Called to Serve: A History of Nuns in America.  NYU Press, 2013.  ISBN: 0814795560.

277 pages.

By: Margaret M. McGuinness, professor of Religion and Executive Director of the Office of Mission Integration at La Salle University, Philadelphia. She served as co-editor of American Catholic Studies from 2001 until 2013.  Her previous publications include: A Catholic Studies Reader and Neighbors and Missionaries: A History of the Sisters of Our Lady of Christian Doctrine.

From the publisher:

For many Americans, nuns and sisters are the face of the Catholic Church. Far more visible than priests, Catholic women religious teach at schools, found hospitals, offer food to the poor, and minister to those in need. Their work has shaped the American Catholic Church throughout its history. Yet despite their high profile, a concise history of American Catholic sisters and nuns has yet to be published. In Called to Serve, Margaret M. McGuinness provides the reader with an overview of the history of Catholic women religious in American life, from the colonial period to the present.

The early years of religious life in the United States found women religious in immigrant communities and on the frontier, teaching, nursing, and caring for marginalized groups. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, the role of women religious began to change. They have fewer members than ever, and their population is aging rapidly. And the method of their ministry is changing as well: rather than merely feeding and clothing the poor, religious sisters are now working to address the social structures that contribute to poverty, fighting what one nun calls “social sin.” In the face of a changing world and shifting priorities, women religious must also struggle to strike a balance between the responsibilities of their faith and the limitations imposed upon them by their church.

Rigorously researched and engagingly written, Called to Serve offers a compelling portrait of Catholic women religious throughout American history.”

This volume makes mention of the contributions of the Daughters of Charity and the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph.

Description from the Publisher:
The French Religious Protectorate was an institutionalized and enduring policy of the French government, based on a claim by the French state to be guardian of all Catholics in China. The expansive nature of the Protectorate’s claim across nationalities elicited opposition from official and ordinary Chinese, other foreign countries, and even the pope. Yet French authorities believed their Protectorate was essential to their political prominence in the country. This book examines the dynamics of the French policy, the supporting role played in it by ecclesiastical authority, and its function in embittering Sino-foreign relations.

In the 1910s, the dissidence of some missionaries and Chinese Catholics introduced turmoil inside the church itself. The rebels viewed the link between French power and the foreign-run church as prejudicial to the evangelistic project. The issue came into the open in 1916, when French authorities seized territory in the city of Tianjin on the grounds of protecting Catholics. In response, many Catholics joined in a campaign of patriotic protest, which became linked to a movement to end the subordination of the Chinese Catholic clergy to foreign missionaries and to appoint Chinese bishops.

With new leadership in the Vatican sympathetic to reforms, serious steps were taken from the late 1910s to establish a Chinese-led church, but foreign bishops, their missionary societies, and the French government fought back. During the 1930s, the effort to create an indigenous church stalled. It was less than halfway to realization when the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949. Ecclesiastical Colony reveals the powerful personalities, major debates, and complex series of events behind the turmoil that characterized the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century experience of the Catholic church in China.
Features
The first complete history of the French Religious Protectorate in China
New material on Catholic dissent from the policies of the mission establishment, including little-heard Chinese Catholic voices
Reviews
“Ecclesiastical Colony is a fascinating study of the system of foreign privilege institutionalized in China through the French Religious Protectorate of the Catholic church. Ernest Young’s astute use of the voluminous archival record provides a vivid account of the church’s slow and painful progress toward indigenization.” –Joseph W. Esherick, Professor Emeritus of History, University of California, San Diego

“A tour de force, Ecclesiastical Colony is the best overall synthesis of the history of Catholicism in modern China, between the Opium Wars in the mid-nineteenth century to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The genius of Young’s study is to focus on perhaps the central aspect of this history: the declaration of political protection for all Catholic missionaries, regardless of nationality, by a French diplomacy in China that was backed up by the use of force. Ecclesiastical Colony is an original and deep work of scholarship that will be one of the best books in the field in a long time.” –R. Po-chia Hsia, author of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City: Matteo Ricci, 1552-1610

Product Details
408 pages; 11 b/w halftones; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-992462-2
ISBN10: 0-19-992462-7

About the Author(s)
Ernest P. Young is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Michigan and author of The Presidency of Yuan Shih-K

Michel NASSIET, La France au XVIIe siècle. Société, politique, cultures. BELIN, 8 rue Férou 75278 Paris CEDEX 06, pp. 318. ISBN: 9 782701 143026. 22 euros

“Pour une population qui était environ un cinquième de l’Europe, la France a été au XVIIe siècle le théâtre des efforts gigantesques de deux acteurs collectifs: effort durable d’action cohérent et rationnelle de la monarchie, effort massif de conversion et de contrôle des populations par l’Église catholique. Face à une diversité foisonnante, l’histoire sociale est ici un observatoire privilégié dans une perspective du synthèse: les rapports de production et d’échange sont étudiés en liaison avec la conjoncture économique; les relations inter-personnelles et les aspects de société d’ordres sons observés in liaison avec l’activité monarchique, et des niveaux sont distingués pour analyser les processus culturels.”

Michel Nassiet, Professuer d’Histoire modern à l’université d’Angers, est l’auteur de Noblesse et pauvreté. La petite noblesse en Bretagne, XVe-XVIIIe siècles, Rennes, 1993, et de Parenté, noblesse et États dynastiques, Éditions de L’EHESS, Paris, 2000.

“Roi très chrétien, revêtu de l’onction du saint chrême, Louis XIV occupe une place unique dans le domaine religieux, celle de médiateur entre Dieu et les sujets qu’il lui a confiés. En témoignent les rituels publics auxquels il s’est astreint toute sa vie, de la nomination aux grandes charges ecclésiastiques jusqu’au toucher des écrouelles en passant par la célébration d’offices religieux sogneusement codifiés et mes en musique. Il suscite ainsi une vénération envers sa personne qui fonde l’enthousiasme politique don’t il bénéficie. De là une action religieuse très consciente, jusque dans ses aspects le plus contestables, comme la révocation de l’édit de Nantes et la persécution de Port-Royal
Le roi mène aussi une vie chrétienne marquée par les combats intérieurs. Après avoir beaucoup sacrifié à la galanterie et versé dans l’adultère, sa conversion progressive lui fait épouser Mme de Maintenon et renoncer au péché. Les ultimes épreuves de sa vie et ses derniers instants révèlent un fidèle pleinement résigné et stoïque, soucieux de laisser à la postérité le souvenir d’une mort héroïque et sainte. Ainsi se découvre, sous le regard de Dieu et de l’Eglise, la double identité du roi, prodige de gloire et pauvre pécheur.”

Diplôme de l’Ecole du Louvre et docteur ès lettres, Alexandre Maral est conservateur en chef au château de Versailles. Il est l’auteur de La Chapelle royale de Versailles sou Louix XIV. Cérémonial, liturgié et musique et de Madame de Maintenon. A l’ombre de Roi-Soleil. Il a été commissaire des expositions Louis XIV: l’homme et le roi, en 2008, et Un chapelle pour le roi, en 2010.

Advent and Christmas Wisdom from St. Vincent de Paul by John E. Rybolt, C.M., Ligouri Press, 2012. 128 pages. ISBN: 978-0764820106

“St. Vincent de Paul was very faithful to meditation, which sets a good example for us in our busy world. Advent and Christmas Wisdom from St. Vincent de Paul endeavors to present his thoughts in a way that can help us spend some quiet time meditating.  His thoughtful words will lead to a deeper relationship with God, a better appreciation of our own Christian life, and greater love for all, especially the poor. The writings of St. Vincent are mainly meditative in style, keeping with the peace-filled and prayerful season.  Vincent de Paul was keenly aware of the greater issues of our life in Chirst, whose Incarnation is celebrated during this season. This book of season mediations uses selections from his writings, along with scriptual reflections to encourage us in our Advent journey.”