Catholic Women’s Rhetoric in the United States

Landmark studies do not belie this volume’s thesis that the rhetorical activities of Roman Catholic women have been largely neglected: either they are voiceless nonentities under the Church’s (male) thumb; or anything interesting about their rhetoric can be isolated from their faith commitments. But here, contemporary theories of ecologically defined ethos reveal Catholic women’s deployment of rich rhetorical resources in studies of women’s religious orders, laywomen’s activism, leadership by figures such as Mary Daly and Dolores Huerta, and the dynamic public ethos of Mother Angelica and Sister Joan Chittister, among others. When the rhetorical activities of other marginalized groups have been analyzed, important insights have emerged for the entire field, not only for members of those groups, and scholars will find the same broad significance in this volume. I know I did! -- Patricia Bizzell, College of the Holy Cross Catholic Women's Rhetoric is a groundbreaking collection exploring neglected topics in the history of rhetorical education and religious activism in the United States. These challenging essays provide significant insights into the institutional roles played by women in the public sphere, especially the accomplishments of female religious orders. As a whole, the volume demonstrates the power of feminist rhetorical scholarship to reveal the enabling conditions of historical agency for lay and religious Catholic women, the patriarchal constraints overcome, and the active resistances achieved. Scholars in all the humanistic disciplines will find this collection to be a rich resource for thinking about rhetorical practices in religious and political contexts, especially the negotiations and deployments of ethos, individual and collective. -- Steven Mailloux, President's Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric, Loyola Marymount University I’m so excited about this collection; it’s time we paid more attention to Catholic women. Despite its paternalistic hierarchy, the Catholic Church has provided a home for a large portion of American women and for numerous, important activist women who have remained largely ignored. Even those who are better known, such as Mother McAuley, have been viewed primarily through a religious lens. We get a fresh perspective on these women, not just of their rhetoric, but of the person and their society… As I read, I could think of numerous tangential issues I hope scholars will pursue. Perhaps this work will spur such further research among its readers. -- Carol Mattingly, Professor Emerita, University of Louisville This book focuses on emerging feminist redefinitions of ethos, showing what these theories look like in feminist rhetoric of women in the Catholic Church, an institution built on patriarchal structures and ideology. The stories that emerge from these analytical essays are fascinating in themselves. We learn about the struggles of nuns who were invited to America from Europe to start schools, of nuns in New Orleans who fought racism and prostitution, of lay women who protested the closing of a local church, who demanded justice for their children who had suffered sexual abuse perpetrated by priests, who advocated for farm workers, gay and lesbian people, and other victims of injustice and exclusion. We meet Mary Daly, Dorothy Day, Delores Huerta, Sister Miriam Joseph, Sister Joan Chittister, and even Mother Angelica as we read about their rhetorical challenges and strategies. -- Dale L. Sullivan, North Dakota State University [This] work is exciting for those of us exploring the covert ways that Catholic women have asserted their agency in forming their own identities as well as the identity of the U.S. Catholic Church. This book would be a welcomed contribution to a graduate studies course in feminist rhetoric, historiography, and U.S. Catholicism. * American Catholic Studies *