A review of "Governance Structures of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy: Becoming One" by Mary Lyons

Abstract

The history of religious life in the Catholic Church is one of ups and downs, starts and finishes. The ecclesiastical climate of the time of a reli gious congregation's foundation often marks its organisational structure, and for that reason not many religious congregations last more than two centuries without some sort of renewal. For instance, many female con gregations had to be set up within the restrictive Church rules in effect at the time of their foundation, even though a foundress initially may have had something quite different in mind. This book, based on original archival material, is an erudite yet interesting study of the evolution of the governance structures of a particular female religious institute, the Sisters of Mercy, from their origins in early nineteenth-century Ireland to the situation today