UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

Caryl Rivers

Until quite recently, I had believed that the world of my novel, “Virgins,” about Catholic girls growing up in the 1950s, was a giant step away from contemporary reality.

After all, in those days, nuns wore habits with skirts to the floor and were expected to be passive and obedient. Catholic women were never supposed to speak about contraception, even in whispers. Families were often overjoyed when a son chose the priesthood as his vocation.

Today, nuns have tossed away the habit and run their own social welfare programs. Catholic women use contraception at the same rates as other American women. And in the wake of the pedophilia scandal in the church, coupled with the Vatican’s refusal to let priests marry or to admit women, the church can barely scrape up applicants for the roman collar,

But this month, as my novel is…