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Ungodly Rage
Written by a Catholic journalist who has investigated feminism on its own ground, this remarkable book fully exposes the hidden face of Catholic feminism for the first time, revealing its theoretical and psychological roots in loss of faith. Extensively documented, this is the definitive account of a movement impelled by vengeful rage to revolt against all spiritual authority, providing detailed information on Catholic feminist theologians, organizers, the movement's defense of abortion, its connections with witchcraft and New Age rituals, and its disastrous effects on the Catholic faithful.
This book should be welcomed by Catholic men and women striving to understand the disarray in the Church, and what can be done about it.
- GenresCatholicNonfiction
420 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 3, 2025
Loved. More people should read this book. Could have used some pruning and refocusing sometimes, but overall this was engrossing and definitely thorough. The last chapter was phenomenal.
August 13, 2007
UNGODLY RAGE is an examination of feminist movements in the Roman Catholic Church by journalist Donna Steichen. A devout Catholic herself, Steichen sees feminism as a malevolent force destroying the Church, and her book intends to alert the laity to this growing but little-understood movement. My opinion on the book is mixed.
The book consists of a series of case studies in which Steichen examines an event in the Church, such as a problematic seminar, heterodox publishing, or public statements by clergy contrary to the Magisterium. The chapters are loosely linked, and figures well-known from the previous chapter are reintroduced entirely, leading to some rather annoying repetition. Some of the themes Steichen discusses are very serious indeed, and need to be countered by the Church to a great degree. She gives numerous examples of conferences being called to further involvement of women in the Church, but participants hear nary a mention of Jesus Christ and lots of talk about Wicca, Hinduism, and other Nicene Creed-denying spirituality. People who have long since lost all belief in orthodox Christianty remain in churches instead of going over to more appropriate venues such as Unitarian Universalism, with disastrous consequences. Many of the personalities mentioned in the book are still active today, remaining in the Roman Catholic Church and, by their own admission, hoping to dismantle it from within.
Unfortunately, the book is more a screed than an effective uncovering of Roman Catholic sexual issues. Often the author's criticisms seem unfocused, and while she insists on obedience to the bishops of the Church, she calls Vatican II undertaken by these same bishops a grave mistake. The book is written in a slightly sensationalistic journalistic style instead of adhering to more appropriate academic standards, though footnotes are abundant.
It is a pity that in the thirteen years since UNGODLY RAGE was published, no writers have accepted the challenge of writing a book on the same theme but in a more academic fashion and with a look at what's happening in other orthodox denominations besides the Roman Catholic Church. Though this book has its faults, it is one of the few resources available on the topic.
The book consists of a series of case studies in which Steichen examines an event in the Church, such as a problematic seminar, heterodox publishing, or public statements by clergy contrary to the Magisterium. The chapters are loosely linked, and figures well-known from the previous chapter are reintroduced entirely, leading to some rather annoying repetition. Some of the themes Steichen discusses are very serious indeed, and need to be countered by the Church to a great degree. She gives numerous examples of conferences being called to further involvement of women in the Church, but participants hear nary a mention of Jesus Christ and lots of talk about Wicca, Hinduism, and other Nicene Creed-denying spirituality. People who have long since lost all belief in orthodox Christianty remain in churches instead of going over to more appropriate venues such as Unitarian Universalism, with disastrous consequences. Many of the personalities mentioned in the book are still active today, remaining in the Roman Catholic Church and, by their own admission, hoping to dismantle it from within.
Unfortunately, the book is more a screed than an effective uncovering of Roman Catholic sexual issues. Often the author's criticisms seem unfocused, and while she insists on obedience to the bishops of the Church, she calls Vatican II undertaken by these same bishops a grave mistake. The book is written in a slightly sensationalistic journalistic style instead of adhering to more appropriate academic standards, though footnotes are abundant.
It is a pity that in the thirteen years since UNGODLY RAGE was published, no writers have accepted the challenge of writing a book on the same theme but in a more academic fashion and with a look at what's happening in other orthodox denominations besides the Roman Catholic Church. Though this book has its faults, it is one of the few resources available on the topic.
September 18, 2024
A PROVOCATIVE CRITIQUE OF "CATHOLIC FEMINISM”
Donna Steichen is a Catholic author and journalist, who has also been active in the Pro-Life movement. She has also written 'Prodigal Daughters: Catholic Women Come Home to the Church' and 'Chosen: How Christ Sent Twenty-Three Surprised Converts to Replant His Vineyard.'
She wrote in the Introduction to this 1991 book, "This book is a report on the subterranean phenomena of religious feminism as observed over more than a dozen years... As Catholic institutions continued to disintegrate, later reportorial assignments took me deeper into the underworld of religious feminism... the agents of catastrophe ... have done incalculable damage within Church institutions over the past generation...
"Most of a generation of young Catholics have been lost to the Faith BECAUSE their trusting parents sacrificed to send them to Catholic catechetical programs, schools and colleges. Unless the aberrant activities of Catholic feminists are critically examined... they will continue to destroy the faith of children exposed to their corrosive teaching... this book traces the origins and development of religious feminism within established Catholic communities and organizations... Finally, the book examines the movement's evolving rhetoric, assessing its ideology and overt and covert goals... It is an apostasy to an alien religion."
She asserts, "Feminism appears to be the bait, moral disintegration the hook and the occult the dark and treacherous sea into which the deluded are towed." (Pg. 40) She says, "Women-Church does indeed display a kind of cohesive identity, but it is not a Christian identity. Though shreds of the old language and symbols are kept at hand for occasional public relations cover, Women-Church has become something altogether different in nature, a religious chimera." (Pg. 161)
She suggests, "The word 'imagination' is a significant one in all gnostic religious movements, because they hold it to be the source of all theological 'creativity' they value above logical consistency. Those involved in feminist spirituality always talk about 'imaging' God, as though their image could create the god or goddess of their choice. Thus process thought denies even the possibility of any body of revealed truth." (Pg. 209)
She adds, "The argument that God exists in immanence is deliberately ambiguous... Those who talk of 'God within' ... are denying that the Creator is other---and infinitely more---than his creatures." (Pg. 214)
She asserts, "Of the three New Age sub-groups where Catholics are likely to be found, goddess feminism looks the least scientific; it looks nothing so much as deranged." (Pg. 218) She states that "[Matthew] Fox's flower-child message... is part vulgarized Teilhard de Chardin, part vulgarized Thomas Berry/Sierra Club, part Harvey Cox's Feast of Fools, part 'gay liberation,' part Starhawk, part Women-Church, part New Age, part Rousseauean 'noble savage.'" (Pg. 231)
She does admit, however, that "Though [Fox] shamelessly exaggerates the degree to which creation is endangered, some of his enthusiasm for the splendor of it rings true. Though the solutions he proposes range from ludicrous to evil, some of the problems he names are recognizable. It is certainly true that worshippers experience a diminished sense of the sacred at Mass since Latin, Gregorian chant, candles and incense have been expunged... glimmers can be seen of the fruitful uses to which Fox might have put his talents if he had made nobler choices instead of escaping into the disintegrating theory of false spirituality." (Pg. 239)
She observes, "liberated nuns have refused to make a formal break from the Church, for two reasons. First, they might not be able to continue their new 'ministries' without the support of bishops and the faithful. Second, while they have ceased to believe the articles of the Creed, they have not lost their apostolic spirit. They see themselves as 'change agents,' engaged in a 'long march through the institutions' that will transform the Church to conform to their new vision." (Pg. 277)
She adds, "American women religious... have been subjects in an experiment in neo-modernism, and its sorry fruits can be counted in their congregations... Their decline and fall have been tragic, and not only for themselves. As the agents of subversion closest to the young, their activities had grave consequences for the rest of the Church... the corrupt communities will disappear by natural attrition... Only then will it become possible for health, order and concern for truth to be restored in whatever remains of the Church." (Pg. 294)
This is a very provocative book (particularly when compared to her two most recent books), and will (and has) upset many "progressive" Catholics, but it is an excellent and thought-provoking critique, and will be "must reading" for persons on all sides of the Catholic theological spectrum.
Donna Steichen is a Catholic author and journalist, who has also been active in the Pro-Life movement. She has also written 'Prodigal Daughters: Catholic Women Come Home to the Church' and 'Chosen: How Christ Sent Twenty-Three Surprised Converts to Replant His Vineyard.'
She wrote in the Introduction to this 1991 book, "This book is a report on the subterranean phenomena of religious feminism as observed over more than a dozen years... As Catholic institutions continued to disintegrate, later reportorial assignments took me deeper into the underworld of religious feminism... the agents of catastrophe ... have done incalculable damage within Church institutions over the past generation...
"Most of a generation of young Catholics have been lost to the Faith BECAUSE their trusting parents sacrificed to send them to Catholic catechetical programs, schools and colleges. Unless the aberrant activities of Catholic feminists are critically examined... they will continue to destroy the faith of children exposed to their corrosive teaching... this book traces the origins and development of religious feminism within established Catholic communities and organizations... Finally, the book examines the movement's evolving rhetoric, assessing its ideology and overt and covert goals... It is an apostasy to an alien religion."
She asserts, "Feminism appears to be the bait, moral disintegration the hook and the occult the dark and treacherous sea into which the deluded are towed." (Pg. 40) She says, "Women-Church does indeed display a kind of cohesive identity, but it is not a Christian identity. Though shreds of the old language and symbols are kept at hand for occasional public relations cover, Women-Church has become something altogether different in nature, a religious chimera." (Pg. 161)
She suggests, "The word 'imagination' is a significant one in all gnostic religious movements, because they hold it to be the source of all theological 'creativity' they value above logical consistency. Those involved in feminist spirituality always talk about 'imaging' God, as though their image could create the god or goddess of their choice. Thus process thought denies even the possibility of any body of revealed truth." (Pg. 209)
She adds, "The argument that God exists in immanence is deliberately ambiguous... Those who talk of 'God within' ... are denying that the Creator is other---and infinitely more---than his creatures." (Pg. 214)
She asserts, "Of the three New Age sub-groups where Catholics are likely to be found, goddess feminism looks the least scientific; it looks nothing so much as deranged." (Pg. 218) She states that "[Matthew] Fox's flower-child message... is part vulgarized Teilhard de Chardin, part vulgarized Thomas Berry/Sierra Club, part Harvey Cox's Feast of Fools, part 'gay liberation,' part Starhawk, part Women-Church, part New Age, part Rousseauean 'noble savage.'" (Pg. 231)
She does admit, however, that "Though [Fox] shamelessly exaggerates the degree to which creation is endangered, some of his enthusiasm for the splendor of it rings true. Though the solutions he proposes range from ludicrous to evil, some of the problems he names are recognizable. It is certainly true that worshippers experience a diminished sense of the sacred at Mass since Latin, Gregorian chant, candles and incense have been expunged... glimmers can be seen of the fruitful uses to which Fox might have put his talents if he had made nobler choices instead of escaping into the disintegrating theory of false spirituality." (Pg. 239)
She observes, "liberated nuns have refused to make a formal break from the Church, for two reasons. First, they might not be able to continue their new 'ministries' without the support of bishops and the faithful. Second, while they have ceased to believe the articles of the Creed, they have not lost their apostolic spirit. They see themselves as 'change agents,' engaged in a 'long march through the institutions' that will transform the Church to conform to their new vision." (Pg. 277)
She adds, "American women religious... have been subjects in an experiment in neo-modernism, and its sorry fruits can be counted in their congregations... Their decline and fall have been tragic, and not only for themselves. As the agents of subversion closest to the young, their activities had grave consequences for the rest of the Church... the corrupt communities will disappear by natural attrition... Only then will it become possible for health, order and concern for truth to be restored in whatever remains of the Church." (Pg. 294)
This is a very provocative book (particularly when compared to her two most recent books), and will (and has) upset many "progressive" Catholics, but it is an excellent and thought-provoking critique, and will be "must reading" for persons on all sides of the Catholic theological spectrum.
January 29, 2008
There's probably not enough attention given to this subject, and I liked reading this book. Left me wishing for a more historical, objective study. Broader range of experiences, maybe? It lacked meat to me. I don't think I'd spend time with her stuff again.
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August 2, 2011Great book. Lots of info that sheds light on those out there that want the Church to conform to the "New" Age. Very helpful to know what kind of language to be aware of to avoid being led astray.
September 6, 2011
Donna Steichen documents with great care what can only be called a remarkable expose. A read that is worth the investment of time.
July 10, 2015
This certainly explains how some of the liberal teachings have permeated the Catholic Church. Interesting to read about some people & institutions with whom I am acquainted!
July 11, 2019
An absolute must read if you want to understand what feminism really is and how it has impacted the Church and the world.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews