The church’s mission in America has been richly blessed by the witness and works of our consecrated women religious.
This is true especially here in San Antonio. Ursuline nuns founded our city’s first girl’s school in 1851. Not long after that, Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word traveled here by stagecoach during a cholera epidemic and established our first hospital.
San Antonio’s character and identity continue to be shaped by the good works being performed by the 53 congregations of women religious serving here — in areas from education and health care to prayer and charitable outreach.
That’s why I am so pleased that the Vatican has begun conducting a study of the quality of life of women religious in the United States. This is a sign that the Vatican knows how vital these communities are for the new evangelization of our country. The process also gives these communities a grace-filled chance for self-reflection, renewal, and rededication to their founding purposes.
The Vatican initiative, formally called an “apostolic visitation,” essentially involves listening and gathering information. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has appointed Mother Mary Clare Millea, superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as the apostolic visitator.
The visitation process is a spiritual exercise. It is not an investigation but an invitation to a wide evaluation of the present and future of religious life in our country.
The questions Mother Millea is asking are aimed at helping the sisters and their leaders reflect on their ministries in the light of Christ and his church: How well are they living out the original vision of their community’s founders? How do they understand their identity and ministry in relation to the universal church? How can they continue to grow in their ministry? How are they promoting vocations to their communities?
These are the kinds of questions we should all be asking ourselves — whether we are lay people, religious, or ordained clergy. These are basic questions of Christian identity and discipleship — they go to the heart of our love of Christ and our faithfulness to his Gospel.
These considerations are especially important for consecrated women. Catholic sisters have always been a primary witness for Christ in American culture. Their distinctive way of life has always been a “sign of contradiction,” one that manifests the radical values of the Gospel and leads others to see the kingdom of God at work in our world.
Recently, I met with a group of superiors of local women’s congregations to discuss their perspectives and reflections about the visitation process. It was a helpful dialogue. And it gave me the chance to again express the gratitude of the entire church for all that they do in selfless service of God and their brothers and sisters.
One of the big challenges that religious sisters face is caring for increasing numbers of their retired and aged members. In fact, at Masses next weekend, Dec. 12–13, we will take up our annual collection for the Retirement Fund for Religious.
Your contributions are essential. And what a beautiful way to say “thank you” to these extraordinary women for the gift of their lives. I urge you to give generously and from your hearts.
I urge you, too, to pray for the success of the ongoing apostolic visitation.
In their special vows to live the evangelical counsels and their commitment to ministry, our consecrated sisters seek to live in pure imitation of Christ. By their lives they show us the beauty of holiness and inspire in us the desire to seek holiness and the kingdom — to give our lives more completely to Christ.
Let us pray that this visitation is a time of renewal for our sisters, a time when they rediscover the joy and zeal of their apostolic calling. The Church Fathers called the consecrated life, philokalia, the love of divine beauty. Let us pray that this be a time when our sisters fall more deeply in love with the beauty of God and their vocations in the church.