When writer Tom Roberts of the National Catholic Reporter interviewed Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun who speaks her mind to her church, she said “it’s time” to open the hidden door to her early life because both her devoutly Roman Catholic mother and her abusive, alcoholic stepfather had died. She spoke of a childhood of poverty, insecurity and “ceaseless fear.” Roberts had set out to accomplish the journalism tradition of writing obituaries of the famous while still alive, but ended up hearing a new story that begins the biography he wrote titled Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith. Chittister, 79, is very much alive, continuing her writing, speaking and traveling on behalf of education, economic opportunity, health care, civil rights and the right to self-determination.
Secret of life
November 23, 2015
