A Future Full of Hope?

Gemma Simmonds CJ

Gemma Simmonds CJ, the editor of a new collection of essays exploring contemporary religious life, introduces some of the sensitive but crucial questions with which she and her fellow contributors have engaged. Has there been a loss of the distinctiveness of religious life since Vatican II and if so, what will be the lasting effects on the ministry and mission of women religious in particular? Is the future full of hope?

2012 has been a year of commemoration in the UK. We began with the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, moved seamlessly on to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and, lest we should be hankering for more by the end of the year, we will soon be moving into lengthy celebrations of the Second Vatican Council’s fiftieth anniversary. Diaries are already filling up with conferences, book launches, symposia and the like. It was, after all, a Very Good Thing, or at least so many of us feel. The revisionist waves coming over the sea notwithstanding, it feels like something worth celebrating.

To read more of Sr Gemma Simmonds' article in Thinking Faith see: www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20120612_1.htm