Sisters' Survey Excerpt

Excerpt about Sisters' Survey from "Sisters in Crisis" (1997) Chapter 7, “The Many Faces of Indoctrination."

The largest project in the history of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Women’s Institutes—renamed the Leadership Conference of Women Religious—has been a twenty-five-year survey project directed by Sister Marie Augusta Neal [SNDdeN], a sociologist. The second stage of that project, a 1967 survey of almost every active sister in the United States, proved to be a major tool for shaping renewal in United States convents and developing the revolutionary new concepts of religious life embraced by many modern Religious. Consequently, the change-oriented leaders lauded the survey as a renewal project that exceeded their wildest expectations, while the survey’s detractors have called it a biased instrument with political motives that accomplished the most comprehensive indoctrination of American nuns ever.

One sister who completed the survey observed that if sisters weren’t already dissatisfied with religious life before the survey, there were plenty of suggestions in the survey to promote dissatisfaction, including questioning the value of the vows, the authority of superiors, some doctrinal teachings of the Church, and the very significance of religious life. Sisters have told the author that they remember completing the survey and being confused by the statements and questions, many of which really had no one answer. One sister recalled skipping over questions that she felt would indicate disloyalty to the Church. Although some sisters told the author they threw the questionnaire away after they saw its content, most sisters [nearly 140,000] dutifully completed the survey booklet in obedience to their superiors.

Sociologist Sister Patricia Wittburg [SC] has observed, “For many, simply completing the survey was a consciousness-raising experience. By asking whether a sister had read a particular modern theologian’s writings, for example, or whether she had attended ‘meetings of people other than her fellow community members,’ the survey legitimated such activities for many respondents who would not otherwise have thought of doing so on their own.” [The Rise and Fall of Catholic Religious Orders, p. 215]

In analyzing the effect of the Sisters Survey on renewal of American sisters, former Leadership Conference executive directors Sisters Mary Daniel Turner[ SNDdeN] and Lora Ann Quinonez [CDP] have observed that the survey “proved catalytic far beyond what its creators dreamed.” And they proudly reported that the results of the survey were used as a basis for proposals for renewal and to help sisters understand what was involved “in living into a new image, in fact a new paradigm, of religious life.” [The Transformation of American Catholic Sisters pp. 43, 44, 49]

Sister (Thomas Aquinas) Elizabeth Carroll [RSM] (a member of the Sisters’ Survey Committee and [LCWR] conference president in 1971) wrote later that the Sisters’ Survey, along with Vatican II “ ... served to unleash new concepts of what religious life could and should be, and contributed immensely to the creativity and ferment of special chapters all over the country.” [Midwives of the Future, p. 64]

What these commentators did not say was that the Sisters’ Survey was more than a questionnaire. It was an educational tool used to introduce into every American convent a concept of renewal that had been conceived by an elite group of sisters—a concept of renewal that differed vastly from the guidelines for renewal set forth in the Vatican II documents.

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A sampling of some of the questions from the Sister’s Survey, and the national response percentages:

131. Liberalism is a good thing because it represents a spirit of reform. It is an optimistic outlook expecting meaningful advance. It may not always represent justice, light, and wisdom, but it always tries to do so.

Disagree strongly-11.4 Disagree somewhat-18.8 Neither-25.5 Agree somewhat-29.8 Agree strongly-12

91. Every religious community in the spirit of the council must adjust to the changed conditions of the times. This means that no community can continue in the traditional form and be working with the mind of the church.

Yes—57.8 No—24.7 Undecided—9.1

155. Any organization becomes a deadening weight in time and needs to be revitalized.

Disagree strongly-3.3 Disagree somewhat-8.5 Neither-8.5 Agree somewhat-39.9 Agree strongly-48.2

644. All authentic law is by its very nature flexible and can be changed by the community in which it is operative.

Yes—54.5 No—16.4 Undecided—13.3

143. Every great step in world history has been accomplished through the inspiration of reformers and creative men.

Disagree strongly-6.5 Disagree somewhat-11.2 Neither-12.1 Agree somewhat-31 Undecided-35

364. Does your rule require too many prayers in common?

Yes—11.3 No—84.8