The Oblate Sisters of Providence are a great group of women religious. I am honored to know many of them including my friend Sister Marcia Hall, OSP.

Sister Virginie Fish

Sister Marcia Hall

I’ve known Sister Marcia since before either of us were fully professed sisters. Now she’s the vocation director of her community and I’m doing vocations work too! After Sister Maxine was on Michel Martin’s program “Tell Me More” on NPR, Sister Marcia sent us a link to when she and Sister Virginie Fish, OSP, were on the same program back in 2008. It was an awesome show. They totally rocked it!

By all means, listen to the program! Sisters Marcia and Virginie do a wonderful job explaining what apostolic religious life is and well communicate the joy and adventure of religious life. You can also check out the main OSP website and the OSP vocation website.

What struck you about the interview?

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Join the sisters for evening prayer tonight at 6 p.m. Central Time and every Monday through Thursday at http://anunslife.org/live

Our very own Sister Maxine Kollasch, IHM, was interviewed on NPR program “Tell Me More” with host Michel Martin. A couple weeks ago, the program’s producer found Sister Maxine via A Nun’s Life Ministry and asked to interview her along with author Leora Tanenbaum, an observant Jew, and the Reverend Renita Weems, a minister ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The conversation was on women’s leadership in religion, though, as we soon discovered, it was steered specifically towards the “glass ceiling” and the ways in which women do not have access to the same roles or experiences that men do. Listen to the 15 minute segment by clicking the play button below (if the player doesn’t appear, here’s the direct link to NPR website).

This was an interesting topic, to be sure, and a timely one as March was Women’s History Month. It was fascinating to see the topic addressed across three different religious traditions. Sister Maxine did a great job, especially since she found out only moments before the show that she’d be asked about women’s ordination in the Catholic Church. Not an easy topic to address! But Sister Maxine did a great job and spoke well.

I think there’s an assumption among some that if ordination were open to women that Catholic sisters and nuns would of course take that “next” step. But that’s not the case at all. Ordination is not a “next” step or a “higher” calling, as if somehow an advanced progression along the path of holiness. However God calls a person is the way of holiness for them, no better or worse than any other calling. We have to unseat this assumption in our Catholic imagination because it does an injustice to God and to each one of us.

There’s also another assumption that the only way to fully lead within the Catholic Church is to be a priest. This is a tough assumption to address because on the one hand we know there are many ways to lead within the church. There are many leadership roles for women and men, lay and ordained. On the other hand, the structure of church leadership is built on ordination, specifically the ordination of men to the priesthood. For many women and men, this is a conundrum. And that’s an understatement.

Think about we as a church have thought about calling, especially with the Second Vatican Council’s affirmation of the universal call to holiness. What does your own call to holiness mean in terms of how you relate to everybody in the church? What questions does that raise for you? What surprises or insights?

Just got word that Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, will be a panelist on the NPR “On Point” program today, Wednesday, July 8. The topic is “U.S. Catholic Nuns and the Vatican” which will probably include discussion about the Apostolic Visitation. One of the other panelists will be Mother Mary Quentin Sheridan, RSM (Religious Sister of Mercy), who currently leads the Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious, one of two women’s religious leadership groups in the United States (the other is the Leadership Council of Women Religious).

Also on the panel is Sister Mary Traupman, CDP (Sisters of Divine Providence), an attorney who helps senior citizens with legal work, and Laurie Goodstein, national religion correspondent for The New York Times. Goodstein wrote a recent article “U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny” (July 1, 2009) which included a misquote of Sister Sandra when it stated she “urged fellow nuns not to participate/cooperate in the study” — Sister Sandra has requested a correction.

Check your local station for the broadcast time of “On Point” is aired. You can also listen live on the “On Point” website 10am – Noon, 7 – 9pm (ET). The program will likely be available on the website after the broadcast too.

Last night I went to a free taping of the National Public Radio show Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me at the outdoor Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in Chicago. The entertaining weekly news quiz show is hosted by Peter Sagal with scorekeeper Carl Kasell. The panelists were Mo Raca, Paula Poundstone, and Tom Bodett. They also had on the show the legendary baseball player Moose Skowron who today is a community relations representative for the White Sox.

As if all that was not entertaining enough, Chicago was beseiged by rain for the whole day and night yesterday. Having arrived early to get seats, my nun and I crouched beneath umbrellas, Starbucks in hand, for a good long time until the kindly people of Millennium Park allowed us to come up front where only the first few rows had some shelter from the rain. The yearly recording in Millennium Park normally sees 10,000 plus people, but this night it was just a few hundred wet but friendly people.

Moose Skowron was a delight and told story after story. He made the 1961 Yankees team come alive and his comparisons between players today and players in his day was hilarious. If I had my own radio show, I’d be sure to have him on.

Hmmm … if I did have my own radio show, who else would you like to see me interview and why? Sky’s the limit! Respond below in the comments section.