Women and Religious Life in Ecuador: A Proposal for Social Insertion in Latin America, 1962-1985

Abstract

This essay tackles a Latin American tendency among religious sisters who, due to a new social awareness, have made a remarkable shift in their work and turned towards the world of the poor to share their deprived, peripheral and marginalized living areas; a tremendous change which has marked their insubordination towards the conventional religious lifestyle. This shift has taken shape in a context of converging changes, not only ecclesial, but also social ones. Second Vatican Council has had a significant influence on those religious sisters’ life choice, and the Second Conference of the Latin America Episcopate (CELAM) held in Medellin in 1968 gave it further momentum.

Keywords

• Women
• Religious life
• Option for the poor
• Insertion