plemented changes, but tried to make the religious vocations more
meaningful and pertinent to keep in step with the twentieth century.
Not everyone welcomed these changes; some orders preferred the old
ways.
Beginning in the 1970s, many religious orders underwent dramatic
transformations as the Catholic Church struggled to become more mod-
ern and accessible to its followers. For some women’s religious congrega-
tions, these changes meant modifying the nun’s habit, and in some cases
completely forgoing it. Many nuns believed that if one was to be of gen-
uine service in the world, then one must wear the clothes of the real
world. Others believed that by leaving behind their religious habit, which
was often viewed as a barrier to working with the public, they would make
people feel more comfortable around them. The practice of doing away
with the religious uniform also encouraged individuality among the
order’s nuns, and hopefully along with it, one’s particular talents. Others
eased their rules in order to attract potential applicants to their order, es-
pecially those women with backgrounds in social services, medicine, or
other advanced degrees.
However, in the case of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa
made virtually no concessions; even today, the order continues to attract
many young women who wish to take the vows of extreme poverty and
give their lives over to the service of the poor. Everything about the life of
a Missionary of Charity emphasizes the long-held ideal of caring feminin-
ity; that is, the traditional role of women as caretakers subservient to men.
It is an ideal that also asks one to suppress one’s own will for the common
good. The image is a particularly potent one in Western culture, where a
woman in a nun’s habit ministering to the needs of the ill and poor is seen
as the epitome of female selflessness, despite the efforts of the modern-day
women’s movement to counteract this image.
Even the manner in which Mother Teresa spoke of her order reinforced
this ideal. To Mother Teresa, she and her nuns were the wives of Christ
crucified, their bond to God like a mystical marriage; she described the
love that the Missionaries of Charity professed for Jesus in terms similar to
the love between husband and wife. This is an even more dramatic con-
trast to the thinking of many of today’s religious orders, who find the no-
tion of a nun as a bride of Christ not only outdated, but ridiculous.
In establishing the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa also made it
clear that she would brook no interference from priests, or meddling, no
matter how well-intentioned, from outsiders. She also deflected any ad-
vice about how to teach her nuns. This rigid sense of control has had some
impact on the order. Although one can understand the decision not to
“RIGOROUS POVERTY IS OUR SAFEGUARD” 61