'Roman Catholic women carry the symbolic weight of all Christian women since they are part of the only major denomination which does not ordain women. Mary Jo Weaver provides a useful, journalistic account of the history of Catholic women in the United States' - Mary Hunt in "Books and Religion".'Weaver ...has written a comprehensive summary of the challenge to authority in the church that American Catholic women represent today. She has done years of research among living subjects and in libraries; although she assumes the rightness of women's cause, she maintains a careful objectivity in her effort to Re conceptualize old patterns of authority through the questions women raise today.Weaver's book should reach an expanded audience eager to reinterpret the past, and is especially useful in recalling some of the invisible women in American Catholic history...Those who want to catch up with the players and the action in Catholic feminist thinking and spirituality in recent decades will find "New Catholic Women" indispensable...Weaver is convincing in her claims that the values Catholic feminists represent are the key to the future of American Catholicism. "New Catholic Women" is a lifegiving testimony; it remains to be seen how the church as a whole will respond to it' - Sally Cunneen in "Cross Currents".'Filling a gap in both women's studies and American church history, this is the first full-scale study of how the U.S. women's movement has intersected with the lives and aspirations of American Roman Catholic women...Especially useful is the study's historical perspective, which traces the roots of today's issues in previous centuries and provides specific data about the times and places of Catholic women's awakening. This book is indispensable for contextualizing the present situation' - Elizabeth Johnson in "Religious Studies Review".'This assessment of currents in Roman Catholic feminism is a strong argument against existing structures in the church. In a wide-ranging survey that includes the significant Womanchurch movement, Weaver ...examines older models of women's participation in the church and presents questions and developments in the framework of what could be seen as a new Reformation...Weaver's account of the historically marginal status of women in the church is troubling; her readable advocacy is enlightening as well' - "Publishers Weekly". Weaver makes an important contribution to American feminist theology...She provides a lucid summary of developments in twentieth-century theology ...that helps in understanding the roots of much contemporary feminist (and other) theology...In writing a book that is clear and comprehensive, Weaver has succeeded in naming a history too long suppressed, organizing what to many may have seemed a dizzying parade of feminist thinkers, and helping to set the agenda for the future of feminist theology' - Susan Ross in "The Journal of Religion".Mary Jo Weaver charts the course of women in the United States Catholic Church, and in the process reveals much about the Catholic church in America. She also examines the new feminist consciousness found among some Catholic women. The chapters treat women's roles in the parish; Catholic women's religious orders and their relationships to the women's movement; the issues surrounding ordination; Roman Catholic feminist theologians; and Roman Catholic feminist spirituality. Weaver adds a new introduction addressing the current realities of a conservative Papacy and Church.