieusement sur les trois elements principaux de son existence: le travail, l’amour du prochain et la vie religieuse. L’experience d’tquipe, tendant a crter un nouveau style de vie pour I’ordre religieux, est devenue un instrument de transformation au niveau de la collectivite et de realisation individueile. Resumes+-En 10s campos en evolution, tales coma la salud mental de la comunidad, las enfermeras tienen oportunidades de observar el cambio en 10s centros tradicionales y en desarrollo. Observe a 10s participantes situados en crisis, entre ellos a una monja catolica, mientras estaba realizando otro tipo de investigaci6n en un servicio de salud mental. Esta aspiraba a un papel relevante en la comunidad, fuera de1 convento. Mientras tanto llegose a ver involucrada en el cambio. Para las monjas, Ias vicisitudes de1 cambio pueden ser anilogas a las de las enfermeras que intentan el cambio para si mismas y para su profusion. El articulo examina 10s niveles de cambio en un experiment0 sobre un nuevo estilo de vida por parte de las hermanas cat6licas despues de1 II Concilio Vaticano. Escruta coma 10s cambios internos y externos en la orden fueron percibidos por las hermanas, y coma 10s cambios internos de cada persona fueron percibidos por la misma. Observe a un equip0 de tres monjas que Vivian y trabajaban fuera de1 convento. La information fut recopilada por observaciones de las participantes y por medio de entrevistas. El equipo-Ana, Isabelita y Catalina-presentaba cuatro mundos: el mundo de1 equip0 y otros tres individuales, cada uno tratando de efectuar el cambio, y cada uno afectado por el mismo.
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En algunas ocasiones el mundo de1 equip0 reemplazaba al individual, en otras ocasiones lo orillaba. En asuntos de fe el cambio no fuC tornado en consideration. En materias controvertibles (tales coma la apertura hacia nuevos papeles) relacionadas con cambios potenciales y requiriendo decisiones y enjuiciamientos, las componentes de1 equip0 tendian a ser inseguras, confirsas e ignorantes. Aunque la vida de1 equip0 era el nticleo de1 experimento, el equip0 llego a ser un vehiculo para la propia realization. Ana, autonombrada cabecilla-efectuando el cambio activamente-cambio por si misma. Dej6 la orden despues de 16 adios diciendo “he crecido enmedio de la sociedad”. Isabelita, mas ant&a que Ana en la orden, tenia la mentalidad mls cerrada y eran mas grandes sus esfuerzos para cambiar. El mundo de Catalina emergia coma el mis armonico. Llevaba 8 afios en la orden; aunque le fuC dificil desafiar abiertamente a la jerarquia establecida, supo orillarla para efectuar 10s cambios. Trabajo conscientemente sobre 10s tres aspectos mh importantes que afectaban a su vida: trabajo, amor (compromise con un hombre amigo), y vida religiosa. El experiment0 de1 equip0 para establecer un nuevo estilo de vida para la orden, llego a ser un vehiculo para el cambio en el sentido corporativo, y un medio para la propia realization. AHHOTaqHR - MegcecTpbI, pa6oTaIomue B HOB~IX C@epaX ~efITenbHOCT&i, KaK, HanpHMep, KOMMyHaJlbHOe yMCTBeHHOe 3AOpOBbe, HMeIOT B03MOH(HOCTb Ha6JlIOnaTb nepeMeHbI B TpaAMqHOHHbIX H pa3BMBaIO~HXCH MeTOAaX. KOrAaH 6~ 3aHFITPICCJIe~OBaHlieM,KOTOpOenpOBOAHJIOCbB yCJIOBMFlXyMCTBeHHOr0 3AOpOBbR, HO He llMeJI0 IIpRMOrO OTHOIIIeHYIflK HeMy, a Ha6JIIOAaJI nOBeAeHlie HenpO$eCCHOHaJIbHbIX JIHII npEi KpM3EICe, B TOM YHCJIe KaTOJIINeCKOZt MOHBXEIHW. OHa CTpeMHJIaCb ElrpaTb nOAXO&HrqylO K CJlySUO p0Jlb BHe MOHaCTbIpR. npM 3TOM OHa 6bIna BOBJleYeHa B UHbIe yCJIOBEiR. PeaKJJHEl Ha nepeMeHy y MOHaXElHb MOryT 6bITb aHaJIOrHYHbJMM TaKOBbIM y MeACeCTep, KOrAa OHEl IIbITaIOTCR M3MeHHTb yCJIOBHcI AJIH ce6n II AJIH caoeti npoijecca&f. B HaCTORWeti CTaTbe 06CyHQaK)TCR CTeneHM nepeMeH, npOSU2XOAHIQHX B OnbITe npiwnoco6neH~~KaTOnweCKnXCeCTep KHOBbIMyCJIOBEIHMWi3HHCOrJfaCHO nOCTaHOBJIeHHlo BaTHKaHalT.CTaTbR wanK3sipyeTpeaKqnw cecTepHanepeMeHbI~~yTpllxBHe OpAeHa,aTaKme HaEIXllHAIlBIlAyaJlbHOe BOCnpHHTKe. fl npOBOAHJl Ha6JlIOAeHHe Haa rpynnoti E13 TpeX MOHaXBHb, KOTOpbIe mllJII4YI pa6oTaJIElBHe MOHaCTpbIpR. ~~H@OpMa~HR 6a3HpOBaJIaCb Ha Ha6JIIOAeH&n=fX II Ha 6eceAax CHIIMK. 3Tarpynna---HHa,BeTH K3TII-npeJJCTaBJIHJIaIf3ce6FITptlMHpa:MHpqeJIbHOi 6pHraAbI M Tpli HHAIfBKAy3nbHbIX MEpa, KamAbId 113 KOTOpbIX CTapaJICEI BbI3BaTb nepeMeKbI n Ha KoTopbIe - 8 CBOIO ovepenb - B~KRJIK nepeMean. B HeKOTOpbIX CJIyqaFIX MHp 6pHraAbI 6pan BepX HaA HHAKBHAyaJlbHbIM MH~OM, a B ZpyrHx HaO6OpOT. B c@epax, KacaIouuxcH nepbI, nepeMeKn He npaHKManz5cb B coo6pamewe. OAHaKO, B CnOpHbIX BOnpOCaX (HanpHMep, B HOB~IX HaYHHaHLWX), KacaIoqHxcR noTeHquanbHbIx nepeMea II Tpe6yIounx peureaati II cymAefwiii, weHbI 6pllraAbI npOHBJtXJIK HeyBepeHHOCTb,CMeUIeHHe I4 HeOCBeAOMJIeHHOCTb. XOTR rpynnosarl sw3Hb neHtana B 0cKoBe 51x onnTa, 6pHraAa npeBpaTanacb B CpeACTBO AJlffOCOBHPHHR CO6CTBeHHOfi JIEIYHOCTLT. AI-IHa,CaMa 3aHRBIIIaJInOJIO~eHKepyKOBO~ElTeJIbHEilJbIIIHrpaBLUacI PKTIIBHyKl pOJIb r3 nepemeaax, MaMeKnJIacb caMa. OHa 0cTaamra 0pAeH nocne 16 neT, B~BJIRR: & bwpocna 3a npeAenbI 3Toro 06qecTBav. Y IieT, KOTOpaR 6bIna B opAeHe CTonbKo H(e neT, KaK H AHHa, 6b1no Ha&i6onee OTMeWeBaHHOeMMpOB033peHMe IIOHanpORBJI~JlaHau6o~bIDHe CTapaHMRKnepeMeHaM. &~EIpoB033peHKe&~H 61~noca~oerapMoHwn3oe.Ck1a6w1a ~OpAe~e~npoAo~~me~~e 8 JIeT; XOTR eB 6~10 TPYJ~O 6OpOTbCnc JWTaHOBJICHHOti uepapxnei OTK~~ITO, OHa oiixonana ee, Horna HY~HO 6m10 npoBecTa nepeMeabI. OHa Ao6pocoBecTHo pa6oTana B Tpex HanpanneKnnx, KacaIoIqHxcFl ee ~KI~~HIYI: pa6oTa, nIO6OBb K ~JIWKHIIM II penarvro3Han zw3Hb. ~TOT~~H~~AH~IB~KC~~~IIM~HT,IIM~B~H~~~~~H)C~~~~T~HOB~I~~HIH~M~HH~I~~~~R~~K B OpAeHe, CO3AaJI yCilOBHR AJIFlnepeMeH B KOpnOpaTHBHOM CMbICJIe M CpeACTBO RJIR OCOaHaRElH CO6CTBeHHO8 JIWIHOCTH.
Between Two Worlds GERTRUDE
HESS
Co-Director, Community Mental Health Programme, School of Nursing, San Francisco Medixal Center, University of Cal;fonria, San Francisco, Califwia, U.S.A. Introduction
in an evolving field such as community mental health have unusual opportunities to take part in and observe movement and change in traditional and in developing health and social agencies, and to negotiate new roles. While I was participating in a specific phase of a community mental health crisis intervention programme 1 observed crisis interveners who were not health professionals, among them a Catholic nun. She sought a relevant role for herself in the community outside the traditional convent setting. In doing so she became involved in change. The order in which she had her roots is a hierarchy, possibly more hierarchical and tradition bound than a hospital, yet change could be considered. Change at what price ? Are the vicissitudes of change for Catholic sisters analogous to those of professional nurses who seek change for their profession and for themselves. The reader will have to decide for himself, Dramatic and pervasive change within all levels of the Roman Catholic church, that touching the lives of the faithful, as well as those who have given their lives to the church, is commonplace knowledge in the late twentieth century. No sector within the shifting church organization has occasioned more interest than that of church women, yet no sector has had less systematic insightful attention. This paper discusses several levels of change in a community of Catholic sisters who, with sanction of their order, experimented with changing the traditional religious life style of their order and, by implication, the very society in which they live. In particular, it scrutinizes how change in and external to the order was perceived by the sisters. A related issue-namely, perceived change within the individuals who decided to participate in the new life style experiment-will also be analyzed. Specifically, these pages will deal with how and if these types of changes were recognized by the sisters and how such change was dealt with, integrated, recognized or ignored. NURSES
Method
Several nuns came to my attention when I was doing unrelated research in a community mental-health setting. I gathered information by participant observation and interviews. My purpose was known by the nuns and their superiors37
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the Mother Superior and the Provincial. I visited three sisters in their suburban home about every two weeks. History
of the Order
The order of sisters with which I was concerned has been in the United States since the last decade of the 19th century. It had its origin in France. It was dynamic, but, as Borromeo states, “Sisters have been located out of time; they somehow have achieved eternity on earth”. (l) When it was founded the society was communityoriented and socially conscious, but lost some of its independence and selfdirectedness by becoming institutionalized, especially in the United States where Catholics were immigrants and, to prove themselves to Rome or Christian Europe, had to outdo the Romans. The society, after Vatican II, accepted the challenge of ecumenism and saw it an external stimulus to individual change. Against a background of renewal in a male dominated Catholic hierarchy, Vatican II set the stage, probably inadvertently, for the society to start new life style experiments in several locations in the United States. Women in the church have been led by men and their taking responsibility for their own destinies was not anticipated by Vatican II. Nuns
in
this Study
The trio I observed had similar pre-convent backgrounds having been brought up by Catholic parents and having had their basic and college education in Catholic schools. By their own definitions, they were from upper middle, middle and lower middle income. (They will be referred to as Ann, Beth and Cathy.) Ann and Beth entered the convent sixteen years ago at 17 and 23. Ann had received a master’s degree in theology while in the order; Beth had the equivalent of one year in college in religious education. Both have taken perpetual vows. Cathy entered the convent eight years ago when she was 19. She was in her senior year at college, majoring in sociology, and wanted to continue toward a doctorate. When I first met the team in their home, Ann and Cathy wore street clothes; Beth wore habit-when I asked her about it she told me she had just taken her driver’s test. Cathy said jokingly, “I wear my habit when I take my test”. Meeting with the team, and from individual conversations, I noted four worlds : a team world and three individual ones, each trying to effect change and each affected by change. Sometimes the team world superseded the individual world, sometimes it was the other way round. When the team spoke about matters that dealt with aspects of Catholic faith in such specific areas as prayer, mass and religious education, there was agreement. Thus in speaking about mass being celebrated in their own home, they concurred that it was meaningful and beautiful. They liked the intimacy and involvement, Their perception of various clerical persons with whom they had to deal was a team perception and they either accepted or questioned and rejected clerical personnel as a team. Collectively they worked through ways to approach a priest for permission to plan teenage recreational activities and to raise money for a retreat. However, they were unable as a team to pose the question of salary for themselves as teachers of religion. They worked out together how to use new teaching tools, discussing with one another the problems each had with her students and
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giving one another irregularly.
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ideas about how to handle the noisy child or the one who came
Their Collective Actions
The team operations of the three were particularly apparent in their contacts with traditionalists in their own order. During two of my observations with the team, a sister who lived in the traditional convent visited; the team was friendly and there was chit-chat. When the “outsider” took part in religious education instruction of a new lesson she had written and which had become part of a new text, the team sisters showed little understanding of what the “outsider” was trying to convey. They indicated their separateness from the traditionalists and also spoke about their isolation, “We feel alone; the other sisters don’t understand us . . .” They talked about the “outsider” who participated with them in supervising and leading a retreat of teenagers, concurring that “she was hard to get along with” and “the children didn’t like her”. The only time the team talked about its recognition of resistance in the lay community to the sisters’ changing appearance and roles, was when they questioned a young parishioner’s reaction to their wearing ordinary dress rather than habit. “What will she tell her parents ?” They agreed that not all parents, nor all sisters and priests, are ready for changes. “We have to go slowly and take the parish along.” At this point in time they were unable to deal with the parishoners’ reactions to the changes they were trying to effect through team living. When the team was questioned by a group of parishioners with “We don’t understand what you “They are doing, you confuse us”, they could only handle this by rationalizing. see us as stereotypers, as sweet nuns who must have no needs of their own.” They indicated that many parishioners avoided them when they wore street clothes instead of religious habit. Similar confusion about their role seemed apparent in their relationship with the parish priest. He dealt with the visible aspect of the change-the wearing of street clothes-in forbidding them to do so on parish premises. Cathy reacted to his order saying, “He does not even know mv name; I am not a person to him”. Ann and Beth shrugged him off by saying, “He is old guard and we are at his mercy”. The team was not aware that it was using the parish, imposing on it a religious life style experiment without discussing its implications with parishioners and clergy. The team presented itself as teachers of religion. Overtly they served the community in traditional ways, but covertly they expected the community and the clergy to accept them in non-traditional ways: as working women, as teachers of religion, as participants in secular affairs. They wanted the parishioners to take an active part in the religious education of their children and in church affairs, and bemoaned among themselves the fact that “they (the parishioners) are told by the priest what to do, and they do just that. They never question”. The sisters did not seem aware that they, too, were sometimes still like the parishioners and did not question the clerical figurehead. At this stage in their development they had to deal with the planned change they had to cope with team life and with personal within their organization; changes. They were not ready and not able to cope with questions of the secular
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community and with possible consequences of open confrontation. They were ready to discuss their society’s efforts to cope with internal changes; in fact, they were deeply committed to the changes. They perceived their society comprised of those sisters satisfied with the status quo, those who were old and feeble and had to be taken care of, and those, like themselves, involved voluntarily in executing change, either through team life, employment in secular positions, or participation as community organizers in the urban ghetto. They wanted to bear witness in a way that was relevant to the present. When I inquired about differences in bearing witness as a nun or as a secular person, the team’s answer was “We chose this way, the religious society”. The team concurred their society provided opportunity for members to deal with planned change. Each nun could see a psychologist for counselling; additionally, sensitivity sessions were arranged. According to the team, sessions they attended were difficult, “We have been taught to suppress emotions so it is hard for some sisters to feel anything; we don’t talk easily about ourselves and we have to learn all over again to feel”. The Individual Profiles
Collectively the team participated in changes that were sanctioned by the society and put in motion by Vatican II. These three sisters pioneered a new religious life style ; they were activists in making changes and, inadvertently, they, themselves changed. As a team profile emerged, the individuals became more distinct and I began to see each sister as a young woman with ideas of her own. Although sisterhood had prepared them to break with their past and to take vows of chastity, obedience and poverty, Vatican II’s motto, “courage to think, to act, to speak”, challenged their corporate mode of life and their individual existence. They used team living overtly in their pioneer life style. They used it covertly and inadvertently to change themselves. They need one another to test their abilities to be persons in their own right, rather than just team or society members. As they found strength within the team, they learned to resist the pressure of the society. They were expected to spend weekends in the nearby convent. When I first met them, they told me they just couldn’t find the time to go back to the convent; they resisted as a group. Later, each sister had a different reason for not wanting to conform to rules. Ann, the most outspoken, asked me if I had ever been to a convent and, without waiting for reply, went on, “They are terrible places, cold, ugly furniture, no one to talk to, meals taken together, but there is nothing to talk about . . .” She expressed her dislike of the superior who was aware of Ann as a competitive person questioning her authority. c2) Rather than defer to her Superior, Ann assumed responsibility for the team and for management of the house. She challenged Cathy on using the house for her classes in religious education and for treating it as an institution, rather than a home. Cathy allowed Ann to interact with her in this way; she accepted her anger and tried to work out a solution with Ann. Beth did not enter into the controversy except tangentially by saying, “I used to talk back, but I gave that up when I entered the convent”. She accepted Ann as leader, saw her as responsible for the running of the house, and did not argue.
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Ann and her world emerged when she mentioned that she had always had difficulties forming relationships and that even as a child she hid behind books and had few friends. One of the factors prompting her to join the order was that it was international and she saw herself as a missionary. She was encouraged by her family to become a nun and she knew of no other avenues than the church to meet her needs. She spent some time in Western Europe visiting convents of her order, but her ambition to go to China was cut off when all mission posts in China were squelched. Ann was considered a leader in her society and was an elected counsellor. She saw herself as one of a small group of sisters wanting to make the ecumenical movement relevant to her order. When the chance came to experiment with team life, she volunteered. Although her role on the team was not designated as “leader”, she assumed that role and Beth and Cathy let her. Ann was articulate and recognized that in team living she came closest to an intimate relationship. She and Cathy responded to one another more than she and Beth. One reason for the closeness between Ann and Cathy may have been their rooming together. Ann’s relationship to Beth may have been influenced by the different roles into which they were cast after entering the convent. Ann taught religion and Beth was caretaker and housekeeper. Ann, more overtly to the observer than Beth and Cathy, used the team experiment to experience herself as a woman. She spoke of feeling deprived of her rights as a woman to keep house. On the team she has learned about housekeeping; it took more time than she anticipated, but she liked it and “it makes me feel like a woman”. A remark by a priest to her, when he saw her in street clothes, made her aware that she looked like a woman, but was hiding her womanhood under a habit. Ann was conscious of a good feeling when a seminarian stood close to her and put his arm around her while they were both listening to music. Her intellectual struggle with changes she experienced were expressed in her devaluing her degree in theology, “It doesn’t help me to get a job”. She wanted to teach in a public high school and was hoping to return to college to get a teaching credential. She objected to her low parish salary, but as shown previously, she was unable to speak to the priest. Team experience gave Ann an opportunity to voice feelings she probably kept to herself or was unaware of in the traditional setting. She wanted economic independence and sought closeness with others. Team life gave her a chance to see herself in relation to two significant others: Beth, who accepted her and saw her as a leader, and Cathy, who was her close friend and who challenged her. Often when Ann was talking she seemed to be addressing an audience. There was no eye contact between Ann and the listeners. She addressed the team rather than speaking to Beth and to Cathy. Cathy responded to Ann by questioning her, by agreeing with her or by stating her own point of view; Beth usually listened without responding verbally. Ann was aware Cathy paid a great deal of attention to her: both were using one another to experiment with friendship. For Ann this relationship was movement toward change and, perhaps for the first time in her life, a relationship with another person became meaningful to her. She sought other close relationships and she spoke about joining a sensitivity group. She did so after my terminating with the team.
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Ann was stimulated and excited by the possibilities for change opened to her by Vatican II. The acceptance of a nun’s passive obedient role, learned as a novice, changed for Ann and she became active in effecting change and she, herself, changed. She said she felt more like a person; she wanted to have close relationships with people and mentioned two friends she had made lately outside the order. About a year after my visits to the sisters terminated, Ann invited me to visit the team. At that time she announced she was leaving the order to begin a new life. She said, “I have grown beyond the society”. Beth, who-as stated previously-entered the order at the same time Ann did, was not as close to Ann and Cathy as they were to each other; she related to them rather cautiously and politely. She may be an example of what she called the “nunny nun”. She used this expression when the title of a book on nuns came up in discussion, commenting, “Oh, maybe one of those nunny books where the nun is described as sweet and nice and compliant”. Beth’s position on the team may have been influenced by the physical set up of the living arrangements. She had a bedroom of her own; Ann and Cathy had the other bedroom. Beth was cast into the housekeeping role; Ann into the intellectual role. Ann praised Beth for being such a good cook and housekeeper. Beth did not acknowledge this as a compliment. She seldom opposed or challenged Ann and Cathy, nor was she challenged by them. She may have reminded Ann and Cathy of the traditional nun, the one belonging to the larger group with whom one had superficial relations. Beth’s involvement in the internal changes as well as the changes in herself seemed on a more “wait and see” basis than Ann’s and Cathy’s; however, her efforts may have been greater than theirs. For many years she was the cook for a community of sisters; her contacts with the outside world were limited. She then moved to a different area of the United States and started to make the new house liveable for herself, for Ann and Cathy. She, like Ann and Cathy, assumed teaching responsibilities in the parish and prepared six- and seven-year-old children for their first communions. While working with the children, she conferred with the priest about details. She got him to agree to change some formalities. She also became involved with the parish women and, when asked to model clothes for a bazaar, she was very pleased to do so. The modelling event was not approved of by the priest and Beth related that she had to promise not to model again. She indicated that in his office the priest treated her without the niceties or good manners of man toward woman. “He did not even get up to help me with my coat.” This remark and her joy in being a model could be interpreted as her expressing herself as a woman. One may rightfully speculate that since she performed for many years a generally accepted womanly role as cook and housekeeper, she had a less obvious image loss of herself as woman than Ann did. Interactionally, Beth seldom responded to Ann; however, Cathy responded to Beth by agreeing with her, by questioning her, or by stating her own and different point of view, much in the same way as she responded to Ann. Cathy was the youngest member of the team and she had been in the order half as long as Ann and Beth. She spoke of her parochial upbringing and that until she met me she had known non-Catholics only from a distance. Cathy described herself as shy and recalled being told by her family never to fight, but to run away
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and avoid trouble. As team member, she showed ambiguity between meeting trouble head-on and circumventing it. Before entering the society, she had dated and had been engaged, but decided she wanted to be a nun rather than a wife. She was the only one left of a group of four girls who entered the society with her and she had attended the wedding of one former nun friend. Her commitment to the society and to its renewal was strongly expressed, “I want to participate in making decisions about our lives; I don’t want to leave the society. We can make changes and we have made changes”. She deferred her plan to finish college for a year to become involved in the new-life-style experiment. Before joining the team, Cathy had experience working in a city ghetto, To do this she had to negotiate her role with a parish priest, whom she described as traditional. He saw her and accepted her as a religious worker in the parish, dealing with the religious needs of parishioners, helping them to bring up their families as Catholic families. From a different perspective, Cathy saw herself as working with troubled families: “I do not see myself narrowly as a sister teaching religion”. She wanted to move into the parish as a community worker to help families with the living problems they faced in a rapidly deteriorating neighbourhood. She indicated that she had to work around the priest by compromising, by subterfuge and by role blurring. When Cathy discussed her working relationship with the priest in the team’s parish, she said, “I avoid him; I am afraid of him and have as few contacts with him as possible”. The stressful situations as a team member Cathy handled by avoidance, possibly because she expected Ann to speak for the team. Cathy has tried to reach out and meet people outside her Roman Catholic world. She has been trying to make up for what she calls her “Catholic-oriented upbringing and education”. She has joined a sensitivity group. She mentioned the group’s use of swearing and bad When she was ready to language, “they probably wouldn’t if I had worn habit”. tell the group that she was a nun, she found none of the anger she had anticipated. Cathy has not only tried to reach beyond the confines of the Catholic world; within that world she had been trying to experiment, She was responsible for the religious education of a teenage group and she felt that a male teacher could reach that group better than a female. She asked seminarians to work with that group. She talked about her warm relationship with the seminarians until one of them chided her on her miniskirt. “I felt myself blushing and became very businesslike in my response to him.” Cathy was dealing more openly with her feelings than either Ann or Beth. She remarked that a year ago she wrote earnestly and openly to her superiors about her feelings and her doubts. She felt that her openness was not welcomed and the questioning that followed gave her the feeling that “they don’t really want us to be honest; my new vow of renewal will be just ‘cut and dried”‘. She avoided open confrontation with authority. Cathy’s world emerged as the most harmonious world of the three. She felt that she was consciously working on the three important aspects that affected her life; namely, her work, her commitment to her fellow man (which she called love), and her religious life. She expressed that for her the religious society provided the atmosphere in which she could best fulfil herself. The ecumenical movement, she felt, had provided her order with stimulation toward change and a meaningful
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and timely renewal. She recognized change within herself, a determination to participate in change, and a keen desire to become her order’s first Ph.D. candidate in a non-Catholic university. Change
The final weeks of my meeting with the team coincided with the break up of the membership and its reconstitution. Possibly because the team felt threatened by an uncertain future, they were able as individuals to take stock of themselves, Ann had found a teacher’s aid position in a public school; she indicated that she wanted to use part of the summer to become reacquainted with her family who were planning to visit her. She also looked forward to the visit of the Provincial to take stock of the past year and make plans for the future of the team which she hoped could be established as an independent entity. Beth voiced her concern for the future of the team and how it might affect her. The replacement for Cathy, she feared, would isolate her, since that sister was a close associate of Ann’s, She also voiced how she saw herself at this point in time. She was able to speak up more than she had previously, especially to Ann. She began to value her housekeeping and cooking abilities in terms of using them to become an independent worker in the society and, with some schooling, accept a position which would bring her a salary that she could contribute to a team. She also saw herself as a “traditional nun” who would accept her superior’s verdict and go where she was sent, “I might not like it, but I would obey”. Cathy was going to spend the summer close to her family. Since the rules of the society now permitted her to live with her family if she chose, or to live in a close-by convent, she picked the latter. Her plans to return to college to finish her senior year remained. SummarY The writer had the opportunity to observe planned and unplanned change in a community of Roman Catholic sisters who became actively involved in the renewal of their order after Vatican II. A team of nuns participated in a new life style experiment which provided for planned changes on several levels. Their corporate image moved from a passive to an active one as they tried to negotiate their team’s role and their individual roles in the parish among themselves and with the secular community in which two of the sisters sought involvement. They used the team to test themselves as individuals, to present a team front to their traditionalist sisters and they learned to trust one another as well as to expose doubts and strengths to one another. Although team living was the core of their experiment, at the time of my observation, the team had become a vehicle for self-realization as human beings. References 1. SR. M. CHARLESBORROMEO,L.S.L., The New .Niins, The New American Library (1968). 2. DOCTEURANN-MARIELE LEANNAC,Lu Vocation Religieuse Feminine, Lethielleux (1965). R&sum&-Les infirm&es qui optrent sur des terrains en expansion, par exemple sur celui de la Sante mentale des collectivitts, ont l’occasion d’observer des transformations d’organisations traditionnelles et d’organisations en voie de developpement. Au tours de recherches, sans rapport avec le sujet de I’article, dans une unite de soins mentaux, l’auteur a pu observer le comportement de personnes n’exercant pas la
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profession d’infirmitres, qui venaient apporter leur aide a un moment de crise. Une de ces personnes ttait une religieuse catholique. Elle cherchait a remplir un role utile hors du couvent. Ce faisant, elle s’est trouvee prise dam une transformation. Les altas du changement peuvent &tre analogues, pour les religieuses, ?I ceux que rencontrent les infirm&es en quete de changement pour elles-m&mes et pour Ieur profession. L’article analyse l’ampleur des transformations qu’implique une experience de nouveau genre de vie entreprise par des religieuses catholiques attentives aux lecons du deuxieme concile du Vatican. 11 examine comment ces religieuses ont ressenti les changements intervenus au sein de leur ordre et en dehors de lui ainsi que la transformation des individus. L’auteur a observe une Cquipe de trois religieuses vivant et travaillant hors du couvent. Elle a reuni ses informations en observant leur vie et en y participant et en s’entretenant avec elles. L’Cquipe-Ann, Beth et Cathy-reprtsentait quatre mondes: le monde de l’tquipe et trois mondes personnels, chacun cherchant a transformer et chacun &ant touch6 par des transformations. Tantot le monde de l’equipe dominait le monde individuel, tantbt l’inverse se produisait. Les mat&es de foi n’btaient jamais mises en question. Les membres de l’equipe tendaient a se montrer incertaines, dborientees et trop peu conscientes des probltmes dans les matieres a controverse, par exemple I’ouverture a des roles nouveaux, impliquant des transformations potentielles et exigeant de la decision et du jugement. Si la vie en Cquipe restait au centre de l’exptrience, l’tquipe m&me est devenue un instrument de realisation individuelle. Ann, qui s’ttait imposee d’elle-meme comme guide de l’equipe, s’est transformbe elle-mCme en travaillant activement a la transformation. Elle a quittt son ordre aprts 16 ans en dtclarant qu’elle avait vtcu en dehors de la socittt. Beth, religieuse depuis aussi longtemps qu’Ann, avait la vision la plus confinte des chases et a deployt les plus grands efforts dans le sens de la transformation. Le monde de Cathy s’est rtvtlt le plus harmonieux. Elle comptait huit an&es de vie religieuse. Tout en estimant difficile de mettre ouvertement en question l’ordre Ctabli, elle louvoyait pour realiser des transfnrmations. Elle agissait consciencieusement sur les trois elements principaux de son existence: le travail, l’amour du prochain et la vie religieuse. L’experience d’tquipe, tendant a crter un nouveau style de vie pour I’ordre religieux, est devenue un instrument de transformation au niveau de la collectivite et de realisation individueile. Resumes+-En 10s campos en evolution, tales coma la salud mental de la comunidad, las enfermeras tienen oportunidades de observar el cambio en 10s centros tradicionales y en desarrollo. Observe a 10s participantes situados en crisis, entre ellos a una monja catolica, mientras estaba realizando otro tipo de investigaci6n en un servicio de salud mental. Esta aspiraba a un papel relevante en la comunidad, fuera de1 convento. Mientras tanto llegose a ver involucrada en el cambio. Para las monjas, Ias vicisitudes de1 cambio pueden ser anilogas a las de las enfermeras que intentan el cambio para si mismas y para su profusion. El articulo examina 10s niveles de cambio en un experiment0 sobre un nuevo estilo de vida por parte de las hermanas cat6licas despues de1 II Concilio Vaticano. Escruta coma 10s cambios internos y externos en la orden fueron percibidos por las hermanas, y coma 10s cambios internos de cada persona fueron percibidos por la misma. Observe a un equip0 de tres monjas que Vivian y trabajaban fuera de1 convento. La information fut recopilada por observaciones de las participantes y por medio de entrevistas. El equipo-Ana, Isabelita y Catalina-presentaba cuatro mundos: el mundo de1 equip0 y otros tres individuales, cada uno tratando de efectuar el cambio, y cada uno afectado por el mismo.
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En algunas ocasiones el mundo de1 equip0 reemplazaba al individual, en otras ocasiones lo orillaba. En asuntos de fe el cambio no fuC tornado en consideration. En materias controvertibles (tales coma la apertura hacia nuevos papeles) relacionadas con cambios potenciales y requiriendo decisiones y enjuiciamientos, las componentes de1 equip0 tendian a ser inseguras, confirsas e ignorantes. Aunque la vida de1 equip0 era el nticleo de1 experimento, el equip0 llego a ser un vehiculo para la propia realization. Ana, autonombrada cabecilla-efectuando el cambio activamente-cambio por si misma. Dej6 la orden despues de 16 adios diciendo “he crecido enmedio de la sociedad”. Isabelita, mas ant&a que Ana en la orden, tenia la mentalidad mls cerrada y eran mas grandes sus esfuerzos para cambiar. El mundo de Catalina emergia coma el mis armonico. Llevaba 8 afios en la orden; aunque le fuC dificil desafiar abiertamente a la jerarquia establecida, supo orillarla para efectuar 10s cambios. Trabajo conscientemente sobre 10s tres aspectos mh importantes que afectaban a su vida: trabajo, amor (compromise con un hombre amigo), y vida religiosa. El experiment0 de1 equip0 para establecer un nuevo estilo de vida para la orden, llego a ser un vehiculo para el cambio en el sentido corporativo, y un medio para la propia realization. AHHOTaqHR - MegcecTpbI, pa6oTaIomue B HOB~IX C@epaX ~efITenbHOCT&i, KaK, HanpHMep, KOMMyHaJlbHOe yMCTBeHHOe 3AOpOBbe, HMeIOT B03MOH(HOCTb Ha6JlIOnaTb nepeMeHbI B TpaAMqHOHHbIX H pa3BMBaIO~HXCH MeTOAaX. KOrAaH 6~ 3aHFITPICCJIe~OBaHlieM,KOTOpOenpOBOAHJIOCbB yCJIOBMFlXyMCTBeHHOr0 3AOpOBbR, HO He llMeJI0 IIpRMOrO OTHOIIIeHYIflK HeMy, a Ha6JIIOAaJI nOBeAeHlie HenpO$eCCHOHaJIbHbIX JIHII npEi KpM3EICe, B TOM YHCJIe KaTOJIINeCKOZt MOHBXEIHW. OHa CTpeMHJIaCb ElrpaTb nOAXO&HrqylO K CJlySUO p0Jlb BHe MOHaCTbIpR. npM 3TOM OHa 6bIna BOBJleYeHa B UHbIe yCJIOBEiR. PeaKJJHEl Ha nepeMeHy y MOHaXElHb MOryT 6bITb aHaJIOrHYHbJMM TaKOBbIM y MeACeCTep, KOrAa OHEl IIbITaIOTCR M3MeHHTb yCJIOBHcI AJIH ce6n II AJIH caoeti npoijecca&f. B HaCTORWeti CTaTbe 06CyHQaK)TCR CTeneHM nepeMeH, npOSU2XOAHIQHX B OnbITe npiwnoco6neH~~KaTOnweCKnXCeCTep KHOBbIMyCJIOBEIHMWi3HHCOrJfaCHO nOCTaHOBJIeHHlo BaTHKaHalT.CTaTbR wanK3sipyeTpeaKqnw cecTepHanepeMeHbI~~yTpllxBHe OpAeHa,aTaKme HaEIXllHAIlBIlAyaJlbHOe BOCnpHHTKe. fl npOBOAHJl Ha6JlIOAeHHe Haa rpynnoti E13 TpeX MOHaXBHb, KOTOpbIe mllJII4YI pa6oTaJIElBHe MOHaCTpbIpR. ~~H@OpMa~HR 6a3HpOBaJIaCb Ha Ha6JIIOAeH&n=fX II Ha 6eceAax CHIIMK. 3Tarpynna---HHa,BeTH K3TII-npeJJCTaBJIHJIaIf3ce6FITptlMHpa:MHpqeJIbHOi 6pHraAbI M Tpli HHAIfBKAy3nbHbIX MEpa, KamAbId 113 KOTOpbIX CTapaJICEI BbI3BaTb nepeMeKbI n Ha KoTopbIe - 8 CBOIO ovepenb - B~KRJIK nepeMean. B HeKOTOpbIX CJIyqaFIX MHp 6pHraAbI 6pan BepX HaA HHAKBHAyaJlbHbIM MH~OM, a B ZpyrHx HaO6OpOT. B c@epax, KacaIouuxcH nepbI, nepeMeKn He npaHKManz5cb B coo6pamewe. OAHaKO, B CnOpHbIX BOnpOCaX (HanpHMep, B HOB~IX HaYHHaHLWX), KacaIoqHxcR noTeHquanbHbIx nepeMea II Tpe6yIounx peureaati II cymAefwiii, weHbI 6pllraAbI npOHBJtXJIK HeyBepeHHOCTb,CMeUIeHHe I4 HeOCBeAOMJIeHHOCTb. XOTR rpynnosarl sw3Hb neHtana B 0cKoBe 51x onnTa, 6pHraAa npeBpaTanacb B CpeACTBO AJlffOCOBHPHHR CO6CTBeHHOfi JIEIYHOCTLT. AI-IHa,CaMa 3aHRBIIIaJInOJIO~eHKepyKOBO~ElTeJIbHEilJbIIIHrpaBLUacI PKTIIBHyKl pOJIb r3 nepemeaax, MaMeKnJIacb caMa. OHa 0cTaamra 0pAeH nocne 16 neT, B~BJIRR: & bwpocna 3a npeAenbI 3Toro 06qecTBav. Y IieT, KOTOpaR 6bIna B opAeHe CTonbKo H(e neT, KaK H AHHa, 6b1no Ha&i6onee OTMeWeBaHHOeMMpOB033peHMe IIOHanpORBJI~JlaHau6o~bIDHe CTapaHMRKnepeMeHaM. &~EIpoB033peHKe&~H 61~noca~oerapMoHwn3oe.Ck1a6w1a ~OpAe~e~npoAo~~me~~e 8 JIeT; XOTR eB 6~10 TPYJ~O 6OpOTbCnc JWTaHOBJICHHOti uepapxnei OTK~~ITO, OHa oiixonana ee, Horna HY~HO 6m10 npoBecTa nepeMeabI. OHa Ao6pocoBecTHo pa6oTana B Tpex HanpanneKnnx, KacaIoIqHxcFl ee ~KI~~HIYI: pa6oTa, nIO6OBb K ~JIWKHIIM II penarvro3Han zw3Hb. ~TOT~~H~~AH~IB~KC~~~IIM~HT,IIM~B~H~~~~~H)C~~~~T~HOB~I~~HIH~M~HH~I~~~~R~~K B OpAeHe, CO3AaJI yCilOBHR AJIFlnepeMeH B KOpnOpaTHBHOM CMbICJIe M CpeACTBO RJIR OCOaHaRElH CO6CTBeHHO8 JIWIHOCTH.