Facing and Framing Decline: U.S. Catholic Sisters, Organizational Change, and Advocacy

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2025-11.pdf (434.11 KB)

Authors

Danielsen, Sabrina M.
Simmons, Ellie

Issue Date

2025

Volume

26

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Type

Journal Article

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Keywords

American Catholic Sisters , Women Religious , Organizational Decline , Environmental Activism , Leadership Structure

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Abstract

Since the 1960s, U.S. Catholic sisters’ numbers have declined dramatically. Existing research suggests that declining organizations often become more insular and cling to the status quo. This research asks how Catholic sisters understand decline and how decline influences sisters’ advocacy for social change. Drawing on qualitative interviews with forty U.S. Catholic sisters, we find that many sisters are responding to organizational decline by becoming less insular and pushing their activism forward, opposite of what existing literature might predict. We suggest that this difference may be due to the unique “circular” leadership structure of sisters.

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Citation

Publisher

Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University

License

CC-BY 4.0

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URI

https://cdr.creighton.edu/handle/10504/158356

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Additional link

https://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/toc/SS26.html

ISSN

1941-8450

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Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion and Society