Veteran reporter Jo Piazza profiles ten extraordinary nuns and the causes to which they have dedicated their livesfrom an eighty-three-year-old Ironman champion to a brave sister who rescues victims of human trafficking Meet Sister Simone Campbell, who traversed the United States challenging a Republican budget that threatened to severely undermine the well-being of poor Americans; Sister Megan Rice, who is willing to spend the rest of her life in prison if it helps eliminate nuclear weapons; and the inimitable Sister Jeannine Gramick, who is fighting for acceptance of gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church. During a time when American nuns are under attack from the very institution to which they pledge, these sisters offer inspiring, provocative counterstories that are sure to spark debate. Overthrowing our popular perception of nuns as killjoy schoolmarms content to live in the annals of nostalgia, Piazza defines them instead as the most vigorous catalysts of change in an otherwise constricting patriarchy.
"Praise for If Nuns Ruled the World In an age of villainy, war and inequality, it makes sense that we need superheroes. And after trying Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we may have found the best superheroes yet: Nuns."
Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
"Piazza writes vividly about hardworking women who devote their time and energy to making other people's lives better. The result is a readable, informative look at how nuns, as flawed and human and real as they may be, also have a calling and a faith, and they use that to create change in the world. . . . If Nuns Ruled the World is a little bit of a crowd pleaser and a little bit subversive, and
Flavorwire
"Anybody looking to argue there is a place for Catholicism in the modern world should just stand on a street corner handing out Piazza's book. By sharing the chills-inducing tales of the women toiling in ways most of us could never fathom, she has given oxygen to that flickering flame that is the Church's reputation in the U.S."
