In this month’s Women Church World, we address the question of how nuns and sisters make ends meet, how they go about providing for the necessities of daily life, and how they organize themselves to do so. Though the aspects of money, salaries, work, and expenses seem far removed from sacred life, we should clarify that, unlike the clergy (priests, parish priests, bishops, and cardinals) nuns and sisters do not receive a salary.

Each convent and each congregation has to find its own means of subsistence and income.  Therein, each nun regulates her life and work, and connects it, in different ways, with the world of production and consumption.