Lavinia Byrne – British former nun who in 2000 left the
Sisters of Loreto after 35 years after saying that the Vatican had been bullying her to abandon support for women priests
Alice Callaghan – American Episcopal priest, advocate for the poor, and former nun
Michele Birch Conery – Canadian college professor former nun best known as one of four women who claim to have been ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 2005 against the wishes of Church authorities.
Jeanne Deckers – musician and singer better known as
The Singing Nun; was a
Dominican sister until 1966 when she was forced out of her convent due to conflicts with her superiors
Jacqueline Grennan Wexler (born Jean Marie Grennan; August 2, 1926 – January 19, 2012), commonly known as Sister J, was an
AmericanRoman Catholicreligious sister who rose to prominence when she, as President of
Webster College, strove to convince the
Holy See allow the transferral of the college's ownership to a
lay board of trustees. Webster College became the first Roman Catholic university to legally split from the
Catholic Church. She later left her religious order, the
Sisters of Loretto, and was
President of
Hunter College in
New York City from 1970 to 1980. She went on to serve as President of the
National Conference of Christians and Jews from 1982 to 1990. Born in 1926 in
Illinois, Wexler grew up on a farm and matriculated at
Webster College in 1944. In 1948, she joined the Sisters of Loretto and went on to teach in
Texas and
Missouri. In 1957, she graduated with a master's degree from the
University of Notre Dame, and in 1959, was transferred to work at Webster College, becoming Vice President in 1960. In 1965, Wexler succeeded Sister Francetta Barberis as president of the college.
Claudine Guérin de Tencin –
French writer and
salonist; was brought up at a convent and became a nun, at the wish of her parents, but broke her vows and succeeded, in 1712, in gaining formal permission from Pope Clement XI for her secularization
Agnes Mary Mansour – American former
Sister of Mercy best remembered for being forced in 1983 to resign her religious vows in order to retain her position as the director of the
Michigan Department of Social Services as a result of her refusal to make a public statement against abortion
Nora Wall – Irish former member of the
Sisters of Mercy who was wrongfully convicted of rape in 1999 and served four days of a life sentence before her conviction was overturned; while the alleged rape took place while she was a nun, she left her order in 1994
^Cunneen, Chris.
"Abbott, Gertrude (1846–1934)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
Further reading
Campell, Debra Graceful Exits: Catholic Women and the art of departure. Indiana University Press;
ISBN978-0-253-34316-1
Leahy, Karen. The Summer of Yes: An Ex-Nun's Story. CreateSpace.
ISBN1480163481