Sister Joan Chittister Biography

For more than three decades, Joan Chittister has been a significant visionary voice and spiritual leader in the church. Sister Joan is a worldwide lecturer and award-winning author of more than 35 books. She is a Benedictine Sister from Erie, Pennsylvania. Benetvision is a resource and research center for modern spirituality in Erie, and she is the founder and executive director. She is now the co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a United Nations partner organization that facilitates a global network of women peacebuilders, notably in Israel and Palestine. Making Way for the Feminine for the Benefit of the World Community, a conference held in India was organized by her. With Rabbi Michael Lerner and Cornel West, she co-chairs the Network of Spiritual Progressives. Her commentary on the month-long papal festivities from Rome was broadcast on CNN, the BBC, and all main US media networks in April 2005. She was a guest on Meet the Press with Tim Russert on Easter Sunday 2006, and she was a guest on NOW with Bill Moyers in 2004. Sister Joan has won several honors and recognition for her efforts for justice, peace, and equality, particularly for women in the Church and society, as a frequent contributor to the National Catholic Reporter. The Catholic Press Association has honored her with prizes for seven of her works, including her spiritual biography Called to Question, which was a top seller in 2005. Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, her monastic spirituality book published in 1990, is considered a modern spirituality classic. Welcome to the Wisdom of the World (Eerdmans, 2007) and The Gift of Years (Eerdmans, 2008) are two of her most recent publications (BlueBridge 2008). Last October, Sister Joan appeared alongside the Dalai Lama at the First Emory (University) Summit on Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding, and again in April 2008 at Seeds of Compassion. She attended the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing and the World Religions Congress in South Africa in 1999. She was an invited fellow and research associate at Cambridge University's St. Edmund's College in 1996. In 2001, she was appointed to Xavier University's Brueggeman Chair of Ecumenical Theology. She was a member of the worldwide and interfaith Niwano Peace Foundation in Tokyo from 2003 to 2006, which bestows the famous annual Niwano Peace Prize. She was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for 12 years and served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (an organization of the leaders/superiors of the over 67,000 Catholic religious women in the United States), president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses (1974-90), and president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (an organization of the leaders/superiors of the over 67,000 Catholic religious women in the United States). Joan earned her doctorate in communications theory from Penn State University.

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