Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake,
to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just read a great article about Catholic sisters and nuns in the Diocese of Erie. Here are some quotes from the article and some commentary by yours truly:

Though their numbers are down and their populations aging, these nuns continue to serve in traditional ways and in new roles as needs arise.

“As long as we keep changing, we can keep being alive and vital,” Sister Mary Francis Becker said.

Catholic nuns today aren’t the stereotypical figures in black and white reigning over schools and hospitals.

Sisters continue to educate and nurture, but also work as administrators, environmentalists, chaplains, artists, census takers, missionaries, counselors, dietitians, social workers, writers, doctors, financial assistants, secretaries, graphic designers, reflexologists and massage therapists.

Sister Rose Anne Fedorko even worked for the FBI, retiring after a career at the Department of Justice that included helping with records in the fingerprinting division.

“As times change, they grow and adapt,” said Sister Mary Rita Kuhn, the Catholic Diocese of Erie’s vicar for religious.

A nun worked for the FBI? How awesome is that! In so many ways, these sisters shatter the “one-size-fits-all” image of women religious, the image that we all have the same look, the same schedule, the same theology, and the same ministry. If we all were exactly the same, how could we answer the diverse ways that God calls us to be in the world and church?

Even when membership is low, the women put their trust in God and accomplish much, giving hope for the future. In the 1800s, 35 Sisters of St. Joseph ran Saint Vincent Hospital, St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s homes, and taught in eight schools, said Sister Leonie Shanley, who wrote about their history.

Yup, you read that right. THIRTY-FIVE sisters ran 11 institutions. So this business about declining numbers and small communities? Catholic sisters and nuns have always THRIVED even when it seemed like they were against all odds. You would be amazed to know what a faith-filled, ingenuitive nun can do with what seems like nothing.

“Serving God is tough.” But worth it. “I feel it’s a call from God,” she said. “If you ignore it, you have a really miserable life.”

It’s funny, you think that doing something tough for God is what is going to make you miserable. Yet, as the quote from Sister Jacinta Conklin, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Elk County, points out, what is really miserable is tuning out God, not being open to God’s call in our life. I have found that when I am finally able to put aside my fears, distractions, and busy-ness and truly open myself to God’s call, I am surprised, renewed, energized for whatever God is calling me to.

So if you think becoming a Catholic sister or nun is just not adventurous enough or radical enough. Think again. You’ve got to be compassionate, courageous, daring, faith-filled, and creative beyond your wildest dreams!

Check out the whole article Catholic nuns in Erie region adapt to changing world by Dana Massing for the Erie Times-News (May 23, 2010). Kudos to the author of the article for a fine job.

Read and respond! What do you think?

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

It is heart-warming to hear of and receive so many words of support for U.S. sisters from lay people, bishops, priests, and religious from across the globe. Most recently leaders of communities of Catholic women religious in Europe offered their support and encouragement. See the article European women religious send warm support to U.S. sisters in National Catholic Reporter (December 15, 2009). There have also been messages of support from sisters in Rome and in Asia and Oceania. Another powerful show of support is the Thank You, Sister campaign which received over 300 letters of support which will be sent to Mother Mary Clare Millea, Cardinal Franc Rodé, Cardinal Francis George, and Pope Benedict XVI as well as leadership teams of communities of women religious in the US.

The encouragement and support of so many people reminds me of stepping up and simply being present and in solidarity with another who is engaged in a tough experience. There are all sorts of ways that we can show our support, that we can stand up for another and stand beside another. How will we choose to do that today? Who will come across our path who needs a kind word, a breath of fresh air, a helping hand, or just a warm presence?

The magazine U.S. Catholic has just published three articles on U.S. Catholic Sisters. Each of them is a “must read”. I encourage you to take the time to read each one and then come on back here to offer your thoughts: what struck you? what do you have more questions about?

1) Entered into Evidence: Women religious respond to the Vatican investigation by Heather Grennan Gary, posted online November 24, 2009 and in the January 2010 issue (Vol. 75. No. 1, pp. 12-17).

This article represents a final report compiled from U.S. Catholic‘s recent survey of Catholic sisters. The survey, though acknowledge to be U.S. Catholic conducted its own “visitation” of sorts, and this final report compiles our findings. The “completely optional, unscientific online survey provided a forum for American women religious to assess the quality of their own lives, raise their concerns about the present and future religious life, and share their thoughts on the visitation process itself.”

Our sisters Angela Hibbard, IHM, and Mildred Baker, IHM, are quoted in the article.

2) Character Witnesses by Heidi Schlumpf, posted online November 24, 2009 and in the January 2010 issue (Vol. 75. No. 1, pp. 20-23).

This article offers the results of “an online survey of U.S. Catholic subscribers and website visitors about the Vatican visitation and doctrinal assessment of U.S. women religious elicited a record 1,700 responses and passionate, lengthy comments. Visitors came from all over the Internet-from both liberal church organizations and conservative Catholic blogs-to take the survey.”

3) The Sisters of Mercy aren’t McDonald’s by Sandra Schneiders, IHM, posted online November 24, 2009 and in the January 2010 issue ( (Vol. 75. No. 1, pp. 18-19)

If you read no other article explaining why Catholic sisters are responding the way they are, read this one. Sister Sandra Schneiders, whose sister I am proud to be, addresses two of the most oft-asked questions about the investigation of U.S. women religious:

• If religious have nothing to hide, why would they object to being investigated by the Vatican?
• Why should religious congregations be any more immune to surprise checks by the Vatican on their quality of life than a fast-food franchise is to a surprise check by the main office on the quality of its operations and products?

Sister Sandra offers analogies of our situation as women religious to ordinary situations that most people are familiar with. Again, a must read.

We look forward to your thoughts on these articles. What struck you? What do you have more questions about?

It has been a while since I’ve offered my thoughts on news items related to Catholic sisters and nuns. The story itself is unfortunate — Sister Mary Gabriel De Leon, a Franciscan sister, had her purse stolen while packing groceries in her car. Thankfully, Sister is okay, though understandably shaken up.

Beyond the story itself, there is much in the reporting of the story that fills me with a variety of emotions, from amused to perplexed. Here we go:

Headlines

Man Robs Nun, Earns Free Trip to Hell

I am rather fond of this headline even though it is theologically suspect.

Thief stole nun’s purse but not her faith

Not so fond of this one though nice attempt.

Quotable Quotes

“It’s worse than stealing candy from a baby.” – bystander

I’m not sure exactly what the parallel is here … nuns as helpless babies?

“Hal joins us live with reactions from the Sisters of the Convent.” – Fox

Granted, most folks don’t really know how to refer to us, our “religious garb”, or our dwelling places. Kudos to those who do try. This one was kind of a mash-up between how to name the sisters and how to identify their dwelling place.

“A Nun is robbed while fully dressed …” – KTLA TV

I’m sorry but this one just kills me. He of course finishes the sentence with “in a religious habit” but by then it’s just too late!

What I really like about this story is the story within the story. After the sister was robbed and later interviewed by the police for details, the officers decided to chip in to purchase Sister Mary a new purse, a scarf, and a gift card.

That earns them a free trip to heaven in my book.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). We’ll be keeping Sister Mary, her sisters, and the officers in our prayers. Right after prayer we’ll have our very first ever Food Podcast on the topic of Thanksgiving food, meal prayers, recipes, music, and more!

Here is a great blog post by Sister Rose Pacette, FSP, a Daughter of Saint Paul, called High on (religious) Life in National Catholic Reporter. Sister Rose attended a couple recent events on religious life. Here are a couple of quotes from her that I especially liked:

The vows are an extension of our baptism. The vows lift our spirits and set us free. Joyful simplicity, humble gratitude (from Notre Dame Sister M. Regina Robbins speaking on “Fruitful Poverty”)

“When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” (Don Helder Camera quoted by Sister Donna Markham, OP)

The National Catholic Reporter has a new article posted by Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, called Discerning Ministerial Religious Life Today (September 11, 2009). In this article, Sister Sandra helps explain why it is that all nuns do not wear a habit, live in a cloister, or pray the horarium. Essentially Sister Sandra is filling a gap in people’s experience of women religious. Many people have had experience of or heard about sisters who live a monastic form of religious life and sisters who live an apostolic or ministerial form of religious life. But it’s not always easy to explain how we got the two or how the two are similar and how they are dissimilar.

This essay is also a kind of continuation of a discussion on religious life by Sister Sandra in recent publications: the essay Why they stay(ed), the personal email that NCR published, We’ve given birth to a new form of religious life, and the address she gave to the IHM Congregation, God So Loved the World … Ministerial Religious Life in 2009.

In this latest piece, Sister Sandra, a member of my own IHM community, responds to the question, What is ‘apostolic Religious Life’? which, as she notes, has been answered though often times with misinformation. The question appears in various forms, often around three main questions about lifestyle:

“Is culturally conspicuous, uniform garb (habit), fixed group dwelling from which members exit only by necessity and from which non-members are excluded (enclosure, cloister), and a daily schedule including shared meals, work, and especially the oral recitation of prescribed texts and vocal prayers, e.g., divine office, litanies, at several fixed times a day (horarium) essential to Catholic Religious Life as such?” The short answer is “no.”

The article goes on to provide a longer answer contextualized within history, scripture and theology.

This is a very important piece of writing and I recommend that you take a read, especially if you are considering religious life or know someone who is. Use it as a starting point to explore some of the issues and insights that Sister Sandra has raised. Whether or not you agree with what she has written, she has done a good job at naming the significant issues that can create confusion and misinformation.

Discerning Ministerial Religious Life Today
(National Catholic Reporter, September 11, 2009)

Please read the article and then join in the conversation below. (NB: The conversation actually got started on another post here so I moved those comment over here.)

It’s like something out of a comic book — Nuns spy evil-wrongdoing in a quiet village and mobilize forces (“Wonder Twin powers ACTIVATE! Form of a holy vigilant!”) to swoop down from the heavens and accost said perpetrator to restore peace and tranquility to the land. “Hail, Sister Mary!!” shout the peasant people as the nuns drop the befuddled criminal at the doorstep of the jail.

I’m referring to the recent “quality” news reporting about two Catholic sisters who helped police catch a crook. Let me first say that I applaud and admire Sister Catarina da Silva, OSF, and Sister Connie Boulch, OSF, both Sisters of Saint Francis of the Holy Eucharist in Independence, Missouri. And yes, Mr. and Ms. Media Person, they have names. But don’t let a person’s name get in the way of reporting the facts of a nun running down a gun-toting madman.

Where was I? Oh yes, Sisters Catarina and Connie are awesome. They saw trouble and responded. My beef is not with them. Not at all. My beef is with those members of the media (not all!) who feel compelled to trivialize and belittle the lives of my Sisters so that they can link together as many ridiculous nun clichés as possible.

“Thou shalt not steal — especially within sight of a convent.” [Ironically the very next commandment is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor."]

“You can call it an act of God, or divine intervention. But, whatever you call it, one thing is clear: you don’t mess with nuns from the Sisters of Saint Francis.” [You can add to your list a blogging nun who finds this kind of reporting ridiculous and offensive.]

Sister Connie soon realized the man was not on a mission from God…. Not a man of the cloth, but a gun toting, tool wielding suspect who police think is responsible for two other burglaries in the area.” [It's just wrong, so wrong.]

And it doesn’t stop there. Bloggers and other social media folks have picked up on the story and had their fun. One blogger commented on the story next to which he posted a photo of a woman in sexy nun attire. Degrading on so many levels.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not adverse to a little good-natured fun with nuns. But much of this kind of reporting/writing dehumanizes the women who are nuns … reduces them to a laughable caricature, an object with no name, no dignity, no human agency. It makes me very sad to see people treated that way.

Enough of that. Let me tell you the real story — which some reporters did well at communicating, though others had it so buried in clichés that it was difficult to take seriously.

“He could have harmed us and he didn’t. Instead he chose to run, that tells me something about this young man,” said Sister Connie. (Fox News)

We’re in the business of saving souls,” said Sister Connie of the Sisters of St. Francis. “We’re not in the business of stopping crime.” … Sister Connie admits that the story is unusual and a bit humorous, but she says it’s also serious because it involves a young man who she and the rest of the sisters pray turns his life around. (Fox News)

“I will pray that his life changes so that he doesn’t come to the point when he needs to steal or he needs to break into people’s houses,” Sister Connie said. (Kansas City Star)

That, my friends, is the heart of the story. Two courageous women named Sister Catarina da Silva and Sister Connie Boulch who step up to the plate and act to protect the local community and to reach out to a troubled teenager. Two women who humbly but confidently redirect the cameras from themselves to the well-being of a young man named Cory whose dignity they did not forget. Two women who have the strength to challenge wrong-doing and the grace to believe in redemption.

Father James Martin, SJ, has written a fine response to Paul Rudnick’s article “Fun with Nuns” in The New Yorker (July 20, 2009 issue). Rudnick’s article covers his efforts to get a screenplay (that would eventually end up as “Sister Act”) produced. But his attitude toward and descriptions of nuns is more than “slightly repellent” as Father Martin writes, it’s disparaging and insulting. It illustrates in bold relief negative stereotypes of Catholic nuns and sisters.

Pondering a possible screenplay using nuns, Rudnick muses that they can be “dictatorial, sexually repressed and scary.”  A grumpy elderly nun at a convent gift store looks like a “bat” or a “long fossilized chimp.”  “’I hate this!’ the chimp yipped,” he writes about the elderly woman who has taken vows of “silence, poverty and chastity” (fact checkers–you missed a vow: obedience) and has led what even she describes a “hard life.”  Rudnick admits that the prioress of Regina Laudis, which he visits to do a full two days’ research, is “kind and helpful,” but most of the article depicts the nuns—scratch that, all nuns–as at best cartoonish, at worst absurd.  “’Nuns,’ I declared,” writes Rudnick about his efforts to cajole studio execs into considering them attractive, “I’d do ‘em!”  (Later the same execs wonder which nuns in the upcoming movie are “f—able.”)

The nuns referred to are the sisters of the Regina Laudis monastery (read the A Nun’s Life post about Mother Delores Hart From Hollywood to Benedictine Monastery).

Do read Paul Rudnick’s piece Fun with Nuns (the link is to an abstract of the article — need to register for full article) and James Martin’s response The New Yorker Has Its “Fun with Nuns”.

Thanks to Father James Martin, SJ, for this article – “Pope Hopes Excommunicated Nun Might Become Saint (America, July 9, 2009).

Mother Mary McKillop, the foundress of the Australian-based Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, was, in 1871, officially excommunicated by her local bishop, on the grounds that she “‘she had incited the sisters to disobedience and defiance.”  That same church leader, Bishop Sheil, had earlier invited her to work in Adelaide, where she and her sisters would eventually set up schools, a women’s shelter and an orphanage, among their many works….

In April of this year, in an extraordinary gesture, Bishop’s Sheil’s successor, the current archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, made a public apology to the Sisters for their foundress’s excommunication.  Standing before her statue, said that he was “profoundly ashamed of the Bishop’s actions in driving the Sisters out onto the streets.”  McKillop was beatified (the next-to-last step for canonization) by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

This is an interesting article in its own right but also in light of the swirling news about the Apostolic Visitation to some U.S. women’s religious communities. There is a great variety of speculation, study, interpretation, experience, and plain old ignorance about the Visitation. Sadly, some in the Catholic blogosphere have used this opportunity to slander individual Catholic sisters and nuns and congregations with accusations that sound pretty much like the ones Mother Mary MacKillop received. I am reminded of the words of Saint Augustine (which someone had posted elsewhere as a rebuke to slanderous comments) — “In essentials, unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”

I’d love to hear your comments about Father Martin’s piece, Pope Hopes Excommunicated Nun Might Become Saint. The article goes a lot deeper than the headline suggests and includes the fabulous line “Musty stories of dead nuns?” How can you resist wanting to know how Father Martin slipped that line in??

Happy Nunday! Today’s Nunday photo reminds me of the countless times I sprained my ankles playing basketball! “Fortunately” I had a coach that wouldn’t take some little sprained ankle as an excuse to not play. He’d load up a big bucket full of ice and snow and make me stick my leg in there until it was so numb that I couldn’t feel the pain (or my sneaker) and could get back out on the court. Ahhh, good times.

I hope and pray that Sister Mary Grace did not have to do that with her sprains. Sister Mary Grace, a member of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, sprained both of her ankles and was unable to walk up the stairs to the church. “Thankfully,” writes Elizabeth (who submitted the picture), “we had a ride available to her.” Also in the picture is Sister Elizabeth Ann.

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their mission is as follows:

“We are consecrated women first, and so our foremost model is Mary, the Mother of God. Inspired by the charism of St. Dominic, our prayer life comes first so that our apostolate overflows from a contemplation nourished before the Eucharist.”

Blessings to Sister Mary Grace — we hope you are back on your feet! (though it looks like the ride might have been fun!)

Check out Psychology Today magazine this month for an interview with me about being a Catholic sister and about A Nun’s Life. It’s called “Mass Communication: God connects through a new medium” by Jessica Pilot in Psychology Today (May-June 2009).

While I’m not happy that my name is misspelled — VIEIRA, not VIERA — I am thrilled that they put the photo of me in full regalia on the front cover of the magazine.

Nah … I’m kidding, that’s not my habit although if it were, I’m pretty sure no one would mess with me or dare to suggest a nun stereotype in my presence.

There’s nothing more titillating than a headline like “Lap dancing nun to perform for cardinals and bishops”. A clever headline? Perhaps. But a fair one? No. The headline plays off the worst of stereotypes (and fantasies) about women, authority, and relationships between nuns and clergy.

The headline introduces an article in the UK newspaper Telegraph. “Lap Dancing Nun to perform for cardinals and bishops” (April 3, 2009) includes the more accurate subtitle “An Italian lap dancer turned nun is to perform a religious dance in front of an audience of Roman Catholic cardinals and bishops.”

“So what’s wrong with an attention-grabbing headline and a little fun, Sister Julie? It’s just a headline after all.”

Yeah, yeah. It’s not that I’m against provocative headlines, one of my more recent ones being Nuns, Sex, and Knitting. But I think there’s got to be some integrity in what is written. The fact is that the “lap dancing nun” is a Catholic Sister named Anna Nobili who expressly says that she has given up her lap dancing (and other activities). So she is not a “lap dancing nun” as the headline incorrectly states. But by the time we get to the subtitle and to the actual article (which continues playing with the stereotypes mentioned above), it’s too late. We’ve got an image in our mind that’s difficult to remove even after we’ve read the article. And the fact of the matter is, many Internet readers never make it past a headline (which is why we try so hard to make them click-worthy).

So what’s wrong with this kind of editorial choice of headlines? A few extra clicks are gained at the expense of reinforcing negative stereotypes about Catholic sisters and nuns.

I am not impressed.

The Flying Nun is an icon in many people’s imagination — whether Catholic or non-Catholic, whether you saw the originals or just the re-runs. The Flying Nun was a sitcomin the late 1960s starring a young comic Sally Field as Sister Bertrille, a novice with the Daughters of Charity who could fly. Admittedly I dismissed the Flying Nun image as an unfortunate stereotype that we Catholic sisters and nuns still have to tangle with. Inevitably I’m asked, once people find out I’m a nun, if I can fly. The answer (not counting biking or driving) is um, no.

But I think I have had a conversion, or at least the beginnings of one. This morning I read an op-ed piece that made me proud to share the word “nun” with the Flying Nun. The article “Fear of Flying Nuns – a feminist defense of a 1960s girlhood TV hero” was written by Melody Clark for OpEdNews.com. In the article Clark wonders aloud why it’s perfectly acceptable to have a flying Kansas farmboy (Superman, Smallville) but not a flying young female nun. (Her commentary here is exquisite.) While I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the article, it did give me a different way to think about the image of the Flying Nun.

Here’s a snippet from the article.

And Sister Bertrille was no “owned woman” like the female lead in I Dream of Jeannie (constantly clad in provocative attire while she refers to her male companion as “master”).  Or a housewife who was regularly “ordered” to do things by her husband as was Samantha on Bewitched. Sister Bertrille (whose “real name” was Elsie Ethrington) was not a nun but a novice and therefore not yet “married to Christ”. The only man in her life was her companion of choice (the wonderfully harassed while continually love struck Carlos Ramirez). Her life was her own. Her career was her choice. She owed her gift of flight to no one but destiny.

Quite simply, The Flying Nun is a sweet, lovely allegory for personal empowerment (especially for little girls … and for those of us who occasionally aspire to think like them)….

I encourage you to read the whole article which critiques reviewers who have cast aside The Flying Nun as “the worst TV show of all time”. Clark redeems the show as well as the image of The Flying Nun and in effect reclaims Sister Bertrille as a young woman who can inspire us even today.