Young, Gay and Single Among the Nuns and Widows of the Catholic Church
Young, Gay and Single Among the Nuns and Widows of the Catholic Church
Dalila Ghosn Catholic News Service
Published: May 14, 2012
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As an artist, filmmaker, photographer and designer, a young woman at the forefront of the women’s movement in the United States, Dalila Ghosn, 34, has seen many transformations as she grew older, from being a child-in-waiting to being a nun in the Catholic Church.
“In the 1990s I had a career that was totally opposite to what I am in this position now,” she says. “It was extremely fulfilling. I had made a living doing what I do best, but there were few roles for women. It was very rewarding to move to New York City and join the International Women’s Forum (for whom I designed a hat), and from there to work for Ms. magazine and then in 2000, I was chosen to work for CNN and do investigative reports on the Pope.”
A member of the religious institute of the Daughters of Charity, Ghosn is single now, having returned to her country of origin of Canada in 2006 when the congregation in Toronto asked her to take over its order. For nearly seven years she has been a lay member of the order in a community of more than 1,000 sisters.
Today, as the youngest of eight sisters-in-charge at the order, she is the longest-serving and most widely published of its members.
“The world is changing, and I feel I’m in a role that is no longer necessary — in the sense that I have to make changes in my life when I go out into the world,” she says, “but at the same time I feel like I’m in a certain kind of role because I am a member of the religious institute of the Daughters of Charity, and I find it