Benedictine leader urges women religious to be signs of hope

Published: 2006-08-24

DAYTON, Ohio (CNS) -- In many cases, U.S. Catholic sisters may be older, fewer and no longer identified by the large institutions they founded, but such realities are not necessarily signs of gloom and doom, Benedictine Sister Christine Vladimiroff told an audience in Dayton. They may even be invitations to new life and prophetic witness in the church and in society, she said. Sister Vladimiroff is prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pa., and immediate past president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents more than 73,000 U.S. Catholic sisters. From 1987 until her election as her monastery's prioress in 1998, she was CEO and president of Second Harvest and remains one of the nation's leading authorities on the issues of hunger and poverty. She addressed more than 200 Sisters of the Precious Blood at their recent "Spirit Days" event at their motherhouse. In her two major presentations and in a separate interview, Sister Vladimiroff outlined the call to hope and prophetic living that she sees as the major tasks of today's religious.

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