Joan Chittister

Sister Joan D. Chittister OSB (born April 26, 1936 ) is an American Benedictine nun , author, speaker and peace activist.

Live and act

She is a member of a convent of Benedictine sisters in Erie, Pennsylvania , which she entered when she was sixteen and where she served as prioress for twelve years .

Chittister graduated from the University of Notre Dame , from which she received a master's degree , and a PhD in speech-communication theory from Pennsylvania State University .

In 2001 she received the Thomas Merton Award for Peace and Social Justice.

In 2008 she performed with the Dalai Lama in Seattle , gave a speech at Washington National Cathedral and participated in a women's conference organized by Maria Shriver , First Lady of California. In 2007 she received the Hans Küng Prize from the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church and the "Outstanding Leadership Award" from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious . She has received numerous honorary doctorates and other awards.

In 2006 she made an appearance at Meet the Press with Tim Russert as part of an invited podium. During the funeral of John Paul II and the election of Benedict XVI. in April 2005 she was a commentator for the BBC from Rome.

Chittister's demand for women to be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church and her assertion of an unequal position for women within the Church have reduced their acceptance in those parts of the Church that do not want to change the position of women in the Roman Catholic Church.

Works

She is the author of about forty books, including: Welcome to the Wisdom of the World, The Tent of Abraham - Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians and Muslims, In Search of Belief, Called to Question, and The Friendship of Women: The Hidden Tradition of the Bible. Five of them have been translated into German.

She has won nine Catholic Press Association awards, most recently in June 2009 for The Gift of Years .

She currently writes a weekly web column for the National Catholic Reporter called "From Where I Stand".

Recent publications

• The Breath of the Soul, Twenty-Third Publications: Mystic, CT (2009). Number 1 - September 2009 Bestsellers hardcover: Catholic Book Publishers Assoc.
• Joan Chittister: In My Own Words, Liguori Publications: Liguori, MO, (2008).
• The Gift of Years , BlueBridge Publishers: New York, New York (2008); ISBN 9781933346106 / ISBN 1933346108
• Welcome to the Wisdom of the World, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, MI, (2007).

Web links

• Literature by and about Joan Chittister in the catalog of the German National Library
• The Benedictine Sisters of Erie website
• Benetvision
• 'Joan Chittister disloyalty as obedience'; a Catholic Insight periodical article outlining Chittister's conflict with the Vatican regarding abortion and women's ordination
• Video: Joan Chittister on women and progress in religion, Parliament of the World's Religions, Melbourne Dec 2009

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fr. Alphonse de Valk, CSB: Joan Chittister disloyalty as obedience . Catholic Insight. December 3, 2006. Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 19, 2009.