Category Archives: News

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Religious Sisters of Mercy

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Earlier this month, five young women took their final vows as Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma. This community is especially devoted to the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

The event took place at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in Saginaw, Michigan, at a Mass celebrated  by Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, Bishop of Saginaw, will celebrate the Mass. Read more about it here.

These are sharp sisters, by the way. The group that took their final vows includes a medical resident, a medical student, and a doctoral student in psychology, while the other two are studying theology in Rome. Wow!

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Sedevacantist Sisters Reunite with Church

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The National Catholic Register published last week an article chronicling the journey of fifteen sisters who broke away from their sedevacantist community in 2007 to form the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church. This community is a public association of the faithful approved in 2008 by Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Washington.

Read the full story here.

Their original community was initially a traditional order founded with the approval of Church authorities, but its founder and members eventually embraced sedevacantism–the view that the current Pope is not a true pope. They were highly critical of the Church hierarchy after Vatican II and eventually broke away from the Church.

Sr. Mary Eucharista, a member of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Church, cites several factors that led to the departure of fifteen women from that community from sedevacantism and their return to full communion with the Church, including a visit from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, the orthodox programming of EWTN Global Catholic Radio, and the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

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WYD and Vocations

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World Youth Day officially opened today. I just saw an article in the current issue of The Catholic Leader, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia, that discusses  WYD from the perspective of vocations.

The August 16-21 celebration in Madrid is the first international youth gathering to feature a special papal meeting with religious women under the age of 35. About 1,500 sisters will meet with the Pope on August 19.

The next morning, Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to celebrate Mass with about 4,000 seminarians.

The gatherings, according to Archbishop Joseph Tobin, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, are important for those considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, as well as for those who already have embarked on their journey toward vows or ordination.

When the archbishop was superior of the Redemptorists, he said, a young member of the order told him what a similar youth gathering meant to him.

“He said for the first time in his young life as a Redemptorist priest he was in a room with other Redemptorists who have hair, and it’s not gray,” the 59-year-old archbishop said.

As for claims that World Youth Day is a seedbed for vocations, “I admit I was a little sceptical some years ago about whether it was a flash in the pan, and how do you carry it forth with some energy,” he said.

But studies have shown a significant portion of young men and women entering religious life cite the international event as an experience that contributed to their vocations. Continue reading WYD and Vocations →

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Rosary Hill Home

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There was a wonderful story making the rounds last week concerning the work  of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne at the Rosary Hill Home, a facility in New York that provides palliative care to indigent cancer patients. 

The Hawthorne Dominicans were  founded at the turn of the last century by Rose Hawthorne, a daughter of New England novelist Nathaniel, author of The Scarlet Letter.

Mother Mary Alphonsa, as Rose Hawthorne was known, wanted to treat patients as family, “and put them up in our very best bedroom and give them comfort in what time they had left. In dressing their wounds, she was dressing the wounds of Our Lord,” according to Superior General Mother Mary Francis. Continue reading Rosary Hill Home →

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EWTN Turns 30

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It’s hard to believe that it’s now been thirty years since Mother Angelica started Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in her monastery’s garage. How many people have been encouraged in their journey of faith by EWTN’s program? And how many religious and priestly vocations were in some way influenced by this apostolate?

For an uplifting story on EWTN’s development over the past thirty years, check out this post at al.com.

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Bold Undertaking

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Check out this entertaining article about some Benedictine monks who, to make ends meets in post-Katrina Louisiana, have gone into the business of using downed trees to manufacture simple, inexpensive caskets.

Some monks make brandy, others make coffee. Every religious community has to support itself somehow.

What makes the story interesting is that their new business led to the monks’ being threatened with jail time because of regulations that serve to protect a powerful industry cartel. So far, the monks have prevailed in the courts, but not without a fight. Read about it here.

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Dominican Republic!

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This has been a banner week for the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

On Monday, eighteen new novices received their religious habit and a new name. Yesterday, four sisters professed their final vows. And for good measure, seven sisters will profess their first vows on Thursday.

Later this month, the community will welcome sixteen new aspirants into the fold.

Some of you might recognize the young sister at the lower right-hand corner of the photo as my daughter, Mary Kate Suprenant. As of Monday, she is a Dominican novice, and her name is now Sr. Evangeline. God be praised!

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More for Your Vocation

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Last week at Rome Reports there was an intriguing video highlighting the vocation efforts of the United States bishops, especially a new series of videos at the Bishops’ For Your Vocation website.

I just visited the For Your Vocation website, and on this occasion I visited their blog and several other pages. What struck my attention this time (I hadn’t noticed it previously) was this vocations quiz–a series of questions to help young people go deeper in their discernment. And of course the site provides information on the upcoming vocations fair at World Youth Day, including the schedule of events.

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Worthy of Life

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From the current issue of the Brookings (SD) Register, check out the story of Sr. Janice Iverson, who this month celebrates her 50-year jubilee as a Benedictine sister. Hers has been a full life of service to Christ and His Church.

What my sons found especially interesting, though, were her athletic exploits, and to this day she still rides her bike in the morning and spends an hour on the treadmill in the evening.

Not unlike St. Paul, she summarizes her many years of Christian discipleship in athletic terms: “For every beginning there is an end. I have entered the race and finished. I live that I may be worthy of life.”