PATHWAYS OF TRANSFORMATION ON WOMEN’S CONSECRATED LIFE
Number 184- 2024
PRESENTATION
Pathways of Transformation on Women’s Consecrated Life
On December 8th, 1965, the last day of the Second Vatican Council, the Council Fathers signed the decree approving the creation of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). So, for nearly sixty years, the UISG has been uniting in dialogue and solidarity women’s congregations of diocesan and pontifical right from around the world. This makes it a privileged witness to the evolution of women’s consecrated life over the course of these years.
The Council marked a decisive turning point between the idea of consecrated life understood as a path of perfection marked by individualism and the affirmation of consecrated life understood as “spiritual capital for the whole body of Christ” (cf. LG 43).
Participating in the Church’s evangelizing mission, consecrated women are called to live in close contact with the People of God, responding to the needs of humanity with their evangelical witness, their charism, their vocation to love, fruitfulness, unity, sorority...
All this has involved the profound changes that women’s consecrated life has experienced in recent years. Women religious have matured new ways of being in mission and ministry, charting new paths to identify and reach out to all the privileged recipients of the Crucified and Risen Love: the poor, migrants, women, victims of abuse, children, the elderly, the suffering…
From the Monastery to the Margins on Mission.
Women Religious in an Outgoing Church.
Sr. Patricia Murray, IBVM
Pope Francis challenges us to divest ourselves of clericalism and elitism and return to the simplicity of the Gospel. This requires a cultural shift during this change of epoch. He constantly calls the church to be less self-referential, to be more outward looking, encouraging men and women, laity, religious and clerics to walk together and face the ambiguities and complexities of life. How can we respond to the challenge of being a church at the margins today? Where are the new “peripheries” and new “horizons” that need nearness and proximity? Perhaps the journey of female consecrated life since Vatican II and the emerging pathways can offer the Church a map for the way forward?
It requires a constant scanning of the signs of the times, deep listening to the reality of peoples’ lives and a prayerful contemplation and discernment that can sense the invitation of the Spirit.
Spiritual Abuse in Consecrated Life
Anne Kurz, VDMF
The most important characteristic of spiritual abuse is the violation of boundaries. It violates the intimacy of the person. The person loses the space of protection that belongs to his dignity and deserves the utmost respect. It is, in short, the “space” where the most intimate and deepest aspects of the spiritual life take place. For this reason, we also speak of the “abuse of conscience.” As persons of Consecrated Life, we must recognize that this is where the divine vocation is struck to the core. Here, people are structurally forced to doubt their perception of God and led to mistrust their own experiences, longings, and prayers. Instead, they have to follow what other people tell them about “God and his will.” Thus, alienation as well as spiritual and human destruction are generated.
Invisible no more
Sr. Jean Quinn, DW
Catholic Religious Women have a significant presence in some of the world’s hotspots where gender violence is perpetrated—particularly in Latin America. But with rising rates of gender violence around the world, it is crucial that we as religious expand our footprint with lay organizations and initiatives. Catholic Social Teaching affirms that solidarity “is not a feeling of vague compassion at the misfortunes of many people both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is say to the common good of all and of each individual, because we are really responsible for all” (“Sollicitudo Rei Socialis”) (The Social Concern,” no. 38, Dec 30, 1987).
“Go
from your country...”
Sr. Antonietta Papa, FMM
The migrant condition unites many people, from Abraham to today: there are people obliged to migrate because of socio-political-economic-religious situations and the climate change; there are migrants who chose to go to improve their lives, migrants who are children, alone, unaccompanied, sent to join relatives in Europe; all called to confront worlds that are different from their own, with all the difficulties that entails. I know quite well that not everyone will find here what they hope for, and I am aware of the contradictions and complexities they will face. Some will fail to integrate, some will commit crimes, but all of them, after risking their lives in various ways, are hoping for a better life, and we want them to truly have it. This is not pietism; it is belief in humanity, and we want to believe in it. That’s why we are here, and we are staying. With our tiny contribution, we try to make a difference, and we hope that, everyone in their own reality and with their own resources, will make the difference together.
The Urgent, or the Essential?
Sr. Marie Laetitia Youchtchenko, OP
Yes, the mission is urgent, but our responsibility towards our foreign sisters is essential! Let us give them the opportunity for in-depth formation, let us give them the means for a fulfilling religious life. This requires time for study, sufficient sleep to allow the brain to assimilate new knowledge, personalized and attentive accompaniment... all this over a period that cannot be limited to a few months. On a broader level, it is also worth reflecting on the place we give to the study of language in our congregation’s ongoing formation.
Remembering the New Blessed Cardinal Eduardo F. Pironio
Cardinal Aquilino Bocos Merino, CMF
Synodality was in his mind, in his heart, in his word, in his feet, and in his hands. And perhaps this was his greatest contribution to the consecrated life, which he loved so much and for which he offered his life, having opened it, since the Presidency of the Council of the Laity, to the correlation and collaboration with the other members of the Church: with the Apostolic See, the Bishops, the priests, and the laity. As if by instinct, he sought harmony while working to build a better world together. In short, he wanted the Church to be the Light of the peoples and the Hope of the nations. We consecrated people will always be grateful for all he did for consecrated life. We will not forget that, during his time as Prefect of the CIVCSVA, he published, among other things, these great documents: Mutuae relationes, Religious and Human Promotion, and The Contemplative Dimension of Religious Life.
FROM THE MONASTERY TO THE MARGINS ON MISSION.
WOMEN RELIGIOUS IN AN OUTGOING CHURCH
Sr. Patricia Murray, IBVM
Sr. Patricia Murray, IBVM, is a member of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto Sisters). She is an educator who has served as Peace Education Officer and President of the Irish Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace. She was a member of the General Council of her congregation and the first Executive Director of Solidarity with South Sudan - a new model of intercongregational missionary presence. She is currently the Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG). She has a MEd (TCD-Dublin), and an MA (Theology) and DMin from Catholic Theological Union -Chicago.
The article has been published in the magazine La Rivista del Clero Italiano, fasc. 1/24. http://rivistadelclero.vitaepensiero.it/
The Journey Begins
It is not possible to examine the changes that have taken place in female consecrated life during these past decades without looking back to Vatican II, examining how its deliberations and subsequent documents have shaped contemporary consecrated life. At the time of Vatican II, there were over one million women religious worldwide and while today the number is around 630,000, this is still a sizable number. On the final day of the Council, December 8th, 1965, the Council Fathers signed the decree which approved the creation of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) of female congregations of diocesan and pontifical right. This creative structure would enable women religious to network and communicate worldwide and to reflect together on the signs of the times and to discern together how women religious could respond to the needs of the Church and the World.
From Vatican II to the Synod on Synodality
Several Vatican II documents have had a marked effect on the evolution and development of female consecrated life. While the documents are addressed to all consecrated persons, the majority are women. Women religious have reflected on all aspects of their congregations in the light of these and more recent documents, continually discerning God’s call. In a recent article Fr. Michael Czerny SJ stated that “the Council Fathers redefined religious life on the basis of the category, “consecration” thus laying the foundations for the post-conciliar development of a “theology of charism” and a focus on the “mysticism of the consecrated life.”1 As women religious began to study their founding charisms they began to reimagine their life and ministries as a result. Lumen Gentium, published in 1964, placed emphasis on the common priesthood of the baptised and the universal call to holiness. It also saw the identity of a religious being defined in terms of being conformed to Christ rather than of doing. The significance of this distinction will be seen as the decades pass and as women religious in many parts of the world, began to find new ways to handover their large educational, health and social welfare institutions, in order to enter new ministry fields where their presence, their “being with the people” was vitally needed.
According to Michael Czerny SJ several distinctive dimensions came together in the Council’s reflections on consecrated life. Firstly consecrated life is seen as an ecclesial vocation and the mission and spirituality of religious is for “the welfare of the whole Church;”2 Women religious from Vatican II onwards began to recognise that they needed to share their spiritualities with the laity. This led to a growth in the number of lay associates whose spiritual and working lives have been enriched by a variety of congregational-led formation experiences. Secondly for those who embraced consecrated life, the focus after Vatican II was not on the “loss” but rather on the “gain” in terms of their human development through personal respect, education, psychosocial maturation and the cultivation of gifts and talents.3 Religious congregations of women, began to see the need to educate members for new areas of ministry besides the traditional areas of education, health and social services. Sisters are now trained as theologians, scripture scholars, civil and canon lawyers, environmental scientists, economists, computer scientists, engineers and for many other emerging fields.
Thirdly because of the eschatological nature of consecrated life which announces the Kingdom of God in the fullness of time, the vowed life, post Vatican II, was not seen as a flight from the world. Instead it is a passionate engagement with history and with the reality of the here and now.4 Again, female congregations reading the “signs of the times” in the light of their charisms continually discerned new ways to respond to contemporary needs. Finally since consecrated life is a special gift with which the Spirit has enriched the Church, this charismatic dimension “belongs to its life and mission.” 5 With this insight came a new recognition of the need for women religious to collaborate with the clergy and the laity and with men and women of goodwill.
Perfectae Caritatis published in 1965 affirmed the multiple forms of consecrated life— contemplative, active, monastic, and lay.6 Each institute was invited to study its origins and history so that “the spirit and the aims proper to the founders” could help the
congregation to apply the original charismatic intuition to “the changed conditions of our time.”7 The subsequent study undertaken by female religious helped members to a deeper understanding and appreciation of their founding charisms. Many had been forced to adopt a monastic form of life in order to gain ecclesial approval even though the founding charism had envisaged a community life and mission inserted fully into contemporary contexts. For others the process of renewal and adaptation led to a deeper appreciation and study of their monastic or lay identity.
Changes implemented in relation to outward signs and symbols – presence or absence of enclosure, wearing a formal habit or adopting contemporary dress, praying the office in common or in private, mission focus and ministry outreach reflected the new insights gained in terms of founding identity and purpose. The catholicity of female consecrated life with its multiplicity of types and forms illustrates the richness and diversity of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What binds all women religious together is their love of God and love of neighbour. The very fruitfulness of religious life depends on the quality of common life which flows from the observance of the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.
Other Influential Documents
In 1971 Pope Paul VI in Evangelica Testificatio asked religious to reflect again on the Vatican Council in order to discern the appropriate changes to be made within congregations. He wrote that rediscovering the charism of the founder, would help a congregation to determine their “fundamental options” which would make it possible to “continually … revitalize external forms.”8 Pope Paul linked the vow of poverty with preferential
option for the poor, echoing the desire of John XXIII expressed prior to the start of the Council to rethink the Church and her mission starting from the poor. 9 Paul VI wrote: You hear rising up, more pressing than ever, from their personal distress and collective misery, “the cry of the poor”… ”In a world experiencing the full flood of development this persistence of poverty-stricken masses and individuals constitutes a pressing call for “a conversion of minds and attitudes,” especially for you who follow Christ more closely in this earthly condition of self-emptying.”10 Paul VI named a number of approaches which could be embraced including the avoidance of any compromise with social injustice and to awakening consciences to the demands of social justice as found in sacred scripture and the church’s social teaching. He also called for some “to join the poor in their situation and to share their bitter cares.”11Congregations were asked to dedicate their ministries for the good of the poor. Many religious congregations worldwide made significant changes to their existing institutions – schools, hospitals, clinics etc. - making them increasingly available to the needs of poor people. New communities and new types of ministry outreach were opened among the people in urban and rural areas that were suffering extreme poverty and deprivation. Many religious communities opened ministries in remote areas which were greatly in need of a church presence.
The 1971 Synod of Bishops was another significant step in the ongoing renewal of religious life. One statement in particular inspired Chapter reflections and congregational planning: “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel, or, in other words, of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.”12 The 1974 Synod of Bishops on Evangelization in the Modern World stated that “evangelizing meant bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new” 13 Michael Czerny notes that in the 1970s “the Church was going through various vicissitudes, especially because of the tensions that had arisen among and within religious institutes. There were two opposing tendencies: those who would have wished to conserve traditional patterns, and those who hoped that the impulse for innovation would not be exhausted.“14
In 1996 Pope John Paul issued the Post-Synod Exhortation, Vita Consecrata after the Synod on “The Consecrated Life and its Mission in the Church and in the World.” The Synod recalled the unceasing work of the Holy Spirit, “who in every age shows forth the richness of the practice of the evangelical counsels through a multiplicity of charisms.”15 It celebrated “the host of founders and foundresses, of holy men and women who chose Christ by radically following the Gospel and by serving their brothers and sisters, especially the poor and the outcast.”16 The members of congregations were called to find new ways to show forth “the enterprising initiative, creativity and holiness of their founders and foundresses in response to the signs of the times emerging in today’s world.”17 The document invited religious to develop closer relationships of exchange and collaboration with the laity, saying that religious life cannot be on a parallel track to the laity. Instead collaboration between them is seen as indispensable in order “to render more effective the response to the great challenges of our time.”18
One particular section of the document focused on the dignity and role of consecrated women. It called on consecrated women, on the basis of their experience of Church and as a woman in the Church, to help eliminate one-sided perspectives which do not fully recognize their dignity. It said that “consecrated women therefore rightly aspire to have their identity, ability, mission and responsibility more clearly recognized, both in the awareness of the Church and in everyday life.”19 It called on women religious “to promote a new feminism’ which rejects the temptation of imitating models of ‘male domination’, in order to acknowledge and affirm the true genius of women in every aspect of the life of society, and overcome all discrimination, violence and exploitation.”20 Other areas of involvement which needed the presence of women religious included evangelization, educational and formation activities, animating Christian communities, providing spiritual support, the promotion of life and peace and the education of women. The document hoped that an acknowledgement of the mission of women would provide feminine consecrated life with a heightened awareness of its specific role and increased dedication to the cause of the Kingdom of God.
In 2005 the Instrumentum Laboris of the International Congress on Consecrated Life with the theme Passion for Christ, Passion for Humanity noted that the Spirit seemed to be calling consecrated life to “internal reorganization – not only of each institute but also of all institutes” and the necessity to promote intercongregational dialogue and to construct “bridges of collaboration and integration at the service of the mission.”21 The document speaks of “new paradigms,” “refounding,” “creative faithfulness”, pointing out
Sr. Patricia Murray, IBVMFrom the Monastery to the Margins on Mission
that consecrated life “has always been a laboratory of new cultural and organizational models … (with) a strong tendency towards inculturation that is present in our times and that we should re-actualize.”22
During this past decade especially during 2015, the year dedicated to Consecrated Life Pope Francis urged religious to wake up the world and go to the margins of life. Pope Francis called religious to ““leave your nests”; “go out through that door and meet the people” “go out on the streets”; “go to the frontiers” “leave the centre and travel towards the peripheries”; “reach the fringes of humanity.”23 Women religious know that there, they will meet migrants and refugees, those who have been trafficked, exploited and oppressed and those suffering from many different types of poverty, especially as a result of climate change and environmental destruction. In addition, in Laudato Si, Francis makes it clear that ‘We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.’ This is to be a prophetic journey of transformation.
Living the Transition – A Laboratory of God’s Spirit at Work
It is clear that since Vatican II female consecrated life has extended and deepened its reach and presence from the monasteries to the margins of society for the sake of the evangelizing mission of the Church. Church documents provided the theological and spiritual inspiration which led to the changes taking place within female religious life. The process of transition and change involved, the deepening and transformation, is not just for women religious but is also a gift and grace for the whole Church. It points the way to an experience of being open to being led by the Spirit to a new way of being community, a new way of being in mission and ministry, along new and challenging pathways. These calls resonate with what is emerging at the Synod on Synodality. Four important pathways gather together the fruits of this journey of transformation and conversion.
First Pathway: From Doing to Being – Importance of Presence
Bulletin n. 184, 2024
As we can see over the past decades, members of female congregations have been reflecting on the meaning of their vowed life and its significance for the church and for the world. Their experience of vulnerability at both personal and congregational levels, has deepened their understanding of the vow of poverty. Naming vulnerability has called religious women to a depth of honesty and humility that creates space for conversion and change. In the past, female congregations gained worldwide renown for their education, health, and social institutions. More recently women religious have been denounced for their failures to care for and protect children from different kinds of abuse. This experience had brought with it a deep sense of shame and regret. In many parts of the world sisters are living in the place of endings, different kinds of endings. For some the congregation is coming to completion, for others the closure of a community house or the ending of a particular ministry, is a painful experience. This is a type of “dark night of the soul.” The spiritual writer Beldon Lane writes that “the pain of closing” is often “the antecedent to every new opening in our lives.”24 Embracing vulnerability demands “the abandonment of every security and it is only in accepting the vulnerability that grace demands that we find ourselves invited to wholeness.”25 Perhaps
as women religious we can demonstrate that times of vulnerability require prayer and reflection and honest conversations in order to discern God’s call. During the first phase of the Synod on Synodality the participants used the Conversation in the Spirit methodology. This calls for a certain vulnerability in being open to one another after prayerful consideration of a topic, to discern where God’s spirit is leading the church currently. This exercise of deep listening opens a person to conversion and transformation. This practice of discernment has been used by women religious for many years.
Second Pathway: From the Centre to the Margins
The call to move beyond the security of the status quo and take the risk of going to the margins has been answered by sisters, who have established congregational communities in places of greatest need. Despite the fall in the number of vocations, women religious have also explored new ways of going on mission together, by creating intercongregational networks and partnerships to reach out to those most in need. The International Union of Superiors General has developed a series of such networks to combat human trafficking, to care for planet earth and its people, to tend to the needs of vulnerable children, to reach out to welcome migrants and to help the Church in South Sudan. Many of these networks involve collaboration between both laity and religious women and men.
The Talitha Kum anti-trafficking initiative links sisters and their collaborators from over 90 countries in prayer and action to combat human trafficking. Sowing Hope for the Planet invites female congregations to share their resources and their prophetic actions
n. 184, 2024 Sr. Patricia Murray, IBVMFrom the Monastery to the Margins on Mission
to protect the planet and safeguard the people living in vulnerable environments. Catholic Care for Children International educates sisters and laity in Africa and Asia about care reform so that congregations can move from institutional care for vulnerable children to a family-based approach. The UISG International Migrants and the Sicily Projects are inter-congregational communities of sisters living and working together at hotspots or on borders where they welcome and meet the practical needs of migrants and refugees. Sisters look to Christ for inspiration in the way he immersed himself in the world and walked with the people on the journey to liberation.
Third Pathway: Claiming Voice and Visibility - Women’s Place in the Church
In the past women religious have largely served the church in hidden and silent ways. They were rarely named and remained largely invisible. In more recent times responding to the need “to have their identity, ability, mission and responsibility more clearly recognized, both in the awareness of the Church and in everyday life”26 women religious have asked for formal representation at ecclesial synods and meetings and on various commissions. In the Apostolic Constitution, Episcopalis Communio, of the Holy Father, Pope Francis, on the Synod of Bishops, the UISG is one of the organizations to be consulted and can now appoint five voting representatives. Pope Francis has regularly appointed sisters to positions within Vatican Dicasteries, Councils and Committees. Several sisters serve as Under-Secretaries27 in Vatican Dicasteries; a sister serves as the General Secretary of the Governorate of the Vatican State, while others have been named as consultors to Dicasteries. This needs to be replicated at diocesan and parish levels. At the UISG Assembly in 2016, the President Sr. Carmen Sammut msola asked Pope Francis to examine whether women might be ordained deacons, as this seemed to have been the practice in the early Church. To date two Commissions have worked on the question of women deacons. Different positions have been expressed at the Synod where the question of women in service of the Church received much attention. Participants asked, “how can the Church include more women in existing ministries and what new ministries might emerge and who would discern these?” Perhaps the experience of women religious can point the way forward for all women?
Fourth Pathway: Living Interculturally
The theologian Thomas O’Loughlin says that we must recognize that diversity is richness and that the Spirit is the creator of diversity. It is important to acknowledge that “the notion of synodality scares many in the Church because it makes space for diversity –people fear it because they see it only as messiness and chaos.”28 As O’Loughlin says “Diversity is everywhere. Diversity is richness and the source of beauty. Diversity is what makes life worth living.”29 On the Day of Pentecost we see the Spirit generating a diversity of languages and each person understanding in his/her own language and being able to praise the mighty works of God. So, we can see that the Spirit is the One “unifying in our diversity and diversifying in unity.”30 This is a reality that we must make present and witness in our daily living.
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Sr. Patricia Murray, IBVM
It is a challenge. The New Wine and New Wineskins document from CICLSAL notes the enormous change that has occurred where “female congregations have passed from almost entirely monocultural contexts to the challenge of multiculturalism.”31 The face of female religious life now reflects a “labyrinth of cultures.”32 This recent evolution within and across many congregations “has made the challenge of integrating different cultures even more acute.”33 In the past there was the expectation that a person entering a religious congregation would “integrate” into the dominant culture and that the members of the dominant culture would not have to make any change whatsoever. The same document notes that the de-westernization of consecrated life is keeping pace with the process of globalization.34 It says that what is essential “is not the preservation of forms” but the willingness “in creative continuity to rethink the consecrated life as the evangelical memory of a permanent state of conversion.”35 Leaders and members are now having to educate themselves about different aspects of culture so that they may lead well and live wisely and create inter-cultural communities were all feel cherished and respected. In an intercultural community no one culture dominates and the sisters from the different cultures work to create a new culture together. This is a challenge for the worldwide Church where formation for all is needed.
In conclusion, Pope Francis challenges us to divest ourselves of clericalism and elitism and return to the simplicity of the Gospel. This requires a cultural shift during this change of epoch. He constantly calls the church to be less self-referential, to be more outward looking, encouraging men and women, laity, religious and clerics to walk together and face the ambiguities and complexities of life. How can we respond to the challenge of being a church at the margins today? Where are the new “peripheries” and new “horizons” that need nearness and proximity? Perhaps the journey of female consecrated life since Vatican II and the emerging pathways can offer the Church a map for the way forward? It requires a constant scanning of the signs of the times, deep listening to the reality of peoples’ lives and a prayerful contemplation and discernment that can sense the invitation of the Spirit. Earlier this year Pope Francis said to women religious “Always go with courage, seek the Lord and what he is saying to us today.”36 For Francis women religious know how to create new paths, and that involves “listening, praying and walking.” So let us set out with joy on the synodal pathway.
1 Michael Czerny SJ, Under-Secretary, Migrants and Refugees Section, Rome, “Religious Life from Vatican II to Fratelli Tutti” in Review for Religious, Vol 1, Issue1, Summer 2021,
2 Lumen Gentium (LG), par. 44.
3 LG, par. 46.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., par 44.
6 Perfectae Caritatis (PC), par. 7-11.
7 PC, par.2.
8 Paul VI, Evangelica Testificatio, (ET) June 29, 1971, par. 12.
9 John XXIII, “Radio Message to All the Christian Faithful One Month Prior to the Opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, September 11, 1962,
10 ET, par. 26, 29, 30. 17
11 ET, par. 18.
12 Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World, 1971, par 6.
13 Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, Dec. 8, 1975, par. 18.
14 Czerny, Religious Life from Vatican II to Fratelli Tutti,” 92.
15 John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, March 25, 1996, par. 5
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid., par 37.
18 Ibid., par. 54.
19 Ibid., par. 57.
20 Ibid., par. 58.
21 “Instrumentum Laboris” in International Congress on Consecrated Life, Passion for Christ, Passion for Humanity (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2005), 57.
22 Ibid. 48. 84
23 Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Rejoice: A Letter to Consecrated Men and Women, (R) # 10, KW, p. 60; Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy Father Francis, The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium (EG), #46
24 Beldon C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality (London: Oxford University Press; 8th edition, February 26, 2007), 25.
25 Ibid., 30.
26 John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, par. 5 57
27 Sr. Carmen Ros and Sr. Simona Brambilla (Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life): Sr. Nathalie Bequart (Office of the Synod); Sr. Raffaella Petrini (Secretary-General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State.)
28 Thomas O’Loughlin “Pentecost and a synodal Church: The diversifying Spirit, La Croix International, May 20, 2021.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 New Wine in New Wineskins, The Consecrated Life, and Its Ongoing Challenges since Vatican II (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2017), par. 7.
32 Marie Chin RSM, “Towards a New Understanding of Cultural Encounter in Our Communities,” Horizon, Winter 2003, 16.
33 New Wine in New Wineskins, #13.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 Pope Francis, Audience with Italian Women Religious, April 14 13, 2023.