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Good article on today’s nuns
By Sister Julie | April 11, 2008
Today’s nuns answer calls to serve differently
Modern sisters reach out to the world around them in ways unlike their stereotype
Nancy Lofholm
The Denver Post
March 23, 2008
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.
Sister Karen Bland is a thoroughly modern Catholic nun. Her gold Chevrolet Malibu is proof.
The well-used tennis shoes she wears in her early-morning, after-Mass visits to a health club sit on the passenger seat. An audio book, a novel about two boys of different races growing up in Southern California, is in the CD player.
And in the past hour, this diminutive, middle-aged woman, who holds five degrees including a doctorate and speaks three languages, has been making the rounds in the well-used automobile.
She has driven from the soup kitchen she administers, to the day center she oversees where the homeless can get warm and clean, to the construction site of an apartment complex she has raised funds to build for the mentally ill.
As Bland demonstrates, nuns are finding their way in today’s world in creative and sometimes surprising ways.
Today’s sisters are dwindling in number. There are only a third — 63,699 — of the sisters of a half century ago.
But many of today’s nuns are independent-minded women who have a higher profile in the church. They fill in as pastoral leaders at more than 200 parishes around the country that are short of priests. They are engineers, physicians, counselors, ecologists, computer experts, lawyers and artists.
In Colorado, they teach the homeless to plant flowers in downtown Denver. They counsel those suffering marriage woes. They help immigrants. They drive buses. They organize political movements. And they teach tai chi.
They say they do whatever God calls them to do in jobs that fit their particular skills.
They are still linked to often-distant religious communities by mutual prayer and teleconferenced meetings, but they make their own way in the world. They apply for jobs, rent apartments, juggle budgets and take on many of the same headaches of those to whom they minister.
The additions to their ranks nowadays come not from college-age girls who heard the call of a vocation. Those taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are more often middle-aged women who have raised families and look to a religious vocation as a second career.
“The focus is more on our individual gifts rather than on the group. The motivation comes from within. You are the one who has to make decisions,” explains Sister Sen Nguyen, a Franciscan who operates an art gallery in Denver that sells the work of disabled Vietnamese women and orphans.
Nguyen joined the convent after life-altering experiences during the Vietnam War. She was separated from her mother during the fall of Saigon in 1975. She reunited with her in Denver after 15 grueling attempts to escape Vietnam by fishing boat.
Nguyen became a teacher, but when her mother was ailing from a stroke she decided to open the Provide-N-Ce boutique in Denver to sell art that would benefit the needy in Vietnam and to leave more time to care for her mother.
“I had no money. I had nothing. I didn’t think my [religious] community would allow it. It took a leap of faith,” Nguyen says.
Her community did bless her mission, which melds art and spirituality. Many religious orders operate that way. Sisters find a mission and ask permission to pursue it. If superiors believe it fits with a nun’s gifts it is approved, leading to the array of professions for modern sisters.
This sea change has its roots in the 1960s and the Catholic Church-altering Vatican II Council when the dwindling numbers of convents were instructed by the church hierarchy to reassess their missions. Nuns were liberated just as the feminist movement was getting a grip on the secular world.
In 1965, there were about 180,000 nuns in the United States. A decade later, there were 45,000 fewer, according to figures from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The average age of those remaining is now about 75.
Sister Faye Huelsmann, a Sister of St. Joseph who operates a counseling center in Grand Junction, says it was a difficult time.
“We had not had much chance to really talk to each other before that. Your superiors just told you what to do,” she says. “We had to learn how to express our own opinions.”
Huelsmann and her partner in the Counseling and Education Center, Sister Pat Lewter, have since spent 27 years in the business of talking with people. They found their mission and entered the counseling business because of their interactions with troubled students and struggling families while they were teaching high school.
Sister Caroline Conway, who had more traditional jobs of administration and teaching in her order, the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, does spiritual directing, which is a combination of sitting down with someone to pray, listening and making suggestions.
She is also a tai chi teacher, an Eastern form of nonviolent martial arts that fits with her belief that people should be gentle with each other and the world around them.
She is guided by demand.
“I believe that if there isn’t a need that you’re meeting, then hang it up,” she says from her sunny office.
Modern-day sisters joke that nuns are able to get so much done because they don’t retire. When they reach retirement age, if their health is still good but they are suffering burn-out in one mission, they grab the Catholic newspaper classifieds and look for another.
“I’m in the process of discerning what I’ll do next,” says Huelsmann. “I’m looking around at the signs of the times and looking at where are the needs and where will I be most useful.”
Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel
Topics: NUN 101, media, news on the nunfront, vocations |
April 11th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
“I’m looking around at the signs of the times and looking at where are the needs and where will I be most useful.”
That puts in modern words what our Constitutions have said my 30 yrs in community (If not from the beginning). I’ll bet those words, or ones like them, are in just about every order’s constitutions. If our work isn’t relevant to the Gospel, then it doesn’t promote the mission of Christ. Right?
April 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
sister julie, i just wanted to say that i love perusing your blog and reading your thoughts from the nun-front. i wish my nun friends blogged. anyway, keep up the awesome work!
that being said, this article reminds me of the sisters i know in italy who have defeated every one of my pre-determined assumptions about nuns. 4 years ago, i spent a semester in orvieto, italy and lived in a convent with a small group of italian nuns from the company of mary our lady. there, i befriended and still keep in touch with these nuns who not only defiled hollywood’s negative portrayal, but reached beyond cultural/religious boundaries to get to know us american college students better. the mother superior drives a silver volkswagen sports car, wishes she owns a ferrari, loves watching formula 1 (car-racing) and soccer on TV, speaks several languages fluently and has traveled all over the world. though the order’s primary mission is to educate women, young people and children (especially in the developing world), the mother superior is also a business woman who came up with a brilliant business plan to turn the unused rooms of this enormous convent (which dates back to the 1600s) into a bed & breakfast/religious housing for tourists and pilgrims alike… this is in addition to the daycare program they’ve been running for over 20 years. they also email, use excel spreadsheets and take care of administrative businesses. sure, there is always work to be done in and around the convent, but these nuns enjoy every moment possible to hang out in the courtyard, watch movies, sip wine, drink espresso, go out for movies, go on a road trip and eat gelato together. most importantly, they have a passion for what they do, serve God with their various spiritual gifts and touch the lives of everyone they come into contact with… =) this is christian feminism at its very best!
thanks for posting this article. God bless always!
April 11th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Amen, Sister!
April 12th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Dear Sister Julie-
As a non-Catholic, my experiences with nuns are probably skewed, but for the last few decades they have been positive, rewarding, and often the antithesis of the description I get from many of my Catholic schooled friends! : )
My first experience with sisters was at a large urban Catholic hospital in the late 1960’s where I was one of the few male “candy-stripers.” There were a number of nurses and administrators who were sisters, as were all the instructors for the volunteers. They were, without an exception, caring, competent, warm and ranged in age from their 20’s to their 60’s.
When I went off to college in the 1970’s I met and worked with other sisters in the Boston area on anti-war, poverty and social justice programs. Many of these sisters wore less conventional habits, but they were clearly well educated, bright and dedicated. We marched, did court monitoring with the American Friends Service Committee, tutored children, and helped each other weather frustrations and celebrate victories.
Through the 1980’s to the present, I continue to work with sisters on social justice and disability issues (particularly deafness and HIV/AIDS), and the services provided by sisters have been crucial- often filling what would otherwise be a void. The sisters with whom I have worked are lawyers, teachers, psychologists, administrators, speech pathologists, interpreters of many languages (including American Sign Language), social workers, etc. For many, the “accoutrements” of their calling have changed, and the various means of answering the call of service have been expanded, but their dedication and service have been steadfast.
As has been noted, the population has diminished. I know many former sisters, most of whom are still doing good work (“God’s work”), and still heeding God’s voice with new directions.
In terms of the “covers of the books,” the sisters in my life have been diverse: tall, short, thin, heavy, straight, lesbian, white, black, Asian, Latina, brilliant, not so brilliant, funny, not-so-funny, baseball fan, football fan, etc. I hope to nobody’s surprise, they look (and pretty much act) just like the rest of the human family.
The only difference I have experienced is their consistent desire to help others based on their belief of God’s will.
That’s why (to paraphrase Willie Nelson), “my heroes have always been nuns.”
Best regards, wishes and prayers- particularly to all those sisters with whom I have had the pleasure to cross paths.
David
April 12th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
As one of the posters mentions above, nuns come in all different varieties just like the rest of us. Although sisters are indeed unique in some ways (probably because of their formation and the lifestyles they live), the one salient feature that strikes me is their education. No other demographic of women, especially women in their 60s and 70s, are as well educated as sisters. Even if they are traditional/conservative sorts, just about all of them are, to some degree, feminists.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Has anyone read Cheryl Reed’s “Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns”? Apparently she did a sociological study on nuns by interviewing hundreds of them and living with them, and found out, to her surprise, that most nuns are feminists and much more diverse/interesting than people give them credit for. I think the book came out last year, or 2005 maybe?
April 14th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I just finished that book! It was really great reading and very eye opening. She did a good job of showing many different lifestyles of nuns and sisters from cloistered to “free agents” LOL like our sister julie. Thanks for posting this great article sister and for your blog, I love it and visit regularly.
April 19th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Hi,
I’m glad I found your blog. I am a former Catholic, and I find it interesting the perceptions of modern-day nuns. The nuns I knew from Catholic school didn’t wear habits. I once thought I would become a nun, during a course of years when I was intensely religious and wanted to do more in terms of my faith. I realized though, that some of the eternal questions raised by many Catholics, especially around the ordination of women, as some spoke of in your survey, made it difficult for me to remain in the church, much less to become a member of an order. I’m Episcopalian now, and I find that what you and others describe among the nuns of today, I have found among female Episcopal priests!
Highly educated, competent, I thoroughly enjoy talking to them.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Thanks for writing! I’m so glad to hear that you have found your calling.
April 21st, 2008 at 7:14 am
You’re welcome. I’m glad to correspond.
Interesting, your observation about “calling.” I’m in a place now where I really have to think about what “my calling” is. I like doing Education for Ministry, a lay program for people interested in thinking about questions of faith. But I have to think of what direction to take this into…some form of theological study…ministry? Lay ministry or ordination? I’m glad there are several female ministers in my parish I can chat with.
Regards!
April 21st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Hello Sister!
I really loved this article.I was Confirmed last Sunday, and have thought off and on throughout my life about maybe being a nun.
But I am have always wondered, would I have to give up everything I enjoy? I love to ride horses, read, go to plays and music concerts that might be played at small bars (with my mother’s permission of course!), go out to eat, hang out in general, and I really love to run and play soccer.
If I became a nun, would I have to give up all of that?
(The part I would miss most would be the horses, I admit.)
I also really want to go to college, and I kind of want a career…but I would give the career up (minus the college) if I knew it was my calling.
That was a weird question.
Margaret
April 21st, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Congratulations on your Confirmation! What a wonderful thing! Becoming a nun is not about being miserable and giving up what you love. Yes, it does involve sacrifice as does any life commitment. You have to be willing to put the mission and your community ahead of your own personal desires. Sometimes that means foregoing things that you like. That being said, many of the things you mentioned aren’t things you have to give up absolutely. You might have to make some adjustments, e.g., instead of joining a soccer team, you teach kids how to play soccer. In terms of school and a career, many religious communities encourage women to get their degrees. For many of us, we aren’t assigned a profession, we have to train and learn and then seek employment like other people do. Your work/career/ministry must of course be part of the mission of the congregation. These are all very good things to think on and pray on. As you being to consider religious life, talk to the formation director about your concerns. They are very important and reasonable. Blessings to you, Margaret Mary. Sister Julie