It rests ultimately on a strong idea of spiritual isolation; the same that makes women religious.

Sister Pat Murray, a nun of the Loreto order, said women religious want to be respected by the church.

In 2010 I participated in a four-day retreat with nineteen women religious leaders of many faiths and perspectives to begin to grapple with these questions.

She had entered religious life in 1939, three years after the removal of the papal ban on Catholic women religious working in surgery and obstetrics.

Madam, - I am researching the role and impact of Irish women religious who undertook missionary work abroad during the period 1900-1970.