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Religious Sisters Empower Women to Discern Their Call Amid Nun Shortage in the United States

Sister Shirlee Tremont remembers a time when there was a lot of mystery surrounding the life of a nun. At St. Bernadette Catholic Academy in Dyker Heights, she works every day to break down those walls. Not being visible and approachable to students and young Catholics is one of the reasons she says the numbers of nuns in the United States are dropping.

“I don’t know that young people today see enough religious to know what religious life is all about and there are probably some misconceptions and our kids get a little better picture of who we are and what we do and how we live, come and see come spend time with us,” she said.

In 2022, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate reported there were less than 42,000 nuns in America, which is a 76 percent decline over 50 years. It’s estimated that there will be less than 1,000 nuns left in the United States by 2042.

“I don’t believe God has stopped calling women to religious life or men to the priesthood, I just think we’re so busy, society is so loud, we’re so rushed we don’t have time to listen,” said Sr. Shirlee.

When Sister Maryann Seton Lopiccolo took her vows it was, in part the chance to become a professional – something not a lot of women had.

“I mean, it wasn’t I could be president, I could be a lawyer I could be a financial advisor, because those those fields weren’t open to women in the in the long run, religious life was was a good option, especially because it gave you a foot in a professional field,” she said.

As the episcopal delegate for religious in the Diocese of Brooklyn, Sr. Maryann helps religious sisters, brothers and priests get the most out of consecrated life. She hopes her role can empower other young women to trust in their gifts and find where they belong.

“I think there’s something about joining a group that has an identity and stands for something and is actively doing something and that something is giving witness to the gospel in today’s church,” she said.

Both sisters say religious life will look very different in 50 years, but they have hope – knowing God calls all of us toward our own vocations every day.

Currents News Update for Wednesday 03/08/2023

 

The U.S. is facing a shortage of nuns.

Catholics across the Diocese of Brooklyn are embracing the Lenten Pilgrimage.

The NYPD is looking for two people who defaced the Christopher Columbus statue inside Central Park.

Currents News Update for Tuesday 03/07/2023

 

They were once left behind but instead of being thrown away, many baby strollers are finding families who desperately need them.

The NYPD is looking for two people who defaced the Christopher Columbus statue inside Central Park.

Bishop Brennan will be the Grand Marshall at the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Lindenhurst.

‘Strollers from the Skies’ Takes Off in Queens

By Jessica Easthope

Father Chris Piasta flings open a garage door to reveal dozens of strollers. They came from homes all over the world, but somehow, they’ve reached him.

Father Chris is the chaplain at John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airports. By law, passengers only have 30 days to claim luggage or items left behind. When he was contacted about strollers of all shapes and sizes that were never picked up – he knew exactly what to do with them.

“People have needs, strollers are expensive and if there is a chance for them to get a stroller for free, then that’s great so we call it strollers from the skies because they literally come from the skies,” said Fr. Chris.

He’s delivering them to The Bridge to Life women’s center in College Point. A pro-life organization that helps mothers, and expecting and unwed women plan for their pregnancies and new families.

“For them to be able to come here and get items for free it makes the biggest difference in the world for them, they have a burden and they leave here with so much stuff and they stand taller, they feel important and special and like someone actually cares for them,” said executive director Francesca Yellico.

The Bridge to Life serves more than 4,000 women and children a year. Yellico says many of the women Bridge works with who seek an abortion do so because they feel financially unprepared for motherhood, being given an expensive and necessary item like a stroller for free – makes a big difference.
“So many women are like wow I can do this, I don’t have to choose abortion and it doesn’t have to be something I feel forced into doing, they get to make a decision that’s their choice instead of one that’s like I don’t have a choice because I can’t afford it,” she said.

This isn’t the first time Fr. Chris has delivered strollers to The Bridge to Life, he’s given them more than 120 so far, and recently he’s also been dropping off women and children’s clothing found in lost luggage.

“It’s not only pro-life as in anti-abortion but pro-life as in supporting life in every instance so if we with our limited resources and whatever comes our way can support life that’s exactly what we should be doing,” said Father Chris.

As long as families are flying, Fr. Chris says he’s willing to help lost strollers find a greater purpose. He says it might just be the reason a mother in need chooses life.

Around the World in 10 Years: Pope’s 40 Trips Reflect His Priorities

By Justin McLellan

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Many of the 40 international trips Pope Francis has made over the past 10 years have been to countries where Christians are a minority or where he can draw close to people on the fringes of the world’s attention.

The pope always “chooses the peripheries,” said Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, who has accompanied Pope Francis on nearly all his international trips.

Pope Francis goes “to the most problematic places where he thinks his presence can give way to positive developments, or where he can ‘turn on a light’ so that the world can see the reality of these places,” Tornielli told Catholic News Service.

Pope Francis has visited some of the poorest countries in the world, such as Mozambique and Madagascar in 2019 and Congo and South Sudan early this year.

In countries experiencing war, he has pleaded for peace as he did during a visit to the Central African Republic in 2015, and in nations recovering from conflict, he has promoted reconciliation as he did in Iraq in 2021.

He has returned to his native Latin America six times — but has never gone back to his native Argentina — and has traveled to every continent except for Oceania, which he was scheduled to visit in September 2020 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pope Francis has averaged four international trips each year of his 10-year pontificate even though he was unable to travel in 2020 due to the pandemic. He has visited 60 countries.

Yet just as notable as the countries Pope Francis has visited are those he has not: Spain, Germany and England, all visited by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Even Pope Francis’ brief visits to France and Switzerland lasted mere hours so that he could address assemblies of the European Union and the World Council of Churches, respectively.

In December 2022, he told the Spanish newspaper ABC that he had not organized an extended visit to any large European nation because he preferred visiting “smaller countries.”

Several of Pope Francis’ trips have reflected his commitment to interreligious dialogue. He became the first pope to visit several Muslim-majority countries: the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Bahrain, to advance dialogue with Muslim communities and condemn all forms of religious extremism with Muslim leaders.

In Abu Dhabi in 2019 he signed the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together with Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque and university and widely considered to be the leading figure in Sunni Islam thought. And in 2022, the pope and the sheikh participated in the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan alongside 80 other religious leaders and hundreds of delegates.

The pope has also used travel to extend a hand to other Christian communities.

His trip in 2014 to Jordan, Israel and Palestine ended with a meeting with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians.

In 2016, Pope Francis signed a joint declaration with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in Havana, Cuba, marking the first meeting between heads of the Catholic Church and the Moscow Patriarchate.

Later that year, he went to Sweden to participate in a ceremony commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation with other Christian leaders.

The pope even described his most recent trip to South Sudan Feb. 3-5 as an “ecumenical pilgrimage,” which he made alongside the leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Even in countries where it is typical for popes to visit, Pope Francis’ choice of activities can be surprising and show his desire to stay close to marginalized people.

During his apostolic visit to the United States in 2015, the pope received a regal welcome, he met with President Barack Obama at the White House and became the first pope to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress. Yet immediately following the historic moment, he ate lunch with homeless people at a local parish. In Philadelphia, he visited a maximum-security prison before celebrating Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Other trips have seen the pope visit refugee camps, elderly person homes and hospitals.

“He always tries to visit places where people are suffering,” Tornielli told CNS, “places where he can feel people’s lived experienced.”

As for where the pope will travel next, Pope Francis has indicated a possible trip to Mongolia is on the horizon. Tornielli noted that a papal trip to India which was previously in the works could be revived.

He added that it is Pope Francis’ dreams is to travel to one place where his predecessor, St. John Paul II, had also wanted to go but never managed: China.