Consecrated life in Argentina. Old a New Forms for Women in the Catholic Church

ANA LOURDES SUÁREZ

Boston

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the Society of the Scientific Study of Religion; 2013

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

Consecrated life within the Catholic Church has undergone a great downhill in the last forty years. The option for this kind of life has been losing attractiveness. After Vatican II many religious congregations have begun to renew their structures, updating expressions of their charismas. At the same time new options of vowed consecrated life for lay women began linked to secular institutes or New Ecclesial Movements. This renovation, however, fails to reverse the decline of feminine consecrated life. The paper explores the process of decline in feminine religious life in Argentina. Based on secondary data and in depth interviews the paper analyzes the dynamics of renewal of some congregations and the new structures that emerged.