Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism

When I first read this book, I was fascinated and horrified, but in the intervening years much has happened in the Catholic Church, and the generation of feminists about whom Ms Steichen writes is aging and dying. They have not been replaced, as far as I can tell; younger people with similar views simply leave the Church, and there is a new orthodoxy abroad. If Ms Steichen were to produce an updated version, I would be one of the first to buy it. I would love to know what the current situation really is.

Donna Steichen has done a tremendous service to faithful Catholics everywhere in writing this book...Her objective in writing this book isn't to do an in-depth study of feminism for its own sake. Instead, she focuses on one aspect of feminism - Catholic feminism - and the damage that this ideology has done to traditional Catholicism (especially in the United States) and how it has been allowed to fluorish unchecked by those who have been entrusted with the safe-keeping of the Church's Magisterial teachings. ...as I read, there were simply too many echoes of my own experiences with the parish I attended for those echoes to be merely coincidental. Steichen describes in chilling detail how the various dissenting groups are often connected with one another and the influence that Catholic feminism exerts on the ideologies and activities of these groups. Most appalling is the explanation of how so many Catholic nuns - long a symbol of piety and obedience to the Church - have been converted to feminist ideology and shunned their vows of obedience as a perceived "symbol of patriarchal oppression." And yet these nuns (who by their actions clearly show that they are not operating in good faith) not only remain in the Church, but have exploited the trust and the awe in which they are held by faithful Catholics - who still see them as pious and obedient to the Church - and used it to turn many of those faithful away from the Church's teachings without their ever realizing it. And for those who see this as some kind of conspiracy theory that Steichen has spun out of her imagination, it should be noted that she doesn't simply clump all the stereotypes together; instead, she goes to painstaking efforts to separate the nuns, clergy, and laity who have remained loyal to the Church from those who have been seduced by Catholic feminist ideology, and it is the latter group that she focuses on in her book. As Steichen's title suggests, their actions truly are born out of an ungodly rage!

As a Catholic in Nigeria, I have been baffled at how all my cousins who travelled to Europe and the United States to study first in "Catholic" high schools and then in "Catholic" Universities under the "watchful" gaze of hosts of religious have lost their faith. Talking to them about it even puzzled me more, because all of them without exception had had close dealings with priests and religious in their respective schools, people they had a lot of respect for. I found their ideas about the Church's teaching on faith and morals amazing for people who still claim to be Catholic (of course, Sunday Mass is a thing of the past). Amazing, because worse ideas couldn't have come from Jack Chick.Donna Steichen has solved the puzzle for me in a way no-one else could. I understand only too well now what happened to all my cousins. You need a tough stomach to finish the book, but when it comes to these issues, ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance could mean the death of a soul.Thanks Donna!

Unlike the first reviewer, I found this book to be an excellent resource for discussing the role of women in the Church today and how people of faith should respond to modern feminism. The Catholic church has, since it's inception, been an advocate for women and their rights. Donna Steichen shows how that history has been hijacked and maligned in recent history. John Paul II calls us all to a "new feminism" not based in the pursuit of power but the pursuit of holiness; this book is a good resource in that pursuit.