august-september 2003 leadership conference of women religious newsletter

8/9/2019 August-September 2003 Leadership Conference of Women Religious Newsletter

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LCWR Update 4 1 4 August -- September 2003

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2003

LCWR’s Voice Heard‘On the Hill’

At the invitation of Jim Wallis,founding editor of Sojourner’s

magazine, Constance Phelps, SCL,LCWR vice-president and Carole Shinnick,SSND, LCWR executive director, joined anecumenical group of 25 religious leaders toraise the plight of the nation’s poor to thenation’s lawmakers. For five years, Rever-end Wallis has gathered a similar group inWashington in the week immediatelyfollowing Pentecost to advocate for themost vulnerable US citizens who areimpacted by decisions made inside theBeltway.

LCWR and CMSM have been invitedto become partners in this effort ofReverend Wallis, known as Call toRenewal. The focus of the group isalways the same: the end of poverty inthe United States. Despite theologicaland religious differences among thedelegates, all are committed to thisclear objective. This year the groupspoke in particular to the combined

impact of the cost of the war on Iraq,and the enormous tax cut voted intolaw by congress.

During the three days of June 9, 10,and 11, the group met with WhiteHouse staffers, conversed with several

senators from both sides of the aisle, andparticipated in a congressional prayerservice, convened by Reverend Wallis andlead by Minority Leader, RepresentativeNancy Pelosi. Constance and Carole weretwo of the three women in the group, andwith Stan DeBoe of CMSM, were the threeCatholics participating in the delegation.

In July the LCWR Executive Committeefavorably reviewed an invitation from Callto Renewal to become regular partners in thegroup. The National Board will considerthe recommendation of the ExecutiveCommittee at the post-assembly meeting ofthe National Board. LCWR members willhear more about the outcome at the fallregional meetings.

Reverend Jim Wallis (center, wearing a dark shirt) meets with the 25religious leaders on June 9, 2003 who participated in the Call toRenewal. (Photos courtesy of the Call to Renewal website --

http://www.calltorenewal.com)

Leadership Conference

of Women Religious

UPDATE

UPDATE 4 UPDATE 4 UPDATE




Delegation to El SalvadorForming to CommemorateUS Churchwomen Martyrdom

The SHARE Foundation: Building aNew El Salvador Today is organizinga delegation to El Salvador to com-

memorate the 22nd anniversary of the mar-tyrdom of the four US churchwomen fromNovember 30 - December 6, 2003.

SHARE invites any LCWR member ormember of an LCWR congregation to jointhem in this pilgrimage to honor Ita Ford,MM; Maura Clarke, MM; Dorothy Kazel,OSU; and Jean Donovan who dedicatedtheir lives to the struggle for human dignity,truth, justice and peace in the world. Thedelegation will include participation in theanniversary commemorative events, anadvocacy meeting with the US embassy, andvisits to the countryside to accompany

communities and learn about the women’sempowerment and community develop-ment projects of SHARE.

For more information, please contact AmyNahley, Tel. 415-412-5905, 415-239-2595 oremail: [email protected].

Movement in Hope:Conversations on a Theology of

Religious Life

Religious Formation Congress 2003 and Jubilee(1954 -- 2004)

Sheraton Westport Plaza ChaletSt. Louis, Missouri

November 6 - 9, 2003

Special presentations byMary Maher, SSND and

Gary Riebe-Estrella, SVDand theologians from diverse cultural and

consecrated lifeform backgrounds

The annual Orientation for New Formation Directorsis scheduled to precede the Congress

(November 4-6) at the Sheraton Westport.

A meeting of the Gathering Voice group(women religious under 55)

is also planned preceeding the Congress.

More information at http ://www.relforcon.org

LCWR’s Voice Heard ‘On the Hill’

A congressional prayer service was convened byRev. Jim Wallis, founding editor of Sojourner’smagazine, and led by Minority Leader, Represen-tative Nancy Pelosi.

Members of the Call to Renewal delegation join hands in prayerbefore setting out to meet with several

White House staffers.




“It will put meat on your bones!” shoutedthe voice-over from the TV in an ad cel-ebrating the virtues of a Big Mac. “Yeah -

just what I need!” I muttered back at him.And then, in an instant, I was transported

back to one of those personal watershedmoments that come uninvited, and alwayswith long-term effects on the rest of ourlives.

It was 1986 and I was visiting our sisters inEl Progreso, Honduras. I had landed in theairport at San Pedro Sula and was driven toEl Progreso along a highway lined on oneside with lush, verdant banana plantations,and on the other with rolling pastures filled

with well-fed cattle. Soon I would learnthat the US-based United Fruit Companyowned the banana plantation, and that thecattle were being raised by a variety ofAmerican fast-food chains.

I also learned that the best land for cropsand cattle in Honduras belonged to foreigncompanies, most of them headquartered inthe United States. Honduran farmers wereforced to toil on little outcrops of rock withthin topsoil, or on steep, sloping hillsidesfrequently and easily washed away intropical storms. The Honduran people ingeneral did not, could not eat the fruit oftheir own land.

One of our SSND sisters in El Progreso hadfor years run a nutrition center for childrenand she invited me to visit it. Nothingcould have prepared me for the experience.The center cared for the very worst of themalnourished children in El Progreso. I

saw sad, wizened faces of very old peopleon the fragile bodies of tiny children. I sawchild after child whose heads were ex-tremely flattened in the back because intheir four or five years since birth, they hadnever had the strength to lift them. I held

From the Executive Director We Will Never Be the Same Again

one tiny little boywho stared at mewith unsmiling,sunken eyes,whose body feltlike a thin tissuepaper envelopeholding the light-as-air bones of asmall dove. And Ithought of those

banana trees. AndI remembered thegrazing cattle. Ihave not been able to eat a banana sincethen, and although I might get a chicken

sandwich in a fast food restaurant, I can’teven think of getting a hamburger. To behonest, it just sickens me.

Some transformations are like that – theysneak up on you, and take you by surprise –and you’re never the same again. I mentionthis, first of all to myself, and then of courseto you, my sisters, on the eve of our assem-

bly in Detroit. I am thrilled with the speak-ers, delighted with the workshops, and very

Some transformations are like that they sneak up on you, and take you by surprise

and youre never the same again.

excited about the banquet. But you knowwhat – I am a bit fearful, too. I have thishunch that another transforming aware-ness awaits us all there. I have a feeling

that we are going to realize that we – youand I – are holding our world just as I heldthat tiny little boy. And I am pretty surethat once we realize how we have contrib-uted to our planet’s fragile state, we willnever be the same again. Never.




New Director Appointed for theCenter for the Study of Religious Life

dler, RSCJ will assume leadership ofthe Center in September 2003.

Most recently, Mary Charlotte has been working at the Center for

Applied Research in the Apostolate(CARA) at Georgetown University.

She holds a doctorate in religionand society from the GraduateTheological Union in Berkeley,California with a concentrationin the sociology of religion.Her doctoral thesis wasentitled: “Supporting theSocial Identity of Women

Religious: A Case Study of One Apostolic

Congregation of Women Religious in theUnited States.”

Mary Charlotte holds three masters degreesin theology, sociology, and computer sci-ence. Given that the mission statement ofthe Center is to “conduct interdisciplinaryand intercultural reflection on the life ofCatholic religious…in the United States…”Mary Charlotte seems uniquely qualified to

become its next director. LCWR looksforward to meeting and working with Mary

Charlotte.

In February 2003, Barbara Kraemer,OSF, the first director of theCenter for the Study of ReligiousLife, was elected provincial of hercongregation. On July 1, Barbara

assumed leadership of the SchoolSisters of St. Francis, UnitedStates Province.

LCWR congratulates Barbaraon her new role inleadership, grateful thatwe will still be seeingher at LCWR gatherings,now in the capacity ofmember. Barbara undertook an enormous

task when she agreed to be the first CSRLdirector. There were no maps, no prece-dents, and no established patterns. Withgreat equanimity, steady scholarship, andquiet enthusiasm, Barbara embraced hertask and welcomed the challenge. We aredeeply indebted to Barbara for her tirelesscommitment to creating a new entity, whichnow seems so familiar.

Happily, our Provident God has sent us anew director who will lead the Center with

zest and creativity. Mary Charlotte Chan-

Update is an official publication of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious publishedmonthly and distributed to members nationally. Editor: Annmarie Sanders, IHM; editorialassistant: Eva Maria McCrae. Address: 8808 Cameron Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910.Phone: 301-588-4955. Fax: 301-587-4575. E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.lcwr.org

AlertNETWORK Lobby Day

NETWORK is organizing a lobby day to close the School of the Americas on Tues-day, September 23, 2003 in Washington, DC. Sponsors include CMSM, LCWR, andreligious congregations with members who have or are prisoners of conscience.Details about the day will follow. Please consider participating in the day, and/orarranging for your justice and peace personnel, and other congregational members

to attend.

Mary Charlotte Chandler, RSCJ

august-september 2003 leadership conference of women religious newsletter

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