“We are at a pivotal moment in terms of the Catholic women who are storming the Church's gates today. They include the fiercest fighters who have persisted for decades against incredible odds. They include thousands of new recruits, from Catholic women ministers to fiery advocates for change spurred on by the tragedy of the sex abuse crisis. Together--and separately--they are fighting for the soul of the Catholic Church, and they will not be moved. Not by a Vatican that threatens them, censures them, or evicts them from their convents. Not by bishops who boycott their speeches or bar them from Church property. This is their story."

Angela Bonavoglia
Introduction
GOOD CATHOLIC GIRLS: How Women Are Leading the Fight to Change the Church.

Despite the media tsunami surrounding this most recent wave of revelations of sex abuse and cover-up within the Catholic Church, the place of girls and women -- as victims and victors -- remain nearly invisible. Yet, as vividly recounted in GOOD CATHOLIC GIRLS, Catholic women are the driving force behind reform.

Backed by supporters worldwide, they are demanding justice for the victims of clergy sexual abuse, challenging the Church’s sexual repression, and campaigning for optional celibacy. They are re-thinking Catholic theology and changing the face of ministry, resurrecting the lost lives of female Church leaders and boldly moving ahead with women's ordination.

Their work is brave, provocative and vital, for what becomes of women in the Catholic Church will determine what becomes of the Church itself. As GOOD CATHOLIC GIRLS illustrates, the Church ignores them at its peril.

PRAISE FOR "GOOD CATHOLIC GIRLS"

"Detailed and well-documented....Takes a fresh look at the post-sexual-scandal church and finds the landscape both familiar and surprising."
Sally Cunneen
--National Catholic Reporter

“These stories remain vivid for the reader long after the book is finished. They provide access to the real world of Catholic women’s lived religion, so far from the abstract, idealized woman of the papal documents...Bonavoglia’s book belongs in our classrooms and our libraries.”
--Journal of American Catholic Studies

"[A]compelling account of what dedicated Catholic women are accomplishing for the church they love."
--Publishers Weekly

"[A]thoughtful, coherent and impassioned call for answers to some of the most pressing questions facing the Catholic Church today."
--Dallas Morning News

"I enjoyed reading about the shocking abuses of Church authority and the anti-establishment bravery of these women...The book rewards the reader with great anecdotes and provocative insights...Bonavoglia does a great job of portraying the rigidly hierarchical Catholic Church....[showing] that the Church is systematically cracking down on movements and even thoughts that are feminist, grassroots, or laity-centered."
--Sumana Harihareswara, Bookslut

"These astonishingly diverse women...are representative of the breadth and variety of this progressive revolution...[Their] calls for reform...make good common and spiritual sense."
--Booklist
Also, Booklist pick: “One of top ten women’s history books of 2005”

"Worth Reading...Bonavoglia traces the growth of Catholic feminism and church reform, and profiles nuns, women church leaders, and lay women who have and still are pushing for change."
--Chicago Tribune

"These good Catholic girls embolden the vision of inclusivity and animate the very word 'Christian.' Bonavoglia deftly inteprets the law of conscience articulated in the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: "For woman has in her heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of woman; according to it, she will be judged...
Dignity restored is what Good Catholic Girls is all about."
--In the Vineyard, Voice of the Faithful