The Ministerial Future of Women Religious

Abstract

Recognized for the establishment of the Catholic school and healthcare systems in the United States, women religious are still imaged as teachers and nurses by the general public. Where have all the sisters gone, and where are they likely to be found in the foreseeable future? Having experienced the dismantling of a stable past and living in a changing present, I would be foolish or dishonest to claim a clear blueprint for the ministerial future of women religious. Yet after thirty years of experimentation and experience, common threads are emerging, forming patterns of future development. The ministerial future of women religious may be glimpsed through tracing some key influences on the ministry changes of the past thirty years, describing the current state of ministry among women religious, and suggesting threads shaping the future. A couple of caveats are in order. First, I write not as a theorist but as a participant in these changes and as an observer from the perspective of leadership in my own congregation and in the national office of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). Second, I write as an apostolic woman religious. Changes in religious life, including ministry, may have different