Press Release
July 8, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Young Nuns Imagine
Future Ministry With Poor and Marginalized
BELMONT, CA—Just two
weeks after the “Nuns on the Bus” national tour ended in San Francisco, another
group of Roman Catholic Sisters—these Sisters of the younger variety, aged 25
to 49—gathered in the Bay Area for the Giving Voice National Gathering. These “young nuns,” most of whom are the
youngest members of their religious orders, prayed and reflected on the future
of mission and ministry in the Church and society in the 21st Century.
Sister Yolanda Tarango,
CCVI—Congregation Leader of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and a
renowned Latina theologian—shared her insights on the conference theme of
“Mission and Ministry in the 21st Century.”
“This is a beautiful and challenging time in religious life,” Sister
Yolanda told conference participants on Saturday morning, “because we can be
part of this transition time. The challenge is to read it right, with the eyes
of faith and the strength of history.”
“Throughout our
history, Sisters have been called to work with people living on the margins of
society,” said Sister Jessi Beck, a 32 year old member of the Presentation
Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Dubuque, Iowa. Sister Jessi teaches 2nd grade at an inner
city Catholic School in Chicago and is a member of the conference planning
team. “Today the needs are growing as
the gap between the rich and the poor expands. Having the wisdom of my sisters
in community and a support group of peer age sisters in Giving Voice helps me
to respond to the needs of our day.”
The four-day national
gathering brought together Sisters from more than 30 congregations of women
religious from across North America. “We
love our Sisters in our own communities, but having time with peers who
understand what it is to live in similar circumstances affirms and strengthens
us in our vocations,” said 32 year old Sister Sarah Kohles, a Sister of St.
Francis and a member of the Giving Voice leadership team.
“Mission and ministry
is both one of the most challenging and most rewarding parts of religious
life,” said 31 year old Sister Sarah Heger, a Sister of St. Joseph of
Carondolet from St. Louis, Missouri. In her daily ministry, Sister Sarah
teaches fifth grade girls at an all girls middle school for under-resourced
students in St. Louis with the goal of breaking the cycle of poverty through
education. About the Giving Voice
gathering, she said: “The opportunity to come together as young, excited,
professional sisters, to share our stories, to buoy each other's dreams, to
pray together about the ministries God would invite us to pursue into the
future is a conversation aching to be lived.”
Conference participants
creatively imagined what the future ministry of Catholic Sisters might look
like given the growing number of people living in poverty. “In today’s society, the needs of the
marginalized are being left out and services are being cut,” said Sister
Jessica Taylor, a 41 year old Sister of Providence from Seattle,
Washington. Sister Jessica professed
perpetual vows last year and is earning a graduate degree in Pastoral
Counseling. “It is our mission to be the
voice of the voiceless and to help those in need.”
Participants also
pondered the gifts and challenges of our increasingly intercultural reality.
The Sisters themselves represented this reality. Simultaneous translation allowed English and
Spanish speaking participants to share in their own language making this a
bilingual conference.
Throughout the four
days Sisters shared insights gained from a wide variety of ministry
experiences. 31 year old Sister Chero
Chuma, a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace and nursing student at Seattle
University, co-hosts a weekly radio program in her native language (Kalenjiin)
with other Kenyan women living in the United States. Their program is broadcast
globally via the internet and on radio in Kenya on KASS FM. “We use the radio
program to engage issues of justice, especially those impacting women and
people who are living in poverty,” said Sister Chero. This innovative ministry is in addition to
her ministry of health care. “As a
caregiver, I am called to promote holistic care to individuals and families,
relieving pain and suffering, and treating each person in a loving and caring
way.”
Roman Catholic vowed
religious life is in the midst of a paradigm shift, as the large novitiate
classes of the 1950s and 1960s age and fewer women enter religious life
today. “I sense that the paradigms of
religious life are shifting right around us and we have a unique and sacred
role to play in building the reign of God,” said 31 year old Sister Julia
Walsh, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration living in La Crosse,
Wisconsin. “The world needs us to be prophetic mystics and spiritual social
justice centered midwives and mentors to all of God's children as they give
birth to many new forms of Gospel living.”
The four day gathering
was filled with energy as Sisters renewed connections and continued to build a
support network of age peers in religious life.
“Religious life offers a support system for full engagement in the
mission of Jesus, reaching out to those living on the margins of society,
living in poverty, living in violent and dangerous circumstances across the
globe,” said 47 year old Sister Kristin Matthes, one of four Sisters who
founded Giving Voice. Sister Kristin is a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur living
in Washington D.C. She has been
perpetually professed for 22 years. “We
leave the conference energized for our ministries that help to bring about the
Reign of God, the reign of justice and peace, in our world today.”
Giving Voice is a peer
led grassroots national organization of Catholic Sisters under the age of 50
that creates spaces for younger women religious to give voice to their hopes,
dreams and challenges in religious life.
The July conference is the seventh national gathering of younger women
religious organized since 1997 and the first to take place on the West
Coast. Previous gatherings have taken
place in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and Milwaukee.
NOTE: Contact Sister Susan Francois at
425.233.7280 to arrange a phone
interview with Sisters in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.
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