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Women religious
Women Religious: Lives of mercy and justice
Feb. 17, 2010The purpose of Women Religious: Lives of mercy and justice is to draw attention to the remarkable work of women religious around the globe. You won't miss any postings to this new feature, if you sign up to receive an e-mail alert. The sign-up page is here.
LCWR initiatives have global reach
Aug. 16, 2010
Dallas
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious says it has received letters of support from religious sisters around the world since the Vatican opened two investigations on U.S. women religious 18 months ago.
Honored by LCWR, 'elder' speaks of its origins
IHM Margaret Brennan says LCWR is a response to a call by Pope Pius XII
Aug. 16, 2010
Brennan (left) with Mercy Sister Theresa Kane
Dallas
Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Margaret Brennan was awarded the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ highest honor, its Outstanding Leadership Award, on the last day of its annual assembly, Aug. 10-13.
'We wait in stubborn hope': outgoing LCWR president
Sr. Marlene Weisenbeck's departing words explore hope in the midst of darknesss
Aug. 14, 2010
Marlene Weisenbeck before presidential address
Dallas
Leadership Conference of Women Religious president, Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Marlene Weisenbeck, delivered her last address as head of organization Aug. 13 in a multi-media address on the topic of hope. The theme of this year’s assembly here was “Hope in the midst of darkness,” reflecting the turbulent times Catholics and the wider world community faces.
'Women religious experiences have implications for entire church'
Theologian to LCWR: 'Your're on an ecclesial tightrope with no net'
Aug. 12, 2010
Richard Gaillardetz
Dallas
What American women’s religious communities are experiencing today have implications for all Catholics. Similarly, how the women respond have important implications, perhaps even offering a vision of how to go forward as a church comprised of members with varied ministries.
Theologian implores LCWR to remain prophetic
M. Shawn Copeland delivered a keynote address at the LCWR gathering in Dallas
Aug. 11, 2010
M. Shawn Copeland
DALLAS -- M. Shawn Copeland, professor of theology at Boston College, challenged more than 750 U.S. women religious leaders here to live in a state of radical openness, to be willing to suffer for the mission of the church and to keep their voices full of hope in a difficult time in church history.
Speak up for our women religious
Jul. 26, 2010
Members of the LCWR march through Woldenberg Riverside Park in New Orleans for a prayer service to preserve the wetlands, part of the LCWR's gathering last year. (CNS/Frank J Methe)
U.S. women religious, whose leaders meet in Dallas next month, find themselves in a terrible position. On one hand, they can defend their approach to religious life. Through decades of prayer and work together, they have discerned that approach, articulated in their Vatican-approved charters, as God's call. The process has drawn them deeply into social apostolates through which they have become a powerful representation of Catholic life throughout U.S. culture and the wider world.
Aiming at transformation of the world
Institute in Philippines forms leaders, teaches feminist thought
Jul. 13, 2010
Sr. Mary John Mananzan (NCR Photo/Thomas C. Fox)
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES -- On a narrow street, tucked within some astonishingly poor neighborhoods, is the Institute of Formation and Religious Studies, which for more than 40 years has been developing church leaders, mostly women religious, while teaching personal empowerment and feminist thought.
The quality of the education, which deals with a wide range of pastoral and scholarly church matters, is first rate, and now attracts students from throughout Asia.
I spent a morning at the institute this spring, meeting with more than a dozen faculty members, most of them women religious who are very much tuned in to church and world events and who believe education is the key to battling injustices, whether inside or outside the church.
A teacher and her students
Jul. 09, 2010Gretta D’Souza
Sr. Gretta D’Souza, an Ursuline Franciscan, is in her late 40s. She returns to Institute Mater Dei each year to teach a course on the Gospel of St. John. As she is teaching to young sisters, she specifically highlights passages that concern the plight of women.
Liberating nuns of India
Goa's Institute Mater Dei shapes a generation
Jul. 09, 2010
Sisters gather for afternoon tea at the Institute Mater Dei in Old Goa, India. (Photos by Paul Wilkes)
OLD GOA, INDIA -- It was once a place where pious and obedient nuns came to escape the world, vowing that their silence would speak beyond any words they could utter.
Today, the convent of St. Monica is a hotbed of feminist theology and one of South Asia’s foremost centers of graduate education for religious women. The young sisters who attend classes here are encouraged -- even prodded -- to speak up forcefully and act boldly to not only to serve God’s people in their various ministries, but to redress India’s endemic male-dominated culture, both in secular society and the church itself.
