Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Final Generation



On March 31, 2019 I attended a presentation by Sr. Mary Hughes, OP at Diocese of San Jose Chancery Office.  The following posts are from that presentation and my ponderings afterwards.  

Sister Mary spoke about the mission of religious at this time in our Church and asked how we understand our role as intercultural and intergenerational congregations?  She prefaced her presentation by talking about the resistance to discussing the fact that so many LCWR congregations are in their “final generation.”  

She pointed out that in addition to the turmoil many congregations are finding themselves in at this moment, hardly a day passes that we don’t hear a word of major catastrophes happening near and far.  She listed several of these and then informed us that several congregations have been impacted by destruction caused by fire, floods, high winds, and ice storms in the past year.  

Living through extremes means having to accept a new reality, to make significant changes and rely on strangers for help.  Attempts at scientific analysis of the cause of these disasters fall short of helping us to understand what is happening.  We are not in control.  We cannot prevent what is happening from happening again.  She asked us to consider whether these catastrophic events in nature are reflected in what is happening in religious life in this moment.