A CHURCH-RAISING

Sr. Mary Jane Sullivan, RSCJ; Sr. Betsy Conway, CSJ; and Sr. Marie LaBollita, SCH made up a panel of women religious discussing how they use their voices in community and in the ecclesial Church. The discussion was hosted by VOTF Our Lady’s at Our Lady Help of Christians, Newton, MA on October 30.

So like a community that understands what a community is and what a collective voice sounds like, the women on this panel brought not only their own voices to this subject but those of the other sisters in their community, as well as the words of others no longer alive. I couldn’t help but wonder as the evening went on at the enormous amount of attention we pay to the incidence of fewer priests when women religious are also suffering declines in numbers. It is far more likely that these women will disappear from the US Catholic landscape in our lifetime than priests. On the other hand, as was pointed out by Sr. Marie LaBollita, “We are not freeing a Church, but raising up a Church.” We did not hear one of the three sisters mention the decline in their numbers (other than a perfectly timed pitch from Sr. Marie LaBolita for attendees to consider “associate” status). The focus was on God’s work in the world and for the world – nothing about the sisters’ community preservation. Throughout their stories, and clearly throughout their journeys, the place of these women in the Church has always been clear to them. It still is.

Many Catholics might not know that it wasn’t politicians who were first denied Eucharist for some perceived offense. In the 1850s, Bishop Peter Lefevre forbade Mass, confession and veneration of the Blessed Sacrament in the convent of a community with whom he was having a dispute. Although patronized by the hierarchy under which they served, it seems these women religious pretty much avoided infantilization. I wondered if that was due to their integral part in the weave of real-world family life both as educators and nurses in the neighborhoods. While some Catholics will remember great cruelty from women religious and/or have learned of sexual abuse of children in some communities, the community life of these women religious today appears healthy, supportive, and empowering.

Tackling the question of ecclesial authority, Sr. Mary Jane gathered advice from other women religious and added her own. She spoke about knowing one’s own voice, finding the issue that will not permit silence, and speaking the message with informed respect and dialogic participation. Mary Jane also spoke about the older history of bishops’ denying Eucharist to women religious for this and that “offense” and the creative responses delivered by past heads of her community. Advice offered to her community was taken seriously and inventively. Quoting Matthew 10:16, Sr. Maureen Chicoine advised her community, “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” and added, “That works.”

Sr. Betsy spoke emphatically about “access – that’s what all dialogue is about. In my community, I know I will have the ear of whomever I approach on any concern I have.” Sr. Betsy recalled the cataclysmic challenges of the 1960s and 70s. She said, “We were trying to change 300 years of a top-down institution in a matter of a few years.” Her community scrutinized the call from Vatican II and came to understand what that call was about. “We need to be willing to bring our experience to the Church, but allow that experience to be influenced by the experience of others and, in particular, we need to allow our experience to be enlightened by Scripture, the documents of Vatican II and the signs of the times.” Sr. Betsy added, “This takes a willingness to listen, to share, and to be influenced / opened to the Word AND the word of each other.”

There was agreement among the panelists, as well as attendees, with Sr. Betsy’s concluding remark: “We know the power of discernment and dialogue, if we trust that the Spirit will do what we alone cannot – if we keep open to her.” PLT

[For a little more history, go to the web site for the Philadelphia Archdiocese newspaper, the Catholic Standard and Times]



In the Vineyard
November 17, 2005
Volume 4, Issue 16
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