Vision & Challenge | Spring/Summer 2015

Vision Challenge &

A Publication of the Sisters of Notre Dame, California

Special Celebration Issue: The Year of Consecrated Life page 6

Spring/Summer 2015 Vol. XXII No. 2

One Heart. One Hope. One Mission.

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Letter from the Provincial Superior

Dear Friends,

In proclaiming a Year of Consecrated Life, Pope Francis has called all religious to “wake up the world!” We Sisters of Notre Dame take that call very seriously! Pope Francis exhorts us to recall the past with gratitude, to live the present with passion and to embrace the future with hope. We believe that our life together is both the privilege and the responsibility of all of us as we live our mission to incarnate the love of a good and provident God in a world in great need of that witness.

In each issue of Vision & Challenge we share with you our participation in the mission of Jesus as we respond to the needs of God’s people. We are missioned to incarnate the love of a good and provident God through catechesis, pastoral ministry, education, health care, social ministries and missionary activity.

Our observance of the Year of Consecrated Life challenges us to examine our fidelity to the mission entrusted to us. In

this issue of Vision & Challenge you will find some of the ways our sisters are responding to new needs of God’s people both here in California and in Uganda.

This summer, 428 Sisters of Notre Dame from the four U.S. provinces will gather in Columbus, O.H., to participate in a weekend of prayer, conversation, visioning and building relationships with each other as we continue to build our future full of hope as one American province. You’ll be hearing more about that in future issues of Vision & Challenge.

Enjoy this issue of Vision & Challenge and join us as we recall the past with gratitude, live the present with passion and embrace the future with hope.

Sincerely,

Sister Mary Anncarla Costello Provincial Superior

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Vision Challenge &

Vision & Challenge is published tri-annually by the Office of Mission Advancement for the Sisters of Notre Dame, California Province.

The Nun Run 5K is habit-forming

Founded by Hilligonde Wolbring in Coesfeld, Germany in 1850, the Sisters of Notre Dame is an international congregation of women religious who serve the Church in eighteen countries on five continents.

The Sisters of Notre Dame have ministered in California for ninety years, bringing hope to the world through catechesis, pastoral ministry, education, health care, social ministries and missionary activity.

For more information, visit www.sndca.org.

Vision & Challenge Editorial Team Sister Mary Anncarla Costello Christiana Thomas Chloe Vieira Sister Mary Joanne Wittenburg Sister Betty Mae Bienlein Sister Mary Josanne Furey Sister Mary Rebekah Kennedy Sister Mary Francelia Klingshirn Sister Mary Antonine Manning Sister Mary Regina Robbins Sister Mary Joan Schlotfeldt

Provincial Superior Director of Mission Advancement Communications Manager SND SND SND SND SND SND SND SND

Contributors Erin Cummings John Baginski

Engineers Without Borders Engineers Without Borders

Cover Image The cover image for this issue was adapted from the Year of Consecrated Life logo, which was specially designed by the National Religious Vocation Conference and the VISION Vocation Network.

Printing Vision & Challenge is proudly printed locally by Gordon Bowers Printing in Westlake Village, California.

It is printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks. Please remember to recycle your copy after reading. If you have a question, a comment, or if you would like to cancel your subscription or change your mailing address, contact Chloe Vieira at cvieira@sndca.org.

Sister Julie Marie Arriaga crosses the finish line of the 1-mile course during the first-ever Nun Run 5K event in January of this year.

The Sisters of Notre Dame are proud to announce that the second annual Nun Run 5K will take place on Saturday, February 6, 2016 at La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, C.A. The inaugural race in January drew over 900 participants and raised more than $30,000 for the Life and Ministry Fund, which enables sisters to remain in unpaid ministries throughout Southern California. The overwhelming success of the event prompted coordinators to make the Nun Run 5K a Notre Dame tradition. For more information on ways you can be involved with next year’s Nun Run 5K as a sponsor or a volunteer, please contact Christiana Thomas, Director of Mission Advancement, at cthomas@sndca.org or (805) 917-3714.

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Water and biogas systems installed in Buseesa The Sisters of Notre Dame partnered with the Greater Cincinnati Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to install a biogas system at the site of their mission in Buseesa, Uganda and improve the local community’s water supply.

EWB became aware of the sisters’ mission in Uganda via Erin Cummings, a volunteer engineer and alumna of Notre Dame Academy in Covington, K.Y. Cummings and a small group of EWB volunteers traveled to Buseesa three times in three years.

According to a blog post by Cummings on the CH2M HILL Foundation website, the team’s initial goals were to “verify the feasibility of implementing and sustaining a biogas system at the school; and second, to determine the greatest engineering need of the community in the greater Buseesa area.” During their second trip the team collected more data, met with local contractors, determined site locations and secured construction materials. The projects were completed during their final trip in March of 2015.

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Sister Mary Janet Stamm gathers water from a gully in Buseesa in 1995. The water system has not changed much since the Sisters of Notre Dame first arrived in Buseesa, Uganda 20 years ago.

BIOGAS

“The kitchen at Saint Julie Model Primary Boarding School services the students at Notre Dame Academy Senior Secondary School, the nursery and all of the teaching staff, maintenance workers and farm workers, which is about 500-plus people every day,” said Sister Mary Paulynne Tubick, current principal at Saint Julie.

The biogas project will make food preparation at the sisters’ mission more sustainable by supplementing the wood-burning stoves in the existing outdoor

kitchen that demand a near-constant supply of firewood. EWB volunteer John Baginski led the installation of the biogas system.

“Our goal is to create enough biogas with this unit to at least cut in half the amount of firewood now used as fuel at the school,” Baginski wrote via email.

The construction team built a brick mixing tank that feeds manure (collected from the animals on the sisters’ farm) and water into a flexible bag that can hold up to 50 cubic meters. The bag works

like the human digestive system, transforming food into heat, gas and waste.

The gas flows through a small tube from the top of the bag to the kitchen where it can be used to cook food on gas burners.

“The cooks at the school will retain the ability to cook with wood as fuel. But in mid-May, when school is back in session, they will have the added capability to begin cooking on three new biogas burners. It will be a new experience for them,” Baginski wrote.

WATER

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water. Water must be collected by hand from springs, streams, marshes and shallow wells and it is often unsafe to drink. The team of EWB volunteers tested the available water sources and found them all to be contaminated with E. coli bacteria. When those sources disappear during dry seasons, community members must walk further to collect water.

The Sisters of Notre Dame are used to collecting rainwater in large tanks on their property and treating it with chlorine so it’s safe to use.

“Typhoid and malaria are an issue because at home they [the students at Saint Julie and Notre Dame Academy schools] may live in mud huts. We purify all water but at home that’s not always the case,” said Sister Maria Bernarde Derichsweiler, who has served in Uganda since 2001.

The EWB volunteers used funding from the Sisters of Notre Dame in Covington, K.Y., and support from the Buseesa Community Development Centre (BCDC) to build a new well in the village center. Then, a water committee was elected to operate and maintain it.

“We will continue to monitor both projects and start working on new projects based on the community’s highest needs,” wrote Cummings via email.

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Photos on this page are courtesy of Erin Cummings.

Top: Members of the drill team and a Buseesa Community Development Centre employee install the pump pedestal for the well. Bottom: Erin Cummings (far left) with members of the community-elected water committee and the Engineers Without Borders team after well-maintenance training.

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The Year of Consecrated Life Pope Francis declares international celebration

By SISTER MARY REGINA ROBBINS

Sister Mary Joell Overman greets guests at a special mass for the Year of Consecrated Life.

The Year of Consecrated Life was initiated by Pope Francis. As a Jesuit priest, his love for his vocation to religious life and his obvious appreciation for the men and women consecrated for mission in the Church inspired him to announce November 29, 2014 through February 2, 2016 as a special time of gratitude and renewal.

In 2014 Pope Francis wrote a letter entitled To All Consecrated People, that said, “You have not only a glorious history to remember and recount, but also a great history still to be accomplished! Look to

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the future where the Spirit is sending you in order to do even greater things.”

It is noteworthy that as recently as April, 2015, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) had a private audience with Pope Francis on behalf of all religious communities throughout the United States. Again the Holy Father expressed appreciation for the ministries and life of the sisters.

Renewed and encouraged by the conversation, Sister Carol Zinn, a Sister of Saint Joseph, wrote in a LCWR newsletter, “We are called to tend the sorrow and suffering of all peoples, to temper the polarization and politics in all ways possible, to tender the hurt and hatred wherever we find it, and to transform the anguish and anger whenever we experience it.”

In April the sisters gathered at Notre Dame Center for a celebration of the Year of Consecrated Life. In the afternoon Reverends Leon Hutton and Paul Hruby concelebrated a Mass for the sisters and their guests.

The sisters publicly renewed their vows and then sang the Suscipe, a song of selfgift to God.

WHO’S CONSIDERING RELIGIOUS LIFE?

Religious life is tracked by a number of different organizations, including the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Religious Vocation Conference, and VISION Vocation Network. The following statistics were reprinted with permission from VISION Vocation Guide, VocationNetwork. org.

»» Among female nevermarried Catholics 2 percent (or approximately 250,000) have very seriously considered becoming a religious sister; among male nevermarried Catholics, 3 percent (or approximately 350,000) have very seriously considered becoming a priest or religious brother. »» Women who have attended a Catholic primary school are three times more likely than those who did not to consider being a religious sister; men who have attended a Catholic secondary school are six times more likely to consider being a priest or brother.

»» Among female college students involved in Catholic campus ministry: 39 percent have seriously considered becoming a religious sister; 66 percent of involved male students have seriously considered becoming a priest or religious brother. »» Among women involved in diocesan young-adult ministry: 30 percent have seriously considered becoming a religious sister; 84 percent of men have seriously considered becoming a priest or religious brother.

US »» There are more than 66,000 religious sisters, brothers, and priests in the United States in more than 800 religious institutes. »» More than 100 women and men in the U.S. profess perpetual vows annually. »» In 2014 approximately 477 entered. In 2014 there were nearly 1.2 million religious brothers, sisters, and order and diocesan priests in the world. »» There are 705,529 religious sisters and nuns, 279,561 diocesan priests, 134,752 religious order priests, and 55,314 religious brothers worldwide.

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Seekers find peace at Notre Dame Center As the school year winds down, Sister Marie Paul Grech and Sister Antoinette Marie Moon are wrapping up the first season of “Seekers,” a women’s spirituality group that meets on the first Tuesday of each month from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.

Seekers began in the fall of 2014 as the first public women’s spirituality group ever hosted at Notre Dame Center in Thousand Oaks, C.A. In October of 2014, two women from Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Simi Valley approached Sister Valerie Marie Roxburgh, director of vocation discernment and young adult outreach for the Sisters of Notre Dame, about starting a group for women. The original members of the group were very involved in their home parishes and

needed an outlet for their own spiritual growth.

“They’re so involved in everything and they just give, give, give and you can only survive that so long before you’re dried up,” said Sister Antoinette Marie.

The sisters were happy to respond to the apparent need for a women’s group.

“By nature women are givers and we don’t always take care of ourselves, especially spiritually.

Women need other women to share things with on a spiritual level,” said Sister Marie Paul.

Each meeting of the Seekers begins as the women wrap themselves in colorful prayer shawls and say a prayer asking God to “enfold” them in His love.

“We use the shawls as a symbol of prayer and mutual support. We gave

one to each woman at the first meeting and from then on they brought their own shawls to wear,” said Sister Marie Paul.

The group meetings include music, reflection, scripture, short videos, conversation and snacks.

Each evening ends with prayer petitions where the women offer up prayer concerns to the group.

“The women are caught up in a busy way of life as we all are, but when

they’re here they’re with us 250 percent,” Sister Marie Paul said.

Sister leads two additional women’s groups: “Monday Morning Moms” at Saint Mel Catholic Church in Woodland Hills which takes place weekly at 8:30 a.m.; and a women’s study group at Saint Paschal Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks every Wednesday from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.

Kelly Meros (left) and Kristine Durand chat about school and work while the women’s group settles in for their monthly meeting at Notre Dame Center in Thousand Oaks, C.A.

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Sister Mary Frances receives education award Sister Mary Frances Wahl recently received the Excellence in Catechetical Service Award for the San Pedro Region (one of five pastoral regions in the L.A. Archdiocese). The award is given to a handful of religious educators who are nominated by their colleagues each year. Sister traveled to Lakewood, C.A., with a group of friends to accept her award from Bishop Oscar Solis, the auxiliary bishop of the San Pedro Region.

Religious educators, or catechists, volunteer their time teaching the tenets of the Catholic faith to students from first grade through high school and into adulthood.

As a master catechist, Sister Mary Frances guides other religious educators through a fortyhour training process.

Supporting other teachers is an important part of her work.

“I really have a heart for the volunteers who have full time jobs. They’re moms and dads and they’re giving up hours to

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come and teach kids and they deserve a lot of credit and support for that,” she said.

Sister Mary Frances knows how demanding the job of a religious educator can be. She began her career teaching religious education to second graders at Saint Columba Catholic Church in San Diego when she was still in high school. She soon realized that many of the catechists in her home parish didn’t have sufficient background, so she started developing a

training program for them.

She became a Sister of Notre Dame in 1978 and graduated from San Diego State with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts that same year.

Now, Sister’s favorite memories are of the retreats she’s led for her students.

“It’s so much fun to go on youth and confirmation retreats. The kids start out thinking ‘I dare you to do anything with me,’ but then you see them blossom and get excited about getting to know God. Even the most

stubborn ones begin to feel the Spirit working around them,” she said.

Her students are often curious about her life as a Sister of Notre Dame. They ask her how she could give up marriage and family life in favor of consecration.

“I’m really honest with them,” she said, “There are always sacrifices no matter what call you’re answering: marriage, single life or consecrated life. The kids need to see a variety of vocations and how they work together for the beauty of the Church.”

Master catechist Sister Mary Frances Wahl was born in Saginaw Michigan and moved to San Diego, C.A., in 1956.

She received her master’s degree from Loyola Marymount University.

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The Sisters of Notre Dame have dedicated themselves to education since 1850 when their congregation was first established.

Today, an increasing number of lay people serve as faculty and staff in the schools that the sisters founded. To maintain the Notre Dame spirit in the classroom, the sisters have invited educators at SND schools around the country to the inaugural SND Education Summit in June. The three-day summit will take place in Dayton, O.H., and feature sessions including “Hiring And Evaluating With Mission At The Forefront” and “Interfaith Relations: Considered Conversations With Faculty, Staff, Students.”

The summit will, “provide resources for extending our shared educational vision

and expression into today’s educational settings,” said SND National Education Office Director Sister Mary Frances Taymans.

The sisters have founded and administered dozens of schools in the U.S. Collectively, the summit attendees, which include sisters and lay educators, serve over 19,000 students from pre-k through college. The summit will help communicate the spirit of the sisters to a diverse group of educators.

Keynote speaker Sister Mary Joanne Keppler is Director of Professional Learning for Notre Dame Cathedral Latin and Notre Dame Elementary School in Chardon, O.H. “A challenge we face in Catholic education today is to reach the

Notre Dame teachers gather at national summit

heart and soul of young people to enable them to find their meaning in God at each step of their life’s journey."

Reaching her students is very important to Sister Mary Rebekah Kennedy, dean of mission at La Reina High School in Thousand Oaks, C.A. She will attend the summit with several sisters from the California province.

“It is so necessary to hire faithfilled men and women who model Christian living in our schools today,” said Sister Mary Rebekah, “I believe that our call as Notre Dame educators is not to ‘indoctrinate’ but to teach the doctrine in such a way that we allow young people to discover the good God who already dwells in the deepest part of their hearts and souls.”

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Sister Mary Francelia Klingshirn, the oldest resident of Notre Dame Center at the age of 97, reclines in her new ADA-compliant bedroom on the first floor.

dwelling in the spirit

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Renovation at Notre Dame Center nears completion as sisters move into new, accessible bedrooms, bathrooms and living spaces.

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The California Grapevine • Notre Dame Learning Center Preschool (NDLCP) will host an Open House and BBQ Picnic on Saturday, June 27, from 12 to 2 p.m. Families are welcome! Please RSVP to Sister Carol Marie Papet at (805) 494-0304 or cpapet@yahoo.com.

• NDLCP will soon have an additional 325 square feet of outdoor play space. This area, known as a “soft scape,” will allow the children to enjoy and explore the natural world. There will be real grass and planter boxes for vegetable growing. An earth machine has also been added so the children can learn the value of composting.

• Sister Mary Luellen Bogelin recently graduated from her spiritual direction course at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.

• Sister Mary Joyanne Sullivan will receive her National Catechetical Certificate in June.

• The new Associates of Notre Dame will make their covenants in June at Notre Dame Center. We offer congratulations and prayers to them.

• The following sisters will celebrate Jubilees in July:

Sister Mary Therese Kirstein - 65 years Sister Antoinette Marie Moon - 50 years Sister Mary Bernadette Pendola - 50 years Sister Rose Marie Tulacz - 40 years • Early in 2014 the four provinces of the Sisters of Notre Dame in the United States announced a plan to become one province by the year 2020. This decision to become one province will assure our ability to most effectively continue our mission as we serve the people of God. As part of the process, a large number of sisters from Chardon, Toledo, Covington and California will meet in Columbus, O.H., from July 23 to 26.

• Over the past several months, Notre Dame Center in Thousand Oaks, C.A., has received upgraded technology capabilities. Easy access to Internet, WiFi connections, audio and video conferences, and outdoor security have been provided for all. These projects have enhanced our mission effectiveness many times over. Special thanks to Tony Ciecierski from Chardon, O.H., and his team for sharing their expertise and skills with us.