Brides of Christ is set in the mid-1960s, a time when the Catholic Church and its followers were struggling with the changing face of the Church, including the death of the Pope and the controversial issues of abortion and contraception. Told in six parts, the narrative follows Diane, a young woman who has walked away from her fiancé to join a convent after being sure she has a calling to the faith. Diane is forced to face her own demons, however, and eventually has to decide whether she can teach what the Church preaches, or if it's simply impossible for her to reconcile all the contradictions of the faith and uphold her vow of obedience.
Individually published and award-winning episodes are individually indexed on AustLit.
Ambrose
Australia
:
ABC Television
,
1991
11652805
1991
single work
film/TV
Australia
:
ABC Television
,
1991
'The celibacy of Catholic “women religious”, or nuns, presents a dilemma for familiar narratives about the 1960s and 1970s as Australia’s “liberation decades”. In this article, I analyse an important oral history archive, not previously considered for this purpose, to explain how women religious “made sense” of their sexuality in relation to the social and institutional transformations of this period. I argue that women religious in Australia redefined celibacy as mature heterosexuality, and by doing so, they identified as ordinary women even as they held to their special status within the Catholic Church.' (Publication abstract)
'The celibacy of Catholic “women religious”, or nuns, presents a dilemma for familiar narratives about the 1960s and 1970s as Australia’s “liberation decades”. In this article, I analyse an important oral history archive, not previously considered for this purpose, to explain how women religious “made sense” of their sexuality in relation to the social and institutional transformations of this period. I argue that women religious in Australia redefined celibacy as mature heterosexuality, and by doing so, they identified as ordinary women even as they held to their special status within the Catholic Church.' (Publication abstract)
