Vieillir au couvent : stratégies des congrégations et paradoxe des laïcités

Abstract

In Switzerland as in France, religious communities are aging, and where aging involves loss of independence, the customary support of the elderly by the young is no longer feasible. This article is based on a sociological study that analyses the transformation of Catholic nuns convents into nursing homes for the elderly in Switzerland and in France. This reveals differences between one country and the other in the mode of regulation between the congregations and the States as well as inequalities of treatment. Needing recognition by the State in order to benefit from state pensions while preferring to spend their last years at home, the nuns are innovating in an attempt to re-appropriate their future – however long it may be.