I received an email from an A Nun’s Life reader alerting me to TIME Magazine’s finalists for the list of 100 most influential people of 2009. You can vote online for your top pick. Among the list of “leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and thinkers” is Sister Mary Scullion, RSM, a Sister of Mercy who ministers on behalf of homeless people in Philadelphia. According to the TIME profile on her, “over 95 percent of those who cycle through her Project H.O.M.E. program have never again been forced to live on the streets, a success rate which has made the program a model for dozens of other U.S. cities.”

It’s awesome that TIME is featuring a Catholic sister on their list of influential people. I’m proud of Sister Mary for the work she is doing and for representing nuns and the awesome work that nuns do throughout the world — from the cloister to corporate office to impoverished villages.

Check out TIME’s list and be sure to vote for Sister Mary!

VOTE NOW

I’m sure that rocker Jon Bon Jovi voted for Sister Mary!

For more info on Sister Mary, check out the Project H.O.M.E. website as well as various media coverage.

• Philadelphia Inquirer – Ask Sister Mary Scullion – Sister Mary questions about homelessness (February 26, 2008)
• Philadelphia Magazine – The Good Generation – Jon Bon Jovi and Project H.O.M.E. (December 2007)
• NBC News – Philly nun aims to end homelessness: Organization she founded has already cut homeless population in half (November 16, 2005)
• MSNBC The Daily Nightly – More About Sister Mary (November 15, 2005)

Sister Bernie Galvin, cdp, is a Catholic nun belonging to the Sisters of Divine Providence of San Antonio, Texas. She’s been in the San Francisco newspapers because she recently retired from Religious Witness, an organization which she founded to help people who are homeless. Here’s what Heather Knight of the San Francisco Chronicle writes about Sister Bernie today:

Sister Bernie Galvin, a Catholic nun and former junior high school teacher turned homeless advocate, founded Religious Witness with Homeless People 15 years ago and has been a regular City Hall presence ever since.

She’s fought against sweeps of homeless people and against city efforts to hand out tickets for crimes like camping on the sidewalk and holding an open booze container. She famously held a three-day memorial service in 2005 for the nearly 2,000 homeless people who had died over 18 years in the city.

But she’s exhausted herself in the process and following the recent deaths of her mother and sister, she needs a break. She is leaving her organization to spend a year in solitude – likely at a retreat praying, reading and painting.

“Whatever feeds my soul,” she said.

She’s leaving Religious Witness permanently, but not retiring. She’ll be back in some fashion, she told supporters in a letter.

“This sabbatical year is not to be construed as ‘retirement,’ ” she wrote. “For me, the age of 75 years is much too early to consider retirement, for heaven sake!”

Blessings to Sister Bernie on her year of sabatical. Our prayers are with you.