No need to remember past events, no need to think about what was done before.
Look, I am doing something new, now it emerges; can you not see it? Yes, I am making a road in the desert and rivers in wastelands. Isaiah 43,18-19
As the representatives of 80% of American Roman Catholic sisters met in St. Louis, one would do well to remember this passage from Isaiah. Sister Pat Ferrell did as she addressed the opening assembly: "We are united in the desire to surrender that which no longer serves so that something new can be born in and through us."
Actually, this statement is just the response needed to George Weigel's article in First Things, The Sisters: Two Views Pitting the two major organization of Catholic sisters in the United States against one another, he questions the vitality and relevance of the more liberal orders, siting their new vocation numbers as evidence. (An article published in the Aug. 13 issue of America Magazine challenges this position.)
What Mr. Weigel does not include in his article is the movement of lay associates that is growing across the country. Lay associates, men and women, married and single, make commitments to existing religious orders and promise to carry out the work and charism of that order. (Associates of The Dominican Sisters of Peace are an example.) During times of change and uncertainty, some people move toward what is familiar, what resounds with reminders of a past that looks safe and desirable from the present vantage point. Others are moved to create something new, rooted in rich soil of the past, but responding to new climates, new questions, new challenges. Read More