LCWR Assembly Invites Sisters to Become ‘Catalysts for Social Transformation’

ORLANDO, Fla. (OSV News) — No matter how religious life evolves, no matter what new religious life emerges, consecrated women will continue to respond to God’s call with a courageous “YES,” sisters heard at the annual meeting of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Dominican Sister Maureen Geary, outgoing president of the LCWR, told the more than 800 people gathered in Orlando for the meeting that mission, whatever that mission may be, matters. The LCWR represents about two-thirds of the nearly 36,000 sisters in the United States.

In response to the question in the meeting theme, “Who then shall we be?” Sister Maureen quoted from First John: That while we are now the children of God, what we shall be is not known. But there are some things that will not change.

“We will be women who answer the call to serve in this world in which we live – this world that has so much pain and so much need,” she said Aug. 14. “We will be food for the life of the world.”

In her address, Global Sisters Report noted that Sister Maureen drew on the wisdom of poets Rainer Maria Rilke and Rumi, theologians St. Joseph Sister Elizabeth Johnson and Frederick Buechner, Sister Thea Bowman, a candidate for sainthood, and Dr. Seuss, often paraphrasing Seuss’ book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” about being on the brink of something entirely new.

We don’t know where we’re going yet, she said, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the journey that shapes us, not the destination.

“It is the process that makes the Synod on Synodality a force for shaping who we will be, as a church committed to mission, community and participation,” said Sister Maureen, whose presidential term ended with the closing of the meeting on August 16. “By expanding our mission, we also shape society — so where we go shapes who we will be.”

Living the religious life also means living the mission.

“What we will do now is a mission, what we will do later is a mission, when the way is revealed before us,” she said. “The mission of Jesus Christ, whoever we will be.”

The meeting opened on August 13 with several welcoming messages, including one from Sister Simona Brambilla, secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. In her letter, Sister Simona wrote that “if we allow it, consecrated life can truly be a catalyst for social transformation,” and wished those present “a time of great peace and wisdom.”

LCWR leaders also acknowledged that Florida is the site of the Trail of Tears, the forced migration of Native Americans from their ancestral lands to Oklahoma. It was also once a stronghold of slavery and the site of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub Massacre, a hate crime targeting LGBTQ people that left 49 people dead and 53 injured.

Bishop John G. Noonan of Orlando noted that Florida was also the site of lesser-known atrocities and sacrifices, such as the Florida Martyrs, and the place where the Sisters of St. Joseph were arrested and jailed in 1913 for teaching black children in St. Augustine.

Keynote speaker Father Bryan Massingale added to the list that Florida has made it illegal to teach students “courses that would make a student uncomfortable about their race,” forcibly transported people seeking asylum to other states, led efforts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and rolled back policies that promote green energy, despite experts warning that climate-related sea level rise could leave the bottom third of the state underwater by 2100.

He said the intent is not to punish Florida, but that “the events, trends and tensions we see here are a mirror or microcosm of trends we see across the country and our world.”

Father Massingale is a priest and professor specializing in social ethics. He is passionate about advancing a Black approach to Catholic theological ethics, focusing on the impact of religious faith as an instrument of social injustice and as a catalyst for social transformation.

He quoted Pope Francis, who said that we do not live in an era of change, but in a change of eras, and that the rise of hatred and division comes from fear of that change.

“We are no longer a white, Christian nation, and many white Christians are afraid and angry,” Father Massingale said. The changes are “experienced as an existential threat that undermines one’s self-identity and the very foundations on which some believe the country is built.”

He quoted the scholar Walter Brueggemann, who said that when those losses are not recognized, processed and “not mourned,” it leads to violence and prevents any form of progress.

“We live in a time of unspoken and ungrieved loss,” Father Massingale said, noting that religious life is also in a period of change and that the losses that bring about the changes must be named and mourned in order for new life to emerge. “Unspoken loss becomes a source of anger, depression, lack of hospitality and a perception of the new as a threat, not a gift.”

The most important thing, he said, is that grief should be the prelude to action and change.

“Mourning and grieving the loss of the present prepares us for the coming of the new. Mourning enables us to welcome the coming of the new as a gift, not as a threat,” Father Massingale said. “Paradoxically, mourning prepares the way for new beginnings.”

He said this requires that religious women let their grief over the brokenness of the world inspire action for a more just country: “to teach us, the church, and especially white North Americans, how to mourn the passing of a world that must end,” and to teach us how to enter with grace into the new world; and to dream of the future and the legacy the sisters will leave as their gift.

“Dare to dream. To dream boldly. To dream daringly. To dream subversively,” Father Massingale said. “We don’t need less imaginative hope. We need more.”

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