Rosaliene (right) and Celeste (fictitious name) with Bishop Guilly SJ – First Vows and Receipt of Religious Habit – Georgetown – Guyana
Photo taken by Father Bernard Darke SJ for the Catholic Standard Newspapers
In Chapter Thirteen of my work in progress, I share my failure in living the religious vows as a celibate and childless woman in a patriarchal church. In retrospect, I have come to realize that the Guyana Mission, established during the British colonial period and headquartered in the United States, was not prepared for dealing with young women who challenged the lingering colonial mindset within the community.
The 1970s was a decade of great social-political-economic upheavals in our fledgling nation. The 1976 government takeover of all schools owned and run by the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations struck a decisive blow for the religious community accustomed to its autonomy. By abandoning my teaching post in Guyana's hinterlands, I unwittingly became the first casualty for the religious community, as discussed in more detail in Chapter 16.
While the sisters struggled to adapt to the country's new ways of thinking and being, three of the youngest professed local nuns, all trained in the United States, left the community. Of the seven of us, trained at the newly established novitiate in Guyana, only three stayed to make final or perpetual vows.
Nowadays, here in the USA, the patriarchal religious right would like to turn back time to the "Golden 1950s." Make America Great(er) Again, they implore, bowing down before their Anointed One. A faithful disciple, now sharing the pulpit, believes that "childless cat ladies" shouldn't have the same civic rights as women with children. What an upside-down world for women who are childless by choice or for biological reasons!
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