St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774-1821

Dear Sister Elizabeth Ann,

Just a short note to say that I’m a big fan of yours! It’s not just because your feast day is on my birthday, which it is. Or that my momma’s name is also Elizabeth Ann (BTW she’s a huge fan too).

I really admire your sense of adventure, or whatever spirit it was that allowed you to say “yes” to God in so many different ways. Raised an Anglican in New York, you married and went to Italy with your hub and one of your five kids. (My mom and dad also raised five kids).

It must have been very difficult when your husband died in Italy. Yet even then, you did not lose faith. Even then, you turned to God. Maybe the challenge of being a single parent led you to such a deep desire to help others. Back in New York, you became a Catholic and raised your kids.

And then you began a religious order! Way to say “yes” to that one – the Sisters of Charity, Emmitsburg, Maryland, was the first order of women religious that originated in the United States! (My congregation was also founded in the U.S.!) Not only did you and your sisters help many poor young women by providing free Catholic education, but you left a legacy that’s still vibrant nearly 200 years later!

Throughout the day today, I’m going to pray in these words you wrote to a good friend in a letter in 1810:

“Faith lifts the staggering soul on one side, hope supports it on the other, experience says it must be and love says let it be.”

Thanks for the many ways you said “yes” to God, Sister Elizabeth Ann!

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Icame across this article yesterday about Prof. Thompson, one of my fav historians! Through her work, she tells the stories of U.S. women religious and how they have shaped U.S. culture and society. Plus she’s a lively writer–she makes history come alive! I am grateful to her and all historians who help to share accurate, authentic stories about sisters!

Sister Julie and I were delighted to have Prof. Thompson join us on a live podcast last year. To hear a recording of the conversation, go to the In Good Faith webpage.

Are there sisters you know whose stories should be told? Please share your stories here and on the A Nun’s Life Discussion Forum

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AS093 Ask Sister podcast published on November 24, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. This is a Special Edition on Saints, holiness, and joy. The nuns are joined by Catholic superstars Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, and Father James Martin, SJ.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.
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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Sister Sandra Schneiders

• What is the Scriptural basis for the saints?
• In iconography and in various visual renderings, the saints are often pictured with some kind of symbol that speaks to something about their life — Teresa of Avila is pictured with a dove and quill, Saint Joseph with carpentry tools. Centuries from now, what symbol would you hope would be associated with you?
• What does holiness mean in general as well as in the ups and downs of our daily life?
• What was it like first getting to  know the author of the Fourth Gospel?
• Check out Sister Sandra’s new book Prophets in Their Own Country: Women Religious Bearing Witness to the Gospel in a Troubled Church

Father James Martin

• What role do saints play in our prayers?
• Is it considered a miracle that some saints do not decompose after dying?
• Isn’t holiness a pretty serious thing? What role do joy, humor, and laughter play in the spiritual life?
• What’s the deal with relics?
• What advice would you give to people who want to live a saintly life?
• Check out Father Jim’s new book Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS092 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 17, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: call and dread in discernment, a novelist seeks info on real-life nuns, ministry to and with children, cooking and cleaning nuns, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.
Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• The work of discernment: call and dread. Really?
• Novelist asks about nuns in childcare ministries, and Sister Camille Brouillard responds by describing what it was like to minister to children with AIDS.
• I found a description of sisters and nuns on a diocesan website that describes their lives in terms of cooking and housekeeping and wanting to be loved and, oh yeah, some prayer too. What’s up with that?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

What’s up with the news coverage of Anita Caspary?

Caspary, a luminary in religious life died at age 95 on October 5. She was a great woman, scholar, and leader. Her faithfulness to the call of the Second Vatican Council and her love of the gospel are impressive. Anita Caspary had integrity. Too bad that some of the recent news articles about her don’t.

The headlines give the first clue. Here’s the headline from a recent New York Times article: “Anita Caspary, Nun Who Led Breakaway From Church, Dies at 95.” A similar headline appears in the Washington Post: “‘Rebel nun’ Anita Caspary, leader of breakaway Los Angeles order, dies at 95.”

Breakaway? From the church? Really? In the 1960s, Caspary served in leadership for the Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters in Los Angeles. The congregation took seriously the Vatican II call for the renewal of religious life. They began to make changes accordingly – in daily prayer times, in religious dress, in their types and locations of ministry, etc. (And they weren’t the only ones. Sisters across the U.S. were moving in similar directions.) But the archbishop of Los Angeles objected to the changes. And when the sisters didn’t stop, he retaliated.

Ultimately, Caspary and about 300 other sisters chose to leave the congregation and begin a new, non-canonical community. To my way of thinking, they didn’t “breakaway.” There wasn’t a “schism,” as the NYT article characterized it. The sisters left an oppressive, unfair situation. They did so after much deliberation and prayer. And their departure wasn’t from “the church” but from an abuse of power by some in formal roles of authority in the church.

Compare those headlines with this one, from the National Catholic Reporter: “Anita Caspary, religious visionary, dies in Los Angeles: ‘Integrity’ moved her community to sever canonical ties to church.” A great headline and a good article.

As I read the articles, I gave thanks for Caspary. I celebrate her life and her legacy to religious, the church and the world.

May you rest in peace, Anita Caspary.

Anita Caspary published a book in 2003, Witness to Integrity, that describes the events that took place during her time in leadership in the 1960s. It’s an interesting and informative account!

Rock star! That’s how National Catholic Reporter described the response of Catholic sisters to Sr. Sandra after her talk last Saturday in Notre Dame, Indiana. Rock on, Sandra!

Sandra’s insights into religious life are music to the ears! Her rendition of religious life past, present and future is one of the clearest and most articulate that I’ve ever heard. The NCR article does a good job of highlighting her key points.

I especially like Sandra’s explanation of why the works of Catholic sisters have changed over time. She describes how the changes in ministry affect the way that Catholic sisters live, what they wear, how they pray, etc. She also offers a compelling vision of religious life for the future – and there will be a future! (She opened her talk with, “Reports of the demise of religious life, to paraphrase Mark Twain, are greatly exaggerated.”)

I appreciate how Sandra links the past to the present, then suggests directions for the future that are already emerging. Here’s an excerpt about that from the NCR article:

Increasingly, religious women have taken their expertise into ministries that, while still in continuity with those of the past and arising directly out of their communities’ charisms, are not ones most Catholics tend to associate with “the Sisters.” Schneiders grouped them into four “clusters”:

• Social justice ministers focused on systemic or structural change, whose “theological glue” tends to be Catholic social teaching. These include social scientists, activists, lawyers, political and community organizers, economists and sociologists, urban farmers and legislators.

• Ministers who work directly with the victims of social injustice or natural disasters, whose theological glue is deep compassion for the suffering Body of Christ. These include chaplains, social workers, counselors, literacy tutors, providers of child care or elder care, managers of low-income housing, those who work in homeless shelters or with victims of torture or sex trafficking.

• Intellectuals, scholars and artists, whose theological glue is faith seeking understanding in our time. These include composers, performers, journalists, writers, teachers and researchers in theology, philosophy and the sciences.

• Ministers who address the thirst for meaning and transcendence, with the theological glue of spiritual nourishment and growth. They work in spirituality centers, campus ministry, spiritual direction, retreats, holistic healing, or as popular writers or speakers on the lecture and workshop circuit.

I encourage you to read the article and to share your responses to it!

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We have a special guest blog post from A Nun’s Life community member Joyce Elaine, who reflects on the heart and sole of discernment.

There are sandals that I wear that my closest friends affectionately call my “Jesus sandals.”

They are white and strappy with gold accents, and they do make me think of the sandals that Jesus is often depicted in. They are a special pair in my collection of “Jesus shoes.” I wear them to Mass, and almost always get asked about my discernment there. I wear them to family gatherings and again, I get asked about religious life: “What things can you do as a nun?” ” Do you go to school to become a nun?” I wear them where I pray with my church and sometimes with the nuns I know.

I also have a pair of black shoes that I wear on cold, wet, muddy, or rainy days. When I walk around with friends, the questions still pour out. “Can a nun be an electrical engineer?” “Is a nun allowed to keep her birth/baptismal name?” I also tend to wear these shoes when I am feeling sick or worried. They remind me that I’m carried by God.

My running shoes are also Jesus shoes. I wear them when I run, when I take walks, when I take bike rides, and when I work out. They are what I wear when I feel closest to God–when I am just myself.

What do your “Jesus shoes” look like? Please share your Jesus shoe stories in the comment box below!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community and the nuns for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone).

Here in the Chicago area, we’re getting snow, snow, and more snow! Plus the winds are whipping around, so that when I look out the window, it’s like looking at a snow-globe that’s just been shaken. I’m not real fond of snow, but I love to engage with nature. So this morning, which BTW is World Day for Consecrated Life, I put on a ton of warm clothes and went outside with Sister Julie.

If there are religious sisters, brothers, priests or other consecrated persons who have been an important part of your life, we’d love to hear about them! Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “nun”? Risk-takers? Innovators? Entrepreneurs?

The Oblate Sisters of Providence -- Mother Mary Lange, the founder of this religious community, is another foremother you should know! www.oblatesisters.com

The more I study the history of sisters, the more I see the truth of those images. A number of scholars are helping bring those images to light. One is Margaret Susan Thompson, a historian at Syracuse University. In her work, she shows how risk taking and innovation, as well as lots of persistence, are part of the very nature of religious life.

Sister Julie and I often talk about religious life as an adventure, and history helps us see that it always has been!

Here are some examples that Prof. Thompson uses in her discussion about religious life in her article “Discovering Foremothers.” (To listen to a 25-min based on this article, click here.)

What examples come to mind for you?

Mary Ward, [a] seventeenth-century Englishwoman … founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a society she envisioned as a female counterpart to the Jesuits: without habits, convents, or fealty to local bishops. [She] was imprisoned by one Pope and who walked hundreds of miles to Rome to win the patronage of another and whose descendants did not … [gain] permission to acknowledge her as their founder until the 1800.

Katharine Drexel, an American … used the millions of dollars left to her use by her banker father (a partner of J. P. Morgan) to found and fund the works of a community dedicated solely to “Indians and Colored People” and who, because her father authorized that only she receive the income from his estate and only for the duration of her natural life, managed to survive until the age of 97 so as to get as much of that income as possible.

Sister Julie and I are delighted to have Prof. Thompson as our guest on “In Good Faith” tomorrow, Thursday, at 7 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Hope you can join us!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. FOR TONIGHT ONLY we’ll be one hour earlier than usual at 5 p.m. CST (your time zone). Join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

At the Conference of the History of Women Religious today I attended a presentation by Dr. Carmen Mangion of the University of London. She presented the project of her colleage Dr. Caroline Bowden. The project is called Who Were the Nuns? and it is a prosopographical study of the English convents in exile in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Scene from the Painted Life of Mary Ward. Mary Ward and some of the first seven Companions setting sail for Flanders.

Who Were the Nuns? project is “a comprehensive study of the membership of the English convents in exile. That is, the period between the opening of the first English convent in Brussels to the nuns’ return to England as a result of the French Revolution and associated violence. Most were enclosed convents, in theory cut off from the outside world. However in practice the nuns were not isolated and their contacts and networks spread widely.

Why did the nuns have to go into exile? Well, Catholic nuns, monks, and clergy were not exactly welcome in England at the time. In fact monasteries and convents were forcibly disbanded, and it was illegal to establish any new ones. (See Wikipedia on Dissolution of the Monasteries for more information).

As a result, “vast numbers of Catholics left their home country for the continent including many men and women religious and men and women with a religious vocation. Some of them found a new haven in Spain, Portugal, Italy or Bavaria, but northern France and the Southern Netherlands were particularly appealing to these Catholics in exile. The English Carthusians were the first to settle themselves on the continent in 1559, later followed by many other religious communities of men and women. Forty years later the first ‘English convent’ for English nuns was founded in Brussels. About a dozen others were to follow in the next fifty years, most of them enclosed and contemplative, but often hosting prestigious boarding schools for children of the English Catholic elite.” (source)

Dr. Bowden found that “twenty two convents were founded on the continent and around 4000 women were professed. The convents became significant cultural centres, fostering the education of Catholic girls, making collections of books, commissioning works of art and maintaining substantial buildings.” The sisters, and their legacy, survived despite exile, wars, and natural disasters.

It is a fascinating study and project and I hope to learn more about it. I encourage you to check out Who Were the Nuns? project website.

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

In May 2010, some 800 international women religious superior generals met in Rome under the auspices of the International Union of General Superiors (UISG) to ponder the twin themes of mysticism and prophecy. The following  statement was issued after the conference and “aims to express the spirit, intent and direction of the organization for the next three years through a series of public commitments” (Thomas C. Fox for NCRonline.org). Here is the statement in full:

“I know the fountain well that flows and runs… though it is night”
(St John of the Cross)

THE FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IS IN ITS MYSTICAL AND PROPHETIC FORCE

“My soul is thirsting for God, the living God” Ps 42, 3

During this Assembly:

We, 800 superiors general coming from 87 countries, have quenched our thirst together at the Fountain of life, the God of Jesus Christ, source of our joy, our hope and our strength.

We commit ourselves to:

• Rediscover anew and listen to the Fountain which speaks in our hearts, through others and through creation.
• Draw water from the Source of our charism and rediscover the dynamism of our first call.
• Taste and share together the Word and the Bread.
• Promote a constant dialogue between the Word of God and the events which happen in our world.
• Invite others to come and drink at the Fountain.

“If you consider me a believer… come and dwell in my house” Acts 16, 15

Like Lydia, a listening and faith filled woman, we are invited to open our hearts and our homes and to remember the living waters of our baptism.

We commit ourselves to:

• Create a new style of mystical and prophetic life, open and hospitable, inclusive, respectful of differences and acknowledging the richness of other cultures and religions.
• Recreate the art of living in common, marked by deep human relationships, a listening heart, empathy and non-violence in order to be witnesses of Gospel values.
• Focus on initial and on-going formation in order to unify the mystical and prophetic dimensions of our consecrated life.
• Live in harmony with the whole Cosmos and to dwell respectfully on this Earth.

“Put out into the deep… and cast your nets…” Luke 5,4

We have become aware that we should not fear the night of the deep waters.

We commit ourselves to:

• Courageously identify the “nights” of the Church, of society and of our congregations.
• Discover the sparks of light hidden in the heart of violence, poverty and the lack of meaning.
• To open our eyes to discover new paths of light in the darkness of our world: in the precarious situation of women, the existential restlessness of the youth, the consequences of war and natural catastrophes and the extreme poverty which leads to violence.
• Offer as consecrated women a ministry of compassion and healing.
• Build inter-congregational networks at local and international levels, involving the laity in order to initiate different projects and to work for the transformation of unjust structures.
• Go beyond the frontiers of our respective charisms and to unite ourselves in order to offer a mystical and prophetic word to our world.
• Engage in truthful dialogue with the hierarchical Church at all levels in order to achieve a greater recognition of the role of women.

As Mary, let us remain awake and vigilant,
constantly searching for the Fountain that flows,
certain that It will be found, although it is night.

Click here for a PDF of the statement as well as more information on the 2010 UISG Conference.

What strikes you about this statement? What is something that you hear in this that you can incorporate in your own life? What does this say to you about the possibility of religious life?

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Catholic? Feminist? That’s right. Catholic sisters and nuns were some of the first feminists in the U.S. and across the globe.

I just read an interesting post To “write women back into history,” include the first feminists: Women Religious by Linda Stamato, co-director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and a member of the graduate faculty at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University

Now before we go on here, let me clarify “feminist” because too often it is a word that is used to polarize and demonize women. As Megan Sweas, a young Catholic and feminist pointed out in an article she wrote last year for U.S. Catholic, feminists and feminism is often dismissed (usually with some amount of hostility, I might add) as “too radical, man-hating, or pro-choice”. I think she sums it up well and gives a good view of the challenges of and the connections between being both Catholic and feminist. I encourage you to read her article Catholic and feminist: You got a problem with that? (January 2009, Volume 74, Number 1; pages 23-25).

Back to Stamato’s article:

Roman Catholic Sisters built and managed hospitals, orphanages, and charitable institutions that served millions of people in America long before similar positions were open to women.  But Women’s History Month rarely mentions them or their contributions.  It’s time it did. The scope and quality of the institutions they created and sustained, and, indeed, their acts of mercy, manifest courage, conviction and selflessness, have been nothing short of extraordinary.

She goes on to mention some of the contributions of Catholic sisters and nuns which were detailed in Resolution 441 by U.S. House of Representatives. She writes of this resolution that it is “an action that applauds the social, cultural, and political contributions of Catholic Sisters in the United States, while at the same time recognizing that these women have led community lives dedicated to prayer and service, ‘fearlessly and often sacrificially committing their personal lives to teaching, healing, and social action.’”

Stamato also notes the traveling exhibit Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America which celebrates the history of American Sisters in the Roman Catholic Church and was created by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

There are other great stories of Catholic sisters and nuns in her article. She concludes saying,

On the 30th Anniversary of Women’s History Month, can’t we give new and special meaning to the theme, “Writing Women Back into History,” and include the first feminists? They deserve the recognition, this month, and every month, for what they have given: selfless service to those in need of an education, health care, support and inspiration. And for what they continue to do, much as they have done since they began their work centuries earlier. Truly, these are women of history. It is their lives too, their work too, their exercise of leadership, their legacy and their continued works of charity, generosity, caring and mercy that this month should also seek to acknowledge and respect.

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Since the Apostolic Visitation of U.S. Women Religious was announced, U.S. Catholic magazine has been researching, writing about, and publishing articles and blog posts about the inquiry itself and the responses of women religious themselves as well as from the Catholic community.

U.S. Catholic has pulled together a collection of all these materials on their website at http://www.uscatholic.org/womenreligious.

We’ve also done some blog posts on the topic of the Apostolic Visitation.

Though there hasn’t been much in the news lately about the inquiry into our life as women religious in the U.S., the process is still underway. I’m not certain but I think the process is now at the point of beginning to select which communities will receive an on-site visit. More later as info is made public. For now, please continue to keep U.S. women religious in your prayers as well as Mother Clare Millea, ASCJ, and Cardinal Rodé and all who are part of the inquiry.

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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?

Happy Friday! I can hardly believe that we are already in the later part of October. You know what that means … Halloween is creeping up on us, slowly but surely and spookily. For A Nun’s Life that also means addressing the oft-asked question this time of year: Is it appropriate for me or my child to wear a nun’s habit as a Halloween costume? Sister Maxine and I will be taking this question head on during today’s “Ask Sister” portion of Nun News Roundup.

Here’s today’s lineup:

• 

  Newly-minted saint Sister Jeanne Jugan

  Pope Benedict XVI canonized Sister Jeanne Jugan

• Nuns swing hammers, hang wallboard to rebuild homes hit by Katrina
• Women religious take the podium at Africa synod of bishops
• U.S. women religious supported by sister sisters in Asia
• The Mysterious Sister X – an article in Commonweal Magazine
  Interviewing Mirabai Starr on the Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila

Join us for all the news that’s fit to broadcast this week about nuns!

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Today
12 p.m. Central Time / UTC-5

Join in on the conversation during the live broadcast by listening and chatting in our chat room.

Today’s post continues a conversation from the last few days about Sister Sandra Schneiders’ writing. Sister Sandra has written and presented much on Religious Life. To each endeavor she brings herself and the variety of “coordinates” from which she speaks: a Catholic woman, an IHM Sister, an internationally recognized scholar in Scripture and in Religious Life, Professor Emerita at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.

When addressing topic it’s not always easy (or desirable) for an author to speak only from one “coordinate”. In this context we’re talking about the specific issue of Religious Life, which is my lived experience and also the lived experience of my IHM Sister Sandra. It’s not always easy or even possible to separate oneself from the subject of inquiry.

Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson, known as “Peggy” here at A Nun’s Life, has graciously given us permission to post an essay she wrote on this topic. Click on the link below to view a PDF of her essay.

Concentric Circles of Sisterhood

Introduction to Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, Michigan (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997)

by Margaret Susan Thompson, PhD

Associate Professor of History and Political Science at Maxwell School of Syracuse University

A note about the use of “feminist” in Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary … The IHM congregation has a long history of what today we would call “feminism.” The word has many different meanings. It’s rooted in the belief that all people deserve respect, equality, and justice. Many women around the world lack these things and suffer as a result. In this regard, feminists are women and men who desire a world where the fullness of life is available to all people. “Feminism” also refers to a perspective. For much of recorded history, the experience of women was articulated by men. Feminists are women who articulate their own experience as women, and this can yield a perspective on events, such as the birth of a child or the decision to enter religious life, that may be very different from the perspective of men.

There’s more information about the feminist perspective in Dr. Thompson’s introduction to Building Sisterhood.

Sister Sandra Schneiders’ essay on U.S. Women Religious and the Apostolic Visitation is a must-read essay for all Catholics, all people interested in Catholic sisters and nuns and/or in U.S. history, and definitely all those discerning religious life.

The National Catholic Reporter has just published an essay by Sister Sandra Sandra Schneiders, IHM, called Why They Stay(ed) (NCR, August 17, 2009). The essay addresses two sets of questions concerning U.S. women religious that are “roiling the waters” in and outside the church today:

1. Why are religious disturbed about the apostolic visitation?
2. What is the real motivation for this investigation?

What follows is the most lucid discussions on the topic of the Visitation that I’ve encountered. Not only does Sister Sandra address how the Apostolic Visitation is being received by many U.S. sisters and nuns as well as many priests, men religious, and lay people and why it’s disturbing, but she explains what the situation of women religious is and has been since around the Second Vatican Council.

I have to re-read the essay and will offer more thoughts. For now just want to make sure you have seen it. Please bring your questions, comments, and thoughts about this to the comment section below.

Surely, I thought, this must be a joke as I read a news headline saying that the word “nun” has been dropped from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. But it’s no joke. Lisa Saunders, a mom in Ireland, discovered that the new edition of the dictionary had dropped a bunch of words. Upon closer examination, she discovered that a number of Christian-related words were dropped including, “abbey, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, and vicar” (source: Catholic News Agency).

Interestingly, some of the new words in the latest edition of the dictionary reflect cultural shifts today such as the growth of new media. The dictionary now has words such as “blog” and “MP3 player”. A clever headline in the UK, notes the shift in the dictionary: “Clergyman blasts Oxford Junior Dictionary for replacing words ‘saint’ and ‘devil’ with ‘celebrity’ and ‘vandalism’” (source: The Mail).

So how are we to communicate our faith, our very selves, to children when the words we use no longer are definable? Will kids think that if it’s not in the dictionary, it’s not a real word or that it is somehow antiquated, no longer relevant?

Sister Patty Fawkner, SGS, a “Good Sams” Sister, has written a compelling piece about the disappearance of the word “nun” from the dictionary. Although I would like to quote every word of Where has the nun gone? because it’s a good piece, I’ll just highlight one significant quote and encourage you to read the rest of the piece.

Sister Patty wonders aloud in the piece if the removal of the word “nun” and related words is trying to say “something about the diminishment, in terms of numbers and influence, of various religious congregations.” A sobering thought, indeed, but Sister Patty doesn’t leave us there. She goes on and sheds new light on the meaning of declining numbers, showing that our response as nuns need not reflect the doom and gloom that the media associates with declining numbers. She writes:

It occurred to me, then, that the very decline of religious life carries an invitation for religious to live their lives with even greater integrity. Religious life, after all, is meant to be lived on the prophetic margin of both church and society, where status – even junior dictionary status – counts for very little but where seeking God and inclusive and compassionate love are intrinsic.

And religious life makes an invaluable contribution as it witnesses to the possibility of community in a world so desperate for relationships.

Further, religious life can offer to a sex-saturated world the example of celibacy that also promotes human flourishing. I am not speaking of life-denying celibacy, but that celibacy which believes that some people love best – deeply, generously and joyously – by making Jesus Christ the very centre of their life rather than any other person or project. (Source: Sisters of the Good Samaritan website)

Since the news of the Apostolic Visitation to U.S. Communities of Women Religious, there has been much discussion and speculation about the Visitation and about the Catholic sisters leading the Visitation. One of those sisters is Sister Eva-Maria Ackerman, FSGM. Sister Ackerman is the spokesperson for Mother Mary Clare Millea, ASCJ, who was appointed Apostolic Visitator by the Vatican.

Sister Ackerman was recently profiled in the St. Louis Review, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis where Sister Ackerman has been director of the Office of Consecrated Life.

Sister Ackerman discusses her new role as spokesperson for the Apostolic Visitation.

“I’m grateful for having 12-plus years here to prepare me to understand how important the visitation is,” Sister Eva-Maria said. “I’ve learned a lot from religious, and I’ve been inspired by the generosity and dedication of so many and their witness. I’ve seen how even more important religious life is for the Church, and therefore an initiative like the one that is going to be taking place, with its intended goal of renewing the life of women religious, will only strengthen the Church. Religious life is really a gift in the heart of the Church, and the stronger, the more vibrant religious life is, the more vibrant the life of the Church.”

“I am in awe of what women religious have been able to do despite declining numbers and a higher median age. The communities are still vibrant in a lot of ways, but all of us can grow and renew with great energy. Nothing is impossible with God in this regard.”

I look forward to getting to know Sister Ackerman and Mother Millea as they begin this significant endeavor. Let us pray for both sisters and their work and for all communities of women religious in the U.S.

The Vatican has just announced an Apostolic Visitation “in order to look into the quality of the life” of women religious in the United States. The announcement was made public in a news conference at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on January 30.

At the news conference, Sister Eva-Maria Ackerman, FSGM, of the Alton Franciscans (Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George) announced that Cardinal Franc Rodé (the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life), appointed Mother Mary Clare Millea, ASCJ, superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as Apostolic Visitator. In this role, Mother Millea will oversee the process of visiting and studying apostolic women religious communities (not cloistered or contemplative communities) and then submit a report to the Cardinal on “women’s apostolic religious life in the United States and on each of the congregations assessed.” Although there is no deadline for completing the Visitation and submitting a report, Mother Millea hopes to complete the task by 2011.

Sister Ackerman, who is Mother Millea’s spokesperson, outlined the process of the Apostolic Visitation: “First, Mother Clare will solicit voluntary input from the superiors general through inviting them to make personal visits with her in Rome or in the United States,” she said. “During the second stage, the major superiors in the United States will be asked for information such as statistics, activities and community practices. Selected on-site visits will be made during the third stage.” (Catholic News Service)

Says Mother Mary Clare Millea of the task ahead:

“I know that the object of this Visitation is to encourage and strengthen apostolic communities of women religious, for the simple reason that these communities are integral to the entire life of the Catholic Church, in the United States and beyond.”

The website of Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious in the United States has more information about the Visitation including the following:

• approach and goals of the Apostolic Visitation
• reference materials and news
• frequently asked questions

As I learn more about the Apostolic Visitation, I’ll be sure to let you know.

The calling to be a nun is a pretty amazing thing. It’s a real adventure because it is always full of twists and turns and the unexpected. You never know where the Spirit will lead you. Being a nun is also pretty countercultural — we live in community, we hold all things in common, and we are celibate — all these things are meant to help us be free, free to serve God and God’s people. It’s a radical way of life.

Sometimes it’s difficult to know if what you feel is really real until you begin to act on it, test it out. Keep this desire in your prayers and take some steps to see what being a nun is like. Read a book about or by a nun, go on retreat at a convent, or get to know some sisters. Also, it’s okay to want to think about becoming a nun but also feeling bummed out about being a wife and mom. Any life choice a person makes involves some kind of sacrifice — doesn’t mean that a nun wouldn’t have made a wonderful mom or wife. This is definitely something that is good to pray on and begin to talk with a spiritual director about.

For some people, the call is crystal clear. For others, like myself, it’s a process of trying it out, testing it, and ultimately living into it to see if that is where God is calling me. I think it becomes clear when you feel like it is as natural as breathing air, that it just “fits” with you. When you feel like you are living fully into who God calls you to be and feel like you are growing and able to use your gifts and talents for the good of God, the Church and the world. For me there was no precise moment or flash in the sky, it’s just that I grew into it and was at peace, even though I doubted, struggled, resisted, yelled … there was always this undercurrent of peace.

I personally never wanted to be a nun. It was the kind of thing that snuck up on me. I resisted and resisted because I wanted to be married and have a family. But the more I considered religious life, the more it just seemed to fit me. I tested it out, even when I wasn’t totally sure. What I found was that learning about religious life and getting to know sisters helped me to sort of try it on and begin to imagine my self as a sister and see if it was really something God was calling me to. There was a lot of uncertainty, but also a lot of peace. It took time time for me to grow into God’s call for me. Over time a lot of questions were ones that I was able to live with — and be happy with.

If you are thinking about becoming a nun or are discerning any major life decision, find ways to test it out and don’t be discouraged if things are unclear or unsettling for a bit. Hang in there and know that the Spirit is with you and is guiding you. If you’d like to hang out with others who are discerning, do stop by Vocation Forum. Or for more info you might stop by Vision vocation network or Catholics on Call.

Blessings!

Yesterday I went to a great lecture at Loyola University called “A Question of Habit: The Curious Image of Nuns in Film and Popular Culture” by Professor Bren Ortega Murphy. Dr. Murphy is in the process of making a documentary film that examines the wide variety of visual images of Catholic nuns and sisters used in contemporary U.S. popular culture.

For the most part, said Murphy, nuns have been portrayed as one-dimensional characters. You get no sense of who the nun is, her moral agency, her way of life, her ministry, etc.

Murphy noted that in the history of film-making, Hollywood has had great difficulty in portraying women in general. Combine this with Hollywood’s uncertainty of how to deal with religion and one can begin to understand how portrayals of nuns (women+religious) has been exceedingly difficult for Hollywood. The result (however amusing and nostalgic) has been to portray nuns one-dimensionally, often reducing them to blatant caricatures. Sadly you can still see this in many media portrayals of nuns today.

Some examples of caricatures and stereotypes that I’ve seen:

• mean nuns with rulers
• hapless nuns
• giggling gaggles of nuns
• nuns always in full traditional habit
• sexually repressed nuns
• nameless nuns
• nuns who are theologically unsophisticated
• unquestioning nuns
• ethereal nuns who float in and then mysteriously disappear

Murphy said that there seemed to be a resistance, a hesitancy to portraying nuns (and women) as full human beings, with full moral agency, thoughts, questions, joys, fears, strength, etc. in the context of their life. Instead, nuns were dealt with by trivializing them (the hapless nun), demonizing them (mean nun with ruler), or sexualizing them (sexually-repressed nun).

So are there some good portrayals of nuns out there on the silver screen? Absolutely, said Murphy. Among those she noted “The Trouble with Angels”, “Brides of Christ” and “Dead Man Walking”.

Films about nuns coming to a theatre near you … soon: Our Lady of Victory (my post on the Mighty Macs) and Doubt: A Parable, a play which is being made into a movie. And be sure to look for Dr. Murphy’s documentary on visual images of nuns today.

And for my own fascinating reviews on nuns in movies check out: The Nun and The Blues Brothers. You’ll also find all sorts of interesting things when you type “stereotype” into the search box at the top of my blog.