The Gifts of Women

We talk about – or more often mourn the loss of – the gifts of women to our Church.

Last week I wrote about an article touting women’s gifts as a resource to “save the world” and added, “and also the Church.” The reach and vision was universal.

Now I’d like to focus on some local and specific gifts allowed to be used within an order of nuns as another plea, cry – no, demand – that they be used as fruitfully by a comprehensive all-gender ministry and leadership within the Church.

Four women recently professed their final vows as Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Mid-Atlantic Community, in the chapel in the Convent of Mercy in Merion, Pennsylvania. Take a look at the kind of experiences and scholarship these women are bringing with them.

I’ll quote from the article posted on CatholicPhilly.com:

Sister Jennifer Barrow, R.S.M., attended Boston College, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in theology and Hispanic studies. She spent the year 2003 in Laredo, Texas with Mercy Volunteer Corps, serving as a bilingual case manager in the Hachar-Cigarroa Women’s Clinic. After her service, she attended Boston College Law School, graduating in 2010 with a J.D. degree. Admitted that same year to the New York Bar Association, she currently ministers as an immigration lawyer at Brooklyn Legal Services in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

Not too shabby, and that’s just one. Read on:

Sister Marybeth Beretta, R.S.M., currently serves as the president of St. Mary Academy, Bay View in Riverside, Rhode Island. She first encountered the Sisters of Mercy while attending Salve Regina University, and after more than 20 years as the chief financial officer of La Salle Academy in Providence, she decided to enter the order.

A current school president and former chief financial officer: talk about leadership gifts we could use. That’s two. Please continue:

Sister Danielle Gagnon, R.S.M., previously worked for Medicines for Humanity, a non-profit organization that operates maternal and child health projects in developing countries. She also worked at Hope Partnership for Education in North Philadelphia and served as executive director of St. Patrick’s Center in Wilmington, Del., a non-profit that serves those who are homeless. Sister Danielle is currently a development consultant to Cranaleith Spiritual Center, a conference and retreat center in Philadelphia, while also studying to be a spiritual director.

Catholic social service in action and now rededicated. That’s three to wow us. Please read on:

Sister Marjorie Tapia, R.S.M., attended Mount Saint Mary Academy, a private Catholic girls’ high school, in Watchung, New Jersey, volunteering at McAuley Hall, the retirement facility for the Sisters of Mercy on the school’s campus. Sister Margie became a Mercy associate in her junior year of college at Boston College, where she earned a nursing degree. After completing a master’s degree in nursing from New York University, she worked as a geriatric nurse practitioner and as an adjunct faculty member for the College of St. Elizabeth. A licensed nursing home administrator, Margie currently serves as a director of healthcare and aging services for the Religious Teachers Filippini in Morristown, New Jersey.

Another treasure with a set of treasures to bestow.

It is wonderful that they will be nuns in an international order that ministers to the poor, sick, and undereducated, and which focuses specifically on the needs of women and children.

Why, oh why, if they so chose, couldn’t they be priests?