Transformational Leadership: Conversations with Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR)

MARYKNOLL, N.Y. –  In 2009 the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR)—an organization of fourteen hundred Catholic sisters representing more three hundred orders of sisters in the United States—became the object of a doctrinal assessment by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The CDF assessment became international news, prompting an outpouring of […]

MARYKNOLL, N.Y. –  In 2009 the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR)—an organization of fourteen hundred Catholic sisters representing more three hundred orders of sisters in the United States—became the object of a doctrinal assessment by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The CDF assessment became international news, prompting an outpouring of support from US Catholics and piquing the curiosity of the media and society at large.

As the assessment went on, interest began to turn to the way the organization, as well as its member sisters, exercised leadership—which seemed in sharp contrast to that generally practiced in business, government, and other organizations. A 2014 conference at the Catholic University of America explored those qualities of leadership. As keynoter Marie McCarthy SP, then associate director of programs for LCWR, told attendees, “The best language I can find to name this kind of leadership is ‘transformational leadership’ [that] contributes to creating an environment in which deep, authentic transformation of the individual as well as of the whole is possible.”

In an effort to better understand the ongoing development of way of leading the LCWR has conducted interviews on leadership with some of the most engaging and passionate religious figures of our time. With the assessment concluded this year, and on the eve of the LCWR’s annual national assembly in Houston, TX, a collection of 18 of these interviews is now available in Transformational Leadership: Conversations with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Edited by Annemarie Sanders, LCWR communications director, and with an introduction by Pat Farrell, who was the president of the LCWR at the time of the assessment, each section addresses a particular facet of this “way-of-being-in-the-world:” contemplative and prophetic; capable of dealing with change and challenge—and how it can be realized both now, and in the future.


Transformational Leadership: Conversations with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) Edited by Annmarie Sanders, IHM. Introduction by Pat Farrell, OSF.

ISBN 978-1-62698-138-6 paperback 224pp. b/w photos. $20.00.

Pub Date: August 1, 2015

Founded in 1970, Orbis Books publishes works that enlighten the mind, nourish the spirit and challenge the conscience. Orbis seeks to explore the global dimensions of Christian faith and mission, to invite dialogue with diverse cultures and religious traditions, and to serve the cause of reconciliation and peace. Learn more at http://www.orbisbooks.com/ or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/orbisbooks .

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