Summer 2022 www.nrvc.net | Volume 47, Number 3
Accompaniment | Vocation culture 2
UPDATES
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Be there. Listen. Lessons of Christus Vivit By Pope Francis
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Developing a vocation culture on a college campus By Sister Susan Kidd, C.N.D.
12 Let’s nurture vocation culture throughout the church By Craig Gould 16 Can we let candidates bring their whole selves to community? Interview with Father Joseph Brown, S.J.
21 What vocation directors need to know about the transfer process By Eileen Jaramillo 26 FEED YOUR SPIRIT Hope is not dependent By Father Henri Nouwen 27 BOOK NOTES Invitation to reflect on inclusion and transformation By Sister Sophia Park, S.N.J.M.
We Journey with You We are companions on the journey and here to accompany you in the vocation ministry. • Assessments and interpretation for candidacy and final vows
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NRVC Convocation November 3-6, 2022 Register today to join us in beautiful Spokane, Washington for an outstanding experience of professional development, new insights, camaraderie, networking, prayer, and refreshment. • • • • •
Pre-event workshops on November 3 Keynote speakers Roundtable discussion Uplifting liturgies and prayer Optional mountain excursion on November 7
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Editor’s Note Editor Carol Schuck Scheiber Proofreaders Rosemary Arnold, Virginia Piecuch Design Consultant Patrice J. Tuohy © 2022, National Religious Vocation Conference HORIZON is published quarterly by the National Religious Vocation Conference, 5416 South Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL 60615-5664. 773-363-5454 | nrvc@nrvc.net | nrvc.net Facebook: Horizon vocation journal Twitter: @HORIZONvocation SUBSCRIPTIONS A complimentary subscription to HORIZON comes with NRVC annual membership. Additional subscriptions are $50 each for NRVC members; $125 each for non-members. Single copies are $25 each. Subscribe online at nrvc.net/signup. Please direct subscription inquiries to Marge Argyelan at the NRVC office at 773-363-5454 or margyelan@nrvc.net. POSTMASTER Send address changes to HORIZON, 5416 S. Cornell Ave., Chicago, IL 60615-5664. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL. ISSN 1042-8461, Pub. # 744-850. REPRINTS, ARCHIVES, ELECTRONIC EDITIONS Permission is granted to distribute no more than 50 copies of HORIZON articles for noncommercial use. Please use the following credit line: Reprinted with permission from HORIZON, nrvc.net. For other types of reprints, please contact the editor at cscheiber@nrvc. net. EDITORIAL INQUIRIES & ADVERTISING All editorial inquiries should be directed to the editor: Carol Schuck Scheiber, cscheiber@nrvc.net. For advertising rates and deadlines, see nrvc.net or contact the editor. THE NATIONAL RELIGIOUS VOCATION CONFERENCE is a catalyst for vocation discernment and the full flourishing of religious life as sisters, brothers, and priests for the ongoing transformation of the world.
We’ve come a long way
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HEN I WAS A KID, adults would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and they would listen politely to my response. That’s about as far it as it went for Catholic “vocational accompaniment” in the 70s. Even though my family was devout and I was active in campus ministry, not much existed to help young Catholics sort out life decisions. Fast forward to today, when my own young adult children can avail themselves of websites, books, retreats, webinars, and more. Vocation culture and vocation accompaniment have a long way to go, but they now exist. I daresay readers of HORIZON are at the forefront of making available and pushing forward both vocational accompaniment and a church culture that helps each person ask throughout their lives “Where is God calling me?” I applaud you, and I encourage you to keep going. To aid you, this edition revisits Christus Vivit because of its superb vision of vocation culture and its valuable insights on accompaniment. We also look at ways to nurture vocation culture on college campuses, in parish life, schools, and even families. Racial justice might seem removed from these concerns, but as Father Joseph Brown, S.J. explains, a healthy vocation culture consciously considers the needs of people of color. Also, it’s infrequent, but ongoing vocation consideration sometimes leads to transfers, so in this edition we present the key canon law concepts for working with a person changing communities. No one asks me anymore what I’ll be when I grow up, but being immersed in this ministry means I keep asking myself. May we all keep asking vocational questions, walking with seekers, and building a vocation culture. —Carol Schuck Scheiber, editor, cscheiber@nrvc. HORIZON is an award-winning journal for vocation ministers and those who support a robust future for religious life. It is published quarterly by the National Religious Vocation Conference. NATIONAL RELIGIOUS VOCATION CONFERENCE BOARD Sister Mindy Welding, I.H.M. Board chair Father Adam MacDonald, S.V.D. Vice chair Sister Belinda Monahan, O.S.B. Vice chair Sister Marichui Bringas, C.C.V.I.
Ms. Nancy Costello Brother Brian Poulin, F.M.S. Sister Nicole Trahan, F.M.I. Mr. Len Uhal Sister Mary Yun, O.P. Sister Deborah Borneman, SS.C.M. Ex officio
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Updates
Join us at convocation November 3-6
• Dynamic communication strategies By communicators Nancy Costello, Carol Schuck Scheiber, and Chris Swain • Vocation promotion insights By experienced vocation ministers Len Uhal and Sisters Marichui Bringas, C.C.V.I., Nicole Trahan, F.M.I., and Mary Yun, O.P. • Inspirational women in the church: Lessons for the heart, mind, soul By artist, writer, and teacher Anne Kertz Kernion • Vocation ministry: Call to be light & enlightened By psychologist, consultant, and lecturer Sister Lynn Levo, C.S.J. An optional tour of nearby natural areas will take place November 7. Registration for the convocation, workshops, and tour are at nrvc.net.
NRVC updates its Code of Ethics The NRVC has updated its Code of Ethics for Vocation Ministry and encourages all involved in this ministry to review it. It can be downloaded at tinyurl.com/yckufe4m. 2 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
Webinar series available online The recent webinar series “Religious life today: Learn it! Love it! Live it!” is available online at no cost at nrvc.net/webinars. Each one-hour session includes panelist presentations followed by live Q&A. The series, made possible by the GHR Foundation, addresses the following topics:
Marie Mischel
NRVC’s convocation in Spokane, Washington, November 3-6, will feature four pre-event workshops, two outstanding keynotes, a lively roundtable discussion, inspiring liturgies, and valuable networking. Speaking on the theme of “Call beyond Borders” will be keynoters Sister Barbara Reid, O.P., a scripture scholar and president of Catholic Theological Union (CTU) and Father vănThanh Nguyễn, S.V.D., a scripture and missiology professor at CTU. Four half-day workshops will take place prior to the evening opening of the convocation:
Consider sharing these important ethical guidelines with your leadership and membership. The code sets forth the principles, responsibilities, and expectations for vocation ministry, including responsibilities of leadership and membership, ethical vocation promotion with inquirers, accompaniment of discerners, and assessment of applicants for admission.
Kevin Cummings, left, presented for the webinar on parent concerns. His son, Evan, right, is a Paulist priest.
• Fundamentals: From call to charism to community living
• Using all avenues to support vocation ministry • Creating a collaborative environment • Wellsprings of support for vocations • Addressing parental concerns • Call to religious life: Newer entrants’ stories
HORIZON and VISION earn 9 awards HORIZON and VISION recently earned nine awards for editorial excellence from the Catholic Media Association. The awards recognized the two NRVC publications in areas including best essay, best feature, best coverage of social justice-solidarity, best book review column, best magazine website, best coverage of racial inequities, and more. For details, see tinyurl.com/yx6urjc3. n Updates
Courtesy of Renew International
Young people’s desire and need for presence and accompaniment echoes throughout Christus Vivit.
The church is calling for ministers to walk alongside youth and young adults who are seeking their path in life. Pictured here is Sister Theresa Rickard, O.P. talking with young people.
Be there. Listen. Lessons of Christus Vivit
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OUNG PEOPLE NEED to have their freedom respected, yet they also need to be accompanied. The family should be the first place of accompaniment. Youth ministry can present the ideal of life in Christ as the process of building a house on rock (Matt. 7:24-25). For most young people, that house, their life, will be built on marriage and married love. That is why youth ministry and the pastoral care of families should be coordinated and intePope Francis | Lessons of Christus Vivit
By Pope Francis Long Thien, Flickr
The process leading up to the 2018 synod on Youth, Faith, and Vocational Discernment was full of energy. It saw young people from around the world mingling with cardinals, and bishops taking coffee with 20-somethings. This exchange of experiences and ideas led to rich reflection in Christus Vivit (Christ is Alive), the apostolic exhortation that emerged from the synod. The document covers many areas, and one of its strong themes is to encourage church ministers to be present to young people and to provide accompaniment as they navigate their path in life. HORIZON presents here excerpts from Christus Vivit that treat this theme.
This article is excerpted from the apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit, which may be found at vatican. va in the Apostolic Exhortation section. Reprinted with permission © Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
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devastating impact on young people’s ability to continue grated, with the aim of ensuring a continuous and suitto engage with the church. able accompaniment of the vocational process. “Mentors should not lead young people as passive The community has an important role in the acfollowers, but walk alongside them, allowing them to companiment of young people; it should feel collectively be active participants in the journey. responsible for accepting, motivating, They should respect the freedom that encouraging, and challenging them. All comes with a young person’s process of should regard young people with undiscernment and equip them with tools derstanding, appreciation, and affection When we are called to do so well. A mentor should believe and avoid constantly judging them or upon to help others wholeheartedly in a young person’s abildemanding of them a perfection beyond discern their path in ity to participate in the life of the church. their years. life, what is uppermost A mentor should therefore nurture the At the synod, “many pointed to the is the ability to listen. seeds of faith in young people, without shortage of qualified people devoted to expecting to immediately see the fruits accompaniment. Belief in the theologiof the work of the Holy Spirit. This role is cal and pastoral value of listening entails not and cannot be limited to priests and rethinking and renewing the ways that [those in] consecrated life, but the laity priestly ministry is ordinarily exercised, should also be empowered to take on such a role. All and reviewing its priorities. The synod also recognized such mentors should benefit from being well-formed, the need to train consecrated persons and laypeople, and engage in ongoing formation” [from the document male and female, to accompany young people. The of the pre-synod gathering with young people]. charism of listening that the Holy Spirit calls forth within The church’s educational institutions are undoubtthe communities might also receive institutional recogedly a communal setting for accompaniment; they can nition as a form of ecclesial service” [from the synod’s offer guidance to many young people, especially when final document]. they “seek to welcome all young people, regardless of There is also a special need to accompany young their religious choices, cultural origins and personal, men and women showing leadership potential, so that family or social situations. In this way, the church makes they can receive training and the necessary qualificaa fundamental contribution to the integral education tions. The young people who met before the synod of the young in various parts of the world” [from the called for “programs for the formation and continued synod’s final document]. They would curtail this role development of young leaders. Some young women feel unduly were they to lay down rigid criteria for students that there is a lack of leading female role models within to enter and remain in them, since they would deprive the church and they too wish to give their intellectual many young people of an accompaniment that could and professional gifts to the church. We also believe that help enrich their lives. seminarians and religious should have an even greater ability to accompany young leaders.” The same young people described to us the qualiDare to invite ties they hope to find in a mentor, and they expressed this with much clarity: “The qualities of such a mentor If we are indeed convinced that the Holy Spirit continues include being a faithful Christian who engages with the to inspire vocations to the priesthood and the religious church and the world, someone who constantly seeks life, we can “once more cast out the nets” in the Lord’s holiness, someone who is a confidant without judging. name, with complete confidence. We can dare, as we Similarly, someone who actively listens to the needs of should, to tell each young person to ask whether this is young people and responds in kind; someone deeply lovthe path that they are meant to follow. ing and self-aware; someone who recognizes his or her Occasionally, I would bring this up with young peolimits and knows the joys and sorrows of the spiritual ple, and they would respond almost jokingly: “No, that’s journey. An especially important quality in mentors is not for me!” Yet, a few years later, some of them were the acknowledgement of their own humanity—the fact in the seminary. The Lord cannot fail in his promise to that they are human beings who make mistakes, not provide the church with shepherds, for without them she perfect people but forgiven sinners. Sometimes mentors would not be able to live and carry out her mission. If it are put on a pedestal, and when they fall, it may have a is true that some priests do not give good witness, that 4 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
Pope Francis | Lessons of Christus Vivit
photo by Inna, Adobe stock
does not mean that the Lord stops calling. On the contrary, he doubles the stakes, for he never ceases to care for his beloved church. There are many priests, men and women religious, lay and professional persons, and indeed qualified young people, who can help the young with their vocational discernment. When we are called upon to help others discern their path in life, what is uppermost is the ability to listen. Listening calls for three distinct and complementary kinds of sensitivity.
Three forms of sensitivity for listening The first kind of sensitivity is directed to the individual. It is a matter of listening to someone who is sharing his very self in what he says. A sign of this willingness to listen is the time we are ready to spare for others. More than the amount of time we spend, it is about making others feel that my time is their time, that they have all the time they need to say everything they want. The other person must sense that I am listening unconditionally, without being offended or shocked, tired, or bored. We see an example of this kind of listening in the Lord; he walks alongside the disciples on the way to Emmaus, even though they are going in the wrong direction (Luke 24:13-35). When Jesus says he plans to go farther, they realize that he has given them the gift of his time, so they decide to give him theirs by offering their hospitality. Attentive and selfless listening is a sign of our respect for others, whatever their ideas or their choices in life. The second kind of sensitivity is marked by discernment. It tries to grasp exactly where grace or temptation is present, for sometimes the things that flit across our minds are mere temptations that can distract us from our true path. I need to ask myself what is it that the other person is trying to tell me, what they want me to realize is happening in their lives. Asking such questions helps me appreciate their thinking and the effects it has on their emotions. This kind of listening seeks to discern the salutary promptings of the good Spirit who proposes to us the Lord’s truth, but also the traps laid by the evil spirit—his empty works and promises. It takes courage, warmth, and tact to help others distinguish the truth from illusions or excuses. The third kind of sensitivity is the ability to perceive what is driving the other person. This calls for a deeper kind of listening, one able to discern the direction in which that person truly wants to move. Apart from what they are feeling or thinking right now, and whatever has Pope Francis | Lessons of Christus Vivit
Attentive, selfless listening is essential for those who accompany young people
happened up to this point in their lives, the real issue is what they would like to be. This may demand that they look not to their own superficial wishes and desires, but rather to what is most pleasing to the Lord, to his plans for their life. And that is seen in a deeper inclination of the heart, beyond the surface level of their likes and feelings. This kind of listening seeks to discern their ultimate intention, the intention that definitively decides the meaning of their life. Jesus knows and appreciates this ultimate intention of the heart. He is always there, ready to help each of us to recognize it. We need but say to him: “Lord, save me! Have mercy on me!”
Disappear to give the discerner freedom In this way, discernment becomes a genuine means of spiritual combat, helping us to follow the Lord more faithfully. The desire to know our personal vocation thus takes on a supreme intensity, a different quality and higher level, one that better respects the dignity of our person and our life. In the end, good discernment is a path of freedom that brings to full fruit what is unique in each person, something so personal that only God knows it. Others cannot fully understand or predict from the outside how it will develop. When we listen to others in this way, at a certain moment we ourselves have to disappear in order to let the other person follow the path he or she has discovered. We have to vanish as the Lord did from the sight of his Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 5
disciples in Emmaus, leaving them alone with burning hearts and an irresistible desire to set out immediately (Luke 24:31-33). When they returned to the community, those disciples heard the good news that the Lord was indeed risen (Luke 24:34). Because “time is greater than space,” [as noted in Evangelii Gaudium] we need to encourage and accompany processes, without imposing our own roadmaps. For those processes have to do with persons who remain always unique and free. There are no easy recipes, even when all the signs seem positive, since [as noted in Pastores Dabo Vobis] “positive factors themselves need to be subjected to a careful work of discernment, so that they do not become isolated and contradict one another, becoming absolutes and at odds with one another. The same is true for the negative factors, which are not to be rejected en bloc and without distinction, because in each one there may lie hidden some value which awaits liberation and restoration to its full truth.” If you are to accompany others on this path, you must be the first to follow it, day in and day out. That is what Mary did, in her own youth, as she confronted her own questions and difficulties. May she renew your youthfulness by the power of her prayers and accompany you always by her maternal presence. 6 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
Areas to increase our presence While Christus Vivit spells out the need for accompaniment and presence, it is also practical, with specific ideas about ways and places that the church can be present to young people. PRAYER EXPERIENCES Many young people have come
to appreciate silence and closeness to God. Groups that gather to adore the Blessed Sacrament or to pray with the word of God have also increased. We should never underestimate the ability of young people to be open to contemplative prayer. We need only find the right ways and means to help them embark on this precious experience. When it comes to worship and prayer, [the synod’s final document notes], “in many settings, young Catholics are asking for prayer opportunities and sacramental celebrations capable of speaking to their daily lives through a fresh, authentic, and joyful liturgy.” It is important to make the most of the great moments of the liturgical year, particularly Holy Week, Pentecost, and Christmas. But other festive occasions can provide a welcome break in their routine and help them experience the joy of faith. Pope Francis | Lessons of Christus Vivit
SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES Christian service repre-
sents a unique opportunity for growth and openness to God’s gifts of faith and charity. Many young people are attracted by the possibility of helping others, especially children and the poor. Often this service is the first step to a discovery or rediscovery of life in Christ and the church. Many young people grow weary of our programs of doctrinal and spiritual formation, and at times demand a chance to be active participants in activities that benefit others. THE ARTS Nor can we overlook the importance of the
arts, like theater, painting, and others. “Music is particularly important, representing as it does a real environment in which the young are constantly immersed, as well as a culture and a language capable of arousing emotion and shaping identity. The language of music also represents a pastoral resource with a particular bearing on the liturgy and its renewal” [from the synod’s final document]. Singing can be a great incentive to young people as they make their way through life. As Saint Augustine says: “Sing, but continue on your journey. Do not grow lazy, but sing to make the way more enjoyable. Sing, but keep going…. If you make progress, you will continue your journey, but be sure that your progress is in virtue, true faith, and right living. Sing then, and keep walking.” SPORTS “Equally significant is the emphasis that young
people place on sports; the church should not underestimate the potential of sports for education and formation, but instead maintain a strong presence there. The world of sport needs to be helped to overcome some of its problematic aspects, such as the idolization of champions, subservience to commercial interests and the ideology of success at any cost” [from the synod’s final document]. At the heart of the experience of sport is “joy: the joy of exercising, of being together, of being alive and rejoicing in the gifts the Creator gives us each day” [from an address to the International Special Olympics]. Some fathers of the church used the example of the training of athletes to encourage the young to develop their strength and to overcome idleness and boredom. Saint Basil the Great, writing to young people, used the effort demanded by athletics to illustrate the value of self-sacrifice as a means of growth in virtue: “These men endure sufferings beyond number, they use many means to build their strength, they sweat constantly as they train ... in a word, they so discipline themselves that their whole life prior to the contest is but a preparaPope Francis | Lessons of Christus Vivit
tion for it... How then can we, who have been promised rewards so wondrous in number and in splendor that no tongue can recount them, even think of winning them if we do nothing other than spend our lives in leisure and make but half-hearted efforts?” NATURE Nature holds a special attraction for many
adolescents and young people who recognize our need to care for the environment. Such is the case with the scouting movement and other groups that encourage closeness to nature, camping trips, hiking, expeditions, and campaigns to improve the environment. In the spirit of Saint Francis of Assisi, these experiences can be a real initiation into the school of universal fraternity and contemplative prayer. POPULAR PIETY Various manifestations of popular pi-
ety, especially pilgrimages, attract young people who do not readily feel at home in ecclesial structures and represent a concrete sign of their trust in God. These ways of seeking God are seen particularly in young people who are poor, but also those in other sectors of society. They should not be looked down on, but encouraged and promoted. Popular piety [as noted in the synod’s final document] “is a legitimate way of living the faith” and “an expression of the spontaneous missionary activity of the People of God.” §§§§§ These and various other opportunities for evangelizing the young should not make us forget that, despite the changing times and sensibilities of young people, there are gifts of God that never grow old, for they contain a power transcending all times and places. There is the word of the Lord, ever living and effective, the nourishing presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Reconciliation, which brings us freedom and strength. We can also mention the inexhaustible spiritual riches preserved by the church in the witness of her saints and the teaching of the great spiritual masters. Although we have to respect different stages of growth, and at times need to wait patiently for the right moment, we cannot fail to invite young people to drink from these wellsprings of new life. We have no right to deprive them of this great good. n
Related article “Accompaniment for discernment,” by Colleen Campbell and Thomas Carani, HORIZON, Winter 2020. Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 7
Accompaniment and presence are the key forms for nurturing a culture of vocations on this secular college campus.
Events that include food are popular on campus. Pictured here is the author (second from right) with those helping put on a “Soup for the Soul” event. These meals let her introduce herself as a spiritual guide to a cross section of students. Photo courtesy of the author.
By Sister Susan Kidd, C.N.D. Sister Susan Kidd, C.N.D. belongs to the Congregation of Notre Dame Sisters. She has been active in vocation ministry in one form or another for decades. Since 2010 she has been a campus minister at the University of Prince Edward Island, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
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Developing a vocation culture on a college campus
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S A CHAPLAIN AT A SECULAR UNIVERSITY on Prince Edward Island, Canada, I am quite comfortable with the language and the lens of “vocation culture”—live your baptism well and your specific vocation will become clear, whatever it might be. I hope to share here some of the ways I am present to students and accompany them in developing their awareness of God’s call in their lives. We know from the NRVC Study of Recent Vocations to Religious Life that many of the newer members of religious institutes contemplated their calling around the time of college. “Seven in 10 (70 percent) considered Kidd | Vocation Culture on a College Campus
religious life by the time they were 21, with half (51 as a vocation (as distinct from those who are single while percent) doing so by the time they were 17,” the study looking) is a challenge for us. reported. Another challenge in campus ministry is that our We also know that 37 percent of newer religious students graduate! I have learned one year is not the learned about their community “in an institution where same as the next. One year, our annual weekend retreat members served.” An identical number, 37 percent, group wanted silence, even more silence than we had learned about religious life via campus initially put in the schedule. The followministry. Clearly it is important for both ing year we almost had a mutiny when I laity and religious engaged in campus suggested a prayer time leading to a silent ministry to create vocational awareness break. Flexibility is important. A big part of and support vocation exploration and disWe also host a Lenten Busy Student accompaniment is cernment. Retreat, offering students the experilistening. Campus In my work as a campus minister, ence of spiritual direction and prayer ministers such as vocation is one of 12 priorities. Canadian with scripture. Our retreat directors are myself often are there Catholic Campus Ministry borrowed and amazed that some of our Catholic young for students during then modified a comprehensive model of adults have never prayed with scripture. pivotal moments of ministry, first framed by youth ministry Many of them have a Bible from a Teen decision. folks. We have 12 pieces to our pie and Encounter retreat our diocese hosts. They “fostering a culture of vocations” is one. know devotional prayers. But a personal In our program planning on campus, we relationship with Jesus—knowing they are try to touch on each of the 12 elements. unconditionally loved by God—we enIn 11 years of campus ministry, we have never hit all 12 counter less frequently. Having a deep relationship with every year. Still, I don’t feel that vocation gets left out, but God is the foundation of every Christian vocation. Furrather I see it permeating everything we do. But when I thermore, some of our retreat directors are members of say “the vocational aspect of my ministry is part of evreligious communities, giving students that all-important erything,” it can seem empty, in the same way that we say direct contact with religious. “when everyone does it, no one really does it.” The chalAnother part of my role in accompanying students lenge is to show specifically what the vocational culture on their faith journeys is to translate from English to looks like on my campus. Following are ways we deliberEnglish. An evening on “decision-making” drew a great ately foster this culture. cross section of students from various faiths and no faith. When I had presented the same material saying the evening would focus on “discernment,” far fewer people Accompaniment in many forms attended. For them, “discernment” is a heavy topic and more specific to religious life. But the vocabulary of deciI get to accompany the 60 percent of Catholic young sion-making is far more accessible and attractive. adults who are involved in faith related groups and activA big part of accompaniment is listening. Campus ities outside of attending Mass. These are students who ministers such as myself often are there for students durmight not attend liturgies every week but want to take ing pivotal moments of decision. We listen. When appart in volunteer service work, attend a prayer service, propriate, we provide accurate information and pastoral demonstrate on behalf of a social justice cause, and so advice. Here are some examples. on. I walk with them as they get to know their own passions and interests, an important vocational step. • After one World Youth Day a student came Our Catholic Student Association at the university back having met a religious community that is goes on an annual weekend retreat. Students are involved not in our diocese. She met with me, and I conin the planning, and a popular topic is often prayer and nected her with a spiritual director. She mainvocation. My role is to tap into a network of discerners tained contact with the community and joined and young religious to offer input. “How did you know?” them last fall as a postulant. is a big question students ask the younger religious. • A man in our diocese was applying for the “Why do you stay?” is more my speed. We try to offer seminary. While I was not directly involved in witness talks for the four lifestyle vocations: marriage, his discernment, he came to talk when he was ordained life, consecrated life, and single life. Single life Kidd | Vocation Culture on a College Campus
Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 9
Courtesy of the author
aged. She loves Mass and Eucharistic Adoration. She appreciates the sacrament of Reconciliation. But when the Vatican issued a document in 2021 about clergy “not blessing sin,” she stopped her discernment with my community and looked to another Christian church. She is now back, having met a few religious who are feminist theologians. Our conversation continues. • A newer member of my community is here teaching on campus. She has also met with these three discerners I’ve named above. She offers them a more recent experience of formation, an experience that is more relevant to those I meet.
Presence at events, post-college support Presence at various campus events is an important step in establishing a vocation culture. Showing up at sports events as “Sister Sue” puts a face on religious life.
asked to complete the inventory for the psychological assessment. I helped him to understand what it is, why dioceses and religious communities do this, and what to expect. • Sometimes I get to listen to women who want to discern religious life. Some feel called to religious life but are discouraged with the limited role for women in our church or the church’s limited understanding and teaching about sexuality and inclusion. I am currently meeting with a young woman, a recent Catholic, who feels called to religious life but gets discour-
ATTRACTING PEOPLE AND MAKING THE VOCATION CONNECTION
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NE UNIVERSAL truth is that if there is free food, young adults will come, especially university students. We have “Soup for the Soul” events for the full community, not just for the Catholic students. These are well attended. I take part as “Sister Sue,” and I do the welcome. I say to them, “I hope this event not only feeds your belly but touches your heart.” I promise to pray for them. This is getting into the language of faith, the language of vocation—what touches our hearts? What moves us? What do we pray for?
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As a campus minister I often get invited to speak at social justice events. Most recently, that included a Peace in Palestine rally and an anti-homophobic-bullying candlelight vigil. I am on the program as “Sister Sue.” My presence conveys a message about Catholic vocation without saying a word on that topic. Events that are not planned by me or the chaplaincy center are as important as the ones we do plan. Our students have such varied interests and passions. Can I support their quest for meaning? Yes, by showing up! Standing in silence, speaking at the podium, even sitting in the bleachers during a basketball game—religious life can be there. During their time as students, I can be present and accompany these young adults. However, I see a gap in the transition moments in the lives of young adults. Graduation is one. We have created a welcoming, nurturing environment here on campus. We accompany student Christian leaders in their development and strive every day to make our world a better place. And then they graduate. Whoosh … they’re gone. Some even ask to come back for our liturgies and retreats as they cannot find their niche in our local parishes. In an effort to respond to that gap, my religious community sponsored a supportive housing project called Visitation Place. Our idea was to have University of Prince Edward Island graduates live in the other half of a duplex where our CND community lives and occasionally share with the sisters in meals, prayer, service, and outreach. I discussed the project idea with students as it was taking shape, and their response was positive. Graduates from the local area already had housing with their families, so the graduates who came and stayed at Visitation Place were mainly from Nigeria and Kenya, along with a few locals. The local pastor agreed to preside at a Kidd | Vocation Culture on a College Campus
Service activities are an opportunity to accompany young people. Pictured here is the author (holding a bag of rice) volunteering with students at the Campus Food Bank. Photo courtesy of the author.
weekly 6:30 p.m. Mass, and the women invited friends back to the house afterward. We spread the word about this house through word of mouth, and once established, the young women used social media to publicize the young adult events and activities that emerged. Not only were we sisters part of the home these young graduates formed, we became their community, their support network. Visitation Place was their space and became their church! We launched this project in 2017, and it was an exciting time. Today four of the six women are now married, and two have begun their young families. They are living their Catholic vocations vibrantly and sharing that vibrancy with the church. Visitation Place offered these women and their friends a place to shape an environment that suited their needs. They formed relationships in the parish, serving in various ways: lector, Eucharistic minister, finance committee member, and hospitality committee member. We created the space, and they stepped in and stepped up. Yes, longstanding parishioners even stepped aside to allow the parish leadership of these young women to take root. Visitation Place lasted long enough to maintain its creative energy, prayerful roots, and social outreach. The pandemic shifted that energy. After four years, the project reached completion, and the women remain involved in the parish. By staying connected to the church after graduation, these young people have a better chance of Kidd | Vocation Culture on a College Campus
long-term commitment to the church in whatever vocation they follow. From starting Visitation Place to listening to students in discernment, these are just some of the ways we walk alongside our young adults to help them grow in their faith and their understanding of God’s call. When I take stock of the many activities of our chaplaincy center, I admit that sometimes I don’t know whether we do enough. Part of my massive job description is a written annual report and follow up interview with our bishop. I told him one year that I was having trouble making my report sound Catholic enough. He reminded me that everything I do is Catholic enough. And today I might add everything is vocation culture enough. n This article is based on the author’s presentation for the 2022 webinar series: “Religious Life Today: Learn it! Love it! Live it!” Find this presentation in video form, as well as the rest of the series, at nrvc.net/webinars.
Related articles “Accompanying college students,” by Sister Nicole Trahan, F.M.I., HORIZON, Winter 2022. “Talking to college students: two ways to build relationships,” by Sister Paula Jameson, I.H.M. and Sister Regina Marie Fronmuller, O.S.U., HORIZON, Winter 2018. Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 11
Photo by Philip C. De Rita, The Brothers of the Christian Schools, District of Eastern North America
Vocation language and concepts naturally fit into what families, schools, and parishes are already doing.
Schools are just one of many settings where vocation conversations can easily be integrated into current activities. Pictured here is Brother Arturo Martínez Del Castillo, F.S.C. giving a classroom presentation.
By Craig Gould Craig Gould is a husband and father and director of family, youth, and young adult ministry for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland. He has also ministered in parishes, apostolic ministries, and graduate schools.
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Let’s nurture vocation culture throughout the church
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’D LIKE TO PROPOSE that we engage youth and young adults around vocation in two primary ways: integration and growth. By integration I mean that vocational language and ideas should ideally be present throughout every aspect of the life of young disciples. Vocational language and concepts can be part of their family life, their parish experience, and their school engagement (Catholic or otherwise). A vocational lens can even be present in extracurriculars. Integration means that vocation is the thread that connects those distinct realities. For young people and families who often find the different parts of their lives disconnected, the singular thread of vocation gives a powerful sense of cohesion. For Catholic institutions, integration is key. There was a point in the history of the U.S. Catholic Church when faith integration happened naturally as a by-product of tight-knit immigrant communities. Those who atGould | Vocation Culture
tended parishes and schools while living in culturally defined neighborhoods didn’t have to work at integration. It happened naturally. Today’s Catholics swim in much different waters. There is little that cuts across their lives from school to extracurriculars to family and beyond. A vocational thread can create cohesion in the Catholic faith across the different pieces of a person’s life. Second, I want to look at growth into vocation. If integration is a spiral constantly coming back to the gravitational pull of vocation, then growth is about each disciple progressing forward and deepening his or her calling. Growth means identifying any barriers that keep young people from listening, understanding, reflecting, and choosing their vocation path. It begins with the conviction that all people do, in fact, have a vocation, that the vocation is multi-layered, and that people can progress toward a calling that provides them with their fullest life while meeting the needs of the world.
Family is the starting point Now, to get practical, what does this really mean? Let’s start with integration. We first have to ask: What different communities are people part of? What communities need to integrate the language and concept of vocation? The first community is the family. Vocational language is a huge win for parents. Parents are already concerned about how to help their children be the best they can be, to maximize their talents, gifts, and abilities. They want a good life for their children. In spite of differences we may have about what leads to a good life, that desire for a good life is a starting point for parents. Vocational language calling for each person to live out who he or she is meant to be, with purpose and meaning—that is language we can use with parents. There are moments when parents are particularly open to these conversations. The thresholds of Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation are ideal times to ask parents to engage with these bigger vocational questions. At Baptism we can introduce questions such as: What do you want for your young person as he or she gets older? What does it look like to you to be a successful parent? At First Communion, parents can begin to ask questions like: What does my child love to do? What excites my child? What parts of my child’s character (who they are versus what they can do) are we already starting to see? When youth reach middle school and high school, the typical age for Confirmation preparation, appropriate questions include: When has my child shown the ability to work or sacrifice for something? Gould | Vocation Culture
When has he or she been part of a community using personal gifts to benefit others? How can we help our child to pray about what to say yes or no to in making choices? Even when faith is not the primary lens for a parent, rites of passage can open up vocation-related conversations. When a young person goes to school for the first time, that transition period can open up questions about how to help guide that young person who is shifting now from parents as the primary influencers to a wider community. The move to middle school is another time of trepidation for parents. As their child enters adolescence, parents can ask questions such as: How will my young person decide who to listen to as they get older? Who will they decide to trust, and how will someone earn their trust? How will who they trust affect who they become? These are questions parents can ask young people themselves, that open up the adolescent to thinking about who they want to become and how those around them will influence that direction. Later adolescence demands another level of conversation. Again, these movements prompt personal reflection and a chance for parents to interject. Parents can ask questions such as: What do you feel passionate about? What about this world would you like to see changed? How could you begin to be a part of that right now? What kind of community would you need to be a part of to be supported in that mission? All of these questions help ground a parent and child’s relationship within a vocational conversation. They are meant to engage parents to consider how they could encourage their child in following a path beyond financial security or professional achievement. Setting the framework for a life of service and mission early on means a young adult will be more open to such a life down the road.
Parishes can develop vocation further When it comes to integrating a vocation culture into the parish community, we can begin with parish leaders by using their language of evangelization, community, mission, and accompaniment. All those are pressing matters for our parish leaders. Vocational language actually helps them to get at each of those areas. They want young people to think about their own encounter with Christ, what that means, and how that moves them forward, sends them on mission, and gives them purpose. The great news is that introducing vocational language to parish leaders gives them a way to address all of these different areas of concern. Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 13
HELPING LAITY LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF VOCATION
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ITH ADULTS, it makes sense to start teaching about vocation by looking at their own vocation. Sometimes our parents, teachers, and young adults have not stopped to consider what they are doing as a vocation. Parents often don’t consider their role as a mother or father as a calling. We can be asking them: What has it meant to you to be a parent? What have been the joys and the struggles? Where have you found meaning in being a parent? We can do the same thing with teachers, helping them reflect on where they find joy in what they do. How does it stir them? Why are they drawn to teaching? Once parents and teachers and other adults ask themselves these questions about their own passions, their own callings, it often sparks something in them, leading them to ask the young people in their lives the same kinds of questions. This kind of modeling of vocational questions can be very powerful and can have a ripple effect.
reality they discover when, for instance, “homeless people” become names and experiences. This allows young people to consider how they live their life to put others at the center, rather than centering on themselves or specific accomplishments. Reflection questions on service bring these points to the forefront. How are Christians called to serve? What are your own gifts and talents, and how can you serve others with them? How is your act of giving your life to someone else embodying the gift of Jesus to the world? How could you live that ideal beyond this service experience? How can you make it part of your everyday life? This is what is meant by integration: taking vocational concepts and introducing them to parish leaders such that they use them in every aspect of what they are already doing. The vocational culture is embedded in the approach of the parish, catechetical, or youth leader, sometimes explicitly and other times implicitly.
Schools play an important role How is that carried out? Parish leaders can take vocational concepts and understandings and integrate them into the things they already have going on. Many parishes already do retreats for youth and young adults. They’re already preparing people for sacramental life, be it marriage or First Communion or Confirmation. In all of these aspects of parish life, leaders can add a vocation theme without overhauling their current programs or starting anything new. They don’t have to put on a whole separate retreat just on vocations. If they’re doing a marriage preparation retreat or a Confirmation retreat, the language of vocation fits right in. What is the purpose and meaning of your marriage? What gifts do you bring to the vocation of marriage? If you’re being confirmed, what are the different ways of living out an adult faith commitment? The language of vocation is very helpful. If young people are hearing these vocational questions in youth ministry or religious education at the same time that their parents are engaging them in similar conversations, they will have an expanded ability to consider how a faith commitment affects the whole of their lives. Another rich area for vocation language is summer or weekend service opportunities. They lend themselves easily to vocational conversations since the focus is already on how to move beyond yourself and be attentive to the other in your midst. In week-long or even onetime service experiences, youth begin to hear the stories of those they serve. They comprehend the difference between assumptions they carry into service against the 14 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
The 2020 NRVC Study on Recent Vocations to Religious Life reinforced again the strong correlation between Catholic school attendance and entrance to a religious community. The question for vocation ministers becomes how to engage campus ministers and teachers in the language of vocation, in vocational practices, in what they are already doing—in classrooms, service opportunities, and class retreats. Again, those are opportunities to introduce the concept and language of vocation into various aspects of the life our young people are already living. It used to be that members of our religious communities were at the forefront of our Catholic schools and universities; they themselves would be constant reminders, models, and witnesses to religious life. They were an implicit invitation to join a community and continue the mission that young people had already experienced as students. Fewer religious are present in schools today, but in the same way that parishes can integrate vocational questions into the ministry they already do, schools, too, can knit vocation concepts into their current ministry. Sometimes it doesn’t even require an action. The vowed religious life of sisters, brothers, and priests is a particular type of witness to young people, but so is the witness of lay teachers who have often knowingly taken a smaller salary to commit themselves to teaching in a Catholic community. The witness of lay teachers and staff can introduce young people to the reality of sacrifice along the vocational journey. It has the opportunity Gould | Vocation Culture
to move youth to see the prophetic cost of all vocations. An advantage of the school environment is that it is easier to craft a vocation culture when youth and young adults are exposed to that ecosystem for many hours a day. The key to maximizing that potential is to reach the many adults across the school community who engage young people. Schools are predisposed to finding ways to adhere to Catholic identity without negating nonCatholic students. Vocational language and practices can be a significant asset to school leadership looking to accomplish this task.
Growth into a personal sense of calling Now that we’ve looked at these three main areas—family, parishes, and schools—for integration of vocation language, let’s turn to growth. If the message of vocation has been implanted, then how do we move young people forward so they begin to grow and develop in their own individual calling? At the family level, parents can begin introducing their children to the concept of vocation and the different types of vocations. Often this happens in high schools when we hold a vocation day, but it actually can be better to introduce specific types of vocations at the elementary ages. Parents can explain to their kids what sisters, brothers, priests, and deacons are. At this stage, we want to expand their sense of the possibilities in life. Very few children become convinced of a particular calling between grades 1 and 5. Yet they do like to pretend what it would be like to have a certain role when they grow up. The objective here is to simply expand their imagination to include many vocational roles. Then as children grow up, we can give middle schoolers different experiences of vocation. Certainly they’ve seen marriage being lived out in their families. Even families where parents are no longer together are still situated within one type of calling. But what about the other vocations? What about the different ways that priesthood, or life as a sister or brother get lived out? Connecting middle schoolers to the variety within the different callings just as they are beginning to discover their own passions opens them to the reality that a commitment to religious life does not mean an end to other dreams. Perhaps we can let them experience a sister who teaches at a university or a brother who ministers at a soup kitchen. Then we can ask these young people what they see and feel when they spend time with religious. Yes, it is an effort to make these real-world connections, but they are invaluable. Gould | Vocation Culture
High school youth are ready to connect themselves to the commitment and passion they see in religious and lay adults living their calling. They are ready to start tapping into their own interests and learning what they find life giving. We want high schoolers to start asking: What am I excited about? What am I concerned about? How can I live out my passion? High schoolers are beginning to narrow their interests and make choices that demand prioritization. Too often those involved in the faith life of a young person see that process as a competition in which church or youth group activities rarely win. An alternative perspective is that this sorting out of priorities and commitments is the exact moment that young people are choosing a passion, and that experience is a healthy next step in vocation discernment. Young adults, whether in college or the workforce, are already trying to find what particular gifts they bring to their passion. They are still discovering purposes and missions to which they feel drawn, but now with more personal awareness, they’re wondering how their own unique skills will allow them to contribute. This discernment leads quite naturally into the next, which is the question of community. Where is the community that will support them and help them to live out their vocation? Is it a marriage partner and extended family? Is it a religious institute? Is their community a collection of friends in the faith? These moments of inquiry are the points at which religious communities in particular hold a distinct advantage. Decades or even centuries of living and growing together as a community around mission provides sisters, brothers, and priests with good questions and perhaps even better practices to accompany young adults. Vocation language and concepts are begging to be integrated into our various forms of Catholic community: family, parish, and schools. The beauty of this approach is that leaders in each of these areas can integrate vocation concepts without starting anything new but rather by consciously working at making these natural connections. Vocational language fits so much of what is already happening. Similarly, religious and lay leaders alike must commit to the long-term work of accompanying people as they grow into their God-given calling. For God does continue to call, and each one of us, with our own unique gifts and passions, continues to respond. n This article is based on the author’s presentation for the 2022 webinar series: “Religious Life Today: Learn it! Love it! Live it!” Find this presentation in video form, as well as the rest of the series, at nrvc.net/webinars. Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 15
Bryan Hetzler, The Southern Illinoisan
Family obligations and economic realities can complicate a decision about entering a religious community
Candidates whose race or culture is different from the most of the community long to be their authentic selves in religious life. What’s stopping them?
Father Joseph Brown, S.J. encourages religious communities to learn from and be ministered to by people of other cultures as a first step in welcoming them as members.
HORIZON interviews Father Joseph Brown, S.J. Father Joseph Brown, S.J. joined the Jesuits in 1962. He is a poet, speaker, and presenter with expertise in Black Catholic history, culture, and spirituality. He has served since 1997 as a professor in the Department of Africana Studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
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Can we let candidates bring their whole selves to community? Tell us a little about the problem people of color experience in being able to “bring their whole selves” to religious communities. That concept of bringing one’s whole self comes from the speech that Sister Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A. gave to the U.S. bishops in 1989 where she told them, “I come to my church fully functioning.” She was imaging the problem and solution simultaneously. She’s sitting before them in a wheelchair Brown | Whole Selves to Community
in the last stages of cancer, about a year before she died. In all of that weakness, she told them, “I come fully functioning.” Here is what she said: I come to my church fully functioning. I bring myself, my Black self, all that I am, all that I have, all that I hope to become. I bring my whole history, my traditions, my experience, my culture, my African American song and dance and gesture and movement and teaching and preaching and responsibility—as a gift to the church.
Well, Pope Paul VI told African Catholics that the church needs their gifts. But I don’t hear the American Catholic Church, and I certainly do not hear religious communities of women and men saying that to African American Catholics. That is the problem for many Black, indigenous, Latino, and Asian people. They are, as Sister Thea told us, fully functioning, but the gifts of their culture are often not appreciated or invited into religious life. The assimilationist attitude of our church is the real problem. I cannot bring my whole self if you’re telling me the only way I will be approved of or defined as acceptable is to do things your way. My whole argument is that if you knew my spirituality because it was necessary for you, then I would not have a problem being welcomed into your community because I wouldn’t have to explain, justify, or educate you. You would have done that for yourself.
Can you name an example of how the spirituality of people of color gets sidelined? One problem is that a lot of people think that Black sacred music is not Catholic, that it’s not liturgical. Just three years ago at an academic conference, a respected Catholic leader said we needed to protect our Catholic identity and theology, and he used “Amazing Grace” as an example of a song that shouldn’t be used in Catholic liturgy. I stood up and told him what I thought about his ridiculous claim. “It’s really odd,” I said, “because that was sung at my ordination Mass.” My argument is that if you really understood Black spirituals, where they came from, how sophisticated the composition is, you would understand that there is no other liberation theology in America that deserves more respect than Black sacred music and Black theology. Brown | Whole Selves to Community
But the church tends to look at Black contributions as something for Black History Month when we can sing a few songs. In reality, if you’re in a contemplative order like the Carmelites, you should be singing this music because it is one the best examples of how to get to the mystical moment of prayer—if you understand the music.
Do religious communities need to broaden their concept of acceptable expressions of the faith? Does that affect who they invite to join them? The history of vocation efforts in the United States created a problem that we haven’t managed to free ourselves from. The missionary attitude of education in the Black community was all about “we will go and help you people.” In contrast, the point of Catholic eduMy whole argument cation among Europeanis that if you knew my descent Catholics was to spirituality because maintain the cultural and it was necessary for religious integrity of imyou, then I would not migrants that made up the have a problem being church. Protestant Ameriwelcomed into your cans wouldn’t let Catholics community. into their schools unless they would give up their culture and maybe their faith. So Catholics maintained schools to protect their cultural and religious integrity and deliver an education that would provide all the competencies needed to thrive in America. And, also, the other motive for the Catholic school system in the 1800s and 1900s was to develop religious and priestly vocations. That was an open priority. However, that was never a priority in the mission communities, that is, in the Black and Native American communities. Look at what happened in what is called the Black and Indian missions. The people who came to minister in those communities came to prove that they had the integrity of their vocation, to ensure they themselves were doing the right thing to get into the kingdom of God. The attitude they brought was, “I will give you an education, and I will go home. I will not give you the keys to our house.” They did not see Black and Indian kids as a seedbed of vocations. They did not want to teach these students in such a way that the students Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 17
Katie Hutchison, Wikimedia
have a policy or a set of programs focused on vocation recruitment. Until we decide to do that, the point made by the Superior General of the Society of Jesus in 2018 in Montreal will be true. I was in the room when he told all the North American general provincials, “If you don’t deal with the problem of racism that the Black Jesuits are talking about, there won’t be a Society of Jesus in the U.S. or Canada in 50 years.” People say, “Well these Cristo Rey kids are not Catholic.” Yet aren’t we supposed to be in the business of calling people into our communities, into our church? It’s worth noting that the Black cardinal of Washington, D.C. is a convert. Half the African American people going up for sainthood were converts, Father Augustus Tolton among them. It’s wrong to say the Cristo Rey kids are exempt because they’re not Catholic. People who say that aren’t Catholic because they’re not living up to their vocation of bringing people into the church. The Cristo Rey schools are doing an incredible job academically. I’m on the board of directors for the Cristo Rey school in Minneapolis. They have a 100 percent acceptance rate into college for their seniors; in 2022 over $3 million dolSister Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A. advocated for the church to embrace the gifts, lars of scholarships were awarded to 100 spirituality, and culture of Black Catholics. She coined the phrase of “bringing one’s graduating students. It’s tremendous. But whole self” to the church. none of those seniors has ever been asked, would you consider being a Dominican nun? Have you ever thought about being a Jesuit or Holy would take their place. That was never a prevailing inCross priest? Have you thought about being a Christian sight or motive in those ministries, but it was among the brother? White ethnic groups.
Does this notion continue—of sometimes not seeing certain groups as prospective members? Yes. Even to this day, the attitude continues of wanting to help but not recruit new members from among people of color. I have been complaining, arguing, and preaching about it, demanding that the Jesuits start doing vocation recruitment of the young men and women in our network of Cristo Rey schools. These are high schools in low income Black and Hispanic areas. The Jesuits don’t 18 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
Another theme you’ve brought up is that religious communities ought to learn and grow from Black Catholics and other people of color. It’s crucial to see that you can be ministered to yourself by the people you think you minister to. That goes back to the spirituality, music, and culture. Don’t come into my neighborhood to appropriate my songs and take them back to your house. Come into my community so I can teach you the survival skills that we have used. Brown | Whole Selves to Community
Come into my community so I can help you heal yourself from the pains and sufferings you have experienced as you try to maintain yourself in your culture. Come into our culture so we can make you feel welcome as children of the covenant. Come into our culture, bring your school or another ministry, yes, but then bring yourself, realizing we have survival skills that help us transcend the pain of the world by the way we have always worshipped the Divine. Black Christians have prayer skills in line with Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. We have a sense of the communion of saints that comes out of our African religious traditions. We know that no matter what somebody does to us, Easter is the defining moment of faith because we were there when they crucified my Lord. Why don’t you come to my house and sit at my table and be at peace? I recall that back in the late 60s, a group of Jesuits went into North St. Louis to minister in the Black community. They asked people, “What do you need?” They didn’t walk in and say, “We’re here to bring you Jesus.” The people told those Jesuits they wanted some afterschool tutoring, so that’s what they did. And it’s notable that one of the most influential Black priests in the country, Father Maurice Nutt, C.Ss.R., got his start from receiving that after-school tutoring.
How do religious communities adopt a stance toward communities of color based on mutual respect and openness? When you start to think about entering into another racial or ethnic community, the first thing you have to do is say we’re going to remember history. And we are going to try to reconcile ourselves with what your community has had to go through historically. The second thing is to sit down and learn from that community how it has survived its adversity. Only then does it make sense to ask the older people in the community, whether it’s Black, Native, Latino, or something else: “Do you have any special, spirit-gifted children who might thrive and grow with us, that is, young people who might want to keep our ministry going in your community? We want to sustain what we’re doing here, but we need to know who the young people are who might carry this on.” Every community that is Native, Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. still maintains what the European immigrants used to have: a cross-generational family. The older people are the people you need to talk to because their gift is to see how their family, their comBrown | Whole Selves to Community
munity, can keep going with the babies—the young people. That’s what the elders do: they read the spirit world in their families and communities. There are older people in every minority culture who know which children have a close connection to God, which ones have the skills for building up the community. These elders can talk with such children and let them know there are options for the exercise of their gifts, options they probably never thought about, such as religious life. When young people see that the older people trust priests, sisters, and brothers, they will trust them too. Take your traditions and our needs, your gifts and our gifts, and let’s put these things into a conversation. This approach is a contrast to seeing communities of color as “the ones who need us.” Let’s go into communities of color and say: “What can we do? What have you got? What have we got? And how do we dream ourselves into something the children can carry on?”
When it comes to vocations, you’ve also advocated for changes in youth ministry and ministry in general. Tell us more. Why is the sacrament of Confirmation the exit sacrament? The kids get confirmed and we just lead them along like they’re still kids. I have been saying this for decades. Why don’t we act like they’re adults in the faith? Let’s ask them what they need from the church. And let’s stop saying, “But that’s not Catholic,” or, “That’s not the way we do things.” They’re going to leave the church and not come back because we’re telling them they don’t have the validity of their own experience. I can’t call you a child of God and then treat you like a stepchild. Why don’t we listen? One question we can ask young people—and people in general—is: “Where does it hurt?” If we asked people that, we’d be a lot like Jesus. We’d be a lot like Peter and John in the temple who told people, “Gold and silver we have none,” but then they healed a man. We need to ask where it hurts, and we also need to let other people ask us that question. That’s where racial reconciliation in the church can begin. Until you heal the wounds of the past, you’ll never come out of it.
You have also challenged the idea of formation as assimilation. We all have a multiplicity of identities. I’m older, Black, male, a religious, a professor, a priest, a native of South-
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ern Illinois. All of those things are a part of me. Which History Month. The theology and spirituality of our varione am I focusing on? Whichever one is appropriate ous communities are just waiting to be explored. And the now. Everyone has distinctions of class, race, gender, learning needs to happen with humility. Religious working sexuality, region, physical and mental ability, etc. But in ministries outside their own culture should complete historically the effort of religious communities was to ascertificates in the culture they work in. You can’t just say similate everyone into one type. The thought was: you’ve the grace of God is enough; you have to get educated. And got to be a Sister of Loretto; you’ve got to of course, communities can perform acts of be a Jesuit. We’re going to assimilate you reconciliation when possible. into a uniform culture of behavior; we don’t want all those other distinctions to If you want to know You often weave Black sacred be made. how to begin to do music into the conversation That has been part of the problem vocation work in the with a lack of people entering or staying. I when you talk about racial Black community, might need to know that another member justice. Why is that? go and sit and listen of the community grew up poor. I might We’re told starting in Exodus to not harm and let the music and need to know that they are gay. I might or oppress the stranger, for you yourself spirituality of survival need to know that they have ADHD. were strangers in the land of Egypt, and and transcendence Whatever is making you a unique child of don’t afflict the widow, and don’t afflict God, let’s accept and value it. teach you. the orphan. Don’t neglect to show hospiWouldn’t it be wonderful if every tality to strangers, for by so doing some member of every religious order could have entertained angels unawares. say, “I come to my church fully functionThose are the themes in the Black sacred music that ing”? Too often we’re trying to shape people into someis my heart’s soul and fiber. We sing about a welcome thing acceptable, agreeable, and non-threatening. But table. We sing, “There’s plenty good room in my Father’s that’s not who Jesus was. That’s a socialization that is not kingdom. Choose your seat and sit down.” These words necessary for the vocation. come from oppressed, neglected people who hear the stories of Jesus and they sing themselves into the center of the story. “If anybody asks you who you are, tell How do you respond to vocation them you’re a child of God.” We know we have a right to directors who say they want to invite the Kingdom. Black Christians took the covenant and people of color to join, but their flipped it. They were the strangers and the aliens, and community is not ready for it? they’re the ones singing themselves into the heart of the story. That’s what Sister Thea Bowman meant by, “I come They’re going to have to tell the community that—call to my church fully functioning.” There are no strangers them to question, and ask them to go to Confession. and aliens in the Catholic Church if you follow Jesus. Because that’s sinful. If you don’t want me in your house, If you want to know how to begin to do vocation work then you can’t really tell me you’re Catholic. in the Black community, go and sit and listen and let the It’s a process to move past racism. It’s a process that music and spirituality of survival and transcendence teach has to be started and articulated and held onto. We have you. You won’t have any problem realizing that there are no to be persistent. Once you start to deal with it, you’re not aliens and strangers because the Black Catholic community chained by it anymore. It begins by admitting that racism won’t treat you like one. Flip the picture around. Come to is the original sin of America and a sin of the modern communities of color with the attitude: We need you as Roman Catholic Church globally. We keep writing documuch as you need us, if not more. n ments that say it’s a sin. But when do we get to the part in the sacrament of Reconciliation where we make a firm amendment to sin no more? What can we do to prove Related article that we’re sincere? For one thing, religious communities can learn “Transforming religious communities to be intercultural about communities of color. It should be systematic, and anti-racist,” by Sister Anita Baird, D.H.M., HORImore than a once-a-year lecture or movie for Black ZON, Spring 2021. 20 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
Brown | Whole Selves to Community
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When a person seeks to move from one religious community to another, canon law guides the process. Here is an overview.
Those considering a transfer from one religious community to another need to discern the change carefully. Vocation ministers can help by bringing up important questions and explaining the basic process.
What vocation directors need to know about the transfer process
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O UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS of transferring from one religious community to another, a vocation minister must be well-grounded in the communal forms of consecrated life. The ones recognized by the Code of Canon Law are religious institutes, secular institutes, and societies of apostolic life. Since most institutes are religious institutes, this article focuses on them. However, it is important to point out how transfer applies to the other two. Additionally, since religious frequently ask about the possibility of moving to an Association of the Christian Faithful or to a completely new form of consecrated life that might be emerging, this article addresses those movements as well. Jaramillo | The Transfer Process
By Eileen Jaramillo Eileen Jaramillo is a canon lawyer who has served as a canonical consultant to bishops and women and men religious for over 25 years. In addition, she has served as a judge in two dioceses and taught at a variety of universities and seminaries. For more information or to reach her, visit dreileencjaramillo. academia.edu.
Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 21
A religious desiring a transfer is prayerfully considering a change of juridic status in a religious institute while maintaining his or her religious consecration. These individuals are sometimes motivated by a desire for a more structured or less structured way of living religious life. Others want to pursue the cloistered The key question for life, a missionary vocation, a religious seeking or a completely different a transfer is: What charism. At the same time, however, these attractions attracts you to are not always true vocathe spirituality or tions. It is very difficult to charism of that other leave behind the shared institute? charism and history of a particular institute to join another one where the religious has no established roots. Experience over the years indicates that a common spirituality or orientation for mission between the two institutes usually makes for a successful transfer.
Questions for those desiring transfer To address such issues, there are questions that a vocation minister may want to ask a religious considering such a change. The key one is: What attracts you to the spirituality or charism of that other institute? If it becomes clear during the discussion that the religious is only requesting a transfer to get away from a difficult situation, the vocation minister should try to help the person examine what is transpiring. Rather than asking to transfer, perhaps the person needs to seek ways to address community life problems. A second question is: Do you have a spiritual director that you have been seeing for a while? A spiritual director can help the religious focus on what God is asking at this time in his or her life. A third question is: Have you considered the fact that you might have difficulty adjusting to the new institute because your memories of living religious life will not be the same as theirs? This is a significant question. Many transfers state that their main difficulty during the process was the lack of shared memories. After pursuing these avenues of discussion, the religious might still want to move forward with a petition for transfer. Therefore, the vocation minister should give a basic explanation of the procedure. Canon 684 describes the process. A religious in perpetual public vows may apply for a transfer to another 22 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
religious institute. While transfer is not a right, the keys to this request are an individual with right motives and dialogue between the superior general of each institute. The process begins when the religious puts his or her motives in writing and requests—from both institutes—the consent of the superior general and his or her council. The person making the request also puts into writing how he or she arrived at the decision to request a transfer. It might include spiritual direction, counseling, time with the intended institute, or something else. The receiving institute can request a reasonable amount of information about the prospective member by asking for a curriculum vitae as well as an understanding of the health of this individual. The normal rules of confidentiality apply.
Final decision lies with receiving institute The law indicates that the probationary period of those transferring is a minimum of three years. Therefore, if the petition is accepted, one of the essential issues that the superior general of each institute must agree on is when the probationary period begins and ends. Permission to begin this period does not oblige either the individual religious or the intended institute to complete the process. The final decision to admit the religious seeking transfer to perpetual profession in the new institute is a very important decision that is left in the hands of the superior general and the council in accordance with the proper law of the receiving institute. (Proper law is the constitution and statutes of the institute.) If the religious decides not to seek perpetual profession, or if this religious is not accepted into the receiving institute, he or she must return to the original institute or seek an indult of departure. In accordance with canon 685, the status of a religious during the probationary period is provisional. Technically, the person is still a member of the original institute with the right to return there. The other rights and obligations flowing from such membership are suspended. Why? This individual is now observing the proper law of the new institute, especially the way the evangelical counsels are lived. For example, active voice (the right to vote and elect office holders) in the original institute is suspended. So is passive voice (the right to be voted for or be elected to office) in the original institute. Neither voice is acquired in the new institute until the religious becomes a member of it through profession. This new profession is a new locus of incorporation rather than a new consecration to God. Jaramillo | The Transfer Process
When a person transfers from an institute with simple vows to one with solemn vows, adjustments must be made regarding the vow of poverty. The transferring religious will have to make the total renunciation as indicated in canon 668 §§4-5 at the time of the new profession. The previous act of cession ends, and the will is adjusted. A religious who professed solemn vows in the original institute and is now professing vows in the new institute that has simple vows reacquires the capacity to inherit. From a canonical viewpoint, that capacity had been lost in the former institute. Once again, the will has to be adjusted.
Incardination, jubilees, office-holding With the new profession, other matters need to be emphasized. The incardination of a religious deacon or priest passes to the new institute. In other words, this profession in the new institute brings about full incorporation into it as a perpetually professed member. Additionally, since a person who transfers has not interrupted his or her religious life, the individual should be inserted into the new institute according to his/her original profession dates and celebrate jubilees according to the practice of the new institute. These can be dated from entrance into the novitiate, first vows, or perpetual vows in the original institute. There also needs to be some interpretation regarding how the institute will apply its requirements in their proper law to holding certain offices. For example, if the role of a superior requires a certain number of years in perpetual vows, it should be made clear to a transfer whether this time period will be calculated from his/her profession in the new institute or the original one. This issue is important because knowledge as well as experience is needed to fulfill the office in question.
Monastic transfers The third paragraph of canon 684 specifies transfer within a particular monastic family. Major superiors are the competent ones to address this situation. Only the consent of the chapter of the receiving monastery is required. Any other norms must be contained in the proper law. Since both monasteries are the same family and, therefore, share the same rule of life, a new profession is not required. This is an exception for monastics because others must make a new profession. Based on the circumstances and traditions of monasteries of the same institute, federation, or confederation, the Holy Jaramillo | The Transfer Process
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See also gave a clarification about this paragraph. It stated that for such monasteries, religious in temporary profession were included. This is yet another exception because the general rule is that only religious in perpetual vows can request to transfer. The lack of providing for a procedure in the universal law for an apostolic religious in temporary vows who desires to move to another institute is very serious. Why? Because this person is a religious who has completed a novitiate and professed temporary vows. Therefore, an institute needs to bridge the gap by providing for a discernment process even though he or she is not considered a transfer. If this discernment process is completed at the time of expiration of vows, the religious can withdraw from the original institute in accordance with canons 657 §1 and 688 §1. If the discernment process is completed earlier, he or she can request an indult of departure in accordance with canon 688 §2. The person can then petition to be admitted to the new institute. In the new institute the person completes the formation process before being admitted to temporary vows. Since there are various options depending on the original institute and the new institute, it is wise to contact a canon lawyer to discuss them. When the request for transfer of a religious in 24 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
perpetual vows involves different types of communal forms of consecrated life, the consent of the superior generals and their councils is only a part of what is needed. For a religious to transfer to a secular institute or a society of apostolic life, the permission must come from the Holy See in accordance with paragraph four of canon 684. The same holds true for a religious institute to accept a member of a secular institute or a society of apostolic life in accordance with the same paragraph as well as canons 730 and 744 §2. The reason for such a requirement is based on the diverse lifestyles, the approaches to mission, the specific observance of the evangelical counsels, and formation. These dynamics explain why these transfers are reserved to the Holy See and why there are sometimes specific provisions when the permission is granted. These norms apply to both pontifical and diocesan institutes or societies.
Transfers to other life forms This article has provided only a brief understanding of the different types of communal forms of consecrated life recognized in the code. For those who need a broader description, this author has designed a chart and authored other material that can be accessed online at Jaramillo | The Transfer Process
HANDBOOK WITH FORMS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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OR MORE information, as well as sample forms about the transfer process and other types of procedures, the Procedural Handbook for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is available for purchase. It was published in 2021 by the Canon Law Society of America. The author of this article is one of the co-editors. Find it on Amazon.com or on the website of the Canon Law Society of America, clsa.org.
dreileencjaramillo.academia.edu. With this knowledge in mind, let us explore other types of movement that religious have been requesting for many years. There are groups of the faithful that someday hope to be established as a religious institute, a secular institute, or a society of apostolic life. They are known as Associations of the Christian Faithful. In accordance with canon 579, a diocesan bishop has the authority to begin this process for a group within his territory. Based on various documents from the Holy See, it is clear that a new institute or society begins its life in the diocese quite informally. It is known as a Private Association of the Christian Faithful. Through the careful monitoring of the diocesan bishop over several years, the organization then moves into a second stage. It is now known as a Public Association of the Christian Faithful. While such groups are subject to the canons on Associations of the Christian Faithful, their statutes often resemble the constitution of an institute or society because they are supposed to begin living like the institute or society that they hope to become. The code also recognizes the possibility of new forms of consecrated life in canon 605. Therefore, it leaves room for the Holy Spirit to create a configuration of consecrated life that is not currently recognized in ecclesiastical law. The ecclesial family, a communal form, is in this process at the current time. This is a single structure formed by two branches of consecrated celibates: the female branch and the male clerical branch. The third one is the married couples’ branch. The two celibate branches profess public perpetual vows, and the members of the married couples branch assume the evangelical counsels according to their married state by means of a perpetual promise. A question that arises is whether a religious may transfer from a religious institute, a secular institute, or a society of apostolic life to an Association of the ChrisJaramillo | The Transfer Process
tian Faithful or a new form of consecrated life that is still in process. The canons on transfer cannot be applied to Associations of the Christian Faithful because these groups are still in process. A person desiring to join an association must request an indult of departure and then follow the internal procedures of the association regarding new membership. Similarly, a member of an association The canons on cannot transfer to an institute transfer cannot or a society. The individual be applied to must legitimately leave the Associations of the association and then proceed Christian Faithful through the normal steps because these for entering the institute or groups are still in the society. The same norms usuprocess of becoming ally hold true for a new form of consecrated life that is still established. emerging. Whether it is an Association of the Christian Faithful or a new form of consecrated life that is evolving, there are important questions a leader or vocation minister can ask a religious who is thinking about such a move. In addition to the questions at the beginning of this article, one should ask: Does this group practice a spirituality and live a common life that is wholistic? Such a question is important because the group is still finding its way. The religious may discover that the new group lives very differently from the way he or she currently lives. Another question is: Is this group going to go out of existence within the next few years? This question addresses the group’s stability and its ability to stand the test of time. As this article makes clear, the decision to transfer never involves an easy process for either the individual or the superior generals and councils of both communities. Likewise, a movement to another group that is still finding its identity can be filled with problems. The key in these situations is twofold: following a good discernment process and observing the technicalities of the law. Why? Because both aspects respect the rights and obligations of everyone. The many issues named in this article are a starting point for a dialogue between the vocation minister and the person considering a transfer. They may also help when a superior general asks a vocation minister for his or her understanding of transfer. A willingness on the part of everyone to listen intently to the grace that is being given at this time is crucial. It is an opportunity to respond freely to a loving and gracious God. n Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 25
Feed your spirit
HOPE IS NOT DEPENDENT on peace in the land, justice in the world, and success in the business. Hope is willing to leave unanswered questions unanswered and unknown futures unknown. Hope makes you see God’s guiding hand not only in the gentle and pleasant moments but also in the shadows of disappointment and darkness. No one can truly say with certainty where he or she will be 10 or 20 years from now. You do not know if you will be free or in captivity, if you will be honored or despised, if you will have many friends or few, if you will be liked or rejected. But when you hold lightly these dreams and fears, you can be open to receive every day as a new day and to live your life as a unique expression of God’s love for humankind. Father Henri Nouwen From Turn My Mourning Into Dancing: Finding Hope in Hard Times
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26 | Spring 2022 | HORIZON
Book notes
Invitation to reflect on inclusion and transformation
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OR THOSE SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND contemporary religious life for women, a new book sheds light on a complex picture: New Faces, New Possibilities: Cultural Diversity and Structural Change in Institutes of Women Religious, edited by Father Thomas P. Gaunt, S.J., and Sister Thu T. Do, L.H.C. (2022 Liturgical Press). Through a series of essays by various scholars and experts, this book analyzes the current landscape of institutes of women religious in the U.S., including changes in governing structures, new practices of formation, and some of the emerging new multicultural dimensions. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) has conducted a variety of research on members who entered after 2000, and the data shows a new wave of religious life that can be characterized as multicultural. Also, remarkably, one of the editors of this book, Father Thomas Gaunt, S.J., notes that about 200 women join religious life every year, contrary to the popular narrative that the sisters have aged out and are disappearing from church ministry. Even more importantly, CARA data shows that a full third of religious community members in initial formation are non-European immigrants and second or third generations of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. There are various reasons for joining religious communities, but common attractions are community practices of prayer and vowed living. Despite the small numbers compared to the past, women continue to choose religious life. From this purview, this book provides a new possibility for a transformation of religious life. Regarding institutes of women religious in the U.S., it is almost impossible to provide a fully accurate picture because religious life—as a living organism which encompasses both life and death within it—is too varied Park | Invitation to Reflect
By Sister Sophia Park, S.N.J.M. Sister Sophia Park, S.N.J.M. belongs to the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. She is an associate professor in religious studies and philosophy at Holy Names University in Oakland, California. Her field is women’s spirituality from a global perspective. She is co-author with Sister Teresa Maya, C.C.V.I. of Conversation at the Well: Emerging Religious Life in the 21st-Century Global World— Collaboration, Networking, and Intercultural Living.
Summer 2022 | HORIZON | 27
to categorize into merely a few groups. Therefore, if a particular community does not fit within the scope of what this book presents, the book does not necessarily provide useful information or insights. It is essential to note the difficulty of drawing conclusions about newer communities because the amount of data on the emerging new groups is small relative to the large numbers of U.S. communities composed of aging members. Nevertheless, this book takes on this challenging task through quantitative research over five years, along with focus groups and interviews. Through this lens, readers can hear vivid voices of women religious who give witness to their current lived experience of consecrated It is remarkable that life. Although these voices many new members cannot be the meta-narrative are finding their that represents the whole exvocations at their perience of women religious, parishes through they do bring forth some participation in vivid colors. Therefore, while diverse ministry it would be fair to say that activities. this book cannot cover the entire reality of the institutes of women religious, it is still highly valuable and worthy of attention. One of the beauties of this book is that it does not give readers concrete answers but rather remains open to the readers’ reflections. Perhaps, with the guidance of this book, women religious can elaborate on their own experiences based on this research and project into their future with confidence.
Cultural diversity as a new way of life CARA’s research emphasizes cultural diversity as a new way of religious life, as the book’s title, New Faces, New Possibilities, indicates. This book neither explores indepth how intercultural or multicultural living is challenging nor suggests a spirituality; this is not the book’s intention. Instead, the book provides voices of sisters who came to the U.S. as new members through quotes pulled from focus group conversations and essays by immigrant sisters. Some sisters in the focus groups share their daily experiences, which show that, in general, religious communities are far from accepting sisters from other cultures. Most often, sisters who are not familiar with American culture do not feel fully understood or included because most communities do not comprehend the dynamics of intercultural living, such as assump28 | Summer 2022 | HORIZON
tions, values, eating habits, and lifestyles. This book connotes that creating a space of intercultural living is challenging because so many new members are distinct in culture and ethnicity from the rest of their communities. Often in religious life, we assume there is “the American way” versus “a non-American way,” but this arbitrary division creates great stress and discomfort. Beyond cultural differences, each person is distinct in terms of personality, perceptiveness, and level of adaptation to American culture. Therefore, living interculturally is not limited to embracing a certain otherness. Instead, it shifts the framework for thinking about and living religious life. Most of the narratives of religious life reflect a hierarchal structure and assume an institute with many members. However, the endeavor to embrace intercultural living cannot be the task of all religious institutes and would be limited in any community with new members. In terms of vocations to religious life, it is remarkable that many new members are finding their vocations at their parishes through participation in diverse ministry activities and that young members are feeling attracted to the communal life of their institutes. To be clear, newer members love the sacraments and devotions, such as Eucharistic Adoration and communal prayer. So then, it is imperative to have parishes full of spiritual resources and a strong sense of community to serve as springboards for religious vocations. Many Catholic institutions, such as colleges and hospitals, do not explicitly advocate the Catholic faith or spirituality but are dedicated to service and mission. As such, I fear that many associated young people will not have opportunities to explore the Catholic faith or be immersed in devotion. In addition to examining newer members, this book also mentions the current need to change the governance structure of religious institutes. Many institutes already collaborate in the completion of their missions, bestowing social justice resources, while still struggling to maintain institutional ministries such as schools and hospitals. Without definite answers, this book raises questions about whether these institutes should consider giving leadership roles to the newer members, in keeping with a move toward a multicultural church. In a similar vein, this book informs readers that some institutes have moved their centers to other countries, thereby beginning a journey to leave behind an American-centered religious life and shift toward a more global mission. Thus, it remains the reader’s task to ponder possibilities in a discerning spirit, dreaming of the transformation of religious life and their own institutes. n Park | Invitation to Reflect
Mapping the Journey
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