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Nuns, priests, and brothers in the news
Religious communities welcome more new members
SISTER ADRIANA Calzada became a new member of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in 2016. She shows off the ring she wears to indicate her connection to her community, along with Sister Teresa Maya, C.C.V.I.
THE LATEST STUDIES about men and women entering religious life in the United States reveal an increase in both those who began the entrance process and those who completed it.
The number of Americans taking final vows in a religious community in 2016 was 216, the highest since 2010, according
ALEJANDRA MARQUEZ; COURTESY OF SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE INCARNATE WORD to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
While those 216 individuals completed the entrance process, 502 people began the process to become a sister, brother, or religious priest. Those 502 represent an increase in the annual number entering religious life; there were 411 entrants in 2015.
CARA studies also show increased education levels for new members and less personal prayer at the time of entrance. Personal prayer has gone down by 9 percent since 2010, a trend possibly connected to the fact that fewer people than ever in the United States take part in private spiritual practices.
The 2016 CARA studies provide the most recent data on the subject of who is entering religious life in the United States, and the studies can be downloaded at nrvc.net.
SHANTYTOWN SISTER
SISTER CONSTANZA Roldán Azorín arrived in Argentina in 2011 after decades as a history professor in Spain, and within a short time she has launched a second career as a shantytown outreach worker.
A few years ago she was featured in La Nueva, a newspaper in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. The reporter noted her energy: In spite of her 71 years, she walked 27 blocks rather than spend money on a bus. On a single afternoon, she stopped by several homes where she chatted up the residents and updated them on projects. For one, she had secured a good price on a wood-fired cooking stove. For another, she was working with a church group to get low-priced construction materials to better a cobbled-together house. For another, she had secured a nebulizer for a sick child.
And these were only the personal visits. Within her first three years, Roldán also helped start a community center that offered classes in sewing,
SEBASTIÁN CORTÉS - LA NUEVA
SISTER CONSTANZA Roldán Azorín walks through the shantytown surrounding Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
crafts, catechesis, and child rearing. Roldán sees her efforts as simply one more way to live out her religious community’s commitment to lifting up the poor and marginalized. In her first decades as a sister she was a history professor, dedicated to reconciling the deep divisions in Spain that date back to its civil war (1936-39).
Today she hopes to continue to bear the Good News. “With evangelization as my goal,” she told La Nueva, “I share the position of Pope Francis to go out to the periphery and not so much make myself poor, but rather to put myself into their bodily reality and transmit the word of God to them as their equal.”
SISTER REFLECTS ON HER LIFE AS A BEGGAR
SISTER ELISABETH ANNE, L.S.P. has begged for food donations for decades so that her community can continue to assist older adults who need care in Queens, New York.
SISTER ELISABETH ANNE, L.S.P. has spent much of her time as a nun begging at a food market—and at first, she hated what has become her life’s work.
In 1979 her community, the Little Sisters of the Poor, asked her to go to a wholesale produce market and solicit donations to feed the elderly in a home they ran in Queens, New York. “To go out and be a beggar was the worst thing you could ever ask me to do. I cried my heart out for two weeks,” she told Eli Rosenberg of the New York Times.
Nonetheless, the job grew on her, and she says she loves it. Sister Elisabeth Anne is now in her late 70s, the same age as many of the home’s residents. Vendors at Hunts Point Terminal Market in Queens have befriended her and her cause. She not only solicits produce each week but also asks parishes and foundations for money to support her community’s ministry. The tradition of having a “collecting sister” dates back to the founding of the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1839. Today, the home shelters and feeds 85 lowincome older adults and 19 nuns, who also live in the building serving the residents. It is one of 197 homes around the world run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order whose mission is to support the elderly poor.
She is humble about her long record of begging. She told the New York Times: “I’m the last on the ladder; I’m the lowest. I’m the director of nothing except my life. Beggar. That’s my title.”
Brothers go front and center
ACOALITION of brothers and their supporters sponsored a
national brothers symposium in March 2017 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The first national day for Catholic brothers was held on May 1.
More than 200 people representing 32 religious communities attended the symposium. Their discussion centered on the singularity of the vocation, focusing on the 2015 Vatican document “Identity and Mission of the Religious Brother in the Church.” Along with VISION’s publisher, the National Religious PANELISTS AT THE MARCH 2017 Brothers Symposium discuss Vocation Conference, the symposium sponsors were the the vocation to be a Catholic brother. Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Religious Brothers Conference, the Religious Formation Conference, and the University of Notre Dame. The May 1 day of commemoration—to be repeated in 2018 and coming years—involved parishes, brothers’ communities, and other groups recognizing and celebrating the unique vocation of brothers and their contribution to the world. Learn more about the lifestyle, ministries, and vocations of brothers at todaysbrother.com and VocationNetwork.org.
FRIAR MATT HINDELANG, O.F.M. CAP.
VISION articles about brothers:tinyurl.com/VocationNetworkBrothers Basic information about brothers: yearforconsecratedlife.com/religious-brothers.html
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Athlete-turned-sister works to empower women
AONE-TIME javelin thrower who had a shot at the Olympics, Sister Melissa Dwyer, F.D.C.C. put down her spear to focus on building a better future for poor women.
Dwyer declined a chance to be part of the 2000 Olympics to go on a mission trip instead, and that triggered her desire to become a Canossian sister. Once part of that community, she eventually became principal of an all-girls school in Malawi, East Africa.
Dwyer told Emilie Ng of Brisbane’s Around the Archdiocese that gender inequality is a major problem in Malawi. The country is among the world’s poorest, and only 30 percent of its women make it to college. But under Dwyer’s leadership, her school produced graduates who went on to become doctors, nurses, and lawyers.
“Being responsible for an allgirls school, I wanted to try to help the girls to fight harder for education, because education is the only place for them to build a brighter future in such stark poverty,” she said.
Today Dwyer is back in her native Australia, working in Brisbane for her religious community. She is now promoting women’s empowerment through vocation ministry. “My role is now to help women find who God dreams for them to become,” she said.
Dwyer chose International Women’s Day (March 8, 2017) to launch Gratia, a monthly vocational discernment group for young women in the Brisbane archdiocese.
SISTER MELISSA DWYER, F.D.C.C. with some of her students in Malawi.
SISTER MELISSA DWYER, F.D.C.C.
WORLDWIDE BISHOPS’ MEETING ON VOCATIONS, YOUTH COMING SOON
YOUTH, Faith and Vocational Discernment” is the theme of a synod that Pope Francis is convening in Rome in October 2018. The point of the gathering is to initiate discussion at every level of the “ church about how the church can support young adults in their faith and their exploration of various types of vocations. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said that the synod won’t focus solely on the choice between married life and religious life, reported Crux, an online religion news outlet. Rather, the gathering of several hundred bishops will treat the full array of vocational choices before young people. A preparatory document for the synod can be found by searching “Preparatory Document for the 15th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, 13.01.2017.” The pope’s letter to young people can be found online by searching “Pope’s Letter to Young People on the Occasion of the Presentation of the
Bishops, 13.01.2017.” Or follow these links: tinyurl.com/Vatican15thAssembly and tinyurl.com/VaticanLettertoYoung.
Enter #361 at VocationMatch.com
SISTER ANNPETRUS, C.D.P., superior general of the Congregation of Divine Providence (left), welcomes Sister Christina Chavez, C.D.P. as a member in July 2016. The Congregation was awarded a 2015 NFCRV grant to service Chavez’ educational debt.
Grants remove obstacle of student debt for religious life candidates
National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations helps orders of priests, brothers, and sisters accept new members.
HE NATIONAL FUND for Catholic Religious Vocations (NFCRV) awarded 2016 grants, totaling more than $140,000, to men’s and women’s religious communities to service the educational debt of T seven candidates to religious life. Awards can be given to grantees each year until the candidate with educational debt makes final vows and becomes a fully professed member of the community or the student loan is paid off, whichever comes first. “For those entering religious life the expectation is that they be debtfree,” says Brother Ronald Hingle, S.C., NFCRV board chair. “Without assistance from NFCRV, these seven candidates would have had to defer their entrance to the community until their student loans were paid off.” The National Fund for Catholic Religious Vocations was made possible through grants from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the GHR Foundation. The fund accepts grant applications from religious communities who are members of the NRVC, the founding organization of the NFCRV, from January 15 through March 15 each year and approves the year’s recipients at their May board meeting. Grantees are notified of their application status by June 30. For more information on the terms of the grant, applying for a grant, or donating to the fund, please go to NFCRV.org or call Mark Teresi at 773-595-4028. =
Cursey James Calais II What made you begin to consider a religious vocation? Was there a particular moment you remember as an “epiphany” that led you to your commitment?
I discerned prior to college. Ever since I was young, I felt Societyof St. JoSeph called to serving people. Later on, in high school, after I made my Confirmation, I began to get more involved with the church. I had a lot of inspiration from my parish priests.
Mary Mensch What is your favorite Bible verse?
I have a couple! But my favorite is probably Matthew 6:21: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It’s ac-
SiSterSof SaintScyril tually the underlying theme of and MethodiuS one of my favorite books: The Alchemist. It really speaks to how I discovered my vocation: My heart was really drawn to my community.
Meaghan Baldwin Who is your spiritual role model?
I probably have a few, but certainly Our Lady—what better way to go to Jesus than through his mother? And certainly my mom. She’s so loving and caring. She embodies the sacrificial love perfectly.
pariSh ViSitorSof Mary iMMaculate
Luis Ramos
What were you doing before you entered formation?
I did a year of service after college. I lived in community with brothers and laypeople in New York. I worked in their
MariSt BrotherS volunteer program with youth ministry, manual labor ministry . . . and that’s really where I started my discernment.
Jane Aseltyne What made you choose the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
One summer afternoon, my parents took me to visit one of the convents where my great aunts—who happen to be Sisters SiSterS, SerVantSofthe of I.H.M.—were living. When I iMMaculateheartof Mary walked in that convent door, I thought, “There’s something here.” I wasn’t sure what it was, but I looked around at the nuns and how they were treating the people around them and thought, “Oh my gosh, this might be the thing I’ve been looking for.”
Greg Dunn How did your education influence your decision to dedicate your life to an order?
Being at Texas A&M was a big part of my vocation story. I experienced a lot of independence doMinicanproVince and was making a lot of choices of St. MartindeporreS for myself. And I surrounded myself with friends who challenged me. It was great to see the fruitfulness of campus ministry and all the great people doing constructive things there, like retreats and worship and praying together.
Thomas Junis What would you tell someone considering a religious vocation but unsure what steps to take or how to tell if it is really for them?
Getting to know the founder of the order was key for me. If I’m going to be a member of that order, then I know I am going to be living the lifestyle of that founder. Creating a relationship with that person and asking for intercession was a huge part of my discernment. Reading about his life and letting him speak to me was important.
SaleSianSofdon BoSco
