The Grail, also Ladies of the Grail, is a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
community of about a thousand women from 24 countries, many different cultures and very different backgrounds and work situations.
History
The Grail was started in 1921 as the Women of
Nazareth by Fr.
Jacques van Ginneken, a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
Jesuit. He felt that many new possibilities were opening up for women and that a group of
lay women, unconfined by
convent
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...
walls and rules, could make an immense contribution to the transformation of the world. By 1939 the Grail had become a colourful movement involving thousands of young women in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany, challenging them to deep personal and spiritual commitment. Pioneers in Catholic feminist theology, the Grail in the USA voted in 1969 to admit women of other Christian denominations, and in 1975, to accept Jewish women as members.
The Grail was started in Australia in 1936,
[A. Healey, The Grail in Australia: An international women’s movement and the Australian Church]
''Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society'' 31/2 (2010/11)
, 27-38. in the United States in 1940, in New Zealand in the late 1930s, in Brazil and South Africa in 1951, in Uganda in 1953, in Portugal in 1958 and subsequently in Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Italy, Mexico, Canada, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, Kenya and Sweden. Grail members are also working in Belgium, Belize, Cape Verde, Egypt, France, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ecuador and Zimbabwe. Its United States headquarters, known as Grailville, is located in
Loveland, Ohio
Loveland is a city in Hamilton, Clermont, and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Considered part of the Greater Cincinnati area, Loveland is located near exit 52 off Interstate 275, about northeast of the Cin ...
.
Ecclesiastical status
In England, the Grail has the status of a
secular institute
In the Catholic Church, a secular institute is a type of institute of consecrated life in which consecrated persons profess the Evangelical counsels of celibate-chastity, poverty and obedience while living in the world, unlike members of a relig ...
within the Catholic Church, an association of lay people making a permanent commitment to a particular form of Christian life.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
Reid, Elizabeth Julia ( 1961). ''I Belong where I am Needed.''
Link to Internet archive
* DeFerrari, Patricia (1998). "Collaborating in Christ's Redeeming Work: The U.S. Grail and Social Reform in the 1950s." US Catholic Historian. 16 (4):109-126.
* Kalven, Janet. ''Women Breaking Boundaries: a Grail Journey.''
External links
Official international website of The Grail"Grailville The Early Decades"YouTube video by YouTube user TheGrailintheUSA
{{Authority control
Catholic lay organisations
Catholic female orders and societies
Christian organizations established in 1921
Secular institutes