Tag Archives: nuns

Founders and the Hierarchy

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Last night I celebrated International Women’s Day and the start of Catholic Sisters Week by seeing the new film, Cabrini, in the theaters with two of my CSJP sisters. It was very well done and inspiring to see the story of such a courageous woman of faith on the big screen.

I was particularly interested because some of the characters in Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini’s story are also characters in the story of Mother Francis Clare (Margaret Anna Cusack), the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.

Mother Clare, Mother Cabrini, Pope Leo XIII, Archbishop Corrigan

Mother Cabrini was dogged in her petition to the Vatican to found an international women’s missionary order. She asked Pope Leo XIII for permission to start in China. He asked her to go to New York to serve Italian immigrants.

I was enthralled to see the depiction of their meeting portrayed, because Mother Clare also went to Rome with a petition to found a new order. From a letter she wrote to the sisters in May 1884:

My own darling Children, I have just returned from my audience, & such a happy audience-only funny being all alone with the Pope! … Fancy the Pope held my hands in his all the time I was talking to him- oh when I tell you all he said how rejoiced you will be my own children please God soon we shall meet. Your own fond mother. M.F.C.

I was less enthralled but rather curious to see how Mother Cabrini got along with the Archbishop of New York. You see, we are in New Jersey because while the German American Bishop Wigger welcomed our ministry to  Irish immigrant women, on the other side of the Hudson the Irish American Archbishop Corrigan refused to even meet with Mother Clare, let alone approve of her mission in his diocese.

This was a few years before he met Mother Cabrini. Watching his political maneuvers and attitude toward a woman seeking to bring the mission of Jesus to meet the signs of the times gave some color to our own founding story and the challenges Mother Clare faced.

To my knowledge, Mother Clare and Mother Cabrini did not know each other. Yet they were of a similar heart and mind. Both women suffered from physical ailments. Both women were on fire with the love of God and God’s people in need. And both women were well versed in navigating the hierarchy of the church to try to meet that need.

In the end of course, their paths differed. Mother Cabrini is now venerated as a Saint in the church.  Mother Clare, personally defeated by the negative campaign of Archbishop Corrigan against her, which eventually led to Bishop Wigger siding with his Irish American brother Bishops and her decision to leave the order in able to save the mission.

May we like Mother Clare and Mother Cabrini read the signs of the time and put the mission first today.

Global Sisters Report: Nuns and Nones

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GlobalSistersReportMy latest contribution to the larger conversation has been posted on Global Sisters Report: Nuns and Nones.  It’s a snapshot of my musings on some of the recent reports and happenings in the world of religion, namely the Pew Report documenting the rise of the “nones” – the 56 million americans who claim no religious affiliation – and the interest in the future of nuns.

In a society where the numbers of nones are on the rise, the number of nuns is declining. I believe it is possible to view the dynamic forces behind both trends as part of the same rapidly changing landscape of religious life and shared socio-political context of increasing inequality, poverty, violence and environmental destruction. This trend and shifting landscape also apply to the wider church, especially given that the numer of U.S. Catholics is also declining according to the Pew research.

This raises a number of questions for me. First of all, the attention paid to Catholic Sisters, combined with the not insignificant efforts to help ensure our future, make me think that somehow it matters that we are present in the church and society. But are we merely symbolic figures, or is the way we engage the signs of the times and live the Gospel of some relevance and importance beyond ourselves? If so, how can we remain relevant and engaged in the larger questions of meaning and justice in the context of a society which increasingly eschews religion? If I do not want to be limited or defined by popular culture images or stereotypes of nuns, how does my life of ministry and prayer lived in community witness to the Gospel in a sea of growing inequality and indifference?

Read the whole column over at Global Sisters Report

Nun in London

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nuninworldI am coming to the end of my two week spring time sojourn in the United Kingdom. I came at the end of April to spend some time with our Sisters at our regional center in the midlands in advance of our Spring assembly which was last weekend. It has been a joy to be with our UK Sisters. I have had an inordinate amount of tea along with some wonderful conversations and a few treks in the countryside. Earlier this week I made the trek (by car!) to London. I’m staying in the same house where I lived for 3 months as a novice. It is so nice to be in another country, but yet to be at home. Another benefit of religious life!

I’m attending the Nun in the World Symposium: Catholic Sisters & Vatican II – a 3 day international symposium with academics from various disciplines (mostly it seems to be historians and sociologists who seem to get along but have divergent methodologies) and women religious. It has been fascinating to attend an academic conference about a subject near and dear to your heart. In fact, I suppose you could say I am one of the subjects of study! I was thinking today … many groups of people are studied by academics, but how common is it to have the people who are being studied attending the conference about them?  Adding to the semi-surreal quality of it all, I just checked the Global Sisters Report website and found a blog post there which covers one of the streams of conversation I participated in at lunch today at the symposium!

Aside from those interesting aspects, the subject matter and research presented have certainly been thought provoking. Today we covered important areas such as race and class in religious life, prophetic witness and relationship to the hierarchical church by leaders of religious communities, the tension between being mainstream and marginal, and the newest generations of Catholic Sisters.  There are over 100 participants from more than 10 countries. I even was able to meet another Global Sisters Report columnist, Caroline Mbonu, a Handmaid of the Holy Child Jesus Sister from Nigeria. We recognized each other from the pictures which accompany our columns on the Global Sisters website! She gave an excellent presentation on the experience of African Sisters ministering in the US as reverse missionaries.

All in all, it has been a very worthwhile experience and an opportunity to tap into the wider themes and key issues of Catholic women’s religious life globally. And there is one more day tomorrow, which will feature a series of presentations I am looking forward to with great anticipation on the Religious Life Vitality Project which was just completed here in the UK. Our UK Sisters participated in this project.

I head back to the States (Chicago for my graduation) on Monday. It has been a very good visit, with the prospect of many more over the next six years.

Convent Culture

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Growing up in suburban Bowie, Maryland–the last suburb developed by the Levitt Brothers–you were always at home when visiting a friend’s house. This was not necessarily because of the quality of your friend’s hospitality, but because of the literal lay of the land. There were a limited number of floor plans in Bowie, so if you’d been in one Cape Code, Colonial, Rancher, or Country Clubber, then you knew where the bathroom, kitchen, closet, living room, and parental bed rooms were located.  There was a certain level of comfort in that reality, truth be told.

This month, I’ve had the opportunity to visit the mother houses of two different religious communities. My sojourn in the mid-west is rapidly coming to a close, and so I finally made two long promised trips to visit with young nun friends. Both trips were lovely, in no small part due to the hospitality of my friends and their religious communities.  I also realized that there is a certain level of comfort and “at-homeness” when I am in nunland (as one young nun friend calls it), reminiscent of my experience growing up.

To be sure, there are nuances and peculiar flavors of convent culture. But when you are a guest at a motherhouse, there are usually some things you can count on:

  • Your room will be ready and waiting for you, most likely with a welcome sign, a well-made bed, your own set of towels, and a note detailing some of the particular customs of the house.
  • Most likely the bathroom and shower is down the hall, so remember to bring a bathrobe and some slippers or shower shoes! However, you might be surprised by the gift of your own private bath. Best to be prepared in either case.
  • If you want coffee or tea, chances are it’s always available. And if you need anything else, all you have to do is ask.
  • Interested in a game of cards or a solving a piece or two of a jigsaw puzzle? That can be arranged.
  • Newspapers are usually available in the library or reading room.
  • Finished with your mystery or novel? Chances are there is a spot where you can pick up a new book and maybe even leave the one you just finished for someone else.
  • Looking for a group of women to pray with? You are welcome to join the Sisters in the chapel … just check the schedule in your room.
  • You will be greeted in the hallway, repeatedly, by a pleasant smile and maybe a hug from complete strangers.
  • There’s always a spot for you at the table in the dining room, complete with buffet style meals and interesting conversation. The water glasses might be smaller than you are used to, however.
  • When it’s time to leave, most likely the Sisters would appreciate it if you’d strip your bed and leave your sheets in the pillow case near the door. Sometimes there are even clean sheets for you to prepare the room for the next guest.  You get to participate in the cycle of hospitality!

There are variations in the mix of these bits of convent culture, just as there are different flavors of religious charisms and communities. But when it comes down to it, we’re all Sisters and it’s so nice to be “at home,” even as a guest.