To Speak the Truth in Love:  A Biography of Theresa Kane, RSM
By Christine Schenk, CSJ
Reviewed by Sr. Mary Diez
 
This well-researched and well-written book is valuable for two reasons. First, it tells the story of an amazing woman religious of our time, chronicling the life of a religious who entered before Vatican II and who experienced the changes that took many religious from a time of “monastic and cultural barriers” to “the major transition to non-monastic religious life for women.” And second her story (and the story of her congregation), sheds light on the puzzling and hurtful disconnect between what Vatican II called women religious to do and how the leaders of the church over the last 50 years have tried to turn back the changes that resulted.

The first part of her story is not uncommon in American religious life. Theresa Kane entered the Mercy Congregation in 1955, the daughter of Irish immigrants who raised their seven children in the Bronx. Graduating from Manhattanville College with a degree in economics, she was missioned to the St. Francis Hospital in Port Jarvis, New York. She exhibited gifts in administration and business that were acknowledged early by her community and led to her being named assistant administrator of the hospital and the administrator at age 28.

Her early appointment as Councilor and Provincial Secretary in her early thirties was not common, but neither was it unusual in many communities. And like all leaders of that time, she began her work in leadership at the time that the renewal mandated by Vatican II was poised to begin. She served as Provincial of the New York Province, as the General Administrator of the Congregation, and President of LCWR.

This book tells the story of her joys, challenges, and sufferings during her years of leadership and follows her story to service after leadership, most prominently as a beloved teacher at Mercy College, as well as her service on boards and her contributions as a national speaker.

 In religious congregations, the general chapter is a critical part of the story of a congregation because when it is in session, it is the highest authority in the congregation. The Tenth General Chapter of the Sisters of Mercy in 1977 serves as a key moment in the unfolding story of the challenging relationship between Sister Theresa and her council and the Church, represented by the Vatican and the National Council of Catholic Bishops.

The Mercy chapter set forth two strong policies. One focused on working with the church to develop new teaching or new emphases within traditional teaching, in response to evolving moral contexts in the church and society. The second was challenged the ban on women’s ordination.  

Action was undertaken by the Mercy leadership. Responding to the suffering they saw in women patients in their hospitals, they commissioned a well-researched position paper on the need for a change in the church’s policy regarding tubal ligation.

At about the same time Sister Theresa, in her role as President of LCWR was given the opportunity to greet Pope John Paul during his 1979 visit to the United States. Reading her statement today, a dispassionate person would find it almost overly courteous while urging the pope to see the injustice being done to women in the church. It was not received dispassionately. Women religious thanked her, but a media firestorm unleashed the fury of conservative Catholics and the Vatican bureaucracy.

Sister Theresa Kane submitted to questions, challenges and condemnations. In response there were repeated attempts on the part of the pope to remove her from office.

During this time, the experience of the Sisters of Mercy and particularly Sister Theresa Kane was that of finding their attempts to carry out the mandates of their General Chapter of 1977 misunderstood and misrepresented. This part of the story echoes the experience of other congregations of religious women in the visitation mandated by Cardinal Rode and of LCWR which underwent a doctrinal assessment. The book spends time exploring these parallels both in treatment of these groups by the Vatican and the responses of the Sisters which were marked by integrity, openness to dialogue, and faithfulness to their pursuit of the call of Vatican II. 



Sr. Mary Diez is President of the School Sisters of St. Francis.