Religious order launches online site to benefit its ministries

Published: 2006-08-10

SAN ANTONIO (CNS) -- There were stops and starts along the way, but the San Antonio Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament now have an online religious gift shop up and running. The site is NetNuns.com, and its slogan proclaims, "Bringing You Religious Items on a Wing and a Prayer." NetNuns.com sells not only a wide variety of typical Catholic gift items, but other gift lines with interfaith symbols. Customers can order items through the site and the manufacturer ships their purchase directly to them, avoiding extra costs and the need for the sisters to stock items and maintain a physical store. The business venture will help support the religious community's education and child care ministries offered through Blessed Sacrament Academy. "The why of it is all around you," Sister Odilia Korenek, the academy's executive director, told Today's Catholic, newspaper of the San Antonio Archdiocese. "The little ones in front of you, the children and young people, the teens. ... They are bright kids, often left behind by dysfunctional families and overbooked educational systems."

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