Nuns, priests, and brothers in the news

SISTER STARES DOWN KILLERS

Share your sightings

If you spot a member of a religious community in the news, please e-mail the details to us at mail@vocationguide.org. SISTER CONSUELO MORALES, C.S.A., a Canoness of St. Augustine of the Congregation of Our Lady, spends her days thinking about things the rest of us would rather not: torture and assassination by drug lords and corrupt government officials in Mexico.

The Los Angeles Times called her “one of Mexico’s most indefatigable and effective defenders of human rights.” In 1992, following what Sister Consuelo has called her own crisis of faith, she founded CADHAC, the Spanish acronym for Citizens in Support of Human Rights.

She and other CADHAC staff receive a steady stream of visitors to their Monterrey, Mexico office: usually distraught family members of victims and survivors of violence. They listen to and document violations of human rights, and they take legal steps toward justice. Often that means walking past or confronting soldiers and officials complicit in the crimes.

“She can be disarming to authority figures who are used to people fearing them. She could be their grandmother. It’s a firmness and sincerity they have not heard before. But then she also has this gentleness and warmth with the victims and families,” Nik Steinberg of the organization Human Rights Watch told the Times.

Morales’ work has stirred anger, but love and admiration are perhaps more common. In 2011 she was presented the Alison Des Forges Award from Human Rights Watch for valor in defending human rights.

SISTER CONSUELO MORALES speaks at a CADHAC (Ciudadanos en Apoyo a los Derechos Humanos) event.

Rare “twinning” brings men and women monastics together

THOSE WHO LIVE an “enclosed” religious life of contemplative prayer generally see only the members of their own, single-sex community on a regular basis. The Benedictine monks and nuns of a pair of religious communities in Petersham, Massachusetts, however, have an unusual arrangement: They are twinned. That means the sisters of St. Scholastica Priory and the brothers and priests of St. Mary’s Monastery attend daily Mass together, pray five of the seven daily prayers of the Divine Office as a group, share responsibility for a guest house, gather for conversation once a week, and occasionally attend talks and lectures together.

Mother Mary Elizabeth Kloss, O.S.B., prioress of St. Scholastica, tells VISION: “Our experience of the twin community has enriched our life on several levels. The first is that our liturgical celebrations are richer and fuller. . . . The men’s voices keep ours from becoming too high and delicate, and the female voices help to keep their voices bright somehow. . . . We are friends both collectively as communities and as individuals. This relationship keeps us from getting too ‘ingrown’ and self-centered and fosters charity.”

Mother Kloss says this kind of pairing of independent men’s and women’s communities is rare—she knew only of three communities worldwide—but it has existed since the fourth century. “We’re celibate,” she says, “but there’s a mutuality of relationship that’s natural between men and women.” SISTER MARY Frances Wynn, Marlene Gomez (postulant), Brother Bernard Osbaldeston, Brother Matthew Jackson, Sister Mary Emmanuel Wade, Brother Isidore Colm, Sister Mary Paula Wenzel, and Sister Mary Angela Kloss at an intercommunity gathering.

COMPANIONSHIP AND HOPE FOR THE HOMELESS

THANKS TO the combined efforts of the Jesuit religious order and dedicated collaborators, more than 5,000 homeless men and women around the country have had the opportunity to attend what are sometimes life-altering retreats.

In 1998 Jesuit priest and retreat director Father Bill Creed, S.J. and Ed Shurna, director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, began working to offer retreats for the homeless. Their pioneering model blends concepts from the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step process with the Spiritual Exercises developed 500 years ago by Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

“Their faith and trust . . . humbled me, evangelized me,” Creed told St. Anthony Messenger about those he met on the first retreat. “God was palpably present” for them.

Thus the Ignatian Spirituality Project (ISP) was born. It now has a staff of seven and organizes retreats and programs in 20 cities. A two-year study of ISP retreatants showed a decline in loneliness and improvements in housing and employment after the retreat. Learn more at ignatian spiritualityproject.org.

FATHER BILL CREED, S.J. leads a reflection at a men’s shelter in Chicago.

“I have a gift and I am giving it to you.” —SiSter CriStina SCuCCia, anurSuline SiSterofthe

holyfamilyfrommilan, whowaSthe 2014 winnerofitaly ’ SThe VoiceCompetitionduringherblind audition. the 25-year-oldnun, whobeCameaninternetSenSationwith 50 millionyoutubeviewSof herrenditionofaliCia KeyS’ “noone,” SaidofherpartiCipationinthepopularShowthatShewaS fulfillingpopefranCiS’ Callforthe CatholiC ChurChtobeCloSertoordinarypeople.

Connect with communities by app

AS RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES continue to venture into social media, apps connected to religious orders are becoming more common. Many of these are found easily by searching the name of the religious community. Here is a sampling: inside look at life of the Daughters of St. Paul.

MGLby the Missionaries of God’s Love. Provides homilies and scripture reflections, primarily by their own priests and brothers, in text and podcast form.

PrAyers PLeAse by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Send a prayer request to this community.

ANuN ’ sLife.org Aggregates and organizes the many podcasts produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. (See “Online door never closes on discerners” on page 110 of this issue of VISION for more on this effort.) hoNoryouriNNer MoNkby Saint Meinrad Monastery. offers morning and evening prayers; records use of app to encourage regular prayer.

Light A CANdLe by the Daughters of St. Paul. Virtual candle lights with a tap; prayer intentions sent directly to the sisters; VisioN VoCAtioN Network Easily view and read current and back issues of VISION on your smartphone.